I don't 'get' Racism...

[Jimmybobjr]

Human evolution has taught humans that anything - ANYTHING - different is something to be feared (The reason i think this is because i just saw a Extra credits eppisode that mentions this).

So, when ancient white man met black man (or asian, or indian etc) the first think that they noticed was "Different" Different, when taking into account the above forumula, means Fear. And the only way for man to truly defeat fear is to conquer it.

And thats what white man did.

But now for the simple fact that people of different ethnic groups arent seen as "Different" as much anymore, they arent to be feared as much.

thats how i see it, anyway.

and, also, you said
"I dont get Racism".

That makes me look up to you. i hope people like you run the world one day.

 

[BlueFishie]

I don't either understand how people can seriously have such a skewed view of the world, but it's just another form of generalization. Generalizing in some way is something anyone of us could be guilty of if we don't stop and think.

 

[LobsterFeng]

I'm not supporting racism, but I suggest you watch a film called "Crash". Then it will make sense.

 

[Warlord211]

Is saying south koreans are better at RTS racism or fact?

It doesnt matter how true they actually are most people consider stereotypes like that racist.

And yet most stereotypes are true if you haven't noticed. Everyone is somewhat racist, it's in our DNA to think we are better than everyone else. Also, since when is it just white people that can be racist. I've met more black people that hate white people than I've met white people who hate black people.

Also just so we are clear I hate everyone equally.

 

[Sougo]

It all comes from way back when the 'civilised' white man 'found' the 'uncivilised' black man and taught him how to live etc. Since then it's been drilled into SOME peoples heads that white people are superior to black people. (At least that's the case with white on black racism.

Racism in general comes from some people thinking it's necessary to conform, and being different (in any way) obviously doesn't conform, so naturally some people will discriminate against the people who're different.

Hold on a sec, are you saying that before the "white man" found the "uncivilised" black men, racism did nit exist?
Is this something which in your opinion is something only "white man" is capable of?
Is it something "white man" invented?
Before the "white man" ventured out of Europe every other civilisation was living in harmony and did not discriminate against other cultures and peoples, it was something they needed to be taught?
Oh the fucking irony!

Well hes both right and wrong here. Racism probably existed prior to this, but it was the whites that started shipping boat-loads of 'slaves' from Africa, simply because they were 'inferior.' So in that regard whites did kind of enforce a sort of rule of racism.

Now sure the Romans and other civilizations had 'slaves' and 'sacrifices' too but in these cases they were just prisoners of war, regardless of their race. You lose the war, you and your people become the slaves of the victor.

 

[Exile714]

Racism does not always mean hatred. Sometimes, people make assumptions about people that they think are good (like the classic: Asian people are good at math), but which are themselves racist. Any presumption one makes about a person based on their immutable (cannot be changed) racial characteristics is racist.

I think we can do away with racial hatred, but racial stereotypes will remain forever. Even if we lose race-based stereotypes, there will always be ways to categorize people. When one perceives that a category of people tend to do or like something, a stereotype is made. The key is not eliminating stereotypes, it's realizing that we have them and still being open to the idea that a person may not conform to those ideas.

All the people here who claim to have never experienced a racist thought, you're probably lying to yourself or you just don't understand that racism doesn't mean wearing white sheets and hurting Africans.

 

[Nieroshai]

If we fully understood this, we wouldn't have any more racists.

 

[Casual Shinji]

You don't get racism, or are you simply feigning ignorance of the concept to make yourself appear as the most wonderfully tolerant person in the world?

Everyone is a little bit racist, because generalisation is the simplest and quickest form of understanding something foreign. It's human nature.

 

[MarcusD357]

Because people like to think that they are the best and that anything that isn't similar to them is different and therefore an easy target for discrimination.

 

[KingofallCosmos]

You're right. Let's stop this silly behaviour.

 

[Sougo]

Pretty straight-foward, i just don't understand racism.
Why are people Racist?
What is it about the colour of you're skin that makes you 'better' than others?
I just can't put my finger on it, why is there racism in the world?
To me it doesn't make any logical sense.
So, what are your thoughts on this?

Lets see... heres how I look at it.

If you see a fellow from a different race, you will immediately see that in terms of appearance and possibly attitude, he is different from you. Its only natural to recognize that difference.

Now, you may or may not like what you see. Either response is natural.

While understanding the differences between you and the other person (mostly they are just appearance) if you are polite or simply indifferent to that person (as you are with any other person) you are not racist.

However if you are actively hostile towards that person simply on the basis of those differences, then you sir are racist.

 

[El_Chubba_Chubba]

Two me, I only really see three "types" of racism. Now I don't like people being so generalised and trying to sum up a very important subject so easily, or any subject really. But see this more as a couple of the ways that my mind views different situations and tries to explain the.

One, often from elderly people who may have grown up being taught that (for example) white people are better than black people. Their hate and discrimination is what they genuinely think. And that is very sad.

Another "type" is when people lash out at a (again for example) indian person calling them a f**king p*ki, they say this because they are angry, and they almost use racism as a tool to express their hatred, not because that person is genuinely racist.

Another type is out of pure ignorance. e.g calling an Iranian person a terrorist, just because people assume that of the person. The second example could be this type, couldn't it?

All of these can be linked with another, and they may appear at the same time, with it never being perfectly clear for which reason they are being racist.

