Why are people still racist today?

Originally posted by ZeroKnowledge
reply to post by scientist

 

Well, i could easily be wrong on this. But if my memory does not fail me - kids are discriminating! I remember in school kid without hair, and she was laughed at and targeted by others. Now i did not say they can discriminate by race, this is naturally they learn from others. But they do against anything different to what they understand as the norm.
"Us" against "them" starts from very young age. And parents have nothing to do with it.

I couldnt disagree more. Maybe the kids made fun of her, but that was because they were all taught that behavior. Kids do not inherently ridicule and mock each other. These are all symptoms of social problems, and passed-on, learned behavior. I can't even begin to fathom how you would expect a child to be born with an inherent sense of hatred or superiority. There are most certainly things taught by adults.

I'm also going to resign from this thread now, as it's already pretty much pro-racist at this point.

Originally posted by WatchNLearn
I totally agree with you. I cannot believe in this so-called modern world with all our technology and science that people are still racist.

Technology does not advance society on the social level, it only advances our daily routines in life. life has become so easy now a days and hassle free that people are bored, not to mention it is human nature to bully and dominate over others. its power. its NATURE. look at the animal kingdom, gorrillas....there is always an alpha male in the group, the males fight for the females...yadda yadda....then one day a younger gorilla comes and whoops the older alpha male, and then there is a new alpha male. the easiest way to get past the racism and being verbally abused is to accept the reality that it will never stop. there will always be somebody or something there that will lord over you, dominate whatever. it will never stop. the sooner you accept it and come to terms w/ it the sooner you'll be able to take it, like a slap on the face. toughen up, grow a thicker skin and it'll bounce offf you

Originally posted by MatrixBaller04
Hmm..>Seems as if I'll have to be the first.

I am a racist.

But, not in the normal sense. I can tolerate anyone, but there's just certain people that I can look at and say I truly hate. Like, for instance, I wouldn't say that I hated black people, but I hate the black people that ruin the english language, that wear their clothes so big it looks like their shirt is a parachute draped over their sholders and their shorts look like pants.

I had to live with a racist black guy for 5 months and let me tell you, it was no fun at all. he would constantly pick fights just to start something, would make irrational comments about white people, and he just made me realize how much I hate people like him.

And I especially hate wiggers (ie:White kids that walk, dress, talk black). I hate ALL wiggers.

Sounds more like you hate a type of fad, more so than a race.
Racism seems to be more so about hating someone's skin color and being oppressive or hateful towards them (At least that's my take on it.) More or less it seems to me that you hate the gangster (or as they say 'gangsta') lifestyle perhaps?

Seeing as out here, I've noticed blacks, whites, Hispanics, and even some Asians wearing clothes like that as I walk back and forth from my classes. So I'd put that as...Fadist or something perhaps? Making up words now :p, since I don't know if there is such a thing for it hating a fad or not.

I think racism is a lot less prevelant then today,when I was a kid growing up they had certain neighborhoods where white people could live,if someone was of questionable race they couldn't live in my neighborhood,it was as a soph in college before I ever had a black person in my school,back in the south they still had seperate bathrooms etc for black people,raised as a christian we were brought up that all men were created equal,I have no problem with people of other races,it's idiots I hate and whites and blacks are equally racist,I don't think this will ever end,my parents used to tell about their parents guess was the way they were taught

reply to post by Oldtimer2


Im thankful it isnt like that anymore things jhhave got a lot better but still i think Racism needs to be evaporated aswell as discrimination theyres no need for it.

because they believe themselves to be better than those they seem to hate for nothing...........................they are ignorant...........full of pride and stink of arrogance. we are one body with different members working in conjunction with the other. who wants to be a big toe? some want to be the head. what happens when you cut off the big toe? you lose you balance. what happens when you cut off the head?

[edit on 5-9-2008 by musselwhite]

Theres one reason racism is still around. Fear. Fear breeds ignorance and ignorance breeds fear. Its a never ending cycle. There will always be racists unless some time in the future we've mixed up the gene pool enough till we all look the same, but then we'd just find another reason to hate each other so whats it matter?.

