An important delineation to be made here is "racism" versus "stereotyping." Racism is just pure hate against someone on the basis of their race, whereas stereotyping is what I think Trader_Jorge is referring to as being "earned." Racism is never earned and it is never justified. I pity anyone that thinks that one race is inferior to another solely on the basis of race. Stereotyping, on the other hand, is largely based on facts. We are all guilty of stereotyping and I don't necessarily think that it is an evil. It is simply capitalizing on statistics. I do not blame Haven at all for his reaction. Anyone would feel the same way in the same situation.
everyone is a little bit racist...blacks...asians...east asians....latinos...whites.... you name it ... part of human nature...though people differ in the degree of their racist nature.... you might marry a person who is of a different race...though you can still be racist towards that race...without subconsciously knowing it....i think it is part of human nature that in itself is going through an evolutionary process.... well said. Trader_Jorge.... if you think these people have "earned" it...then well... you are a racist.
No I did not say that they earned it. I am asking the question because there are hundreds of millions of people who exhibit racism to one degree or another. Is it human nature, or is it an adaptation to societal experiences?
I was always intrigued by one of Stephen Jay Gould's hypotheticals that I read about years ago in an article by him. Gould was one of the scientistics who debunked the belief in racial inequality. But he found the question as to what would we do if there were a demonstrably inferior race? Say, a race, or perhaps a slightly different species more properly, that is sentient and more intelligent than an ape...but categorically less intelligent than homo sapiens. Suppose, say, some sort of prehistorical race of humans had survived - if we found them tomorrow in the Amazon. What would we do with them? Would we be justified in putting them on some form of "reservation?" Could we attempt to mainstream them, reasoning that they're not much different than mentally handicapped modern humans? Should they be afforded equal rights, even though they're not biologically equal? It's a tough, interesting question. It might be a sheer accident (or perhaps not so accidental...the result of prehistoric warfare, etc) that such a people does not exist. Regardless, I think we're lucky that we're all nearly identical, biologically.
Good point, haven, but the opposite side of that argument is the following: Can we definitively conclude that given the BILLIONS of variables involved, each race has an identical capacity to learn and gain knowledge?
Unless I'm mistaken, biologically speaking, race doesn't really exist. Of course, if you want to categorize people by skin color, it's possible there are statistically recognizablegeneral tendencies due to millenia of slightly different selection imperatives. I guess proving or disproving a possibility such as the one you suggest would require an absurd amount of expense and research. And even if you did confirm the possibility, it would still be irrelevant to a reasonable person's treatment of individuals because of the enormous genetic overlap that we know exists.
it is proven FACT that other than the DNA coding there is no difference between an Asian/Black/White/East Asian/Latino ...physiologically the same(other than color)...... ...so Trader_Jorge your capacity to learn theory goes out the door!.... hehe...your posts/thinking is very directed towards being a racist ...i think you need to do more research on the history of different races.... then try to discuss racism....cause otherwise you are making yourself look bad
Maybe his approach put you in cautious mode. You type that he just ask for direction "You know where....is?” If I was lost at that time of night I would have ask in tone or manner that isn't so suspicious so that I could get accurate directions or hope that the person I am asking won't beat me down.
If you think that racism was created only by white people in America you may need to open your history books once again. Racism existed long before colonial america was founded and before the rush for foreign spices began. Racism and related intolerance can be found in Africa prior to the slave trade and also in relations amongst the various Asian ethnic groups.
I'll have to read a little bit on the Human Genome study. So given the tremendous gap (both magnitude and consistency) between academic performance in Asians and blacks, can it be said that this gap is entirely based on differences in social experience (learning environments, emphasis on academics instead of sports, parental involvement, friends, etc)?
are you like slowly building up to some point thru these posts? the way you are presenting these questions seems to point to yes. anyhow...the answer is yes if you didn't know that before.
and finally..."racism" could also be found among the slaves in america too. probably closer to classism than racism but first generation slaves were discriminated against by later generation slaves in america for reasons such as language and other things i can't remember.
I won't argue the racial disposition of American History with you it speaks for itself, nor will I argue who is more racist against whom because I can only speak for me. But to say that blacks are the biggest racists in America is a little unfair.
hey AB i know this is a purely anecdotal but don't you think black comedians are A LOT more race based than white comedians. obviously white comedians would get killed if they made any jokes about black people or other races, but still it seems like black comedians are much more prone to make racial jokes. further, it seems like a lot of the jokes are pretty racist against black people, which feeds into another point that i was thinking about. racism doesn't necessarily mean being racist against another race. there seems to be a lot of racism and stereotypes within black society about things like being black and not acting white. would you agree that this idea is pretty prevalent in american black society? i'm not really trying to argue or win some sort of debate here with you i just wanted to point out that there are different forms of racism.
Actually I am not sure blacks are the biggest racists in America. But blacks are definately more open when it comes to racist remarks. It seems blacks are given a pass on that. Whites maybe bigger racists than minorities but they won't openly talk about them or they will get crucified.
sorry i wasnt trying to make an argument about who the biggest racists are. i was just trying to say that there are different kinds of racism.
It is unfair...but blacks seem to make a bigger deal about racism than any other ethnic group...so it comes off as them being the most racist. The example of how black comedians can make fun of themselves is a perfect example. Other examples of blacks seemingly wanting to be segregated still are universities like Howard U (can u imagine a university that claimed to be a "white" school with 99.9% of the students being white? The United Negro College Fund, BET, and so on. Whites, Jews, Asians and Hispanics dont go around calling each other cracker, kike, chink or spic (because it is derogatory)....blacks feel free to call each other ******s and for some reason, its ok and accepted. If whites (or asians) created these types of nationally recognized "do-gooding" groups for their own people, it would be outright racism. Thats probably why a lot of people see blacks as the most racist of all the ethnic groups.
