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Thread: World: More racist people than non-racists?

  1. #1

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    My little sister asked me one day "Philipp, is there more racist people in the world than there is non-racist people?" I was about to answer: "There are more non-racist people..." but I wasn't sure so I answered I didn't know. That was about a week ago and I can't get it of my mind. So what do you guys think? On a world scale, is there more racist people or non-racist people? :8

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    Zuwxiv's Avatar Bear Claus
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    Depends on what you think of as racist. A lot of people feel facts are racist, ie white people are generally more wealthy than other people. It's true (at least where I live), a proven statistical fact, but people still get upset about it.

    But by reasonable standards, I would assume that people are racist. Its just that so many bad things have been done by people through time, and its generally the invaders vs the defenders, which spirals to racism.

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    General David's Avatar Senator
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    I guess there are more non-racists in North America and in Europe.

    Who knows how non-blacks are treated in Africa...

  4. #4

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    Originally posted by General David@Apr 16 2005, 10:41 PM
    I guess there are more non-racists in North America and in Europe.

    Who knows how non-blacks are treated in Africa...
    Better than blacks are/were treated in Europe/N. America.

    edit: generally.
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  5. #5

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    An interesting question. I'm inclined to say that everyone is racist, no matter how much they deny it. For example, one of the very first things one notices when meeting another person is their race. One immediately places this person into a racial category. If one is not able to clearly and quickly place somebody into a racial category, they get confused.

    A crude and off the wall example of this is an episode of Seinfeld I often refer to when this question arises. Elaine meets a man who she believes to be black and dates him. A set of stereotypes comes to the surface. She takes him to Mexican restaurants, believing this is what black people like to eat. The "black" man believes she is hispanic because Elaine has the hair and skin tone to match his perception of what hispanic people are like. As it turns out, they are both white.

    Now, in this example, one person does not believe they are better than the other. The point here is that race, whether socially constructed or not, is a part of everyone's lives. If you look at a person and say to yourself, "This person is black / white / asian" then you recognize race as a reality. You are, therefore, a racist.

  6. #6
    Turnus's Avatar il Flagello dei Buffoni
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    Originally posted by Nationalist_Cause@Apr 17 2005, 02:06 AM
    A crude and off the wall example of this is an episode of Seinfeld I often refer to when this question arises. Elaine meets a man who she believes to be black and dates him. A set of stereotypes comes to the surface. She takes him to Mexican restaurants, believing this is what black people like to eat. The "black" man believes she is hispanic because Elaine has the hair and skin tone to match his perception of what hispanic people are like. As it turns out, they are both white.
    Don't forget the Donna Chang episode, either.
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    Originally posted by Nationalist_Cause@Apr 17 2005, 09:06 AM
    An interesting question. I'm inclined to say that everyone is racist, no matter how much they deny it. For example, one of the very first things one notices when meeting another person is their race. One immediately places this person into a racial category. If one is not able to clearly and quickly place somebody into a racial category, they get confused.

    A crude and off the wall example of this is an episode of Seinfeld I often refer to when this question arises. Elaine meets a man who she believes to be black and dates him. A set of stereotypes comes to the surface. She takes him to Mexican restaurants, believing this is what black people like to eat. The "black" man believes she is hispanic because Elaine has the hair and skin tone to match his perception of what hispanic people are like. As it turns out, they are both white.

    Now, in this example, one person does not believe they are better than the other. The point here is that race, whether socially constructed or not, is a part of everyone's lives. If you look at a person and say to yourself, "This person is black / white / asian" then you recognize race as a reality. You are, therefore, a racist.
    Eh, that is NOT racism.

    Racism is when you see people different from you and automatically think "Those people are inferior to me".

  8. #8
    Lord Tomyris's Avatar Cheshire Cat
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    Everyone's born a racist to some extent, in my opinion. It's just human nature to be wary of people 'different' from us I guess.