Yeah man, I don't get it either.
My granny still uses the "n word" referring to people of African descent and the last time I was visiting her, I asked her what was up with that.
She gave me her reasons and all and I even saw her point to a certain respect, but in the end, it boiled down to revenge against a majority.
She felt like she was being unfairly treated a majority of the time which, to her, was a respect issue, so she withheld her own respect in return.
Now, I don't expect I would ever be able to change my granny's mind and she did make her concessions and state how she has had african-american friends, so she's not totally racist or whatever.

I've gotten to the point that I just ignore it if I can because it doesn't deserve to be fed at all.
If someone else wants to draw lines n stuff, that's fine, but I don't wanna be part of that because we should be generations beyond this kinda stuff.
We all know there are idiots out there that have to be put up with to a certain degree and no group that can be singled out in any way is immune to such bigotry. Usually it is just a matter of proximity before it becomes evident.

I also agree that some people find unity in their hate for another group that may differ from their own and as was mentioned, this typically stems from insecurity/inadequacy.

We just need to constantly remind ourselves of where we WANT to go and to keep our focus there. If we keep looking to the past, we are destined to repeat our same mistakes over and over.

When a black person calls me racist for simple things like looking at him, and or not giving him money if he asks me, i give no money to family members none the less strangers. Then a little racism will start to come out, but other then that for me there is no racism.

reply to post by billyjoinedat2k8


well, unfortunately, a number racist ideas are reinforced by the people the racism is aimed towards. Compound that with the VERY selective enforcement of anything, and it adds to the mix. let face it, you can turn on any ethic or black channel and hear about gringos, crackers, whitey, and so on, but bring on the lynch mobs if someone white says 'n-word'.

Human beings are still animals, and it took us at least 4 million years of evolution to get where we are today. And to get that far, we have some very basic biological/behavioral scripts built into our DNA.

Mostly, we are afraid of any other creatures that don't look like us, because they could kill us. That's easy to figure out.

On the other hand, we're not like insects, so we can't breed with people who look too much like us because we want to avoid inbreeding and genetic weakness.

So a lot of our behavior is an attempt to reconcile these two things. We want to associate with people (animals) that look enough like us to be friendly, but not part of our own families, while at the same time we have a basic dislike and mistrust of people who are very different from us. Also, on top of that, we love trade. So we can't just get in fights with all of the people who are different from us, because they might have something we can only get through trade.

And it doesn't matter where you go on Earth, or who's doing the judging, we all think the same way. It would be nice to think that our better natures and higher intellects would mitigate our distrust and racism, but it's tough to fight that evolution.

It's all about successful breeding.

i haven't read all the posts, but i recently read an article in a science mag that says racism is actually sewn into our fabric of genes. we are naturally born this way.

i'm not a racist either by any stretch, but apparently it's built-in all of us deep down.

reply to post by billyjoinedat2k8


The vast majoroity of people you think are racist I don't believe are racist. They are culturalist. For example, black people in the US tend to listen to certain kinds of music, say things a certain way, etc. A lot of people dislike the culture and because of that don't like blacks.

People are naturally distrustful of other cultural styles and are not as likely to like someone. We like people who are similar to us and share the same interests, and don't use "correct" language.

This leads to people thinking it has to do with skin color. I would bet nearly everything I have that if everyone in the world spoke the same language, listened to the same music, etc there would be hardly any "racism" as you call it because it isn't racism. It is culturalism. It is natural and it is here to stay *forever* as long as there are dramatically different cultures.

The same thing is true of different wealth classes because the extremely wealthy have access to different cultural elements which the poor do not.

[edit on 5-9-2008 by truthquest]

reply to post by ...and justice for some


The issue is discrimination based on "in group / out group". Ever been to a Pride parade or a drag show? It's obviously more than "racism" that gets folks to hate. Another post mentioned hating how someone wheres their clothes...