 

[Furbyz]

Very few people wake up in the morning and think to themselves, "I will perpetuate hate, intolerance, and the oppression of [insert race here] because they are inferior to me." The racism most people see today is much more subtle than that. So subtle, in fact, that most people don't even realize they're doing it. It's not a conscious decision, it just happens because they attribute their actions to something other than race. Like not hiring someone reportedly because you felt they weren't qualified, while in reality the person just has a problem with [insert minority here] that they aren't actively aware of. And the best part is I'm sure more than one of them has congratulated themselves how well and non-prejudiced they were in that situation.

This leads to the insane notion of a world with a lot of racism but next to no racists. Crazy, huh?

For the record, I've found that I am personally prejudiced to people with horrible diction and are native English speakers. It's not the sound or the accent, just the fact that somehow this person is completely unintelligible at all times for absolutely no reason and makes themselves sound less intelligent than they likely are. Now this might be the same as how some people judge others by their clothes or other facets of their personal appearance, but if I ever meet someone with a legitimate speech impediment, I have to constantly check myself. It's not fair to them, and I hate myself for it. I find myself automatically thinking less of a person than I should, so I can never trust my own assessment of them.

I think most racism in the world is about like that, but possibly not even that self aware.

 

[Lost Cause]

People are racist for the same reason people are sexist etc.

People have a need to feel superior to others for whatever bull*beep* reason. It's just how the human brain is wired; some people manage to suppress it, others... don't.

 

[kuolonen]

Hold on a sec, are you saying that before the "white man" found the "uncivilised" black men, racism did nit exist?
Is this something which in your opinion is something only "white man" is capable of?
Is it something "white man" invented?
Before the "white man" ventured out of Europe every other civilisation was living in harmony and did not discriminate against other cultures and peoples, it was something they needed to be taught?
Oh the fucking irony!

Well hes both right and wrong here. Racism probably existed prior to this, but it was the whites that started shipping boat-loads of 'slaves' from Africa, simply because they were 'inferior.' So in that regard whites did kind of enforce a sort of rule of racism.

Now sure the Romans and other civilizations had 'slaves' and 'sacrifices' too but in these cases they were just prisoners of war, regardless of their race. You lose the war, you and your people become the slaves of the victor.

... Yes it was the whites. Since only white people took slaves from africa. That is, assuming you can count arabian people "white"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_slave_trade#Enslaved_people_taken_from_Africa

The part I want you to look that page would be the arab slave trade. Numbers are about the same as with atlantic slave trade.
Also
"The very earliest external slave trade was the trans-Saharan slave trade."

If you want, you can also go look for materials on Mongols (asian people) slaving russians (european whites) back in the day.

As for the second point, does the aquisition method of the slave somehow change how wrong that action is? Or for that matter does it really matter wheter or not the slaver and the slave are of the same skin color?

OT: Everyone is racist to some degree. Regardless of race, and that is so delicously ironic.

Edit: Of course OP really could have elaborated on what he means on "racism". We talking Kukluxklan asshole level of commitment here or more of the steroetyping path, for eg: "black people like chicken" or something in between? It doesnt help that some people think stereotyping and racism are the same thing.

 

[Vandenberg1]

It's ignorance, these people aren't racist for any kind of logical reason, but because of a natural fear of things that are different and an unwillingness to actually think about it properly.

wrong... When Spaniards saw Mexicans sacrificing to "false" gods, they immediatly saw themselves better spiritualy, and seeing as how they had more advanced tchnology, they saw themselves better racially and culturally. Now today its like.... A "white" person goes through any ghetto and sees the violence and high level og ignorant thought and says to himself... I am superior to these people..

 

[Erana]

Portugese 'barbarians' vs the Japanese 'monkeys' - 16th century Portugal 'discovered' Japan, the Portuguese and Japanese once again were both convinced that they were a superior race. After a very turbulent period, the Japanese actually expelled ALL foreginers from their country for over two hundred years from the 17th to the mid 19th century.

Now, I'm not discounting the racism you bring up here, but I thought that closing Japan was a move done pretty early on in the military rule of the Tokugawa family in order to secure their position as the dominant force in the country.
Though to this day, the Japanese culture is imbedded with a sense of cultural superiority, evidenced by how it is inconceivable for many Japanese to ever consider the immigration of foreigners. There's also the very real issue of relationships between Koreans and Japanese, which bears the same sort of stigma a white person marrying someone black in America a few decades ago.
(Or a white person marrying an Arab in particularly zealous parts of America this very day.)

Pretty straight-foward, i just don't understand racism.
Why are people Racist?
What is it about the colour of you're skin that makes you 'better' than others?
I just can't put my finger on it, why is there racism in the world?
To me it doesn't make any logical sense.
So, what are your thoughts on this?

Back in the far flung past of europe, the white people found african people and thought "Hey, they look different, I don't like that, therefore they are lower than I" and racism was born. Now, there is much debate as to whether this was intentional, as at the time the africans were in their tribal state, and could have been seen as "barabaric" by the whites.

This process has continued with every tint and shade of skin pigment up to this very day.

TL;DR: People are assholes who feel the need to be better than others, so why not use a visible indicator to "prove" it.

While surely people looked down at people of other races regardless of any social context at the time, in school, the anthropology and history professors both felt that the slavery came first, then the "White people are superior" notion, socially justifying their actions.
The same people capturing and selling Africans had originally tried to do the same to Native Americans, but it was generally unsuccessful, considering they knew the land better than the slavers did.

But isn't that so often the tune, just rewriting the definition of people to exclude others at a culture's convenience?