Is everyone racist?

[The Atheist]

I think the question is why is political correctness so pervasive?

That's pretty simple - the squeakiest wheel got its way.

Their idea is that by using PC-style speak, it will help stop negative attitudes growing.

It may even be true. I'd certainly say we've gone too far, though.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I have little time for self-flagellation on racism.

Yeah, because endeavoring not to irrationally stereoype people based on race is such a chore.

[tonywalt]

Yeah, because endeavoring not to irrationally stereoype people based on race is such a chore.

I think a chore becomes tiresome if you constantly get harassed about doing it.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I can't recall ever being "harassed" to not be racist, unless people saying we shouldn't treat others different based on skin color is harassment. Who, exactly, is harassing you?

Still, let me try and better understand you mindset. Are you saying you veer towards being racist just to give a symbolic middle-finger to those you perceive as harassing you?

[tonywalt]

No, I'm not saying that. I am talking of political correctness as a whole. There are certain rules set down by the media of 'do's and don'ts' and I give a middle finger to the notion that I have to follow anything that laid out by them.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I see what you're saying. I generally don't let that bother me, though, and just make up my own mind. Just because the media proclaims something to not be PC, and therefore bad, I will make my own judgement--their's has no impact. It gives them too much power.

[tonywalt]

Agreed

[chacotaco91]

I hear often that race is a "social" construct....which may be true. However, I think we're genetically pre-determined to create these constructs; no matter how little our genetic variance actually is. Evolution may have made it advantageous for groups/individuals to prefer companionship and mating with those who look similar to themselves. This would in turn mean that aggression against those who appear different would be advantageous in an evolutionary manor.

In my opinion the current academic/media/political establishment's strategy of outright denial of race is hardly helpful when the average person can so clearly see the evidence: significantly uneven distributions of Asians in the math and sciences, blacks in athletics and prison, etc etc. By no means could any of these things be explained in a purely biological-racial view(except maybe blacks and athletics), but their existence is undeniable.

I don't really believe our modern multicultural society has done a very good job as dismantling racism. On the contrary, I think its done a very good job of creating droves of closet racists. What happens when you try and discuss race? An immediate reaction of fierce skepticism followed by the accusation of racism.

I'm currently waiting for my copy of Race: The Reality of Human Differences, by Vincet Sarich. It will likely be a tough read but a buddy of mine said it drastically changed his views on humanity.

[G L Wilson]

Racists find proof for their beliefs in science and holy texts and whereever they can, the irrational finds a way where the rational found none.

[Junglord]

I don't understand how someone of intelligence and knowledge of other cultures and race can be racist. If one is to be living among other races different to their own, they will observe that there is no difference in behavoir of individuals in different races. Thus would conclude that there is no superior race, nor is there any need to discriminate others based on their race or background.

I don't think that political correctness has gone mad at all. Infact it is the racists that spread that crap around as well as the media. "ba ba rainbow sheep" and all that is complete rubish. The government has not legislated nor encouraged any changes of nursary rhymes, niether have they banned the use of the terms "black board" or "white board" in schools. This is the kind of stuff which increases race hate which the media spew out for the gullables to gobble up.

[Darcy88]

I remember seeing a report recently which said that looking at someone of a different race from your own activates fewer mirror neurons, which, if I'm not mistaken, translates into less empathy.

I can't find it now, so maybe I imagined it.

I suppose it might makes sense from an evolutionary stand-point - heightened aggression towards those outside of your tribe/group.

But let's be honest, PC or not - racism is ridiculous. My advice to any racist would be to get to know people of a different race. Spend enough time with them and the truth that they're little different from you becomes overwhelming and undeniable. Even if racism is partly innate, the truth of the matter, the essential commonality which bonds man with man, soul with soul, skin colour be damned, renders any such primitive impulse easily rubbed out and forgotten.

[cl154576]

My advice to any racist would be to get to know people of a different race. Spend enough time with them and the truth that they're little different from you becomes overwhelming and undeniable. Even if racism is partly innate, the truth of the matter, the essential commonality which bonds man with man, soul with soul, skin colour be damned, renders any such primitive impulse easily rubbed out and forgotten.

