Aren't we all racists?

[wildcat]

Not in a Nazi or KKK kind of way, but I think that deep inside that we all have a we against them quality to our selves. (unless you have the Bobby Fischer syndrome.)

But as we get to know people from other races and spends more time with them it slips away.

But there is still a tiny part in us that sees others as them and never as us.

Don't we?

I see all groups as them.
The race of an individual does not matter to me.
There is no racist tiny part.

There is no point in prejudice. Racismwise or otherwise.

 

[Katsuni]

Not in a Nazi or KKK kind of way, but I think that deep inside that we all have a we against them quality to our selves. (unless you have the Bobby Fischer syndrome.)

But as we get to know people from other races and spends more time with them it slips away.

But there is still a tiny part in us that sees others as them and never as us.

Don't we?

Yes and no; I think the "us vs them" mentality is pretty much normal, but it's not neccesarily divided by race or gender.

There are those who will divide it into "us" being "ME" and noone else, which would be yeur literal psychopath. And then there will be those who view "Us" as being "all living things", and "them" being "anyone who wants to harm/kill anything that's alive".

As such, I don't think it's really a racist thing, as that's a dividing line, whereas I think the line it divides at is in fact mobile, and tends to apply differently to each individual.

 

[lowtech redneck]

I assume the vast majority of whites who display the flag to be aware of the polarizing nature of the flag but have found their heritage to be more important than their relationships with people of color.

Would you refrain from displaying an American flag if you were surrounded by people who associated the flag with negative things? More broadly, do you think people should deny (and implicitly denigrate) themselves in order to accommodate others? Do you think your friend from high school could have done so, without losing much of who he was in the process?

 

[Synapse]

Nope. Racism is taught. If you look at young children they do not discriminate against other. For the most part, they are not even aware of it. But as time goes on... You get the point.

Definitely a bit like the blue eyes brown eyes experiment by Jane Elliott. People will be surprised by the clutter the subconscious picks up and projects.

[youtube="T8gCJ4K4tnE"]Eye of the storm[/youtube]

 

[Son of the Damned]

Yes

 

[Butterfly_Effected]

is that a butterfly on a pot plant?

nature is a wonderful thing, even a wounded insect knows where to go to feel better.

 

[INTJ123]

Definitely a bit like the blue eyes brown eyes experiment by Jane Elliott. People will be surprised by the clutter the subconscious picks up and projects.

[youtube="T8gCJ4K4tnE"]Eye of the storm[/youtube]

that's pretty crazy

 

[Laurie]

EnFpFer you are missing that many people in the south don't see the confederate flag as racist at all. They see it as something to symbolize the south. I guess a question would be what else is there that symbolizes the south.

I don't care, I'm a yankee, I just know that many people don't look at it as racist. Southern pride can be a different discussion than racism. It's not a definite equal.

 

[INTJ123]

EnFpFer you are missing that many people in the south don't see the confederate flag as racist at all. They see it as something to symbolize the south. I guess a question would be what else is there that symbolizes the south.

I don't care, I'm a yankee, I just know that many people don't look at it as racist. Southern pride can be a different discussion than racism. It's not a definite equal.

I heard it's super racist in the south, I met a girl who was living there for a while, but she's from australia, she's half white half black, and she said something like she had to decide whether she was black or white? so she went with white in order to gain acceptance. But she said it's different here, for the most part, actually she said America in general is pretty racist though.

 

[Laurie]

I heard it's super racist in the south,

I lived in the south, sort term, and I have a sister in law from the south. I am not an expert. But I did more than just hear something.

My point is that the confederate flag is more complicated than just "fly it and you are racist"

 

[Lateralus]

I would have voted yes with no caveats if that option had been available. Humans are naturally racist. It's a survival mechanism.

I've seen some people in this thread state things like "children are not racist", and that makes racism unnatural. I disagree. Children adopt the racist ideals of the society in which they are raised (as long as they are accepted in that society). I think it's flawed to call that unnatural since the phenomenon exists in all societies.

 

[Haphazard]

But she said it's different here, for the most part, actually she said America in general is pretty racist though.

In my experience, America is much more classist/cliquish than racist.

Then again, I'm not exactly from the South...

 

[Kasper]

I would have voted yes with no caveats if that option had been available. Humans are naturally racist. It's a survival mechanism.

So your stance is every single person judges others as being either superior or inferior to based on their racial group?

I say BS. It only takes one person to prove that wrong.

 

[Lateralus]

So your stance is every single person judges others as being either superior or inferior to based on their racial group?

I say BS. It only takes one person to prove that wrong.

That's not how I define racism, but if you define it that way, no. I would discuss this further, but based on your tone, it's obvious that you were only looking for a reason to be offended. So I won't waste my time with you. Good luck.

