Racism

[jajdude]

Do you have no racial attitudes or feeling in you? Don't be so quick. It is not your fault if you do. You have started with the usual idea that you are a separate individual person, responsible for his/her thought. Is that so? Go into it just a little, this is not deep. Your thought was given to you. That's obvious. So, all the racial, national, religious arguments and so forth were given to you. It's interesting to me how we argue over influence. We are well trained to believe we are separate.

This is not really about racism. It's more about thought, in which race and racism is an idea, one which has been thrown around a lot lately. It's almost boring. A person is born and that's what he or she is. Then the influences occupy spaces and the whole thing is meaningless.

It isn't the thought of racism that you need to be afraid of. It's the fact that we divide ourselves into groups. Isn't this a trick of thought? I'm not sure, but the pervading and ongoing attitudes we see are never aware of this somehow, when in fact it quite simple. This dividing we humans enjoy is sad. We think it gives us identity and security, but it does the opposite. We fight and kill over ideas.

[Delta40]

Our Attorney General George Brandis said last week as a defence for the proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act that people are allowed to be bigots you know.

I certainly don't disagree with him but to say it is unlawful to villifiy or intimidate another to the point of physical violent harm and then provide exemption laws that give them protection to do this is the act of a racist.

That isn't an Act it's an instruction guide on how to cover your arse when silencing others through whatever means necessary.

Notwithstanding our ethnic community, indigenous people already have a wall of racism to deal with as it is. Now me and my friends can just about start stringing them up on trees because the exemptions laws if passed are so broad, you can drive a truck through them.

They only got the right to vote in 1967 and here we are white reasonable thinking people setting the dogs loose. Jews, Moslems, Asians none of them can rely on our govt since our PM is the instigator of the change.

So of course have your prejudices but society needs laws to keep it civil

[Volya]

I like to think I am not racist, as I imagine all of us do. I certainly try not to be and I can't remember a time where I have ever consciously done something racist. However I think deep within the subconscious of all of us, there is the tendency to favour our own race. It's not really something that can easily be changed. Racism is clearly still a problem in the world too. I remember when I was younger I naively believed that racism and sexism didn't exist any more because we had laws preventing it... Quite a shock when I realized some people still think black people, women, homosexuals, and other minorities are inferior.

[tonywalt]

Minorities in the Caribbean, luckily for us, have never been seen as inferior. So, I'm so thankful for that..

[JBI]

I'm called white everywhere I go, and people all think I'm illiterate, licentious, stupid, and rich. Strangely, before moving to China I had never identified myself as "white", and certainly never as "foreign", or "American", or "Western" given my mixed cultural background, multicultural upbringing, and pluralistic attitudes toward life. But when I go attend a lecture, somehow all eyes give me the "what is the white guy doing here" look, as if white people just cannot understand.

Then again, these petty complaints must be nothing compared to the abuse various minorities feel on a daily basis. I would say the experience has perhaps made me more sensitive to my own racial assumptions.

[JBI]

Minorities in the Caribbean, luckily for us, have never been seen as inferior. So, I'm so thankful for that..

Is this supposed to be ironic?

[Gideonthenomad]

Racism on a personal level is a manifestation of in-group bias and, though problematic, is not the main problem. Institutional racism-- that's the issue.

[Delta40]

Racism on a personal level is a manifestation of in-group bias and, though problematic, is not the main problem. Institutional racism-- that's the issue.

That is certainly the case here in Oz with the new racial discrimination law reforms. In the same week, without even consulting his cabinet our PM introduced Knighthoods & Dames. It makes for a blatant yawning gap in our society. Groups are deprived of legal protection and white middle upper class get titles.

[AuntShecky]

Yep. "Institutionalized racism" so ingrained that most of us don't realize that we are racist. When confronted with verbal lapses, preconceived notions, stereotypical statements, people will always say, "I'm not a racist." Undoubtedly they are sincere--nobody consciously makes the decision to be racist--but unwittingly racism tarnishes nearly everything we say or do. That's a fact, and that's how insidious racism is.

We have to ask ourselves -- where does racism come from?

[Volya]

It's probably a natural instinct to be honest. I would imagine we are predisposed for trust towards people who are similar and hostility to those who are different - be in in race or any other aspect.

[JBI]

Yep. "Institutionalized racism" so ingrained that most of us don't realize that we are racist. When confronted with verbal lapses, preconceived notions, stereotypical statements, people will always say, "I'm not a racist." Undoubtedly they are sincere--nobody consciously makes the decision to be racist--but unwittingly racism tarnishes nearly everything we say or do. That's a fact, and that's how insidious racism is.

We have to ask ourselves -- where does racism come from?

Modern Racism I would think comes from a mix of personal insecurity being transferred onto a collective sense of self-superiority. So the poor Chinese minimum wage worker cannot, in a culture where money is the measure of success, personally outdo the foreign middle class student, so instead they transfer their personal sense of inferiority into a collective of "We Chinese are better than you Westerners."

The same could be said for any other number of Racist Americans, especially the extremists who tend to be lower income earners.

To find a truly vocal, violent, upper class racist in the modern age is more rare. Sure, some people will have the sense of superiority, but generally on the top level income puts people as equals.

[Iain Sparrow]

Yep. "Institutionalized racism" so ingrained that most of us don't realize that we are racist. When confronted with verbal lapses, preconceived notions, stereotypical statements, people will always say, "I'm not a racist." Undoubtedly they are sincere--nobody consciously makes the decision to be racist--but unwittingly racism tarnishes nearly everything we say or do. That's a fact, and that's how insidious racism is.

We have to ask ourselves -- where does racism come from?

Our parents, friends and acquaintances, and the stereotypes that popular culture propagate.

Though to be fair, there's a reason stereotypes become stereotypes. I live downtown in a mostly white enclave in the historic district, but in a predominately black neighborhood. I like to think of myself as a very liberal person... it turns out not so liberal as I thought I was. Sometimes when I'm walking downtown I have to shake myself back to the present day because I could swear I just strolled into an old episode of Starsky & Hutch.

I will say one thing though, black folks are way more interesting than white people. It all comes down to not pretending people are all the same. That's the beauty of it.

[Volya]

Our parents, friends and acquaintances, and the stereotypes that popular culture propagate.

Though to be fair, there's a reason stereotypes become stereotypes. I live downtown in a mostly white enclave in the historic district, but in a predominately black neighborhood. I like to think of myself as a very liberal person... it turns out not so liberal as I thought I was. Sometimes when I'm walking downtown I have to shake myself back to the present day because I could swear I just strolled into an old episode of Starsky & Hutch.

I will say one thing though, black folks are way more interesting than white people. It all comes down to not pretending people are all the same. That's the beauty of it.

That right there would be a racist statement...

[Iain Sparrow]

That right there would be a racist statement...

That right there would be a politically correct statement...


Unfortunately these type of conversations usually turn out to be a contest about who can be more hip and politically correct. And it's always interesting, because by being politically correct and wishing more than anything not to offend someone, you help perpetuate the very thing you want to end.

[Volya]

I'm not being politically correct. Saying black people are more interesting than white people IS racist.