Racism: Who's Worst?

racism exists today and will always exist. There is no worst. Or should I say the worst is the ignorance that undermines the sentiment. The problem though, is the fact that everyone is ignorant (in some form or fashion) and everyone is racist ( in some form or fashion).

Racism exists in many forms, and some of them are quite ironic.
i.e. the person that is so fed up with racism from a certain minority within a group, that he loathes the entire group.

It would be nice to think of a world without racism, but with a society so quick to temper, it is only a hash dream.

mmmmmmmm.....
hash......

what was the question again?

 

A lot of our racism comes from education and the media. I call that programming or indoctrination. Racism is one of those things were you can't do much but to keep vigilant on your front and hope for the better.

 

Racism is dying as the world grows together.

It exists for sure, but only in the ignorant.

DD

 

i think it's more prevalent than you might think. more subtle, but there nonetheless.

 

race is a really difficult issue, complaining of something really seems to hurt more than help, as being called a racist these days is worse than being called unpatriotic. on the otherhand, their are people who take a lot of pride in things that others may find racist and steretypical, perfect example being "Soul Plane" or "Joy Luck Club". Although i doubt many will agree with my own philosophy, but i'm seeing a problem of creating and associating with groups with conflicting beliefs and actions. America is about individualism, but we can't seem to help putting things into groups, which we try to characterize very simply. This mentality destroys individualism.

this also works the other way, for example, lets say a company, McDonalds, decides to make a black ronald mcdonald, people get pissed off (not just blacks) and accuse racism in hordes and large protests. by doing this, the assumed white population will feel that they are all accused of being racist, when they never meant to offend anyone and automatically become defensive accusing of counterracism. this type of approach to racism does not seem to work that well and creates more division, but it seems to be the only thing that people can do. again, its a sticky problem, and im still working to figure it out, but thats what the D&D is for, right?

 

yup.

 

Racism and ignorance are connected but are two different things. Ignorance is something that can be corrected while racism is often the product of ignorance but is something that is harder to deal with.

Within humans there is a tendency to segregate into groups and discriminate based on ones group identity. Race is a major factor in forming group identity because it is visually obvious and difficult to disguise. As the saying goes "race is only skin deep" and in fact the human genome project has proven that racial features are one of the most minor categories of differences between people. From large samplings it turns out that there can be more in common between people of different races than there are people in the same race. Unfortunately this doesn't matter because racism isn't genetic but psychological and cultural.

Making the situation harder to deal with is that so much of our history has been tied up with race. So while its easy to say "Hey its the 21st century now we live in a color blind society so get over it." its not so easy to wipe from peoples minds the centuries where race dominated societal relations. It also isn't yet true that we do live in a color blind society. Race is still a constant issue and for good or ill it is one of the main descriptors of people. For instance Clarence Thomas is often described as "the black conservative Supreme Court Justice" while Antonin Scalia is almost never described as "the white conservative Supreme Court Justice". Inevitably by the mere act of identifying that one person is black and one person is white all sorts of presumptions about that person are made because of the cultural and psychological baggage associated with race.

This is also why playing the race card is such a sensitive issue because of the history and stereotypes of race many minorities are distrustful that America really is a meritocracy. The sad truth is that from a minority standpoint there is always that nagging question when someone doesn't treat you well, or you're denied advancement for anything whether race is an issue. This is why the race card works because for most of our history one race was legally given advantages over other races and even now when the legal advantages are gone stereotypes still persist. On the flip side many whites find it troubling because from their point of view they have given up their legal advantages so we are all equal now.

If it only worked that way.

I have a friend who is Jewish, is in his early 30's was born in the US, and has parents who were born in the US too. He has never been to Germany has had few dealings with Germans yet he told me he hates Germans. He can never forgive the fact that Germans systematically killed 6 million Jews and there is nothing that a German born living today who's parents weren't even alive during WWII can do about it. In the same way there are many minorities here who can't forget that whites at one time legally owned them and also legally deny them even the most basic rights under law.

That is the weight of history.

I don't think there's any real quick solution to racism. Its something that all of us are still figuring out how collectively to get over. In time playing the race card might become as anachronistic as playing the aristocracy card in the US and it will seem excessive to describe Collin Powell as a black Secretary of State but we're a long way from there.

 

honkies be da worse.

 

Worst? I dunno. The idiots who march in KKK parades are probably the worst, but the scariest racists are those who know to keep their prejudices hidden.

 

Who is this mystery man referenced in the original post? I wonder if this gentleman refuses to attend Rockets games until they get more Spanish-speaking players.

Long live Carl Herrera.

 

true words... true words.

I was driving up to virginia tech and stopped for gas. This is some run down place that has one gas station with pumps from the 1960's. No credit card slot etc etc. Well im filling my gas and 10 white ppl are standing by the conveniance store whre the money had to be paid. I could here them snickering and hurling obscene words towards me. Idiots kept saying Iraqi, terrorist, etc etc. I finally got in the car and got my "white" friend to go pay, because I knew that they weren't afraid of anyone, and the cops around the place were probably just like them, and knowing me I would have snapped back at them, and ended up getting shot and each and every one of those turds had a shotgun in their possesion....

Just saying that it was one of the scariest moments in my life ever. And one of the few times ive felt racially discriminated openly.

 

Funny how the same kind of thing happened/s to me, except it is the other way around. I periodically fly to Saudi Arabia, and while out in the city it can get pretty tense and scary. I can hear them saying stuff about me, and can understand some arabic. It's always scary walking out of a mall etc. at night with guys looking at ya and saying crap. Or walking down the street and having a car full of locals slow down behind ya and start yelling crap at ya.

Whoa...brings back the sad part about going back. Well, I'll be back there in 2 weeks.

 

Uprising, be careful. I'm sure you heard about the 4 contractors from Houston killed a day or two ago. I'm sure glad my sister and brother in law came back from Saudia Arabi, where they worked for years.

In the lead up to our elective war, I talked to a Houstonian who was on his annual vacation back here and he said already his long term Saudi coworkers were starting to act a lot less friendly . He was somewhat afraid to return, but the IT market was so bad he felt he had to.

Of course we aren't just talking about racism here since it looks to them like we have declared war on the whole Arab World.

 

Wasn't Carl Herrera from Brazil and a Portugese speaking player?

 

Nope, he was Venezuelan and Spanish speaking.

 

I agree. The racists have found that they have to keep it on the down low, but they are still EVERYWHERE.

 

In my experience, everyone is racist to some degree or another. Where the difference lies is that some people recognize it, deal with it, mitigate it, and treat it like the baser of instincts it is. Some people pretend it is not there, but in so doing do a disservice to themselves and the community, particularly if they have kids and pass on the same way of handling it. Others still revel in it, either openly or by finding ways to express it in any way other then explicitly.

I find two types particularly objectionable... the white guy who thinks because you're white you share his views and whispers his views or only mentions them when you're not in the company of a minority. This is usually done in a situation where it would violate the decorum to raise objections.

The white liberal who thinks they don't have a racist bone in their body and are all for civil rights and the theoretical equality, but when it comes to the personal level, their actions betray them even though they may not realize it. They fool themselves.

 

Would you guys say racism is an issue for the whole world, or the United States more than anyone else?