What is racism?

[Ravi]

I read on another thread that using racial slurs isn't racist. I've also read that if you claim someone is a racist then you yourself are a racist. Both of these statements seem rather silly to me.

To use examples in the news:

Gates implies Crowley is a racist, therefore Gates is a racist.
Obama says the cops acted stupidly, therefore Obama is a racist.
Glenn Beck calls Obama a racist that hates whites, but Glen Beck isn't a racist.


It's really more confusing to me as time goes by.

Can anyone explain racism definitively?

If you'd like, swap the word ethnist for racist, I've just used the term because it is more common. I realize all humans belong to the same race in reality.

 

[Sweet Willy]

Racism is a misused term mostly these days.

Racism is the belief that a particular race is preferable, priviledged or entitled above others.

White supremacist are racist. They believe white people are the "master" or best race.

Certain segments of Judaism are racist. They believe Jews are the chosen race, above the rest.

I am sure there are other people that believe there race is better or priviledged solely based upon ethnicity.

Much of what get labeled as racist these days is actually discrimination or just poor behavior. The term has been stretched out of shape.

 

[WillowTree]

racism,, is the card democrats play regularly,, they in turn are the biggest racists on the planet.

 

[bigdaddygtr]

Glenn Beck is just trying to be the next Rush

 

[Lonestar_logic]

If you have to ask what racism is, then you must be a racist.

Seriously, I define a racist as a person who practices racial prejudice or discrimination. CharliedumBass is a prime example.

 

[MaggieMae]

Racism is a misused term mostly these days.

Racism is the belief that a particular race is preferable, priviledged or entitled above others.

White supremacist are racist. They believe white people are the "master" or best race.

Certain segments of Judaism are racist. They believe Jews are the chosen race, above the rest.

I am sure there are other people that believe there race is better or priviledged solely based upon ethnicity.

Much of what get labeled as racist these days is actually discrimination or just poor behavior. The term has been stretched out of shape.

Good definitions. I would only add FEAR of someone who doesn't look or act like you. ("You" being all-inclusive.)

 

[MaggieMae]

Also, racism is something LEARNED. Put a bunch of small children of different ethnicities together on a playground and they will act like children, until their parents decide to separate them out.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

Racism is a misused term mostly these days.

Racism is the belief that a particular race is preferable, priviledged or entitled above others.

White supremacist are racist. They believe white people are the "master" or best race.

Certain segments of Judaism are racist. They believe Jews are the chosen race, above the rest.

I am sure there are other people that believe there race is better or priviledged solely based upon ethnicity.

Much of what get labeled as racist these days is actually discrimination or just poor behavior. The term has been stretched out of shape.

Good definitions. I would only add FEAR of someone who doesn't look or act like you. ("You" being all-inclusive.)

Why do you fear those who don't look or act like you?

 

[Sweet Willy]

Racism is a misused term mostly these days.

Racism is the belief that a particular race is preferable, priviledged or entitled above others.

White supremacist are racist. They believe white people are the "master" or best race.

Certain segments of Judaism are racist. They believe Jews are the chosen race, above the rest.

I am sure there are other people that believe there race is better or priviledged solely based upon ethnicity.

Much of what get labeled as racist these days is actually discrimination or just poor behavior. The term has been stretched out of shape.

Good definitions. I would only add FEAR of someone who doesn't look or act like you. ("You" being all-inclusive.)

I'm not sure about that one. I think it tends to support that the meaning of racism has been stretched out and watered down.

The fear of strange or different people doesn't mean that you believe yourself or your race to be better than them. You're just scared. You could actually be afraid of them because they are bigger and stronger and appear to be a superior people to you and that is the exact opposite of racism.

 

[Big Black Dog]

Can't believe that Ravi is asking such a silly question. Racist is the Democrats most favorite word outside of taxes. If you're a Democrat, you define anybody that isn't a Democrat as being a "racist".
If you attended one of those T-Bag things then according to some of the most ignortant people I've ever seen a microphone in front of, you are a "racist". So you see, RACIST has many definations. I've just mentioned a few. Now if you want a couple of perfect examples of a racist I can do that for you too. Obama is a racist. So is that dopey professor from Cambridge who will be by his side tomorrow drinking a beer at the white house.

 

[MaggieMae]

Racism is a misused term mostly these days.

Racism is the belief that a particular race is preferable, priviledged or entitled above others.

White supremacist are racist. They believe white people are the "master" or best race.

Certain segments of Judaism are racist. They believe Jews are the chosen race, above the rest.

I am sure there are other people that believe there race is better or priviledged solely based upon ethnicity.

Much of what get labeled as racist these days is actually discrimination or just poor behavior. The term has been stretched out of shape.

