Poll: Does being racist instantly make you a bad person?

[Fiend13]

Short answer: NO, everyone is racist to a point, it's practically built into our DNA. Anybody significantly different to ourselves is a possible threat to the species survival (SCIENCE!)

I would like to see a study or any other scientific work that proofs that.

 

[interspark]

Everyone is a little bit racist (Que song)

speak for yourself, id never discriminate anyone cos of their differences, its pointless and stupid!

Come on, not even a little? You never ever discriminate against anyone because of race, even in the very back of your mind? I really doubt it.

well i see no reason to! im a very logical person and theres absolutely no logic in judging someone based on their origin and skin colour

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Does that make 90% of Australia bad people? Seriously, all white Australians don't like Aboriginals, don't say you do, I know you don't

I've got no issue with blackfellas, get along with most of them just fine (which is just as well because I've got blackfella mates and lations)... so you should probably stop talking crap now.

 

[Sparrow]

snip

My analysis, if you're interested, is as follows.
A person starts as a baby. Babies need to experience the world around them to learn about it. Since babies essentially know nothing (this could turn into a whole other debate, so please just bear with me), they must accept what they don't know, aka what is different. For the sake of argument, I'm going to call this willingness to experience and learn "open-mindedness".
Racism is closed-minded. It is a refusal to accept that which is different. This is the opposite of open-mindedness.
Therefore, people who are racist are not good at being people. So, yes, being racist makes one a bad person.

Well, that's definately one way to look at it. However, I would argue that if your parents lied to you at an early age and told you that racism was a good thing (because, let's be honest, it might not be bad but it's definately not good) it might be their fault opposed to yours.

Regardless of if you are wrong or not, if you think you're right you will act on your feelings as if you are right.

The whole thing stemmed from another discussion, where we were talking about how a lot of people who constantly wear clothes that celebrities wear may be inadvertently confomring.

I suppose it makes another point in itself. Those that conform through copying people to get friends because of their self esteem may want acceptance. Those who eat constantly to make themselves feel better, those who self harm, maybe they just want to be understood. Those who don't eat, those who indulge in plastic surgery, maybe they just want to be noticed period.

Of course I can't really comment. I've never been through any of these issues myself, unless you count breaking out a super-duper sized bag of Doritos when you're upset every once in a blue moon.

You know I was thinking last night before I went to sleep (yes I am that sad) maybe people laugh out of fear? Aggression is so commonly associated with racism that maybe someone would just laugh because they didn't want to anger the person making the joke.

I know that if I'm on a bus and some chav/ned guy starts saying stuff to me that they obviously think is funny I just try to laugh along. Maybe it encourages them sure, but I'd rather do that than them pick a fight with me for not agreeing.

Again, I have to agree with you (this is about the third time I've said that, isn't it?). I myself have done that before when I was younger, though it's not happened to me alot now. Whether that's simply because I'm older or because society is changing, I don't know. I'd hope it's a bit of both.

I'm interested as to why you went straight for paedo being the ultimate level of evil. I'm not saying your wrong, not at all. I'm just curious as to why that's your knee jerk reaction. I mean, if a person is attracted to kids but doesn't act on their feelings, does that make them as bad as a racist person that doesn't act on their feelings either?

I suppose it depends which you think is worse.

I've often wondered that... I mean, no one can help who/what they're attracted to, so in cases like that I have to wonder whether we should sympathise with the paedophile. Can you imagine how awful it must be? Feeling that way, yet knowing you must never act upon it, and having the strength not to. It's kind of admirable, really.

I thought that too. I suppose a simpler way to put it would to put it in a different sense. It's like if you're a vampire, and you really want to go about sucking people's blood. If you suck people's blood, society deems you a vampire. But if you don't, are you still a vampire or not?

Maybe it's a childish example to use, but I think it fits perfectly.

I know someone who really hates Indiana/Pakistani people for no reason other than 'just cos' but on all other levels he's a really decent bloke who'd really put himself out for others. However, his racism is a character flaw and a massively ignorant side of him. Doesn't make him (as some have said) 'evil' like a paedo or anything.

I'm interested as to why you went straight for paedo being the ultimate level of evil. I'm not saying your wrong, not at all. I'm just curious as to why that's your knee jerk reaction. I mean, if a person is attracted to kids but doesn't act on their feelings, does that make them as bad as a racist person that doesn't act on their feelings either?

I suppose it depends which you think is worse.

A fair point!

However (the way I look at it) racism, although heavily frowned upon, isn't actually an illegal action (I don't mean hate crime here, I mean a dislike of other colours etc - speaking about it in conversation won't get you in trouble, just disliked or argued with) whereas so much as flirting with a minor (or saying 'ooh that little girl over there is something I'd like to blah blah' in a public forum could get you into legal trouble.

I guess it just popped into my head because it's one of the most sick things I can think of that would make me tar someone as 'evil', if that makes sense?

Society seems to think that being a paedo is right up there with rape on the top worse crimes of all time. When both of them happen in one incident, the media has a field day.

But, I saw a pretty interesting thread once where the OP asked if the users would rather be raped or killed. Most of the people in the thread said raped, as they think living would outweigh the feeling of being raped. I don't know what that means in comparison, but it's definately interesting.

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

Does that make 90% of Australia bad people? Seriously, all white Australians don't like Aboriginals, don't say you do, I know you don't

I've got no issue with blackfellas, get along with most of them just fine (which is just as well because I've got blackfella mates and lations)... so you should probably stop talking crap now.

