- Joined
- Jan 16, 2011
- Messages
- 25,763
- Reaction score
- 21,415
- Location
- Fort Drum, New York
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Socialist
I always equated the racist attitudes and actions that I've witnessed as being "part of living in a small crappy Arkansas town" - I've lived in Arkansas since I was 13 and especially in the town I live in now - there's a ridiculous amount of such things.
I was actually surprised to see these same findings indicative regardless of where people came from - big city, rural america - east and west. If it was just one or two studies it would be easier to dismiss - but I've read through 15.
Well - there is one study that was positive: the % of people with these views *is* declining - slowly. There's also the Flynn Effect which is very positive to me. . . sure, it's not a race-related effect - actually, that's what makes it so positive - overall - humans are evolving and the average intelligence level in every race is increasing jointly. Which means that race and gender are diminishing in people's success-factors.
Since the Flynn-Effect is measured worldwide, not just within the US, it's a good sign.
I think racism is something that resides subconsciously within our minds. Even those claiming to be open-minded liberals likely subconsciously harbor some racist views. It's always easier for the human mind to think using patterns generalizations and stereotypes rather than considering the individual, and that's why it's such a big problem. Even those who generally claim to not be racist (yours truly included) possess racist views at the subconscious level. It's hard to deal with a problem when its so entrenched within our own minds. The only way to deal with such a problem is to bring them to the fore, educate people about reality and hope they make a conscious effort to change their attitudes.