What is racism?

[robertzombie]

That American thing is great!

"Where is the Berlin Wall"
"I do not know the answer to that question"

[Catomeat]

your comment gets 10/10 Catomeat
your linky gets 0/10 as we've had it in Joke of the Day and General Chat

nice try, no cigar

Bums. Well he liked it ^

[James Blast]

your comment gets 10/10 Catomeat
your linky gets 0/10 as we've had it in Joke of the Day and General Chat

nice try, no cigar

Bums. Well he liked it ^

Och!.... well, have a cigarette then

[esox]

What is Racism? Dunno, but neither do Channel Four and Big Brother...

[James Blast]

***IMAGE IN SIG ALERT***

[eotunun]

***And minor hack alert..***
Though harmless, it´s disturbing!

[more-sedatives-pls]

YIKES

get the dogs, marcy!

[more-sedatives-pls]

ok, so, now what the feck is racism?

can be a frame of mind

and can be a real action, but then we can go beyond - i.e. discrimination.

It's your holiday, you went to mexico, had a blast, and want to go home with that sombrero, a couple of tequila bottles, some ponchos, a cactus, 7kg of black bean paste, 16 fake ancient Aztec statues etc etc

unfortunately, you are only allowed 25kg of luggage and have to pay a sh!teload of additional bucks

although your lovely neighbour in the plane, that takes about 3/4 of your seat AND her own, is also allowed 25kg of luggage (hence her total weight is approx 100kg over yours)

I say EVERYBODY can make a total of 110 or whatever kg on a flight, and so the additional 'extras' depend on your own weight.

Is that discrimination? Not according to me.
Will some people think I'm an extremist? probably.

[eotunun]

It´s a primitive human instinct.
It´s a symptom of existential fears.
It´s you-no-look-like-me-you-possibly-evil.
It´s for tiny farts with tiny bollocks.

[Dark]

Nothing's wrong with Esox's sig really... those signs are common sights on most websites/forums.

[smiscandlon]

Nothing's wrong with Esox's sig really... those signs are common sights on most websites/forums.

Yeah, but:

No images in signatures. They look a mess and clutter the forum, make the posts difficult to read and the page slower to load.

(And I agree).

[nick the stripper]

[edited]

Sorry, boss.

[King of Byblos]

surely everyone is 'racist' to some extent?
the main difference between a Racist and a non-Racist is that the Racist acts on thier opinions in a way that discriminates, aggravates or harms or cultivates a view that a group is insomeway inferior.

or is that prejudice?

Is the thought, i'll go to the Carribean on holiday this year, it's hot and the locals are friendly and chilled out, a racist thought? it involves lumping together a group of people and having an opinion about them?
and how does it differ from the thought, i am not going to the Notting Hill area of London as it's a dodgy s**t and i'll get beat up on?

But Racism doesn't need to be a skin thing does it?
If we didn't have the mental ability to aggregate groups of things/animals how would society, as we know it, function? I have lots of groups in my mind and some have negative connotations ('people in jail' or 'FTSE Chief Executives' for example) some have positive connotations ('my friends' or 'fluffy kittens'). If hold the opinion i might be racist, but if i act on it what then...

how about:
Capitalism relies on broad brush-stroke grouping and subsequent exploitation/manipulation and is therefore inherantly racist?

[King of Byblos]

IQ tests are very questionable at best anyway, not to say utter crap.

def
they generally test the ability to do IQ tests and that is a skill that can be 'learnt'

[Izzy HaveMercy]

ok, so, now what the feck is racism?

can be a frame of mind

and can be a real action, but then we can go beyond - i.e. discrimination.

It's your holiday, you went to mexico, had a blast, and want to go home with that sombrero, a couple of tequila bottles, some ponchos, a cactus, 7kg of black bean paste, 16 fake ancient Aztec statues etc etc

unfortunately, you are only allowed 25kg of luggage and have to pay a sh!teload of additional bucks

although your lovely neighbour in the plane, that takes about 3/4 of your seat AND her own, is also allowed 25kg of luggage (hence her total weight is approx 100kg over yours)

I say EVERYBODY can make a total of 110 or whatever kg on a flight, and so the additional 'extras' depend on your own weight.

