# Are you a racist? Warning signs **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 7, 2014, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519 "2014-07-07T08:12:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/201 "2014-07-08T05:10:36Z")
> [@chicagowhitesox1173](#): > > I don’t know, it’s a tough crowd. And I’m not as racist as you guy’s think either. You’re exactly as racist as I think. Because I base my opinion of your racism ON YOU. ---
**Author:** ![chicagowhitesox1173](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/46a35a/32.png) [@chicagowhitesox1173](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chicagowhitesox1173)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/202 "2014-07-08T05:12:28Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Dude, my city can beat up your city. Well your city can’t beat my city in sports championships. So there’s that. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/203 "2014-07-08T05:14:08Z")
> [@chicagowhitesox1173](#): > > Well your city can’t beat my city in sports championships. So there’s that. Uh, okay, champ. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/204 "2014-07-08T05:47:39Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > By the standards of this OP, I’m definitely a racist. Naah, we knew that already from all your other posts on the Board. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/205 "2014-07-08T05:49:10Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > And here we have the precise game. It’s assholes like you who want to conflate racial with racist. I already _called_ Bingo, **mags** … ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/206 "2014-07-08T05:50:56Z")
> [@chicagowhitesox1173](#): > > Well your city can’t beat my city in sports championships. So there’s that. Aaaaand … scene! Great work today guys. Remember, we’re starting our read-through of Sexual Perversity in Chicago next week, so please bring your scripts and some pencils. ---
**Author:** ![chicagowhitesox1173](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/46a35a/32.png) [@chicagowhitesox1173](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chicagowhitesox1173)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/207 "2014-07-08T05:56:07Z")
> [@andros](#): > > Aaaaand … scene! > Great work today guys. Remember, we’re starting our read-through of Sexual Perversity in Chicago next week, so please bring your scripts and some pencils. Why are you quoting me for? She’s the one who started this whole deal of what city is better. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/208 "2014-07-08T08:55:50Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Sub-Saharan Africans and sickle-cell anemia? Nope. Not on **faithfool** ’s watch. Pray tell, what is the incidence of sickle Cell in Xhosa? In San Bushmen? In Ethiopians? Conversely, what is the incidence in Tamils? In Turks? In Sicilians? In Emirates Arabs? It’s racist when you lump all Sub-Saharan Africans into one group. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/209 "2014-07-08T08:57:03Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > So is there a chart listing opposite races somewhere on the net? I mean I can kinda guess maybe white and black are supposed to be opposites, but where do all the rest come out? Lego men could only date Smurfette… ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/210 "2014-07-08T09:10:33Z")
> [@chicagowhitesox1173](#): > > I swear, I would love to see you face if your daughter bought home a black guy or a white guy depending on your race. I’m sure you would be very even keeled over this. I don’t have any daughters (yet), but any daughters that I have will be mixed race, with significant amounts of black, white, and Jewish ancestry. I will be pleased to meet any guy (or girl) that they choose to bring home. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/211 "2014-07-08T09:43:52Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I don’t have any daughters (yet), but any daughters that I have will be mixed race, with significant amounts of black, white, and Jewish ancestry. I will be pleased to meet any guy (or girl) that they choose to bring home. Which 100 years from now will be more common in the US as there will be fewer and fewer totally white or black people and most common will be brown skinned. Already most times I can tell an ethnic European (say a German for example) from a “white” American simply because Americans tend to be slightly darker. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/212 "2014-07-08T11:11:17Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Would you agree that as imperfect our ability to measure intelligence that it is fantastically superior to our ability to measure greed and untrustworthiness? No, I wouldn’t agree. I believe our methods to measure both characteristics are poor and inconsistent. > [@](#): > > So, your comparison is quite inapt. Obviously, I disagree. > [@](#): > > So, if there are two notes with those words found a thousand miles apart, one is discovered to have been written by a member of the KKK and the other was written by a very well respected Black brain researcher, you don’t care to digest that extra information? It matters not? It might matter for some reason, but not for whether the claim is racist or not. This claim is racist, _regardless of who makes it, or why they make it_. > [@](#): > > In the human quest for knowledge and understanding can no person have a non-racist reason for wanting to find out how the races stack up against each other as far as intelligence? I don’t care about motives for wanting to answer a question. Motives are irrelevant as to whether a certain claim is racist or not. > [@](#): > > How about this. How about if the note said, “it appears that blacks are inherently genetically less intelligent”? Meaning that the research he’s looked at so far in his study seems to indicate that to be the case. In the end, the full research will either support that or nullify it. Still racist? “It appears” that this claim is racist. Just like “it appears that Jews are inherently genetically less trustworthy” is still a racist claim. All of these hypotheticals you mention are so far removed from reality that I’m not sure how they’re at all relevant to anything but a thought exericse. It’s as if someone makes the claim “aliens helped the Egyptians build the pyramids”, and I say “that claim is ahistorical and counterfactual” and “any claims about aliens helping people build ancient structures are ahistorical and counterfactual”… and then you complain “but it doesn’t have to be ahistorical and counterfactual… why are you making such a sweeping claim, and what if the researcher has really good evidence?”