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Is racism wrong?

Is racism wrong?

  • Yes

    Votes: 88 83.8%

  • No

    Votes: 15 14.3%

  • There is no such thing as racism

    Votes: 2 1.9%
  • Total voters
    105
Dittohead not! said:
What is American culture, anyway? Until we can define what it is, how are we going to know when an immigrant has become American?

Is it enough to speak fluent English, or is there something more? If so, what?
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I know a Russian who just took a test to become a citizen. Others have done the same.
 
GySgt said:
You mean the same founding fathers that owned slaves and practiced racism? I love the argument about how our past generations were better and how they would roll over in their graves if they only.

Wake up dude. Our ancestors owned black slaves and some would even dropped two atomic bombs on two civilian cities. Despite this we hear the regurgitation of "Founding Fathers" or "Greatest Generation." With a Black man in the White House and a 40 year Cold War without a nuclear drop, I'd say we are quite a bit improved from what our ancestors displayed.
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Back then it wasn't racism, it was business, and it just so happened that racism developed out of that. :D
 
Partisan said:
I'd wager the founding fathers are spinning in their graves witnessing how their vision has been perverted......:(
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You mean the same founding fathers that owned slaves and practiced racism? I love the argument about how our past generations were better and how they would roll over in their graves if they only knew what became of their vision.

Wake up dude. Our ancestors (to include the Founding Fathers) owned black slaves and a later generation would even drop two atomic bombs on two civilian cities. Despite this we hear the regurgitation of "Founding Fathers" or "Greatest Generation." With a Black man in the White House and a 40 year Cold War without a nuclear drop, I'd say we are quite a bit improved from what our ancestors displayed.
 
EpicDude86 said:
Back then it wasn't racism, it was business, and it just so happened that racism developed out of that. :D
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"All men are created equal"...except for black slaves? I think our "Founding Fathers" would roll over in their grave if they saw Obama waving from the White House lawn.
 
GySgt said:
"All men are created equal"...except for black slaves? I think our "Founding Fathers" would roll over in their grave if they saw Obama waving from the White House lawn.
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They'd probably say: WE NAMED IT THE WHITE HOUSE FOR A REASON! :lol: Then again he is mulatto and Jefferson had a few of them mulattoes running around...
 
Aunt Spiker said:
(This poll mirrors a different debate forum. I wanted to see the difference in their responses and our responses)
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It is wrong.

But interestingly enough there are many on this site who argue that there is no such thing as right and wrong. Some say it is "irrational" to keep from admitting that there is wrong.
But follow that to its logical conclusion and irrational is nothing more than a synonym for WRONG. It is a poor synonym. Because many things are horrifically wrong that are perfectly rational.
 
Race being a determining factor in superiority/inferiority is silly unless you're playing an RPG where race selection impacts your character's weaknesses/strengths. Other than that it's just another failed 'ism' used to prove points and throw blame. :lol:
 
EpicDude86 said:
Race being a determining factor in superiority/inferiority is silly unless you're playing an RPG where race selection impacts your character's weaknesses/strengths. Other than that it's just another failed 'ism' used to prove points and throw blame. :lol:
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Yeah, but in an RPG, when they say "race" they really mean something closer to "species"-- with notable exceptions like Buck Roger XXVC and the d20 Conan. The fact that humans and elves can crossbreed would be an argument against this, if the same games didn't also hint that humans can successfully reproduce with dragons, faeries, and elemental spirits.

Race, the entire concept of race, is a silly superstition that dates back to the times that royal cousins married to "keep their blood pure".

The way I figure it, every society's gods have had their dalliances with mortals. We all have divine bloodlines and there's no reason to stay within "our race" to keep those divine bloodlines intact when any other person of any other race has just as much claim to descent from the gods of their ancestors-- assuming that they still follow a religion that allows them to claim this. Seems that the God of Abraham has most of the planet under his thumb, except for those who choose to believe in one god fewer than most.
 
