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How do you define racism?

One of the things you will never hear somebody say is, "I am shallow and only interested in a person's appearance".
I have heard people speaking (not in those obvious words) the equivalent - though generally when they thought others present agreed. Most did not in reality!!
 
Sex (or gender) and race are equivalent in that they can both be used to stereotype a people group. This isn't my opinion, it is an accept fact in sociology and anthropology. If you'd like to argue it, please provide some back up to your assertion. Otherwise, it can be ignored.
 
Sex (or gender) and race are equivalent in that they can both be used to stereotype a people group. This isn't my opinion, it is an accept fact in sociology and anthropology. If you'd like to argue it, please provide some back up to your assertion. Otherwise, it can be ignored.

Anything can be used to stereotype a group. Gender distinctions are relevant. I asked earlier if women MMA fighters/boxers should be allowed to fight men. The answer, of course, is no. They'd be slaughtered. The physical differences between men and women are just too stark.
 
There's certainly room for looking at many ways that racist motivations are manifest and that among the most egregious are institutional and systemic oppression. But yeah, even as progressive as I am, I can't get on board with excusing individual acts of racially (or any immutable quality) motivated judgment of other individuals or groups. Differences in scale or degree of harm done are relevant, but they shouldn't be used to dismiss the individual offenses. I was taught that was 'minimization' which is a form of dehumanizing tactic.

ETA: it could also be described as a form of gatekeeping, where only certain opinions or 'types' of people are allowed to participate in the discussion.

There is that thing, called persuasion, that more and more people seem to underestimate.

I have this idea about politics and ideologies, in which people tend to be prejudiced in all sorts of ways and take sides because the facts at stake are too complex and people don't like ambiguity. And when people take sides, I really mean they take sides, almost in a binary, echo chambers "A" and "B", way. It's politics.

You know what's persuasive? Consistency. Echo chambers are places where cognitive dissonance and double standards run rampant, but the other side is at fault because... well... they do the same, only with other premises. Of course. Like a cat fighting the other cat in the mirror. Consistency is the common ground by which some people, sometimes, can be persuaded. At the very least, it paves the way for a rational discussion. It transcends ideologies, it's the corridor between echo chambers.

By the way, I like your posts.
 
Anything can be used to stereotype a group. Gender distinctions are relevant. I asked earlier if women MMA fighters/boxers should be allowed to fight men. The answer, of course, is no. They'd be slaughtered. The physical differences between men and women are just too stark.

Physiological differences are part of the same package that make an ethnic group or 'racial subgrouping' have a unique designation to begin with. Why are males more physically dominant? Because our historical gender roles made physical strength a desirable trait. Women reared children and took charge of domestic affairs, so they tend to excel more at multi-tasking, intuition, and social interaction. African Americans are represented in athletics in greater proportion than the overall population would suggest because we imposed physical labor on them for centuries, so again you see the same skew towards it as seen in men vs. women.

However, we shouldn't make the mistake of applying some broad trends (which may not be true at all in other parts of the world) to individuals we've just met (or simply observed from a distance). It is also possible that a shift in social attitudes about what traits are 'desirable' will mean a totally different paradigm in another few centuries. Most importantly, of course, is that while there might be some slight differences in tendencies towards certain kinds of tasks a given group possesses (and again, this is typically far more localized than we think), but their core identity as fellow human beings is key.

It's depressingly rare to hear a discussion about observable differences as they exist now or did exist at some point in history without someone eventually starting to introduce overtones that suggest some people are valued differently from others.
 
Physiological differences are part of the same package that make an ethnic group or 'racial subgrouping' have a unique designation to begin with. Why are males more physically dominant? Because our historical gender roles made physical strength a desirable trait. Women reared children and took charge of domestic affairs, so they tend to excel more at multi-tasking, intuition, and social interaction. African Americans are represented in athletics in greater proportion than the overall population would suggest because we imposed physical labor on them for centuries, so again you see the same skew towards it as seen in men vs. women.

However, we shouldn't make the mistake of applying some broad trends (which may not be true at all in other parts of the world) to individuals we've just met (or simply observed from a distance). It is also possible that a shift in social attitudes about what traits are 'desirable' will mean a totally different paradigm in another few centuries. Most importantly, of course, is that while there might be some slight differences in tendencies towards certain kinds of tasks a given group possesses (and again, this is typically far more localized than we think), but their core identity as fellow human beings is key.

It's depressingly rare to hear a discussion about observable differences as they exist now or did exist at some point in history without someone eventually starting to introduce overtones that suggest some people are valued differently from others.

I think we'll be able to transition to a new paradigm when it comes to gender/race. Look how fast people accepted gay rights. I'm optimistic.
 
