Does Racism Have Its Place In Society?

[rzr]

I was reading my old history text book and the thought occured to me of exaclty how much racism there is in the world. So, with some facts I'll make my point.

This is where I got a lot of useful information on the matter.

But, looking back, where are the most notable forms of racism? Well, there's the KKK, for starters. We see it in everything from racism towards Hebrews, to World War II.

Everywhere in society it lies, hidden deep beneath the surface. Or, even lying right out in the open. A few things I wondered were why aren't there and white people on The Cosby Show? Or any black people in so many shows. I mean, what is society implying? Like Carlos Mencia or George Lopez. The lyrics in so many songs saying the 'n' word.

Where does the racism hide? In the south (America) it doesn't. It lives in the open, breeding on African Americans. In the north it's more hidden, less people rioting or displaying acts of hate crimes. So many people think it's only white-black. No. Wrong. Racism is common with everyone. Statistically, it falls more under the category of white-black, but it's out there.

In Europe, the recent upcomings of neo-Nazism shows undying racism. Racism has brought many places to the brink, some to war. Germany. America. Africa. It's a long, sad list. Racism from the Middle East against America. In Cambodia there's been strong racism against the North Vietnamese.

Where did racism come from? Well, some can argue that it's always been around. Others, like myself, would tend to believe it originated from a misinturpretation of Darwin's Theory on evolution.

So, I bring the questino to you, FFR. Does racism have its place on society, or can it ever be completely abolished?

[Sullyman2007]

It is never going to go away. It has been a part of our society for decades, and even before that it was 'practiced', if that's even the right word, by our ancestors centuries ago.

It is a permanent recolection of what today we strive to forget about, or pretend it never happend. Fact is, it did, and it's still happening all around us.

A few things I wondered were why aren't there any white people on The Cosby Show? Or any black people in so many shows. I mean, what is society implying? Like Carlos Mencia or George Lopez. The lyrics in so many songs saying the 'n' word.

George Lopez and Carlos Mencia both use racism in a 'humorous' sense. However most people, including myself, believe this to only feed the underlying problem of 'unspoken racism' - racism that is there, however we fear what this new age 'everyone's equal lol' society will think of us if we act on it.

[rzr]

You honestly theink Mencia feeds unspoken underlying racism problems? I think that he sees people laughing at what he says and goes off of it.

[super kid]

Pretty much every comedian I can think of is racist.

[Sullyman2007]

Originally Posted by rzr

You honestly think Mencia feeds unspoken underlying racism problems?

Yes, but in not such a literal sense. Hundreds of years of tyranny and persecution took it's toll, and it's not that we don't take it seriously anymore, we just find the 'underlying effects' humorous, especially when they are presented by a comedian whos life revolves around making things funny. However, I still see this as the underlying problem. They make it funny, but it 'keeps the spirit of racism alive'.

Pretty much every comedian I can think of is racist.

Watch more Comedy Central. There are plenty of comedians that aren't racist.

[rzr]

Sully, you make me wonder what you think of the original question.

[Sullyman2007]

Does racism have its place on society? Unfortunately yes.
Can it ever be completely abolished? No.

[devonin]

It has no place in anything. It is one of the purest forms of ignorance in the world.

[x After Dawn x]

So long as man has opinion, there will be racism.

[devonin]

Nobody who forms their opinions based on actual facts and information can possibly be a racist, unless they elect to simply ignore those facts and that information.

As a result, I really couldn't care less what opinion they want to hold if they are too moronic and ignorant to actually base their opinions on things which are true.

[x After Dawn x]

But that's the thing. Not everybody bases their opinion on actual facts and information. People can label entire collectives and groups. They can have prejudice, and they can be stereotypical. And they have their biases. It may be ignorant, but it's still their opinion and there's nothing we can do to persuade every single person who thinks this way.

[Darkstalker_X]

There's too many people in the planet as to eliminate such a problem as racism, even if it is mostly just another senseless way of discrimination, if it was that easy, everyone would have the same religion, or something likely.

[dore]

Where does the racism hide? In the south (America) it doesn't. It lives in the open, breeding on African Americans.