You are part a very small minority and should be proud of it, but you must admit, most of the white Australians are racist. Plus I hate it when they or other people refer to them/themselves as "blackfellas" it just sounds so mangy.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

If you are a racist, then yes, I'd say you have a bad quality right there. But then, everyone's got a bit of bad in them. That's what makes us human.

 

[Versago]

Like many have said above: Racism is the product of ignorance.
Generally this ignorance, like homophobia, i tought by the parents who also hold it.
Its completly possible to be a nice person in personality, but your beliefs are only vaguely related to this.

I'm gay and i don't hate homophobics, because for the most part they are just following what their parents have ground into them in their upbringing. Very few prejudice people can actually make a vild argument about their prejudices, its because they aren't responsible for it.
And those who claim they 'can' make a valid argument usually say 'God'.
Which is creating. I wouldn't say "I'm racist because Craig is a racist", and God shouldn't be treated any differently. Prejudices are broken down when people think - when they break down the fundemental reasons for why something is wrong, and seriously consider the options.

Sorry, i got a bit off-topic there. But basically; Racism and most typical prejudices come from upbringing and the social 'norm' of the area.
So whilst your prejudices are based upon ignorance - knowledge (or absense thereof), your personality is something totally different, it comes from the more imaginative side of your brain, rather than the logical one that deals with knowledge.

Ignorance and personallity are seperate, and generally speaking; less-clever people are often nicer than the inverse. As while their logic hasn't developed, their personality has flurished.

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

I would also want to point out that I'm racist for humor, not actually racist.

 

[JWAN]

judging what qualifies as "racist" these days, no.

 

[Neikun]

They may have some redeeming qualities, but ultimately they are bad people with shallow scopes on the horizons of life.

 

[JWAN]

Short answer: NO, everyone is racist to a point, it's practically built into our DNA. Anybody significantly different to ourselves is a possible threat to the species survival (SCIENCE!)

^ When did they do that brain probe check on the entire populace of the planet?

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

In the end the Aboriginals of Australia are a race of people that are under appreciated. The government doesn't seem to know what to do with them and what they try to do is seemingly stupid and without meaning. For example changing parts of the constitution to say that 'We recognise that this is Aboriginal land'. We do. So instead of stating it in writing how about letting them in on the action?

Even when some blackfellas are let in on the action it's almost always members of two or three family groups that get all the choice cuts. After them, it's usually members of what was once informally refered to as 'the Mission Mafia', blackfellas who were Mission School educated (mostly Stolen Generation) or, these days, their families.

Noel Pearson has a lot of interesting things to say about breaking welfare dependency in remote communities and the money wasted by 'white bureaucrats and their pet projects'.

I am starting to hate National Reconciliation Week over here...

National Dodson/O'Shea Week? Fuck it. I got nothing against the Dodson or O'Shea clans but fuck-me-crooked would it kill the government or the media to get a few talking heads not from either for once? Things haven't been the same since Burnum Burnum died.

 

[Turnage]

thats probably because your a massive douche

 

[Everin]

no, you just have some misguided views about the world.

 

[Gingersalt]

@Sparrow

Love that you responded to everyone at once.... does that mean you just got up

 

[CAW4]

We're all inherently racist from birth (#5) [http://www.cracked.com/article_18404_6-shockingly-evil-things-babies-are-capable-of.html], the most you can do is suppress it. Saying someone's a bad person because the're racist is like saying they're a bad person for being hungry. As long as they don't chose to act on it or anything, they're fine.

 

[Verlander]

It makes you a burden to sociological progress, and an antiquated throwback of ignorant thinking. It makes you a bad person insofar as you are damaging your surroundings, in the same way other idiots do

 

[Iron Mal]

I personally think that there's nothing inherantly wrong with holding racist beliefs (everyone is entitled to think what they want about anyone) provided that you don't act upon them.

Someone who thinks black people are untrustworthy or lazy (or whatever stereotype they follow) is not nessercarily a bad person, they're just opinionated.

Groups like the KKK who lynch and murder black people just for being black are definately bad people.

Assuming that someone is a bad person because they are biased towards a certain group of people makes you just as bad as them (after all, you're making a judgement of them based on one aspect of their personality).

 

[Kukakkau]

dude were all a little bit racist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9CSnlb-ymA

Wow only took 30 replies for someone to put that up. Put simply this ^

There's always a bunch of people of each race who don't like you race for no reason - it's the way things work

 

[ZephrC]

Nah, knew a lot of damned decent guys back when I worked in construction. I'd go so far as to say that a few of them might've burned a cross or two in their time, but if you're the lucky color, they'd give you the shirt off their back. I'd say that qualifies them as "good"; they're not universal altruists, but they do good and aid people who they designate as worthy according to their insular and ignorant mindset.

I'd respectfully disagree. If you believe any person should be treated better than another purely because of the way they look or the culture they come from then you aren't a good person. In fact, I think the better you are to your "own race" compared to any other, the worse a person you are. At least dickheads who are racists treat most people in a similar way...

Since there is no excuse for this kind of ignorance in the 21st century with all of our technology (with the internet etc.), anybody who displays it is not a good person. Not always evil (though in many cases racists are), but certainly not good people.

I disagree with your opinion. A person that consistent acts like a jerk is absolutely and completely worse than a person that inconsistently acts like a jerk. Especially if that person does not actually go out of their way to hurt the people they discriminate against.

Also, it's very, very difficult to change the opinion of an adult that was had said opinion for as long as they can remember, and most people grow up to believe basically the same things their parents did. It's wrong, but one deeply ingrained negative trait does not make an entire person bad.