# Is there a race of people you do not like, no matter how hard you try? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 21, 2001, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833 "2001-03-21T05:58:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gaspode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gaspode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaspode)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/21 "2001-03-21T12:11:18Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Monocracy \* > Race A are beady eyed criminals! They own pet kangaroos and hunt crocodiles with boomerangs. They drink a lot of beer. Also, they rarely use cosmetic surgery to enhance their appearance._\* I resent that. If only I weren’t so drunk me and Bruce the kangaroo would drag you down to the billabong and throw you to that croc I stunned this morning. ---
**Author:** ![Spiritus\_Mundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Spiritus\_Mundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiritus_Mundi)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/22 "2001-03-21T12:55:50Z")
> [@](#): > > the other race kept complaining about several of the other races. There was just something about these two races that bugged me from nearly as far back as I can recall. Priceless. Two suggestions: Find a better therapist–I suggest avoiding Rogerians for this particular issue. A behavioralist might be a good option. Take some time to study logical reasoning. When you feel comfortable with the classic fallacies, re-examine your posts in this thread. **Collounsbury** Puberty hits each thread differently, of course. 😉 But I was thinking the 12-13 post transition. You made it with plenty to spare. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/23 "2001-03-21T13:13:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Xerxes \* > There is some evidence (sorry, can’t cite - saw it on a popular science program recently) to suggest that we facially recognise much better within our own racial group. This seems reasonable to me. From an evolutionary POV it’s much more useful to me to recognise people who’s faces are pretty similar to mine shape and colour-wise, than people from the other side of the planet who I’m never going to meet. I recall reading the study upon which this report is based some time back, I think this is two years old. As far as I recall, the issue is not so much own racial group per se as dominant peer group. **If** I recall correctly, its an issue of familiarity. I seem to recall that subjects from multiracial environments/families did not display the relatively strong recognition effects that were otherwise typical of American subjects – for some reason I think the same was from Boston… **Spiritus** Bah, I think a thread is only really … hmm that doesn’t help my case at all. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/24 "2001-03-21T14:29:19Z")
First things first. Hi, Serlin. An administrator will be along shortly. Next: Bicycle races. Don’t get me wrong, I like and respect most bicycle races, and as long as they don’t close _my_ street for them I’m OK. But those weird ones – you know, the ones where they’re on the banked wooden track, and the go real creepy-like slow for like, half of the race, and then rushrushrush to the end? Those creep me out. Why don’t they just start fast like normal races? ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/25 "2001-03-21T15:04:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by manhattan \* > \*\*First things first. Hi, Serlin. An administrator will be along shortly. > \*\* HA! I guessed right for once. If only the board allowed rampant speculation on this, I’d have won the sweepstakes! 🙂 As an aside, I’d guess that “G” was Asian, “H” was Black, and the OP was a someone insanely concerned with physical appearance over character, personality or rational thought. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/26 "2001-03-21T15:12:37Z")
Tut tut **Fenris** - you forgot crotch smell. pan ---
**Author:** ![IzzyR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/2acd7d/32.png) [@IzzyR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IzzyR)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/27 "2001-03-21T15:14:14Z")
…despite the fact that I suspect that Race G might be Jews. I think it is undisputed that different groups of people have different cultures. Individual members of these groups will _tend_ to have traits affiliated with these cultures, as compared to members of other cultures. It is quite conceivable that a person from a different culture (or even one from the same, for that matter) will have a dislike to this cultural trait. Therefore, this person will dislike a disproportionate percentage of people from this cultural background. Suppose a person finds a certain trait shared by many WASPs (to use a hopefully non-inflammatory grouping) to be repugnant to him. He therefore tries to avoid WASPs as much as possible. Unless this person actually _mistreats_ WASPs I don’t that he is at all morally deficient. Now the issue may be judging as a group as opposed to judging individually. Why judge a person by what group he is in and not look at him individually? Maybe this person does not share the trait that you find irritating. An excellent idea. But supposing you don’t do this, and supposing you merely assume that Race G = Possible X, and investigate no further, I don’t think you can be said to be guilty of anything greater than an error in judgement. And beyond this, there may well be circumstances under which you do not have the luxury of an individual evaluation. All in all, I think as long as you sincerely do your best to look past your prejudices (as the OP says he does) and you don’t harm anyone else, I don’t think you should be blamed. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/28 "2001-03-21T15:14:52Z")
