what is racism? what makes a person racist?

lippy has been troubled by these questions the last few days: what is racism? what makes a person racist?

is it a look? stare? something said? or written? where you live? who your friends are? what political party you belong to or tend to vote for? how you live your life? how you understand a person or situation? how you view the world? are you only a racist if you belong to a certain ethnic group? is it okay to be a racist if people are racist against you?

just when i start to think that we have come so far as a country...that change has come...i realize that racism is alive and well in america...

 

I think this label is used far too much and thus has been too watered down.

It's a shame that this term is thrown around as loosely and quickly as it is....because people are becoming insensitive to the true meaning of it.

And race relations aren't going to get better, if everyone is labeled a racist, in my opinion.

This society is too busy hating. Not everyone is a bad person.

EDIT: When a label is thrown around without a care for if it's true or not, the label loses its power. Like the boy who cried, "wolf", right?

 

Racism rears its ugly head in many ways. But personally the racism that really hurts me is the type where you are prevented from achieving something because of your colour. For example a job, a promotion, buying a house..etc. Essentially latent racism. Staring and name calling are not a huge deal to me..they iritate me, but I usually dont loose sleep over it.

 

I'm apparently too simplistic in my thinking about this. Racism to me occurs when any member of one race feels superiority to, or prejudice towards, any member of another race based upon the sole fact that they are of different races... and for the purposes of that definition race could be further defined as differences in skin color.

Anything that occurs as a result of that type of ignorant belief is merely symptomatic of the underlying racism IMO.

 

The definitions given by the various dictionaries and encyclopedias are all sufficient in answering both questions.

Ask yourself, is Race a scientific and immutable fact?

1. If yes, do racial differences determine individual and group characteristics?
2. If yes, are some Racial characteristics better or worse than the other.

If you believe yes on no.1 you are a racialist.
If you believe yes on no.2 you are a racist.

That's all that involves being a racist, nothing more, nothing less.

You can be a racist and not show outward signs of racism, you can be a racist (using a White person as an example) that voted for Obama and likes to have a few non White friends, or you can be a racist that lets society know your racist views.

As a society we are mostly worried about outward behavior, because most know they can't control inner thoughts; its just a push come to shove scenario when those thoughts are tested (like the Obama presidency, when Black people move into the neighborhood, "guess who's coming to dinner").

The outward response to the thoughts of racists can be a look, a stare, something they say or write, where they live, who their friends are and what political party they belong to or it can be none of that. A racist can shack up with a person from another race and still believe one race, or their race is superior to another race.

Is it okay to hate someone who hates you....You know that saying about two wrongs....

Did you actually believe that change has come was anything more than an empty campaign slogan? The racial hate exhibited in this society is no different than the hate some people of the same so called "race" exhibit to each other in tribal/religious/ethnic group conflicts. Racism is alive and well as long as man is alive and well.

 

Agreed. You can be all the racist in world and call me a moulie, jig, spook, ape, spear chuker, whatever. As long as you are not in the position to undermine my life, I dont give a rat's ass.
For eg. the other day, this clearly racist fuck comes in to clean our floor and tries to get pissy with me. He was huffing and puffing coz he saw me in some work uniform interacting with white female co workers. I was like nigga please you are a fucken janitor you got nutin on me. I laughed so hard he even got it. There is nutin he can do. To rub on his face, I said to this chick yo it is all about Obama nation. I am sure he was burning inside, fuck him, racist pig. I hope he rots in hell.


There is nutin wrong being a janitor and earning an honest living. I was just tryin to point out how someone who is not in the same league as you thinks he is better than you coz he is from "the superior race", lol

 

what I dont understand is why people have the need to feel superior to another person for whatever reason. Can anyone explain that ?

 

Because they feel inferior. The need to feel superior to someone else is the result of feeling inferior yourself. Btw fam today's janitor could quite possibly become tomorrows stock broker or a lawyer. The greatest thing about this country is if you want something bad enough you can get it with hard work and determination. You never have to stay where you are so UnChosen you proved you and the janitor are in fact in the same league fam.

 

Truer words were never spoken. rayer:

 

A friend of mine firmly believes all racism is based on repressed sexual fantasy. The more I know, the more I agree.

 

Really? I don't see that at all Bonsaii. I believe all racism has its basis in ignorance. People fear what they see as different and what they don't understand.

 

I think it's more true in the way some modern Americans are racist, rather than being nervous about a Cameroonian if Hateful Hattie is just a xenophobe. I think xenophobia is about ignorance. I don't actually know if racism in modern Westernized countries towards other Westerners is really rooted in ignorance.

 

It is important to remember that American Racism towards African Americans was largely intentionally created for the sake of economic gain. The entire racist mythology that exists in this country was largely created and promoted to maintain the decreasingly popular institution of slavery, and later to "spin" Jim Crow as justifiable.

It didn't happen naturally, it didn't happen because of human nature, it happened because of greed and it was done intentionally.

 

I agree with you Chi, no one is born hating anyone, that's learned behavior.

 

There's many reasons why someone places something over the other; "ism" is not exclusive to race. This shouldn't affect the ability to treat people as equals though, even if we are partial to this or that.

 

Very good point and now its morphed into a systematic ideology that focuses more on physical appearance than the economic disparity. It demonizes the poor for being poor but unfortunately a sub culture that promotes the disparity gives pseudo economic hope in the form of making money through entertainment making the members of this economic group believe that living in their current condition is ok because one day their music or sports career will take off and they pass it on to their kids. Its very sad.

 

I disagree I think hate is a symptom of fear which is natural. Hate is just a way to explain the fear but it is a natural occurence. You'd be incredibly hard pressed to find a civilization where people didn't hate someone.

 

True
But its still something that is instilled in you from your parents (and other people in your life growing up) - kinds dont automatically do this without influence. Its been studied.

This natural fear of the unknown can be exploited and used (intentionally or unintentionally) to lead to racism

 

I agree with this Andrae, but that's because people are taught to hate IMO. But then I also don't think all fear is naturally occurring. You have to teach children to fear things for their own good because they are naturally prone to be too trusting. If you didn't teach them differently they'd be sticking their fingers in light sockets, playin in the street, drinking Draino, and trying to pet rattlesnakes. Some people appear to have a natural intuition for detecting danger in another person, like psychopaths, rapists or serial killers for instance, but in my experience an awful lot of people don't. So I don't think fear of people of other races is something you're born with, you learn it somewhere along the line, and since kids tend to adopt the views expressed in their presence, it seems mostly likely that they learn it from their families. That's not to say you can't have a child who isn't racist when his/her parents are, but I would venture to say that's the exception and not the norm when it does occur.

 

That's not good enough to support your arguement because kids aren't a good litmus test. Children are protected and kept safe. Their interests and well being are rarely threatened and that's where the fear comes from. How will this person or people being here affect me since they don't look like me or anyone I know they are potential enemies.