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Where does racism come from?

Where does racism come from?

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FreeThinker

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Listening to Obama's recitation of "Dreams from my Father", I began thinking about where racism comes from. Thusfar, all I have heard in popular culture is that "racism is ignorant/stupid". That statement does not explain where it comes from, only an opinion on its existence.

So where does it come from?
 
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Also, upbringing. If your parents always tell you that blacks are a bunch of lazy niggers that are always looking for a handout, that'll most likely be your opinion of black people.

I'd also say part of it is that people like having scapegoats, and another group is a great scapegoat.
 
the makeout hobo said:
Also, upbringing. If your parents always tell you that blacks are a bunch of lazy niggers that are always looking for a handout, that'll most likely be your opinion of black people.

I'd also say part of it is that people like having scapegoats, and another group is a great scapegoat.
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Hrm... I never thought of it like that -> projecting your own failures onto some large group of "them", them being something ambiguous and not clearly defined.
 
I always thought that racism came from evolution. From tribal instincts regarding "us vs them" or "the famaliar vs the other."

There is security in being part of the "us" and a sense of unity that comes from scapegoating your problems onto "them."
 
I had to go with other for this, all of the choices make sense above it, but I really think it can be anything, including a single choice above or combination of the above choices. Racism is an prejudicial hatred of an entire group of those not of the same racial makeup, but it is formed through perception, so who knows what forms those perceptions in any given individual. Also there is the concept now of people being labeled racist because they simply criticize a behavior that is stereotypical of a race, such as the hip-hop/rap style of dress/behavior, it may not be a racist perception, but rather a charecter call based on the reputation the dress/behavior has recieved and not necessarily the ethnicity of the person sporting it.
 
the makeout hobo said:
I'd also say part of it is that people like having scapegoats, and another group is a great scapegoat.
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Logically, that would make sense as a reason as well. Also, I think there is the possibility that some groups may feel that their experiences are the norm, especially older people within the black ethnicity that grew up with the segregation of the south, I could see someone being angry and bitter about something like that and their perception that people of the oppressing race are all like that.
 
Racism is just one of a plethora of ways humans have divided themselves into groupings. Its just based on a physical aspect, that has no qualifying reasoning behind it. But people "reason" themselves into all sorts of little social cliques, decrying all the others as wrong/inferior etc...
 
LaMidRighter said:
I had to go with other for this, all of the choices make sense above it, but I really think it can be anything, including a single choice above or combination of the above choices. Racism is an prejudicial hatred of an entire group of those not of the same racial makeup, but it is formed through perception, so who knows what forms those perceptions in any given individual. Also there is the concept now of people being labeled racist because they simply criticize a behavior that is stereotypical of a race, such as the hip-hop/rap style of dress/behavior, it may not be a racist perception, but rather a charecter call based on the reputation the dress/behavior has recieved and not necessarily the ethnicity of the person sporting it.
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THAT is a key point about racism that bothers me - how do I respond to an unethical, amoral person (who by chance is not white) without being a racist?

If I said "Jessie Jackson is a poverty pimp and an idiot" at some water cooler in some office building, I'm fairly sure any white people that heard it would say "wooahhhhh racist!", a response I don't think I would get from an actual black person.
 
FreeThinker said:
THAT is a key point about racism that bothers me - how do I respond to an unethical, amoral person (who by chance is not white) without being a racist?

If I said "Jessie Jackson is a poverty pimp and an idiot" at some water cooler in some office building, I'm fairly sure any white people that heard it would say "wooahhhhh racist!", a response I don't think I would get from an actual black person.
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IMO if someone takes your insult about the character of an individual, and makes some kind of non-sequitur connection between that insult (that makes no racial reference whatsoever) and some kind of insult regarding that individual's racial group.... IMO the person making the non-sequitur leap is racist in a sense.

Not in a hateful sense against the group they'd have thought they were defending, but by having a knee-jerk reaction at an insult between two people of different races and assuming that any insult for the reasons stated but due to unstated racial bigotry, without reason.

Simply put: If to you a white person cannot insult a black person without it being a racial issue, YOU have racial issues because sometimes, race just isn't a factor.
 
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FreeThinker said:
THAT is a key point about racism that bothers me - how do I respond to an unethical, amoral person (who by chance is not white) without being a racist?
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I'm not THAT creative, the system has been set exactly to prevent honest people from intellectually debating it, I think the key is to find people who are sick of it and start a movement based on reason and debate, but even Bill Cosby got wailed on by the black "leadership" for daring to make the call, so I really don't have any great answers to this.

If I said "Jessie Jackson is a poverty pimp and an idiot" at some water cooler in some office building, I'm fairly sure any white people that heard it would say "wooahhhhh racist!", a response I don't think I would get from an actual black person.
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One way to possibly approach it is to use historical perspective, Frederick Douglas spoke of professional victims, they were the same mold as the Sharptons and Jacksons et. al. I tried to find the quotes for you but there was a huge amount of info about Douglas and couldn't pinpoint anything, but he did write about it. I think when those that exploit racism on either side are exposed and discredited, things will be better.
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I don't think it has anything to do with the color of a person's skin. Who would care what color their cousin's skin was or their uncle's. It has to do with a person of a different culture.