Good definitions. I would only add FEAR of someone who doesn't look or act like you. ("You" being all-inclusive.)

Why do you fear those who don't look or act like you?

Some of it is a natural thing. Fight or flight automatic brain reaction. Some of it is learned, as I further point out. Two examples: If I were on an elevator all alone with a huge black guy with dreadlocks, I think I would be a little nervous. But I would also be nervous if I were all alone with a white skinhead with tattoos of skulls and bones and hissing snakes. But if I'm taking a class with or working side-by-side with either a black or a white person who isn't trying to make any kind of statement by his dress or demeanor, it wouldn't bother me at all--unless my parents had brainwashed me otherwise.

 

[Sweet Willy]

Good definitions. I would only add FEAR of someone who doesn't look or act like you. ("You" being all-inclusive.)

Why do you fear those who don't look or act like you?

Some of it is a natural thing. Fight or flight automatic brain reaction. Some of it is learned, as I further point out. Two examples: If I were on an elevator all alone with a huge black guy with dreadlocks, I think I would be a little nervous. But I would also be nervous if I were all alone with a white skinhead with tattoos of skulls and bones and hissing snakes. But if I'm taking a class with or working side-by-side with either a black or a white person who isn't trying to make any kind of statement by his dress or demeanor, it wouldn't bother me at all--unless my parents had brainwashed me otherwise.

And that is a good point. A thug looks like a thug. Has nothing to do with race.

 

[toomuchtime_]

I read on another thread that using racial slurs isn't racist. I've also read that if you claim someone is a racist then you yourself are a racist. Both of these statements seem rather silly to me.

To use examples in the news:

Gates implies Crowley is a racist, therefore Gates is a racist.
Obama says the cops acted stupidly, therefore Obama is a racist.
Glenn Beck calls Obama a racist that hates whites, but Glen Beck isn't a racist.


It's really more confusing to me as time goes by.

Can anyone explain racism definitively?

If you'd like, swap the word ethnist for racist, I've just used the term because it is more common. I realize all humans belong to the same race in reality.

Broadly speaking, racism is the belief that race is an important determinant of talent, qualities or behavior. The beliefs can be positive or negative. Black people have rhythm, but black people are lazy. Jews are smart but Jews are crooked. Most people have prejudices about race or ethnic groups or religious groups or nationalities of some kind but if you're not a racist, in a generic sense, then these prejudices work as hypotheses until you have objective information about the person you are interacting with, but if your prejudices are so strong that you are likely to respond to your prejudice about the group the person belongs to instead of to what he/she is actually doing, you are a racist.

With respect to Gates-Crowley-Obama, the question is first when Gates first called Crowley a racist and accused him of racial profiling, were Gates' accusations based on Crowley's behavior up until that time or on Gates' beliefs about how white cops treat black men? Whatever you may think about the arrest, at the time Gates first called Crowley a racist and accused him of racial profiling, nothing Crowley had done warranted those accusations, so Gates' statements were racist. When Obama launched into a talk about what he believed the black experience with cops in America is or was after acknowledging he didn't know what had actually happened in this particular situation, his remarks were racist, too, since they were based on beliefs about how white cops treat black men, not how this white cop treated this black man. So, to the extent Gates' and Obama's statements were based on their beliefs about white cops, their statements are racist, and to the extent they continue to defend these statements, Gates and Obama are racists.

Without disputing that racism and racial profiling do sometimes still take place, the fact that both Gates and Obama, two exceptionally smart, well educated, worldly men could be blinded to the facts before them by their prejudices suggests that in addition to the fact of racial profiling there is a myth about racial profiling the many black people find compelling, so compelling that just hearing that racial profiling has been charged is enough for them to launch into stories and myths about racial profiling in America without caring about what the facts at hand are.

Had Obama acknowledged the power of the myth of racial profiling to distract us from the facts of a particular case and instead of reflexively defending the charge of racial profiling without first learning the facts, he might have said, "In the past, racial profiling was a common experience for black people, especially for young black men, but there has been much improvement in recent decades, and while racial profiling still takes place, it is just as important to identify mistaken accusations of racial profiling and take steps to limit the damage as it is to identify real incidences of racial profiling and take steps to limit the damage if we are to continue to make progress in race relations. What we must not do is take refuge in prejudices that blind us to opportunities to make further progress." That would have been a teaching moment.

 

[Sweet Willy]

I read on another thread that using racial slurs isn't racist. I've also read that if you claim someone is a racist then you yourself are a racist. Both of these statements seem rather silly to me.

To use examples in the news:

Gates implies Crowley is a racist, therefore Gates is a racist.
Obama says the cops acted stupidly, therefore Obama is a racist.
Glenn Beck calls Obama a racist that hates whites, but Glen Beck isn't a racist.