. Perhaps things will change in the future, but today, in the real world, I am perfectly comfortable with the understanding that any claim that says “blacks are inherently genetically less intelligent” is a racist claim, just like any claim that says “aliens helped the Egyptians build the pyramids” is a counterfactual and ahistorical claim, and any claim that says “Jews are inherently genetically less trustworthy” is a bigoted claim. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/213 "2014-07-08T11:14:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > My sister, for one, married a black guy and they moved to the suburbs after they had a couple of kids so they could have a big backyard.😉 > > I moved to Panama, which is even more racially mixed. I obviously moved out my old neighborhood for racial reasons. > > My mother stayed, but we rent the ground floor to a Trinidadian friend of the family. > > Just give it up. You just make yourself make more like a fool in addition to a racist. All this is irrelevant, you know. You’re just trying to make yourself look “better than anyone else” with your “magical” circumstances. Surely, your just being “smug” and “ridiculous.” 😉 ~Today’s vocabulary brought to you by the letters B, U and P ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/214 "2014-07-08T12:16:31Z")
> [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](#): > > **magellan01** is, basically, doomed. The trend of opinion is more liberal, and inclusive, and not accepting of his plerophory that skin color and religion and superficial characteristics matter, than he is. What?! Skin color “matters” only to the degree of the differences they bring: melanin content, presence or not of epicanthic folds, etc. They are factual differences. My only point has been that looking at whatever differences might manifest themselves in different races is not _necessarily_ a racist endeavor. And what does that have to do with religion? > [@](#): > > and magellan01’s fever dream that someday an unimpeachable scientist will prove that one (hint: black) race is somehow demonstrably inferior to to some other (hint: white) race. More nonsense from you. Please cite one instance—just one—where I’ve said anything that could be fairly interpreted to indicate that I have this dream, hell even a slight desire, that such research will surface. Your posts are perfect examples of the dangers of an echo chamber. That such nonsense can be served up yet your teammates will keep mum. It speaks equally poorly of both of you. And unsurprisingly so. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/215 "2014-07-08T12:33:59Z")
> [@chicagowhitesox1173](#): > > hey at least I can admit it. The last whine of the racist who thought he was talking to people who agreed with him. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/216 "2014-07-08T12:48:04Z")
For the sake of reference, **magellan01** , I did one quick search and the first time I could find a post from you about this subject was nine years ago. If you’re not committed one way or the other, why bother defending it for that long? It’s not like you’re upholding the ideal of scientific progress or talking about some breakthrough discovery that’s going to save humanity - you’re holding the door open for the possibility that one race is smarter than another, which wouldn’t matter to any non-racist even if it were true. Of all the theories out there that could be true, why waste time on this one given its incredibly sordid history? ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/217 "2014-07-08T12:55:52Z")
> [@Enginerd](#): > > You’re describing a negative response to a situation based on nothing more than the race of one of the participants. HOW IS THAT ANYTHING OTHER THAN RACIST? Because many of us doubt that just race is the only factor the parents could be reacting to. I think it’s natural for parents to want their children to belong to the same cultural group as them. Many white cultures in the United States do not have a corresponding black version of their cultural group. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/218 "2014-07-08T12:58:41Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Because many of us doubt that just race is the only factor the parents could be reacting to. I think it’s natural for parents to want their children to belong to the same cultural group as them. Many white cultures in the United States do not have a corresponding black version of their cultural group. It doesn’t matter _why_ a parent might react negatively to their child dating a member of a different race – it’s _always a racist reaction_ if it’s negative or disapproval due to race/ethnicity/etc. Whether it’s due to hatred or due to the desire to continue one’s traditions/cultural practices/bloodlines/etc., disapproval of one’s child dating outside their race is _always racist_. ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/219 "2014-07-08T13:04:19Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > So is there a chart listing opposite races somewhere on the net? I mean I can kinda guess maybe white and black are supposed to be opposites, but where do all the rest come out? And if you were to date someone from a race that wasn’t your mirror opposite but rather was kitty-corner to your own, would that merit the quirking of one eyebrow from dear old dad, instead of both? > > I’d do a google search, but I figure the results might be a bit ugly to sift through. According to the RGB model, the opposite race of East Asians is Smurfs. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519/220 "2014-07-08T13:08:30Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > What?! Skin color “matters” only to the degree of the differences they bring: melanin content, presence or not of epicanthic folds, etc. They are factual differences. None of which are tied to race. Not skin colour, not epicanthic folds, none of it. Of course, this is not something you admit, with your “I know it when I see it” attitude to race. Tell me, have you calculated the r-value for the correlation between Blackness and hair curl yet? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-racist-warning-signs/692519.md?page=12)