Have you ever been to the South? It's not like the KKK chills out on their front porch in their robes anymore.

As to the actual question, does it have a place? Yes it does, because there will always be ignorant people who are taught by their ignorant parents and blindly go with whatever they say. Only until our society is completely educated and sophisticated will racism ever end. Which won't happen.

[devonin]

Originally Posted by x After Dawn x

But that's the thing. Not everybody bases their opinion on actual facts and information. People can label entire collectives and groups. They can have prejudice, and they can be stereotypical. And they have their biases. It may be ignorant, but it's still their opinion and there's nothing we can do to persuade every single person who thinks this way.

Except ignore and dismiss them as hopeless ignoramuses.

Also, people need to watch their terminology. The phrase "It has a place" means there is a place where it is an apprppriate behavior. Wht you seem to want to say is that there will always be racism, that it will always exist.

[Cavernio]

"Nobody who forms their opinions based on actual facts and information can possibly be a racist, unless they elect to simply ignore those facts and that information."

And anyone who bases their opinions and thoughts purely on 100% fact is going to be stupid and unable to understand society.

The human mind groups things that are similar together, (at least in most people.) When we're infants, we learn to group things that look, act, feel, etc. similar, together. For instance, when you think of a bird, you have a mental representation in your head of an iconic bird. However, you KNOW that there are tons of birds that don't fit that picture, like penguins, chickens, ostriches, hummingbirds, etc. That we learn things in such a way is incredibly helpful and in fact, makes humans very smart. For instance, we know that things that are dark in color but turn bright red are usually hot. Do we know that for sure with everything that does that? No. But we make educated guesses. In a crude way, racism stems from the way our mind learns and groups things. A more pertinent example, when someone says 'black rapper' to me, I think of some guy who's blinged out who speaks in a very, uh, specific way and who's got his 'hoes' surrounding him. Now, I know that there are black rappers out there who don't look or act or talk like that, but if its pretty damned hard for me to not have that prejudgmental image in my head at least somewhat, if someone says 'so and so is a black rapper'.

"Only until our society is completely educated and sophisticated will racism ever end".

I'm highly educated. I don't think I'm racist. I have friends of all colors. (Although, on the same note, all of my friends are, for the most part, similar in education, intelligence and even opinion.) I have, however, grown up in a city that has a very, very small population of black people in it. My junior high of 800 so people only had 1 black guy in it. Because of that, he stood out in my mind even though I didn't know him at all. Is that racist? I don't think so, but there's still something in there that's the start of prejudice.

Now, just to be sure, I'm not saying nor do I hope to be implying that racism is something that can't be stopped. That's totally not true. Because we can be conscious of our thoughts, we can consciously stop racism when we find ourselves almost automatically making racist opinions.

That I said my friends are similar to me is another point in the racism topic that is pertinent. We like people who we're similar to and tend to avoid people who are different. It's a comfort thing. For someone to feel close to someone simply because of their color is rather ludicrous, however, even living in Canada, which has one of the most diverse populations in the world, people group with other people of their nationality and culture. Along with this often goes race. Toronto, for instance, has pockets of nationalities living in certain areas. (They can become so self-sustaining that immigrants can live here and not have to learn english!) Groups of people that interact so closely pick up similar mannerisms and such, and so when people look in and see that, the fastest and easiest way to learn about them is to make general observations. This is NOT being stupid: this is being human. This will not change with education. What does change with education though is that it creates a new culture, a culture of educated people, which will share similar ideas about logic and science, changing our mannerisms.
Education is NOT NECESSARY to teach compassion and understanding. You can have someone very stupid who does not judge a person because they speak differently, like different styles of clothes, and have different skin.

In regards to groups like the KKK, has anyone read Gone With The Wind? Talk about an eye-opener into a whole different culture. Racism in North America often came by it 'honestly', for lack of a better word. For instance, eastern europeans (gallic?) people were discriminated against. They were stupid and poor. And that wasn't, generally, false! Same with blacks. But both peoples had similar backgrounds: they were oppressed. How can you be smart or educated if you're a slave? How can you understand how things around you work when you're reduced to working for someone else? You can't, not in the same way an educated person can. I'm not saying that we should be racist, totally not saying that, just trying to show how racism comes about.