It's really more confusing to me as time goes by.

Can anyone explain racism definitively?

If you'd like, swap the word ethnist for racist, I've just used the term because it is more common. I realize all humans belong to the same race in reality.

Broadly speaking, racism is the belief that race is an important determinant of talent, qualities or behavior. The beliefs can be positive or negative. Black people have rhythm, but black people are lazy. Jews are smart but Jews are crooked. Most people have prejudices about race or ethnic groups or religious groups or nationalities of some kind but if you're not a racist, in a generic sense, then these prejudices work as hypotheses until you have objective information about the person you are interacting with, but if your prejudices are so strong that you are likely to respond to your prejudice about the group the person belongs to instead of to what he/she is actually doing, you are a racist.

With respect to Gates-Crowley-Obama, the question is first when Gates first called Crowley a racist and accused him of racial profiling, were Gates' accusations based on Crowley's behavior up until that time or on Gates' beliefs about how white cops treat black men? Whatever you may think about the arrest, at the time Gates first called Crowley a racist and accused him of racial profiling, nothing Crowley had done warranted those accusations, so Gates' statements were racist. When Obama launched into a talk about what he believed the black experience with cops in America is or was after acknowledging he didn't know what had actually happened in this particular situation, his remarks were racist, too, since they were based on beliefs about how white cops treat black men, not how this white cop treated this black man. So, to the extent Gates' and Obama's statements were based on their beliefs about white cops, their statements are racist, and to the extent they continue to defend these statements, Gates and Obama are racists.

Without disputing that racism and racial profiling do sometimes still take place, the fact that both Gates and Obama, two exceptionally smart, well educated, worldly men could be blinded to the facts before them by their prejudices suggests that in addition to the fact of racial profiling there is a myth about racial profiling the many black people find compelling, so compelling that just hearing that racial profiling has been charged is enough for them to launch into stories and myths about racial profiling in America without caring about what the facts at hand are.

Had Obama acknowledged the power of the myth of racial profiling to distract us from the facts of a particular case and instead of reflexively defending the charge of racial profiling without first learning the facts, he might have said, "In the past, racial profiling was a common experience for black people, especially for young black men, but there has been much improvement in recent decades, and while racial profiling still takes place, it is just as important to identify mistaken accusations of racial profiling and take steps to limit the damage as it is to identify real incidences of racial profiling and take steps to limit the damage if we are to continue to make progress in race relations. What we must not do is take refuge in prejudices that blind us to opportunities to make further progress." That would have been a teaching moment.

Dude, you can't polish this turd.

No one was being racist. The term is being thrown around and fanned by the media.

Gates reacted to a well documented bias by police, courts and prisons. It's a fact. Black people are still treated differently than white people by law enforcement and the Judiciary. The only racism Gates was worried about is the 50+ years of it he has endured and he is fucking well fed up with it by now.

Crowley lied in his report about anyone ever saying it was a black man he was supposed to be looking for. Whalen has refuted him in public, on the record. He is a race sensitivity instructor and he cheated on his report so no one could accuse him of something he wasn't doing anyway. Because he too kinows the history of race relations.

In the end, both of these mens behavior was influenced by the SAME THING. The history of police race relations led Gates to behave the way he did and the same thing led Crowley to lie in his police report.

Neither one is a real racist.

 

[AllieBaba]

If you have to ask what racism is, then you must be a racist.

Seriously, I define a racist as a person who practices racial prejudice or discrimination. CharliedumBass is a prime example.

Bingo. Racism is an offshoot of bigotry. Ravi's an expert in bigotry, which is why she doesn't understand racism.

 

[get_involved]

 

[garyd]

What most people call race these days is in actuallity ethnocentrism. Being ethnocentric isn't necessarily a bad thing as it is about culture as much as birthright and anyone can become another culture. To become another race however is impossible. Racism is simply to dislike another person strictly because of his Racial (as opposed to ethnic) heritage. As their are only four races, possibly five depending on how one wishes to classify Polynesians, Caucasian, Negroid, ( the base Negro is the Latin for Black, it is also the word for black in all the Romance languages with which I am familiar) Mongoloid, and Australian Aborigine, racism is rather a narrow term much more so than is commonly supposed.

Gates is a racist, as well as his buddy Cornell West, not because he refered to Crowley as a racist but because his own words in the many articles he has written mark him as such just as the various writings -if you can call such feeble efforts writing - of the Klan denote them as a racist.

 

[toomuchtime_]

I read on another thread that using racial slurs isn't racist. I've also read that if you claim someone is a racist then you yourself are a racist. Both of these statements seem rather silly to me.

