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Define "racism". It seems too many have their own definition. If you say this you're accused of being racist. If you don't say that you are accused of being racist. If you do this but don't do that you're a racist. Who defines it? It seems these days that the P.C. left thinks they have a monopoly on deciding who(m) and what constitutes racism in our society. And it is mostly used to browbeat, harass and keep in line everyone else. It seems like the real mentally ill ones are the ones seeing a "racism boogyman" behind every public conversation or action, whether or not that was the intention of the initiator. Much like the alleged "McCarthyism" of the 1950s......
I believe most racism is a learned behavior from the person's parents.
Typical PC party line which is largely Moderator cut: language Most people I know who are intelligent, hard working, and otherwise sane, but heavily racist became so from constant and repeated, UP CLOSE and NEGATIVE interactions with other races, interactions in which parents weren't even around!
Last edited by Oldhag1; 04-30-2014 at 04:54 PM..
Reason: Language. Placing an *, or other other symbol, for some of the letters does not make it acceptable.
No, it's not a mental illness. A mental illness, by its very nature, is something a person cannot avoid or change through thought. It's the brain version of having a chronic condition like diabetes, arthritis, kidney disease, HIV, pancreatitis. I would classify racism (and other prejudices) as learned disorders that can be unlearned if there is a desire to change — just as there are illnesses that go away completely with proper treatment. Prejudice can be changed through education, but not if the prejudiced person thinks they are right about everything and is not open to new ideas or scientific proof.
Most people who have racist ideas picked them up from their families or their surrounding. They are often based on erroneous assumptions that have more power over the bigot than actual facts. In my observation, people who hold on to bigoted ideas (which are not restricted to racial bias) do so because they feel insecure or powerless. To make themselves feel stronger or increase their self-esteem, they assign some group of people characteristics that make them less valuable in the biased person's eyes. They then have the "right" to blame negatives on those people or even exploit them without guilt.
Some examples:
A man has ideas that women are "weaker," less intelligent, less capable of making contributions in areas that "really matter," so he feels guiltless in assuming that women have less worth than men and he should automatically have greater privileges (in the family or in society) due to his enhanced importance. To some men, these thoughts are so ingrained from their culture or their community that they act on them without ever thinking they could be wrong. A man might eventually realize the absurdity of sexual inequality if he becomes better educated. But some men enjoy the innate feeling of power they get over believing women are "less than," so they persist in their bias in the face of evidence to the contrary.
Many nationalities have some other nationality that they designate as "less than." As far as I can see, that's a worldwide situation that exists everywhere. When I traveled in Greece I met many Greeks I found to be shockingly prejudiced against Albanians. If anything went wrong, from a fallen tree to a city-wide riot, it was caused by "the Albanians." When I spent time in Japan I found that many Japanese people assign horrible characteristics to the Chinese. In fact, many Japanese feel themselves superior to all other nationalities in Asia, much as my own beloved grandmother assigned superior characteristics to Hungarians over all other Eastern Europeans. Guess why.
Needless to say, in my lifetime I have met hundreds of people who just automatically assume that Americans are superior to all other peoples in the world. You see a lot of that attitude right here on C-D. "We're Number One!" The irony of that is, unlike ethnic-based nationalities, American nationality is solely based on citizenship. So you will find many "Americans" who think their Americanism is superior to some other people's ... for example, a more recent immigrant who has an obvious ethnicity. Yet the new immigrant, once he or she earns citizenship, is just as American as someone whose ancestors date back to the pilgrims. Which may be obvious to everyone except those "blue bloods" whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower.
The way I look at it, racism is just the most obvious and extreme form of the biases I described above. First and foremost, skin color makes it easy for people to assign race. Second, the history of our nation as slave-owners attaches a far more dramatically negative history to interactions between blacks and whites. Many whites are unwilling to own their people's participation in the exploitation of blacks and their role in perpetuating black Americans' position as an underclass who face obstacles in digging out of poverty that white people rarely encounter. There are also some black people who use their history as an excuse to assume that every white person hates them and works overtime to make their life miserable. I believe they are far fewer in number. If for no other reason than that African-Americans only comprise 12% of our population. To listen to white racists talk, you'd think there are as many black Americans as there are white ones.
With better education, modern transportation, more opportunities to mix cultures and races (which results, obviously, in the increase in multiracial people) I think bias is decreasing throughout the world. But there will always be people who wish to exploit their power over others, even if that power is purely imagined. And when people who believe their group is dominant and "in charge" feel their power diminishing, their bigotry often comes to the fore and is much more obvious.
That's doesn't describe a mental illness, no matter how virulent, chronic, or frightening racism may be.
Define "racism". It seems too many have their own definition. If you say this you're accused of being racist. If you don't say that you are accused of being racist. If you do this but don't do that you're a racist. Who defines it? It seems these days that the P.C. left thinks they have a monopoly on deciding who(m) and what constitutes racism in our society. And it is mostly used to browbeat, harass and keep in line everyone else. It seems like the real mentally ill ones are the ones seeing a "racism boogyman" behind every public conversation or action, whether or not that was the intention of the initiator. Much like the alleged "McCarthyism" of the 1950s......
I am a white caucasian person living in a Western country that is not my birth country.
I experience racism constantly. Daily almost.
It's made worse by the fact that because I'm caucasian and come from the "country next door" folks think they can say what they like and I should take it as a joke.
Regardless of the fact their own ancestors got off a boat from a wharf in Greece 50 years ago, I am the "odd one out" and every ethnic background around me feels entitled to point this out.
Over and over and over again.
And I'm supposed to laugh about it even though I've heard the same chit for nigh on 30 years now, from almost everyone I've ever met. Because I have white skin, it's not considered offensive but "funny". By those who aren't on the receiving end at least.
Anyway we don't have to bicker about the definition of racism, it's in the dictionary.
Any group can be racist against any other group. It isn't dependant on skin colour, even country of birth, we all know about the state vs state competition which is a popular and common and accepted form of racism.
Race - definition
Race is a classification system used to categorize humans into large and distinct populations or groups by anatomical, cultural, ethnic, genetic, geographical, historical, linguistic, religious, and/or social affiliation.
Last edited by Oldhag1; 04-30-2014 at 04:56 PM..
Reason: Colored font is limited to links only.
No; because that would mean a lot of people are mentally ill who know perfectly what they have come to think. Racism based on stereotyping is quite common really. Now days people even stereotype people by belief as to be mentally off; believe it or not.
racism is not a mental illness, its a term that was invented that you cannot defend against. its a hate term thrown when somebody doesn't get their way. the other party doesn't necessary had to do anything against the so called offended but it can't be defended.
let say two people apply for a job, one is truly qualified and the other, average. one doesn't get the job the other claim racist. how do you defend against it, no matter what you say makes it worst. its like "have you quit beating your wife yet"
Racism is usually nothing more than an opinion of a group based upon observations. In a lot of cases, it gets reinforced through a strong confirmation bias.
If you grew up in an inner city environment constantly seeing black people make stupid decisions, sabotage themselves through their actions, and (from your perspective) always seem to be messing up, while at the same time, you didn't do those things yourself and you didn't notice other people of your race doing, you might make the assumption that race was the dividing factor. "I'm white, I don't do that, I'm successful. They're black, they do that, they're unsuccessful"
From there, seeing more unsuccessful black people would confirm your stance, while you dismiss the successful black people as the exception.
The people of your own race, you typically know more of the back story. John's not unsuccessful because he's white, he's unsuccessful because in high school his dad died and he's been supporting his family since then. Mary's not unsuccessful because she's white, she's unsuccessful because she was raped as a teenager and didn't want to have an abortion, so she's been a single parent.
It's not a mental illness, it's just ignorance with a confirmation bias. When someone's beliefs are challenged and they are accused of something in a hostile way (being publicly called a racist and banned from activities), most people get defensive. They don't sit back and say "Maybe I am racist, I never thought about it." simply because most people don't change their minds through agressive tactics. That applies to all debates. If you didn't know that 2^3 = 8, then me calling you an idiot, berating you, and overall attacking you isn't going to convince you it isn't 6.
The racist may not be correct, but let's face it, there isn't much going on that's going to convince them otherwise. Most media stories regarding black people is either a) Black crime, b) Black poverty problems, c) Black's demanding something and calling white people racists, or d) something about the Kardashians or an athlete.
Granted, that's more of a problem with the media, but at the same time, when you stop to think, what recent major news article have you seen that shows blacks in a positive light? The truth is almost all race related news is negative (against either blacks or white) so race is automatically a bad thing.
The only true solution to racism is contact with people of other races that have things in common with you. Spending time around poor inner city black thugs will not convince a white businessman that blacks and whites are equal. Spending time with intelligent black businessmen on the other hand, would probably tear down some sterotypes. Conversely, a bunch of kids living in the projects aren't about to stop thinking whites aren't entitled and racist by hanging out with the son of a millionaire. But if they spend time playing basketball with a kid who's parents are struggling just as much as they are, that would go a long way towards making things seem equal.
TL;DR - It's not a mental illness. Racism can only be eliminated by getting to know the people behind the race.
Or perhaps demonic possession? I just can't believe any actually normal functioning human being would actually think of other humans as animals or not human when they look like you but are a different color/race. Or why are they so obsessed with being "superior" than others? How crazy is that?
It is a mental illness only in the Freudian sense in that racism provides a exaggerated sense of self based upon hundreds of years of cultural indoctrination put in place to justify dominance of one group over another, more specifically, white europeans over the rest of humanity.
Homo sapiens is a tribal species. There is a deeply ingrained tendency to divide the world into 'us' and 'them'. Regardless of the roots of racism in a given person, this inclination makes it easy for such views to take root. So, no, I do not think it is mental illness. Tribalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is not to excuse racism - a lot of traits that served a useful purpose once upon a time have become utterly obsolete in a modern society that has long since moved beyond the tribal state.
And, or course, there is no justification for modern, self-aware individuals to engage in such baseless, destructive nonsense. The inclination will probably remain imbued within the greater human population long into the future, if not forever. They key is for people to understand these tendencies and eliminate the behaviors that result from them, or at least minimize the degree to which that behavior is manifested.
Last edited by Unsettomati; 04-30-2014 at 06:55 PM..
Or perhaps demonic possession? I just can't believe any actually normal functioning human being would actually think of other humans as animals or not human when they look like you but are a different color/race. Or why are they so obsessed with being "superior" than others? How crazy is that?
I don't necessarily consider it to be a mental illness, since it does not always interfere with the functioning in one's daily life. That said, though, racism appears to often be caused by ignorance, denial, brainwashing, and/or et cetera.
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