In this day and age, there's tons of prejudiced running rampant, particularly in regards to education. I've seen it on this forum. If you can't spell properly, you're out. Your opinions won't be heard. And yet this is acceptable to us. We seem to think that because we live in such a great country, where education is supposed to be 100% accessible to everyone, that if you're not educated, it's your own fault, and you're a lesser person.

Now that North America has a large smattering of educated/uneducated people of all races, racism has diminished, but the roots that caused the racism in the first place, still exist. And that we judge people based on things about them still exist. And that we group people which have one aspect in common to each to have all the same aspects in common, still exists.

[Ruritsu]

I can see one way out, but its so far fetched...

Off chance that in the distant future race has "melted" so much (Through interracial children) that one race become indistinguishable from another...

But again, far fetched....

Other than that, it will be here until the end of time...

[Kinspin]

Racism has always been around but not always in the form that we see it.
I don't know what Darwin could contribute to racism but apparently this guy blames it on the theory of evolution.

[1mpuls3]

racism will always be here as long as people are here and or have opinions. but on the bright side if there wasn't racism we wouldn't have funny jokes and comedians.

[devonin]

The human mind groups things that are similar together, (at least in most people.) When we're infants, we learn to group things that look, act, feel, etc. similar, together. For instance, when you think of a bird, you have a mental representation in your head of an iconic bird. However, you KNOW that there are tons of birds that don't fit that picture, like penguins, chickens, ostriches, hummingbirds, etc. That we learn things in such a way is incredibly helpful and in fact, makes humans very smart. For instance, we know that things that are dark in color but turn bright red are usually hot. Do we know that for sure with everything that does that? No. But we make educated guesses. In a crude way, racism stems from the way our mind learns and groups things.

You're suffering under a misapprehension here. There's a difference between thinks like the proper definitions of the words 'discrimination' and 'stereotyping' and 'racism'

Grouping like things together is perfectly reasonable and makes sense, and would in fact apply to all kinds of groups of things including say, people by race, nationality, looks or language.

The difference between that and racism is that you've concluded that having split people into groups, one of those groups is BETTER than the other. That's the ignorant extra step that racists take.

[tsugomaru]

Originally Posted by rzr

Where did racism come from? Well, some can argue that it's always been around. Others, like myself, would tend to believe it originated from a misinturpretation of Darwin's Theory on evolution.

Racism has existed long before Darwin was even alive. Although it's been mentioned several times in this thread before, my belief is that racism started from what was once a self defense mechanism. Back thousands of years ago when we were still cavemen, prejudice was one of our survival techniques. So many people assume prejudice is such a bad word when in reality, it's not. All it means is to make an assumption or judgment before confirming it. If a we know some snakes are poisonous and can kill us, we just stay away from snakes. We assume that they are all poisonous and we stay away from them for the sake of our safety. Of course we know now that all snakes are not poisonous, but without knowledge, we assume the safest approach to a snake we find, avoid it.

Of course, the same prejudice was used against other groups of people. If we see another group of people attack our group, of course we are going to hate them. Of course, this seems more like a rivalry between two groups, but as time passes on, one group gains hold of new technology and their way of life becomes what we might call more "sophisticated". The fact that the other group couldn't keep up led to the belief that the other group was dumb, weak, and lesser people. Over generations and generations, this belief becomes so deeply embedded in a society, it's almost accepted as truth.

When we are babies and toddlers, there's no way to prevent us from being prejudice towards another group because that's one of the core skills we use when we grow up. But as we get older, schools and society need to dispel our former methods of thinking and ensure that we don't think one race is better or worse than another because in the end, we are all still people. We are all one race. The people who believe racism exists need to be more educated and it definitely has no place amongst kids, teens, and adults.

But don't take my beliefs for facts because, as I have said, they are just beliefs. I do not know for certain the beginnings of racism.

~Tsugomaru