Everybody acts like its self-evident that White people possess "power" that non-Whites do not. Why? What is it about the world that you could use as evidence that White people are powerful?
The history of it.

See for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States
And: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_States
For a little more global flavor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid

The fact is that White people are no more powerful than any other arbitrary grouping of people. People who pretend that White people have "power" and that therefore, only White people can be racist are the one's who are creating racial divisions.
See, I would have thought it was the centuries of systematically denying people access to political and economic power on the basis of race that was causing the divide, but it turns out it was pointing out that it happened that was the problem the whole time. Who would have thunk it?
 
Anyone who says black people can't be racist has never spent a cold winter morning at a busstop while some Black Israelites are on their rants.

(Okay, that's not literally true, but if you've every heard of them, you know exactly what I mean)

As I've said in another thread, it's an incoherent definition when you try to apply to individuals. Some woman getting scared and clutching her purse as she runs into traffic to avoid the black guy isn't real power, after all, and she's only putting herself in harm's way.

The other one is that racism is a horrible insult, when it's just a description. Trump isn't called racist because he ran for the presidency as a Republican. He's called a racist for the same reason he's called a sex predator - because he's very clearly both.
 
I have problem with superiority alone being considered racism. First I don't understand what general superiority means. You have to be specific .. superior in what ? And that can be measured ..
I believe white people are, on average, more intelligent than black people. I see no problem in stating this.
I also believe that Asian people are more intelligent than white. I believe black are more athletic, and more musically talented. Denying things like that would be stupid, cause it's untrue.
But the difference between races average is lot smaller than difference within the race.
That's where I define racism .. if you imply somebody's qualities based on the average. That's not fair .. and also stupid, cause it's untrue.
That's obviously quite simplistic view .. in US there is so many secondary issues, complex history of the topic, and all is covered in tons of political correctness .. nobody can really understand it all. Also I have no idea where it's all going.
 
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I have problem with superiority alone being considered racism. First I don't understand what general superiority means. You have to be specific .. superior in what ? And that can be measured ..
I believe white people are, on average, more intelligent than black people. I see no problem in stating this.
I also believe that Asian people are more intelligent than white. I believe black are more athletic, and more musically talented. Denying things like that would be stupid, cause it's untrue.
But the difference between races average is lot smaller than difference within the race.
That's where I define racism .. if you imply somebody's qualities based on the average. That's not fair .. and also stupid, cause it's untrue.
That's obviously quite simplistic view .. in US there is so many secondary issues, complex history of the topic, and all is covered in tons of political correctness .. nobody can really understand it all. Also I have no idea where it's all going.

Aah, Jesus...here we go....
 
This is from a few years ago and it occurred when I had confronted an Australian Aboriginal woman who was abusing Asian students on a bus, in her final attempt to 'refute' my criticism of her actions she stated that her grandmother had been raped by a white man, therefore her actions were simply a case of her 'white blood' talking.

Eg Racism is a genetic trait linked to the 'white gene'.
 
This is from a few years ago and it occurred when I had confronted an Australian Aboriginal woman who was abusing Asian students on a bus, in her final attempt to 'refute' my criticism of her actions she stated that her grandmother had been raped by a white man, therefore her actions were simply a case of her 'white blood' talking.

Eg Racism is a genetic trait linked to the 'white gene'.
Try catching a bus in Footscray without getting abuse from all types of drugged out races
 
I have problem with superiority alone being considered racism. First I don't understand what general superiority means. You have to be specific .. superior in what ? And that can be measured ..
I believe white people are, on average, more intelligent than black people. I see no problem in stating this.
What do you mean by this? Given how confounded this is with environmental factors (as you state at the end), I think the statement needs a little unpacking.

I also believe that Asian people are more intelligent than white.
This was also the view of the white supremacists who held that press conference and Trump ended up condemning.

I believe black are more athletic,
For some definition of athletic, this may well be true from a genetic standpoint.

and more musically talented.
Do you mean intrinsically, or including environmental and cultural factors. Even so, I think some unpacking is needed. White people are not untalented in Music. Look at Mozart (not a typical example of course), classical music, folk music, etc... I don't see that one can easily say that one group is "better" without being pretty explicit about what is meant.

Denying things like that would be stupid, cause it's untrue.
If you aren't making a positive claim about it definitely due to genetics, then you can probably turn that into a defensible argument. If you mean that intrinsically black people are less intelligent due to, say, genetics... then I think you will have a hard time on your hands.

But the difference between races average is lot smaller than difference within the race.
Generally, yes.
 
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Sounds to me you disagree ..

Claiming that "whites are more intelligent than blacks" is often the opening volley for a very thinly veiled racist rant. Hence, here we go...

You genuinely don't see why saying that hackneyed racist stereotypes fit your beliefs might be viewed as deliberate provocation?
 

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