I don't see myself as racist. I don't look down on people from other races, and I am on agreeable terms with them just as often as I am on agreeable terms with people of my own race. But people from different races are immensely, immensely different.

I live in a community with a lot of first-generation immigrants from all over the world, mixed with some families that have been living in the country for generations. Even if there's still a "commonality which bonds man with man, soul with soul," the different cultural values, styles of interaction, etc., are extremely noticeable, and at school groups of friends tend to be of the same race, with very limited mixing – not because of any hostility toward other races but simply because they have similar values instilled in them by their heritage.

Also, when my parents go back to their native country, although they dress, look, and talk like natives, even strangers are able to tell by some subtle nuance in their bearing that they've been away. Many people I know have had similar experiences.

[Alexander III]

@ Orphan Pip, I tend to agree with you in many things, but in this I cannot - GL Wilson said it best I may be stupid, but I am not blind. From the way your wrote your post, it seems to say that any random African man is just as likely to be as fast as any random white man. Or any random man is just as likely to have almond shaped eyes as any chinese/japanese Korean man. I know you didn't mean this, but it sure sounded like that.

There are many rather indisputable differences between races. For instance, the majority of Caucasian men are able to grow full beard, while it is only a minority of chinese/japanese/korean men who are able to grow a full beard. A lot of things such as height or size can be ascribed to cultural reasons (e.g abundance of food or lack) but the beard thing is purely a genetic racial trait.

Also, Indian men have a weaker metabolism than caucasian men. For instance an What would be enough calories to feed 3 indian men, is enough for one caucasian man. This is the reason there are huge problems with diabetes and heart disease amongst indian expatriates who adopt wester diets. What is fine for a caucasians body, is to much for an indians and thus adopting a western diet leads to huge % of diabetes and heart issues.

It seems to me only a politically correct, indoctrinated scientist would dispute facts like these for the sake of his ideology. Much like doctors of the past ignored facts to propagate racists sentiment and express the idea that the "white race" was superior.

I don't understand how someone of intelligence and knowledge of other cultures and race can be racist. If one is to be living among other races different to their own, they will observe that there is no difference in behavoir of individuals in different races. Thus would conclude that there is no superior race, nor is there any need to discriminate others based on their race or background.

I don't think that political correctness has gone mad at all. Infact it is the racists that spread that crap around as well as the media. "ba ba rainbow sheep" and all that is complete rubish. The government has not legislated nor encouraged any changes of nursary rhymes, niether have they banned the use of the terms "black board" or "white board" in schools. This is the kind of stuff which increases race hate which the media spew out for the gullables to gobble up.

On first thought it may seem so, but even staying within the field of literature I could give you a list of a dozen and more writers who we deem to have possessed genius, who had racist views

-Ezra Pound
-T.S Elliot
-Earnest Hemingway
-Scott Fitzgerald
-Edmund Spencer
-Dante Alligehri
-Gabriele D'Annunzio
-Maurice Barrès
- Joseph Conrad
- Gertrude Stein
- Arthur Rimbaud
- Dostoyevsky

So, Racism isn't something depending on Intelligence - Mussolini and Hitler were two of the XX's centuries greatest racists and while they were very much twisted men, you cannot denny that form a purely intelligence related point of view, both men were very very clever.




Also in a more general sense, I do not think I am racist, but like every other human being, first impressions will be how I define a person. To be honest I know if I will be friends with someone or like a girl, within the first 10 seconds of seeing them - appearances are everything.

For instance If I was walking alone in a small street in london, and behind me was a black man walking with his head held high and confidently, dressed in a nice sport coat and nice trousers, and with a well groomed face - I would feel safe.

If the same man was ungroomed and walking hunched and awkwardly with hi head bent down and dressed with lots of "bling" and with baddy clothes and a hoodie - my guard would be up I would be and ready for any possible action.

Had he been white and the former I would have felt equally safe, had he been white and the latter I would have felt equally alert.

In all honesty I judge people a lot by the way they are dressed and how they carry themselves. A man who is well groomed and finely dressed, who walks spritley and with confidence I will give him my full admiration and time.