You and me, Fenris–we owe each other a drink. That was the “screamingly obvious reason” I alluded to in my post above. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Xerxes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/d2c977/32.png) [@Xerxes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xerxes)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/29 "2001-03-21T15:24:17Z")
> [@](#): > > As far as I recall, the issue is not so much own racial group per se as dominant peer group. If I recall correctly, its an issue of familiarity This makes more sense. Going back far enough it _may_ have been a racial group. These days, familiarity is more plausible. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/30 "2001-03-21T15:41:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Stoid \* > \*\*I don’t know what it is…I try and try, but the green skin, the extra fingers, the 3rd nipple… STOID! How dare you?! As a 3 nipple gal I’m offended…I’m suing you for everything you’ve got and I’m placing a curse on you… Perhaps if you took the time to relate to more trinipploids you wouldn’t have such a close minded view! 😃 jarbaby ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/31 "2001-03-21T16:04:29Z")
Back in college I took a Racism in America course. There were five black women, five black men, 2 Iranian women (during Carter’s administration), a woman from China, and me, the token white guy. I wasn’t too popular. One of the big sticking points was my observation that humans tend to divide things up into categories. Tall, short. Fat, thin. Male, female. White/black/whatever. The teacher asked what would end racism. I said that so long as we had races, we would have racism, and that if we eliminated racism, we’d find something else. I suggested a planned, orderly miscegenation of the races so that, 10-15 generations down the road, the vast majority of the human population would have a diverse and roughly equal gene pool. At that point there would still be massive cultural differences, but the physical characteristics could no longer be used to differentiate between people of different cultures. Like I said, I wasn’t too popular. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/32 "2001-03-21T16:48:49Z")
My Doctor friend was a Pakastani refugee who made his way as a child to England and later to America. He’s a very intelligent, and talented guy, as well as having lead one of the most interesting lives I’ve heard of. He speaks 5 languages, and due to circumstances of his youth he effectively belongs to no particular racial culture. Get him drunk and he’ll do uncanny impressions. He’ll admit to changing his “race” depending on circumstances. He can be convincingly Black, Indian, Asian, Hispanic, Arabic, Jewish, or a white guy with a tan depending on circumstances. He’ll frequently adopt a racial identity so that whatever group, or patient he’s working with will identify with him and be at ease. When he wants to sound authoritative he adopts his Arabic Prince with an upper crust English accent, and everyone around him shuts up, and does what he says. As far as I’m concerned, he’s proof positive of a rather obvious fact. What we think of as race, is really pretty much completely culture. Those that insist otherwise are not only stupid, but ripe for manipulation by those who know better. ---
**Author:** ![Sterra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/33 "2001-03-21T17:22:30Z")
Hmm, I thought he was talking about white pepole. Stupid white people!! ---
**Author:** ![celestina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/258eb7/32.png) [@celestina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/celestina)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/34 "2001-03-21T18:30:21Z")
I can’t stand the rat race. People are always rushing around, busy, busy, busy. Why don’t people take more time to smell the roses or go hug a tree? But on a more serious note, I must admit that as an alien from another planet, I really can’t stand the human race sometimes either. Studying them and to some extent interacting with them gets boring sometimes because of their repetitive competitive-destructive behaviors. I sometimes wonder how humans have survived as long as they have. [sigh] ---