Is that discrimination? Not according to me.
Will some people think I'm an extremist? probably.

Extremist? No.

Extremely funny? Yes.

IZ?

[MadameButterfly]

If I say that I find African women unattractive

I sob

[GC]

If I say that I find African women unattractive

I sob

I can always make an exception, ply me with Heineken and Jenever and I tend to love the World (in a manner of speaking)

[Izzy HaveMercy]

If I say that I find African women unattractive

I sob

ply me with Heineken and

... I sob!

IZ.

[MadameButterfly]

If I say that I find African women unattractive

I sob

I can always make an exception, ply me with Heineken and Jenever and I tend to love the World (in a manner of speaking)

I can't play as I can't be that exception. Anyway, our drinking tastes are different too.

[GC]

I sob

I can always make an exception, ply me with Heineken and Jenever and I tend to love the World (in a manner of speaking)

I can't play as I can't be that exception. Anyway, our drinking tastes are different too.

I sob

[boudicca]

My two cents:

There's nothing wrong with finding people of certain ethnic backgrounds more aesthetically attractive than others, no more so than preferring brunettes to blondes or liking brown eyes. Characteristics not unrelated to ethhic background admittedly, but that goes for most physical traits to a greater or lesser extent.

It may even be beneficial to the human SPECIES for each of us to have these preferences. It's said that people are often attracted to those who look very different from them, it's a built in guard against inbreeding. That may be racially different, difference in build, difference in facial structure... anything.

It would only become a problematic issue for the human species if social conditioning was so strong that we all "stuck to our own", as it were. Then races would evolve seperately and potentially, over a long period of time, split off into different species.

As far as being a problematic issue for the personal conscience - I think you have to ask yourself why you find one race so much less attractive than another. I have questioned myself on this - I find Slavic looking men to be kryptonite wheras I've almost never found myself at all attracted to a black man.

There are three factors I can see. First, pure aesthetic preference. This surely cannot be criticised.
Second, a preference to one ethnicity's culture over another. I think this is fair enough - you may identify more with the reserved character of Northern Europeans or the Japanese than with the relaxed character of Latin or West Indian cultures for example. As long as you realise that not everyone will conform to these generalisations - some people reject their own ethnic culture wholesale. Everyone's seen a white rasta haven't they?
The third factor is a belief that different ethinicities are innately different kinds of people, and if that is influencing who you're attracted to then I think this is dangerous and wrong.

When you say one race is more intelligent than the other, I do worry. Though I do understand where ideas like this come from. I don't think it can be ignored that some peoples have produced greater leaps in philosophy, science, and the other things that constitute so-called "civilization". But I'd argue that what has led to the creation of the great civilizations, those with the greatest legacies in terms of advancing all human knowledge, has been a fortuitous combination of political, economic, even geographical factors - not inherent superiority.

For people living in these civilizations, it is much easier to develop the intellect. Human beings need food, water, shelter, stability and safety from conflict and disease before they can start to think about educating themselves. Take an individual from a tribe in Africa and place him in the higher echelons of ancient Greek society, you may well have a black Socrates. Take Einstein and put him in the South American jungle... he'd never have been able to write his name.

Human beings have not existed under such wildly differing circumstances for long enough for any innate, genetic differences in intelligence to have developed. We were all in huts a few thousand years ago.

I went off on one again, didn't I?

[MadameButterfly]

It's okay boudicca, I'd just like to add that there are still people living in huts today.

[esox]

***IMAGE IN SIG ALERT***

Sorry All, typical bloke who never reads the instructions.

[boudicca]

It's okay boudicca, I'd just like to add that there are still people living in huts today.

Yes Debs, my point is only that those people who are doing so are not inferior to "us".

[MadameButterfly]

It's okay boudicca, I'd just like to add that there are still people living in huts today.

Yes Debs, my point is only that those people who are doing so are not inferior to "us".

I agree with you, although I think that there is only a minority that would agree. And as for your two cents - I like it when you state your opion as I understand what you are saying and it deserves this...