To use examples in the news:

Gates implies Crowley is a racist, therefore Gates is a racist.
Obama says the cops acted stupidly, therefore Obama is a racist.
Glenn Beck calls Obama a racist that hates whites, but Glen Beck isn't a racist.


It's really more confusing to me as time goes by.

Can anyone explain racism definitively?

If you'd like, swap the word ethnist for racist, I've just used the term because it is more common. I realize all humans belong to the same race in reality.

Broadly speaking, racism is the belief that race is an important determinant of talent, qualities or behavior. The beliefs can be positive or negative. Black people have rhythm, but black people are lazy. Jews are smart but Jews are crooked. Most people have prejudices about race or ethnic groups or religious groups or nationalities of some kind but if you're not a racist, in a generic sense, then these prejudices work as hypotheses until you have objective information about the person you are interacting with, but if your prejudices are so strong that you are likely to respond to your prejudice about the group the person belongs to instead of to what he/she is actually doing, you are a racist.

With respect to Gates-Crowley-Obama, the question is first when Gates first called Crowley a racist and accused him of racial profiling, were Gates' accusations based on Crowley's behavior up until that time or on Gates' beliefs about how white cops treat black men? Whatever you may think about the arrest, at the time Gates first called Crowley a racist and accused him of racial profiling, nothing Crowley had done warranted those accusations, so Gates' statements were racist. When Obama launched into a talk about what he believed the black experience with cops in America is or was after acknowledging he didn't know what had actually happened in this particular situation, his remarks were racist, too, since they were based on beliefs about how white cops treat black men, not how this white cop treated this black man. So, to the extent Gates' and Obama's statements were based on their beliefs about white cops, their statements are racist, and to the extent they continue to defend these statements, Gates and Obama are racists.

Without disputing that racism and racial profiling do sometimes still take place, the fact that both Gates and Obama, two exceptionally smart, well educated, worldly men could be blinded to the facts before them by their prejudices suggests that in addition to the fact of racial profiling there is a myth about racial profiling the many black people find compelling, so compelling that just hearing that racial profiling has been charged is enough for them to launch into stories and myths about racial profiling in America without caring about what the facts at hand are.

Had Obama acknowledged the power of the myth of racial profiling to distract us from the facts of a particular case and instead of reflexively defending the charge of racial profiling without first learning the facts, he might have said, "In the past, racial profiling was a common experience for black people, especially for young black men, but there has been much improvement in recent decades, and while racial profiling still takes place, it is just as important to identify mistaken accusations of racial profiling and take steps to limit the damage as it is to identify real incidences of racial profiling and take steps to limit the damage if we are to continue to make progress in race relations. What we must not do is take refuge in prejudices that blind us to opportunities to make further progress." That would have been a teaching moment.

Dude, you can't polish this turd.

No one was being racist. The term is being thrown around and fanned by the media.

Gates reacted to a well documented bias by police, courts and prisons. It's a fact. Black people are still treated differently than white people by law enforcement and the Judiciary. The only racism Gates was worried about is the 50+ years of it he has endured and he is fucking well fed up with it by now.

Crowley lied in his report about anyone ever saying it was a black man he was supposed to be looking for. Whalen has refuted him in public, on the record. He is a race sensitivity instructor and he cheated on his report so no one could accuse him of something he wasn't doing anyway. Because he too knows the history of race relations.

In the end, both of these mens behavior was influenced by the SAME THING. The history of police race relations led Gates to behave the way he did and the same thing led Crowley to lie in his police report.

Neither one is a real racist.

When you said Gates called Crowley a racist because of 50 years of racial bias by police instead of any actions Crowley took, you called Gates a racist. That's what racism is about, judging people because of their race instead of judging them because of their actions. When you can't see a person because of the color of his skin, you're a racist.

Did Crowley lie about the report specifying two black men or did it just seem like it did because the report was written after he already knew they were black? Obviously the latter because lying about the report would have been of no possible advantage to Crowley.

 

[editec]

What is racism?

Easy-peasy

The propensity to judge people based on their race rather than on themselves.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

Good definitions. I would only add FEAR of someone who doesn't look or act like you. ("You" being all-inclusive.)

Why do you fear those who don't look or act like you?

Some of it is a natural thing. Fight or flight automatic brain reaction. Some of it is learned, as I further point out. Two examples: If I were on an elevator all alone with a huge black guy with dreadlocks, I think I would be a little nervous. But I would also be nervous if I were all alone with a white skinhead with tattoos of skulls and bones and hissing snakes. But if I'm taking a class with or working side-by-side with either a black or a white person who isn't trying to make any kind of statement by his dress or demeanor, it wouldn't bother me at all--unless my parents had brainwashed me otherwise.

Stereotype much?