Everybody is a little bit racist

[Krouget]

@A Monkey With a Gun

yeah, I get what your saying, but we need to bring racism out in the open.

Sure, it’s a dirty word. But what better word do you have for this? Let’s not shy away from it because it a dirty word.

I don’t think it’s a problem of shying away from a dirty word. I think it’s a problem of overextending a words meaning, and broadly applying it to people, in an absolute sense.

Prejudice and racism are related, but they have very real distinctions. I understand this is an attempt to promote and exercise introspection, but some critical pieces to this discussion are missing.

With the former, I’d say yes, most people have their share of prejudices, some more benign or rooted in ignorance (as opposed to malicious intentions), than others. Part of life is to constantly recognize and improve upon those, should you be fortunate enough. But as I understand the latter, I see actual racist thoughts or racism, as pledging to a specific doctrine of ideas, which manifest in consciously motivated beliefs, ideas, and practices throughout ones life-- we could get more in-depth, but for the sake of discussion, that’s about where I establish my line. In other words, while prejudice is a common ingredient in any form of discrimination, racism represents an unchecked extreme, and is a culmination of many parts.

Broader education and experience/exposure are worthy tools for addressing common prejudices, or at least offer perspective, depending on how receptive the person is. Having had brushes with people who have been indoctrinated with actual racist ideas? Well, for starters, you’re usually not working with just the individual, and it’s usually a bigger problem than just racism, but also bigotry, a variety of intolerance’s, perhaps some form of injustice to fuel those ideas, and whatever else may be included. Education and exposure still apply, but they must also be bolstered with other positive forces.

So yeah, I get the idea of the thread, however, I think the premise is off, from the get-go.

[Peremensoe]

@bup

Cite?

I think prejudices based on people’s appearances are innate, and must be un-learned. Cite.

I’d like to read the actual study that article is based on (but haven’t time just now). I’m skeptical that it asserts what you and that writer think it does.

For one thing, this is a study on adults, right? Brain structures and activity patterns are gradually remade through life, but particularly as we grow up, so it seems to me that no study of only adults can definitively address when and how certain patterns arose from birth.

Then, they speak of “interactions between people from different racial groups trigger[ing] reactions.” What is to say that those measured reactions constitute racism, as opposed to merely recognition of cultural signifiers? One can be perfectly aware of the ‘race’ markers that are held significant in one’s particular society without discriminating by them, it seems to me.

And that brings me to a final objection: the markers held to be significant for distinguishing ‘races’ vary between cultures. Two people who may think themselves the ‘same race’ in their native context may find themselves categorized differently in another. Or the other way round. How can our practical implementation of what race is be substantially different in different places, if its basis is physiologically hardwired in all people?

[bup]

So, do you have a cite for your confident, simple assertion that racial bias is learned? Or is it sufficient to pick apart my cite?

[LMarie]

Maybe everyone was socialized to be a racist, but I don’t believe it’s the natural order of things.

Anyway, just came across an interesting article in today’s NY Times somewhat related to the topic:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/opinion/coates-the-good-racist-people.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB