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YES!! And some individuals definitely are. To claim that they cannot be denies them human emotions and thus makes them super human saying they do not possess the emotional capability to be prejudice against others. And I know from personal experience that this is NOT true. Moderator cut: Off topic
Everyone thinks their own is best. For example, I think MY family is better than yours, and I'm probably right. I also happen to think Spaniards and Cubans are superior to other cultures.
Does that mean I'm going to try to enslave you and your family? Steal from you? Beat you? Rape you? Deny you jobs? Insult you publicly? Burn down your house? Campaign so your rights are taken from you? Call you insulting epithets?
No.
So yeah, I can be bigoted by thinking that Spaniards and Cubans have cultures superior to yours, but I'm not engaging in discrimination against you, your family, and so on.
Reality is that there is a history of savagery of humans against humans. Europeans against Europeans, Africans against Africans, Asians against Asians. Human history is filled with wars, slavery, rapes, and brutality. To think that any of those things belong solely to one race is ignoring the atrocities committed by people everywhere.
Quote:
Originally Posted by drive carephilly
That's pretty much all there is to it.
And to suggest that those things belong solely to one race is pretty much the definition of racism that was put up in the OP.
This is essentially where I stand on the issue. History is too full of examples of atrocities motivated by racism for me to be naive enough to believe it is inherent to whites only. The capacity for racism exists in every ethnicity even if the capacity to act on it does not. This isn't a "white" issue. It's a human issue.
This is essentially where I stand on the issue. History is too full of examples of atrocities motivated by racism for me to be naive enough to believe it is inherent to whites only. The capacity for racism exists in every ethnicity even if the capacity to act on it does not. This isn't a "white" issue. It's a human issue.
This is arguably a racist belief in and of itself because it assigns a behavioral trait to a certain race based on that race. Meanwhile it denies the proclivity of any member of any race to have racist tendencies, a position of absolute denial.
In the U.S. as with anywhere this is a human issue, not a white issue. Case in point: I went to high school in a part of Colorado where the populations was a decided majority Hispanic. I was the target of assaults, near daily harrassments, my car vandalized, my Dad's place of business vandalized, etc. And what did I do to deserve such treatment? Simple: I had the audacity to be born white.
What I've quoted above displays an extremely limited scope of understanding of this issue. I encourage you to broaden your pattern of thought and be more inclusive to ideas you may have discarded and rule out ideas you've accepted that may indeed be themselves racist. Like the one above. If everyone continues to take such a limited scope of understanding toward this issue we can never hope to make things better.
The original question points to a broader question about racism. Is racism something that can be understood without prior historical knowledge of a society? I think the answer to this question is that it cannot. While racism is basically the discrimination against another (any other) due to skin color, racism also has a past and we have to examine this past in order to better understand what it means in the present.
The argument that blacks or other minorities can't be racist is perhaps a bit simplistic, but it is in response to an even more simplistic and more damaging way of thinking in which black on white racism is somehow equal to and equally as damaging as white on black racism. This is not the case. If we can understand that racism is a two-way street, then we must also acknowledge that the street was built by wealthy white men. Therefore, any racism that occurs on it, whether black on white or white on black, is attributable in the end to a one-side white supremacist structure. I type this as a white man who is well aware of the racism of his previous generations (especially his paternal grandfather who actually wouldn't let his own half black granddaughter--my cousin--into his house). But I'm also aware of my own racism. It isn't as obvious as my grandfather's but it is still persistent. It's there when I walk to the other side of the street at night when I see a black man walking (I did this not two months ago and realized it was racist as I was doing it) and in my tacit acceptance of the continued legacy of imbalance and segregation in the distribution of material resources, homes and education.
This is arguably a racist belief in and of itself because it assigns a behavioral trait to a certain race based on that race. Meanwhile it denies the proclivity of any member of any race to have racist tendencies, a position of absolute denial.
In the U.S. as with anywhere this is a human issue, not a white issue. Case in point: I went to high school in a part of Colorado where the populations was a decided majority Hispanic. I was the target of assaults, near daily harrassments, my car vandalized, my Dad's place of business vandalized, etc. And what did I do to deserve such treatment? Simple: I had the audacity to be born white.
What I've quoted above displays an extremely limited scope of understanding of this issue. I encourage you to broaden your pattern of thought and be more inclusive to ideas you may have discarded and rule out ideas you've accepted that may indeed be themselves racist. Like the one above. If everyone continues to take such a limited scope of understanding toward this issue we can never hope to make things better.
I'm white, and I have proof that my great-great-grandparents on both sides were white Europeans. What do we do now, given that I still say that in the U.S. racism is a white issue? I mean, how could it not be a white issue? Must we review our history all over again? I hope not.
There's a difference between thinking of oneself and one's own family and culture and race as the best, and actually taking steps to discriminate against others in all the ways that we know discrimination can be carried out.
I'm white, and I have proof that my great-great-grandparents on both sides were white Europeans. What do we do now, given that I still say that in the U.S. racism is a white issue? I mean, how could it not be a white issue? Must we review our history all over again? I hope not.
"I"m white..." Irrelevant. Completely irrelevant. Your race lends no more legitimacy to your claim that it is a "white issue" nor does it make it any less racist. History is full of examples in which one race discriminates against its own. The Holocaust and Rwandan Genocide come readily to mind as examples of white-on-white and black-on-black racism.
So in answer to your question (bolded), I repeat: Broaden your pattern of thought and be more inclusive to ideas you may have discarded and rule out ideas you've accepted that may indeed be themselves racist.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saritaschihuahua
There's a difference between thinking of oneself and one's own family and culture and race as the best, and actually taking steps to discriminate against others in all the ways that we know discrimination can be carried out.
I'm not sure where you're going with this. It doesn't seem to be in response to or relevant to anything I've posted in this thread.
"I"m white..." Irrelevant. Completely irrelevant. Your race lends no more legitimacy to your claim that it is a "white issue" nor does it make it any less racist. History is full of examples in which one race discriminates against its own. The Holocaust and Rwandan Genocide come readily to mind as examples of white-on-white and black-on-black racism.
So in answer to your question (bolded), I repeat: Broaden your pattern of thought and be more inclusive to ideas you may have discarded and rule out ideas you've accepted that may indeed be themselves racist.
I'm not sure where you're going with this. It doesn't seem to be in response to or relevant to anything I've posted in this thread.
I think a few in here are attempting to dismiss discrimination in this country by saying that if all people have the capacity of thinking they are better than others, therefore actual discrimination can be dismissed. It can't. Actual acts of discrimination are the only things that need to be examined.
I think a few in here are attempting to dismiss discrimination in this country by saying that if all people have the capacity of thinking they are better than others, therefore actual discrimination can be dismissed. It can't. Actual acts of discrimination are the only things that need to be examined.
I don't think anyone is going there. What people are saying is that in the context of the topic, since all people are capable of these actions, it answers the question of can minorities be racist.
Racism propagated by a majority is definitely going to impact a minority more than if it were the other way around. That does not mean that it is impossible for the minority to be racist though.
At the same time, the fact that the minority can be racist does not mean that racism by the majority can be ignored. That is simply a topic for another thread.
I think a few in here are attempting to dismiss discrimination in this country by saying that if all people have the capacity of thinking they are better than others, therefore actual discrimination can be dismissed.
First off, this is not my position. Not even close.
I am arguing that people of all races, both world wide as well as here in the U.S. have the ability to be racist. The ability to discriminate based on race is not limited to the white races, but common across the human race. Furthermore, at no point have I or anyone else on this thread made the claim that "since we all do it, it can be dismissed." What I am saying is since we all do it, we cannot rightly conclude it is inherent to whites any more so than it is inherent to mankind overall.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Saritaschihuahua
Actual acts of discrimination are the only things that need to be examined.
This is inconsistent with your earlier posts. You claim in the U.S. it's a white issue, but you've completely ignored my example of growing up in a predominately Hispanic area where I was on the receiving in of racism and discrimination. If "actual acts" need to be examined, and you would willingly consider my experiences, you may be willing to conclude that it is not limited to a "white issue" in the U.S.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the example I provided.
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I also happen to think Spaniards and Cubans are superior to other cultures. 