Korimyr the Rat said:
It's a sociological construct.
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Benjamin Franklin in Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c. (1751)
24. Which leads me to add one Remark: That the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased. And while we are, as I may call it, Scouring our Planet, by clearing America of Woods, and so making this Side of our Globe reflect a brighter Light to the Eyes of Inhabitants in Mars or Venus, why should we in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People? why increase the Sons of Africa, by Planting them in America, where we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red? But perhaps I am partial to the Complexion of my Country, for such Kind of Partiality is natural to Mankind.​

The Germans (except 'Saxons'), Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians, and SWEDES have a swarthy complexion and aren't worthy of membership in the white race. Either that or Benjamin Franklin experimented with some serious psychedelic drugs along with being a tinkerer and inventor in general.
 
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I think we should judge a book by its cover.
I’m sure I do not want to actually read a book for its content.
Sarcasm is surely a lost art, eh?
 
Matt633 said:
It is wrong.

But interestingly enough there are many on this site who argue that there is no such thing as right and wrong. Some say it is "irrational" to keep from admitting that there is wrong.
But follow that to its logical conclusion and irrational is nothing more than a synonym for WRONG. It is a poor synonym. Because many things are horrifically wrong that are perfectly rational.
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Racist thoughts and impulses are human nature. Acting on them, like acting on any evil thoughts or impulses, is wrong.
 
misterman said:
Racist thoughts and impulses are human nature. Acting on them, like acting on any evil thoughts or impulses, is wrong.
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What is "human nature"? Why are you clinging to such an outdated construct?
 
Khayembii Communique said:
What is "human nature"? Why are you clinging to such an outdated construct?
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That's outdated? Okay, whatever. Forget I said it. Racist thoughts and impulses are (insert your preferred academic/pscyhological/post-modern term here).
 
That's outdated? Okay, whatever. Forget I said it. Racist thoughts and impulses are (insert your preferred academic/pscyhological/post-modern term here).
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I wasn't saying that the word is outdated; I was saying that the idea that there's such a thing as "human nature" is.
 
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Khayembii Communique said:
I wasn't saying that the word is outdated; I was saying that the idea that there's such a thing as "human nature" is.
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So humans have no nature? People don't tend to behave in similar ways?
 
Partisan said:
Are you referring to Indians or Mexicans?.....:confused:
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Interesting question. The Indians came first, then the Mexicans, who are mostly a mixture of natives and Spanish.

I saw that quote on a bumper sticker on a reservation and thought it was pretty apt.

I was referring to the first natives, the ones we refer to by Colombus' geographical mistake as "Indians."
 
Dittohead not! said:
Interesting question. The Indians came first, then the Mexicans, who are mostly a mixture of natives and Spanish.

I saw that quote on a bumper sticker on a reservation and thought it was pretty apt.

I was referring to the first natives, the ones we refer to by Colombus' geographical mistake as "Indians."
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Who did the "Native" Americans displace?
 
misterman said:
Racist thoughts and impulses are human nature.
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Actually, "racism" has been a rather new concept in human history. Prior to the African slave trade, slaves were merely of the poor of any color. People looked down upon each other in accordance to tribal identity or class. In the beginning of the Atlantic Slave Trade, Africans were merely a good source for cheap labor to supply the demands of early capitalism. The African slave trade saw blacks to Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and South & North America. The American South became dependent upon the plantations and they became a very lucrative business for the U.S. because cotton materials were exported internationaly. Slaves were treated far more humanely in states like Louisiana where the Catholic church in Fance prescribed conditions. Protestant States like Kentucky were prescribed absolute freedom to treat slaves as they wished by the Protestant church in England.

After a while it became natural in all slave owning states to associate slavery to blacks. But in the Protestant states slaves were viewed as less than animals in dire need of care taking because they were viewed as having the inability to educate and maintain morality. Some, like George Fitzhugh (Google him), even advocated a sense of socialism towards society where all poor people (blacks and whites) should be slaves. The argument was that poor people hadn't the means to feed themselves, but blacks slaves were free from the burden of having to find work and were cared for by the master. This view spread amongst plantation societies (with the poor white part dismissed) because it "legitimized" slavery as a moral responsibility. In time, "race" became the deciding factor for inferiority and the concept of "racism" unfortunatley became a concept far more predominate in the U.S. than the other locations.

Racist thoughts and impulses may be human nature, but "racism," as we know it, was learned.
 
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