The black guy across the street is a different color than me but we are both of the same culture. He is one of my own.

But I might go to Ireland and feel hostility towards the people even though all four of my grandparents were born there. They are a different culture. There might be something about them I just can't stand.

Then when I come back home and meet a person from Ireland I might be leery of them even though they look just like me.

I might be wrong. I haven't though about it much.
 
sazerac said:
I don't think it has anything to do with the color of a person's skin. Who would care what color their cousin's skin was or their uncle's. It has to do with a person of a different culture.

The black guy across the street is a different color than me but we are both of the same culture. He is one of my own.

But I might go to Ireland and feel hostility towards the people even though all four of my grandparents were born there. They are a different culture. There might be something about them I just can't stand.

Then when I come back home and meet a person from Ireland I might be leery of them even though they look just like me.

I might be wrong. I haven't though about it much.
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Eh, racism definitely exists, but I don't think it's as severe as it is put out to be. What some people would consider racist is nothing more than what you have described above, that is, someone may not condone certain styles or behaviors, cultures etc. and make a judgement call based on appearances, but there are definitely racists in all colors and creeds. Your area of the state however, I would say it would be pretty stupid to be white and overtly racist, that would be suicide.
 
I think it is as simple as i have white skin he has black skin thats different.I dont think people are more complicated than that.
 
Racism is taught. Babies don't segregate.

People fear what is different. We are an insecure species.
 
Tucker Case said:
-- a desire to feel superior to another person.
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the makeout hobo said:
-- I'd also say part of it is that people like having scapegoats, and another group is a great scapegoat.
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I strongly believe it is most likely a combination of what is being said in the two posts quoted. You'll see outright racism in poor neighbourhoods where people compete for the smallest resources and incomers or those different can be scapegoated for "putting the residents there" in the first place and then in rich neighbourhoods you'll have the desire to keep house values or neighbourhood property values high by keeping undesirables out that might lower the tone and value of the place.
 
Racism comes from very old sources, ancient tribalism, conquest, slavery,
narcissism, economics, fear and environment.

Maybe it started when Cromagnum man did not like Neanderthal rivals.
 
People have to go out from their clan to breed or the kids look like something out of the movie Deliverance.

You'd think there would be some natural mechanism that made us attracted to physical features different than ours.

Instead of being attracted to people that remind you of your mother or father.
 
Where does racism come from?
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It's obvious to me, from my observations of people, that it's a learned behavior.
Small children do not exhibit it, although they do- in large groups- tend to self-segregate by sex.
 
I had a racist dog once.

I moved the fence back so that I could park in the driveway without having to deal with the fence.

My house was across the street from a building that made blue jeans. The husbands would come to pick up their wives after work.

While they were waiting for them my driveway became the place they would pee. My dog looking out the floor to ceiling window at them grew to hate blacks. We couldn't understand why.

I was always at work while this was going on and never knew any of this was happening until people bought the house next door and told me.

A black friend came over to help me show "Binky" that his master was fine with black people. And I made it so that the dog could not see out the window.
 
First, race does not biologically exist.

Second, race is a socially constructed ideology. It is not simply taught as much as it is learned; people pick it up based on their environment, including both subjective (i.e. the people they associate with) and objective (the economic status of "another race" for example).

Because of that, it is not simply an idea that can be refuted. In order to change, one must not only change how they think, but change how they live. It permeates someone's entire consciousness.
 
Khayembii Communique said:
First, race does not biologically exist.
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Yes, biologically it absolutely does. Different areas of the world have different amounts of heat, and different weather patterns, as such, in the primitive days evolution favored the prepared. Different races do have different amounts of melanin, different hair patterns, etc. It's not a good or bad thing, it's a fact. Also, different races have different genetic problems and advantages such as race specific diseases, risk enhancers for diseases such as heart problems, cancer, etc. differing norms for height and other physical features, et. al. So yes, race does exist naturally, it is the human condition to assign hatred to those of differing races.

Second, race is a socially constructed ideology. It is not simply taught as much as it is learned; people pick it up based on their environment, including both subjective (i.e. the people they associate with) and objective (the economic status of "another race" for example).
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See above.
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Where does racism come from?

Africa


Ali Larter's race is superior to the other 6,743,224,502 races.
 
Yes, biologically it absolutely does. Different areas of the world have different amounts of heat, and different weather patterns, as such, in the primitive days evolution favored the prepared. Different races do have different amounts of melanin, different hair patterns, etc. It's not a good or bad thing, it's a fact. Also, different races have different genetic problems and advantages such as race specific diseases, risk enhancers for diseases such as heart problems, cancer, etc. differing norms for height and other physical features, et. al. So yes, race does exist naturally, it is the human condition to assign hatred to those of differing races.
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Skin color, hair type, etc.. are not race. Race has never been able to be biologically defined.
 
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