What does RACISM mean to you?

[Zylka]

Well it's all on the same topic, I don't see how there is an allowance for change on these views from one discussion to the next. I'm just a little discouraged, is all... I mean realistically - a perfectly competent teacher would grade an essay with the above contradictions in it with a nice grey C-, which would in turn prompt the student to sue him for being racist

[mrmitchell]

Zylka, you're being racist, better stop before you get branded

[Elok]

Getting sorta-kinda on topic, there is some truth to the statement that racism is overflung, especially in the sense of its use as a general term for a narrow point of view. I remember being on another forum a few years back; a guy who didn't approve of gay rights was called a "racist." If there is an entire race of open homosexuals out there it's doomed to die out in a century at most by its very nature, but that didn't stop the one man from calling the other a racist. Ludicrous.

[Urban Ranger]

Racial profiling is racism manifested at the highest political level in the US.

[Dis]

racism is a term used by other people to demonize you. I call them witchhunters.

I have been called a racists for not finding black women particularly attractive. I also said I don't find their culture very appealing. That last sentence is what got me in trouble. But to deny there is a culture is just stupid. Granted not all black people belong to that culture. I know this. There are plenty of black people that listen and play metal music, classical, rock etc. Maybe even country .

[Arrian]

at the UR spambot.

Negative term used on forum. Must use term in connection with United States.

*presto*

-Arrian

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Zylka
HAHAHA, while I'm still in the mood for this - I'd like to address these gems I've drawn up, with your own criteria:

Sooo... I suppose the last is an innocent comment, listing all people of a region as ignorant and (assumably) racist - innocent simply because they are not a set "race group". Yet at the same time, you dismiss the concept of "race" as artificial?

Wow. I just don't know where to go from here

Yes -- if you take my jokes/trolls about Southerners seriously, you would assume I am prejudiced against Southerners.

The books I have read on the various Amerindian cultures did not discuss the problems of in-breeding.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by elijah
Its the differential treatment of someone based on their ethnicity, perceived ethnicity etc. Thats loose, but normally, its only applied in negative situations, whereas in reality, racism in general is indicative of a more inherrent intolerance.

Excellent definition.

IMHO, treating a black differently because of his colour, no matter if you treat him like dirt or like someone who needs help, is racism. I think of affirmative action as a racist policy for instance.

It means racism, despite being inherently bad on principle, can have implementations whose outcome is positive. (I'm wary with all kinds of affirmative actions, but it seems to have had generally good results).

Insults to people based solely on their ethnicity or percieved ethnicity is completely racist. The belief that a whole population is inferior because itf ethnicity is racist (i.e, if you mean this population is doomed to be inferior because of its very nature). However, the belief that a population is inferior because of its culture, leadership, whatever is not racist. Ignorant probably, but not racist.

[mrmitchell]

[Provost Harrison]

Royal Academy for Cello Instrumentals and Solo Maracas...

[Zylka]

What?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Arrian
at the UR spambot.

Negative term used on forum. Must use term in connection with United States.

*presto*

-Arrian

You don't think that automatically assuming a group of people is more dangerous due to their ethnic origin is racist?

[DinoDoc]

The spambot continues its work.

[Velociryx]

I'll answer that one...

In a word, no.

Law enforcement agencies have....are you ready....*limited resources.* That means, we can't hire three million investigators to look into every crime there is.

Given limited resources then, investigators have to cull out and largely ignore groups that have no real previous track record for committing crimes.

So let's take airline hijackings, for example.

Have the boy scouts ever hijacked a plane?

Have elderly ladies (above the age of 60)?

Have skinheads?

The answer to all of those questions is....no.

However, in looking back over the history of airline hijackings, it can fairly be said that a significant number of them have been done in the past by muslim males between the ages of 20 and 40.

Is it unreasonable then, if you are looking to reduce the number of FUTURE hijackings, to NOT spend a lot of time monitoring the comings and goings of grandmothers, focusing instead on the group that is KNOWN to have committed the crimes in the past?

Is that an unreasonable course of action?

-=Vel=-

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by elijah
Its the differential treatment of someone based on their ethnicity, perceived ethnicity etc. Thats loose, but normally, its only applied in negative situations, whereas in reality, racism in general is indicative of a more inherrent intolerance.

I wouldn't agree. I'd say that Racism is the perception that people from different ethnic groups are less human than others. The different treatment comes from that perception. Re-educate that perception and the different treatment stops - or at least gets diversified to judge each individual on their merits.

Don't matter if you're black, white, yellow or brown... we all bleed red.