Teach tollerance--Celebrate Diversity! Wouldn't the world be incredibly boring were we all from the same cookie cutter? Take pleasure in cultural differences, and through learning and promotion of knowledge some of the injustices that may exist within a culture or leveled towards one will eventually be stamped out.

Cool thread!

reply to post by scientist


I am going with this answer. My tot will run up to anyone and talk to them. And I encourage it. Then I will chat with them to enforce this behavior.Within reason of course.

I have a memory that still bothers me from years ago where a little black girl and a little white girl got into a fight in the apartment complex courtyard. Both were under the age of five and not in school yet. They both started calling each other racist names. There is only one place that they learn that. It was heartbreaking.

I believe in accepting all cultures, good bad or ugly. BUT
I don't believe in forced integration. It is only natural that people want to stick with what they know. Each culture doesn't know the details and characteristics and people bond on that.

Idealy, in the school yard, the Chinese kids speak about life among themselves, but the other kids won't think anything of running up and seeing if anyone wants to trade baseball cards, and they do.

It is about respect and acceptance, but not elimination. I don't believe in eliminating cultures. They have been there too long and carrying on legacies for too long to let such a beautiful history dissappear.

I was reading a heartbreaking story in National Geographic once that a lot of art groups are frantically trying to save very ancient and beautiful art in sculpture in the Middle East that is not getting destroyed in all the wars. Not even just the Iraq wars, but all the civil wars as well.

But a lot of people just freak out at what they don't understand. And mis-understandings happen so easily.

And when people are very insecure about their own beliefs and existence, then they are very unaccepting against anything that threatens that.

my word some of these posts.

there are some ignorant people on here.
i found this quote years ago from some randomer online and it says a lot about people who brand people as "racist" (a term which has so many variables, and is now such a generalisation it shouldn't be used):

"to call a person racist is ignorant when you have no reality of the truth"

e.g. my mother works for an insurance company, she deals with claims from people trying to get whatever financial compensation they can out of an accident. you all know how it works. she is (by her own admittence) racist. and do you want to know why? it is not because as some stupid people say "taught by parents", she has not grown up with racist parents. they were both irish and racism wasn't really an issue.

back to the point of why, the calls she deals with are mostly that from pakistanis trying to get whatever they can by cheating the system, not many of those calls are legit. also she has worked for the police (drug crime is an issue where i am) and the people who have more recently been responsible for this are chinese immigrants. it is (undoubtedly) an issue in this country (eng) that immigrants are coming in and living off benefits without getting off their ar53s and bothering to work.

so it is ignorant people who call somebody racist for a dislike of another race, as these dislikes tend have roots. i mean go to moss side in the middle of a saturday night and if you are white and haven't been mugged by the time you get back you are one lucky person.

Another example of this racism concerns the possible Obama presidency. I am white, and I have talked to a few whites in the south that said they simply could not vote for "ANY" black man to be president.
WTF people? Crawl out of your caves and come into the light for crying out loud.

[edit on 5-9-2008 by whatsup]

There's this inherent thing in all of us that makes us judge, makes us elitist, makes us look down on someone or something that's not like us...no matter what race you are.



[edit on 5-9-2008 by PaceIsTheTrick]

reply to post by whatsup


Ye i know someone who doesnt like him because of his skin colour its a joke in my opinion who cares what his skin colour is its not going to affect how he does his job.

I agree with the idea that we are all racist/culturalist... it just boils down to how well we control it.


I am not racist/culturalist/whatever you want to call it myself; but if another person is racist to me, I certainly have the urge and know what to say to be racist straight back and win over the argument.

One example would be Americans on the xbox 360....Many a time they will start 'bashing' the UK players, I then join them and completely 'bash' the Americans. Yet a few minutes later I could be playing with an American friend.


So I think we are all racist at some level, but the ones who are openly racist just don't control it well.....and MUST learn to control it better. I am not saying this is an excuse, racism is disgusting, but when I feel that way yet still find myself being pulled close to it at times, well...