A man who looks like his mother dressed him, and has no social grace - I will almost always think him an idiot and will not sympathize with him. But it has nothing to do with race, just general appearance.

Although If I ever say or do a racist thing to a minority, I make sure to do an equally and possibly worse racists act to every other race/culture. That way I can adhere to political correctness and admit that I am not racist, and that I hate everyone with equality.

[Ecurb]

@ Orphan Pip, I tend to agree with you in many things, but in this I cannot - GL Wilson said it best I may be stupid, but I am not blind. From the way your wrote your post, it seems to say that any random African man is just as likely to be as fast as any random white man. Or any random man is just as likely to have almond shaped eyes as any chinese/japanese Korean man. I know you didn't mean this, but it sure sounded like that.

There are many rather indisputable differences between races. For instance, the majority of Caucasian men are able to grow full beard, while it is only a minority of chinese/japanese/korean men who are able to grow a full beard. A lot of things such as height or size can be ascribed to cultural reasons (e.g abundance of food or lack) but the beard thing is purely a genetic racial trait.

Also, Indian men have a weaker metabolism than caucasian men. For instance an What would be enough calories to feed 3 indian men, is enough for one caucasian man. This is the reason there are huge problems with diabetes and heart disease amongst indian expatriates who adopt wester diets. What is fine for a caucasians body, is to much for an indians and thus adopting a western diet leads to huge % of diabetes and heart issues.

It seems to me only a politically correct, indoctrinated scientist would dispute facts like these for the sake of his ideology. Much like doctors of the past ignored facts to propagate racists sentiment and express the idea that the "white race" was superior.

Until the last 50 years or so, the standard anthopological wisdom was that "race" was a reasonable way of thinking about human genetic diversity. However, since then -- and in particular since DNA testing became possible -- the notion has been discredited. The four so-called "races" (caucasoid, negroid, mongoloid, and aboriginal) have been clearly demonstrated to be a very lousy description of human genetic diversity.

In fact, a great many "caucasoids" are gentically more similar to some "negroids" than many other "negroids" are (my apologies for the old-fashioned racial terms). Phenotype (and anthropologists used to measure skull shapes and phenotypic characteristics other than skin color) just turned out to be a lousy predictor of genotyple.

Now (or back 25 years ago, when I was in grad school in anthropology) gene clines are used, because they are more accurate descriptions of human genetic diversity than the old racial designations. "Clines" are overlapping circles. Supposed "caucasoids" from Northern Africa, for example, are more similar to 'negroids" from Northern Africa than those same negroids are to negroids from southern Africa, when one looks at their actual genetic make-up.

Of course human genetic diversity does exist -- and genetic tenedencies vary from place to place. It's just that the old racial categories are a very inaccurate way of describing them.

[Delta40]

If one is to be living among other races different to their own, they will observe that there is no difference in behavoir of individuals in different races. Thus would conclude that there is no superior race, nor is there any need to discriminate others based on their race or background.

I disagree. Family structures are different and certain structures predominate which impairs them socially, emotionally, healthwise and economically. I'm less likely to point the finger at individuals but more at structure they live in. While I know I'm not superior to Indigenous Australians, I do know that their sense of widespread family means many homes are ridiculously overcrowded with 'relatives'. This causes deterioration structurally and healthwise as well as high eviction rates and greater strain in relocating. Due to racism and stereotyping by non-indigenous, many Indigenous folk are unemployed and displaced so create tight, loyal bonds to family. I can't blame them because I haven't been excluded from this society.

They share everything, including their social security so materially they cannot move on. If one family member lands a job, they are expected to hand over their pay packet and share the riches which means the person has little incentive to work 40 hours a week for virutally nothing and this again reinforces the cycle of high unemployment and high prison numbers among Indigenous folk. Because the bonds of 'family' are an integral part of Indigenous culture, western society is a real challenge and because the family structure is different, people discriminate to reinforce what they are not a part of and what they are. The line where such discrimination spills into racism or prejudice becomes blurred and then socially injected into the next generation.