 

[Charmed Justice]

Would you refrain from displaying an American flag if you were surrounded by people who associated the flag with negative things?

Absolutely; particularly, if those "negative" things included mass murder and institutional racism, with Americans being the beneficiaries of such behavior at the expense of the people I was surrounded by.

More broadly, do you think people should deny (and implicitly denigrate) themselves in order to accommodate others?

I think that people should do what feels right to them, and be known for what they do. If an individual's identity is so personally tied into the Confederate South(which existed hundreds of years before their birth), that not waving the flag about or having it decorated all over the back of their truck, results in feelings of denigration and denial, then I believe they should do what feels real to them.

I also believe that they should perhaps go find other people who have more extensive and traumatic experiences with denigration and denial.

Do you think your friend from high school could have done so, without losing much of who he was in the process?

Of course. And further, rather than losing who he was, he may have very well gained a more expansive identity.

 

[Katsuni]

So your stance is every single person judges others as being either superior or inferior to based on their racial group?

I say BS. It only takes one person to prove that wrong.

In which case they'd be mentally retarded ^.~

The brain's designed for one primary task above any other, when it comes to thought process: it categorizes information into managable chunks to sort it.

If yeu see someone who's got darker skin than yeu, yeur brain goes "zomg new category!" and then it associates information it percieves to be related to that category into it.

If the first 10 black people a white person met were all lazy, then their brain would tend to make the connection that 'black people are generally lazy'. They may be able to accept that there's exceptions to that rule, but that would be the typical rule they'd follow, and it'd take alot of convincing otherwise and a staggering amount of proof to show otherwise once that connection's been made.

Same thing, if a black person runs into their first 10 white people who are rude to them, they'll assume white people are rude.

It's whot the brain's designed to do... correlate information and make patterns. Even if the pattern doesn't exist.

Can yeu see shapes in clouds or paint or just random splatterings of colour? If so, yeur brain's working properly. And if so, yeu are at least SLIGHTLY racist in some way shape or form, assumming yeu've had ANY contact at all with any race other than yeur own.

Note that there can be 'positive' racism as well, assuming one race is 'better' for a given trait... for example, assuming that 'Asians work harder'. It really isn't necessarily true at all, and is a pre-supposed concept of a race based on a false premise, and as it assumes they're 'better' than yeur own race, yeu are being self-racist by putting another as 'better' in comparison.

In short though, yeur brain is designed to break things into categories, and associate patterns with those categories. Racial splitting is a pretty obvious category to start with, and any pattern, regardless of it being true or not, associated with that category, is a form of racism. If yeu have *ZERO* capacity for this, then yeur brain is broken and yeu probably aren't capable of conscious thought in general either.

Some people just take it way too far, or don't recognize that their perceptions may be tainted by this method of reasoning.

 

[Haphazard]

I'm so confused.

How are we defining racism.

And how are we defining race.

 

[Kasper]

That's not how I define racism, but if you define it that way, no.

The definition I gave is what you'd find in Webster's Dictionary.

How do you define it?

In which case they'd be mentally retarded ^.~

Or someone who doesn't define entire races based on individuals they meet.

 

[Katsuni]

I'm so confused.

How are we defining racism.

And how are we defining race.

Race: determined by one's own self. There actually isn't any "REAL" racism physically possible as the genetic diversity among humans isn't large enough for there to be 'real' races. That's why we have "the human race" because "asians, whites, blacks, etc" aren't divergent enough to be real races. As such, the term 'race' is only whot yeu want it to be to yeurself. Specifically, it's a superficial categorization by yeur mind to define a group of people as being different from another group, based loosely upon physical attributes.

Racism: to arbitrarily attach any predisposition of any kind to that categorized group of people; whether it's true or not has no impact whotsoever. If yeu make ANY pattern recognition with that group that yeu created by yeurself, with anything else, then yeu have been racist in some way shape or form. This pattern may actually be there, it may be accurate, but it's still racist to have set any distinctive behaviour or quality to that 'race' just because they're a member of that race.

As such, yes, we're all racist in that manner.

However, if people want to assume they can make their own "real races!" (not possible, yeu're just falling for my own definition because there AREN'T any REAL races) then by the very fact that they believe races exist at all, they're being racist.

If yeu can look at everyone and ignore absolutely all physiological differences of any kind, or if yeu're incapable of pattern recognition of any kind, then yeu aren't racist. Yeu're probably also a vegitable on life support.

 

[Haphazard]

Racism: to arbitrarily attach any predisposition of any kind to that categorized group of people; whether it's true or not has no impact whotsoever. If yeu make ANY pattern recognition with that group that yeu created by yeurself, with anything else, then yeu have been racist in some way shape or form. This pattern may actually be there, it may be accurate, but it's still racist to have set any distinctive behaviour or quality to that 'race' just because they're a member of that race.

So you can be racist against poor people?