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    I think it's fair to draw preliminary conclusions about someone due to their race. i.e. if you see a Mexican around here, it's a safe bet to assume that when you talk to him, he'll have an accent. He'll probably be christian. He'll probably not be very well-off. His english might not be so good, ect.

    However, racism, in that someone believes someone is inherantly inferior due to the color of their skin, is the absolute dumbest thing i've ever heard of, and I'm glad that Racism is being stamped out in civilized society. My only fear is that it's being replaced with an over-abundance of political correctness.
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  10. #10

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    Everyone has thougths based upon race or ethnicity to an extend, whether they admit it or not. Change and differences are unknown to people, and it's commonly known that people distrust things they do not know. Foreigners mostly are unknown characters from unknown places, so people will distrust them as well. I think that's one of the major reasons why we look so harshly on them if one of them does a crime, we generalize on that and contribute that trait to their entire ethnicity, because we don't know what to think else of them. Almost everyone must have had such thoughts, where they generalized a trait on an entire race because of the action one man made. Here in my country (Holland) it is not too uncommon to see such thinking anymore, with Islamic violence reaching a boiling point. Especially after the murder of Van Gogh we tend to think that all Muslims are violent fundementalists. It merely is an attempt to clear your minds on a subject (or to confirm your suspicions) you are ignorant about, and I believe everyone must have had such thoughts in the past (whether they are proud of it or not). But to say that everybody is racist because of that, that's just a little exagerated (typical black-and-white thinking if you ask me).

  11. #11
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    As mentioned before, everyone is somehow born with a certain distance towards other races; we feel more at ease with people that look most like us than with people who look (very) different. E.g., I doubt an Asian child would feel comfortable amongst a horde of black kids.

    That feeling of uncomfortability might fade away with growing age and maturity, or grow worse due to personal experience or outside influences.

    So, not everyone's per definition racist, but everyone commits some sort of discrimination/has a dislike for a certain group of people. Be it a dislike for another race, a dislike for mewling babies, a dislike for teachers, a dislike for police officers, a dislike for religious people... no one's really non-discriminative, and a fair share of those 'discriminating' people (we all) have got a dislike for a particular race; the ones called 'racists.

    :mellow

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    wilpuri's Avatar It Gets Worse.
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    Everyone is prejudiced, that is for sure, but racist? Racism is an ideology of hate and a belief of superiority of a certain 'race'. It can also be discrimination against other 'races'. Being prejudiced doesn't equal racism, though.
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    Mordhak's Avatar Civitate
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    Being prejudiced doesn't equal racism, though.
    Being racist doesn't equal being prejudiced , but being prejudiced does equal being racist. Even if your conclusions about certain races are 'prejudiced', you still dislike them, and think your race superior, which makes you a racist, prejudiced or not.

  14. #14

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    Originally posted by Mordhak@Apr 17 2005, 08:18 AM
    So, not everyone's per definition racist, but everyone commits some sort of discrimination/has a dislike for a certain group of people. Be it a dislike for another race, a dislike for mewling babies, a dislike for teachers, a dislike for police officers, a dislike for religious people... no one's really non-discriminative, and a fair share of those 'discriminating' people (we all) have got a dislike for a particular race; the ones called 'racists.

    :mellow
    Yes, most people tend to have dislikes for certain 'groups' of people, but we can still make a distinction between racists and those others that you mentioned.

    All though still irrational, at least disliking teachers or police officers is based on concious decisions these people being disliked made. Those people chose to become teachers, or chose to become police officers. Hating someone because of the colour of their skin or their country of origin is different. They were born like that, and had absolutely no choice in the matter what so ever. This is what makes that form of prejudice even worse. It's even more irrational than hating policemen or teachers.

    What's more, how many instances of mass executions and genocides has their been based on job titles? I can't think of any. Then compare that with the millions of deaths caused throughtout history based on race. Exactly. Racism is a disgusting problem we've been plagued with for centuries, and it's about time it was stamped out for good. It has no place in the 21st century.

  15. #15
    wilpuri's Avatar It Gets Worse.
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    Originally posted by Mordhak@Apr 17 2005, 05:20 PM

    Being racist doesn't equal being prejudiced , but being prejudiced does equal being racist. Even if your conclusions about certain races are 'prejudiced', you still dislike them, and think your race superior, which makes you a racist, prejudiced or not.
    Racist does not = prejudiced, but prejudiced = racist?
    Prejudiced mean you have certain expectations and perhaps foster stereotypes of a certain group of people, i.e. you expect them to behave a certain way even before you know them. I am prejudiced against all kinds of people: old, young, teens, foreginers, cops, etc. But I don't consider myself a racist by any means.
    The common culture of a tribe is a sign of its inner cohesion. But tribes are vanishing from the modern world, as are all forms of traditional society. Customs, practices, festivals, rituals and beliefs have acquired a flut and half-hearted quality which reflects our nomadic and rootless existence, predicated as we are on the global air-waves.

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    smack's Avatar Complaints Department
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    Originally posted by Mordhak@Apr 17 2005, 07:18 AM
    As mentioned before, everyone is somehow born with a certain distance towards other races; we feel more at ease with people that look most like us than with people who look (very) different. E.g., I doubt an Asian child would feel comfortable amongst a horde of black kids.
    While I agree with the general discussion, I have to differ with, or fine-tune this argument.

    I would say that we 'feel more at ease with people that look familiar to us than with people who look unfamiliar'

    In my experience, a black kid who grows up surrounded by whites will feel most comfortable with.........whites. Same with every other race and experience. For me, growing up in big cities that happened to be almost exactly 50/50 black and white, I actually feel uncomfortable without the mix, strange as it may sound. A city of all whites makes me feel yucky while I look around for what my heart feels is natural. Likewise, a city of mostly blacks makes me feel like a foreigner too. In my experience, this fine-tuned attention to one's previous familiarities is common, and transcends race to all aspects of human experience.

    We are not 'somehow born with a certain distance towards other races', but rather with an affection for the familiar and a healthy fear/curiosity/ability to prejudice the unfamiliar. It's healthy because noticing the unfamiliar is the foundation of all sensory perception and ability to interact with our environments. It's healthy because even fear is the appropriate reaction to unfamiliar circumstances.

    That all these natural proclivites has led to racism is also natural, but it's not right or just, and thankfully we have the ability to nurture our knee-jerk reactions to the unfamiliar. So we can stamp out the fact of racism and still accept and appreciate it's cause. I come down on the 'We are all racists, if you define it that way' and also, 'there are less racists that non-racists in the world if you define it more strictly as a flavor of willfull hatred'

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    When I think of Henry, I think of a great man.
    Oh, Henry is a black man.
    But that's not what I think of 1st, when I think of Henry.

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  18. #18

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    Originally posted by Perkele@Apr 17 2005, 03:03 AM
    Eh, that is NOT racism.

    Racism is when you see people different from you and automatically think "Those people are inferior to me".
    Well, our ideas of racism differ. But let me try to explain my views better.

    All humans are genetically the same. The only thing that makes us all different is our skin color, which has no influence over intelligence or physical ability. But people make a decision, conciously or not, to recognize race. It is no different than walking down the street, seeing a cute blonde girl, and having a humorous blonde joke come to mind. It does not mean that we as a society look down on blonde women, but we arbitrarily put them into a category for no other reason than the color of their hair.

    Unless you can go about your daily business in a diverse world and not recognize ANY of the differences in skin tone, you are a racist, because you admit to yourself that there are people who look different.

  19. #19

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    Again, that is not racism.

  20. #20
    EeSang's Avatar Hak Saeng
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    Originally posted by Mordhak@Apr 17 2005, 08:18 AM
    E.g., I doubt an Asian child would feel comfortable amongst a horde of black kids.

    That feeling of uncomfortability might fade away with growing age and maturity, or grow worse due to personal experience or outside influences.
    You just described my pubescant years...

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