**Author:** ![Jadis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@Jadis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jadis)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/35 "2001-03-21T18:43:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shadesofgreen6 \* > **But, all over the news, the TV, the radio, in books, newspapers, articles, magazines and even in cartoons, the message comes out that you are _supposed_ to like every member of every race. Well, I don’t.** I don’t believe that the message that’s coming out is that you’re universally obligated to like every person on the planet. The message that you **should** be getting is that you should be basing your like/dislike of people on your exposure to individuals, not on a generalization of that person’s race, socio-economic level, education, etc. Why not try to base your respect of individuals on the individual rather than what you **think** you know about his/her background based on purely subjective cues such as ethnicity? Form an opinion based on your interaction with that individual rather than an experience you had at some time in the past with someone with the same hair color, eye shape, skin shade, career path or speech pattern? Is that such a difficult concept?? ---
**Author:** ![hapaXL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@hapaXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hapaXL)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/36 "2001-03-21T19:14:07Z")
Anybody else ignoring the mindless content of the OP and just enjoying the guilty pleasure of playing the game: Guess the Stereotype! I guess I can indulge in this because I rarely get offended–it’s all educational to me. C’mon **Shadesofgreen6** , let us know if our answers are correct. My picks: Race G: Asian, or even more specifically, Chinese Race H: Black folks Feel free to post more–this is a perverse form of entertainment for me. ---
**Author:** ![Jois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea666f/32.png) [@Jois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jois)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/37 "2001-03-21T20:12:12Z")
Maybe there is something missing here. The OP knows that he would draw fire with this question, and posted it anyway. He tried to phrase it carefully and, well, missed. He almost does the “beg your pardon” bit and he says that he tries to not feel this way. Could it be some defect, or short cut, mental processing error involved here? He realizes he is in a minority and that a **few** other feel as he does. Maybe he shares this problem with a few others. It is important for us to be able to speedily recognize things that are, for example, dangerous. If you see something amiss on the road while you are driving, you don’t have to grab a measuring tape, figure out the distance between cars and your car and the edge of the road. You don’t have to stop and figure out which is the gas or the brake. Somewhere along the line we have picked up what looks safe on the road and what doesn’t, rough distances between ourselves and other cars and the side of the road and so on. We are mentally wired to sort, catagorize, qualify, determine and react without having to go through the numbers over and over each and every time the same situation comes up and we are able to take whatever this is called (and I think it is more primitive than experience but can call it experience until someone comes up with a better word) and apply it to new situations that are nearly like old ones. If you know what to do when a dog runs in front of your car, you wouldn’t have to start from scratch when a cat runs in front of you car or even a deer or bear. While the examples I’ve given are overly simple, you get the idea. Maybe something doesn’t “turn off” or adapt or adjust as it should. Back to the car example, You’re driving along at night and just see the bear on the edge of the road about to cross in front of you and you jump on the brakes, having to follow through on that basic sequence without regard for the fact that you know there are icy patches along this stretch of road. Just a thought. The April 2001 Atlantic Monthly is freely available on line right now and features an article on Cavalli-Sforsa one of the genetic/bio/anthro guys who thought the genetic works done this past couple of decades would end forever the “race” concept. Jois ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/38 "2001-03-21T20:14:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > As far as I’m concerned, he’s proof positive of a rather obvious fact. What we think of as race, is really pretty much completely culture. Those that insist otherwise are not only stupid, but ripe for manipulation by those who know better. Scylla, we should put this on the race debates page. It’s a beauty. ---
**Author:** ![Jois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea666f/32.png) [@Jois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jois)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/39 "2001-03-21T20:16:42Z")
Try this: [http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/04/olson-p1.htm](http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/04/olson-p1.htm) Jois ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2001, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833/40 "2001-03-21T20:29:10Z")
Perhaps a better question-do you struggle not to be racist? I have to say, yes, sometimes I do. I hate it. It’s like, I see someone of a particular ethnicity doing something-like, for example, at my school, we have a lot of foreign exchange students. Some of them, to put it bluntly, have very poor manners. And, oh shit, how do I put this delicately-they, um, don’t uh…bathe as often as they should. Some of them…have, uh…really bad BO. It seems pretty uh…common? And god, now, it really bothers me! Now, case in point-in some countries, bathing habits are different. But, I automatically notice this every time, and can’t help it from popping into my head. And I HATE this about myself. I hate it! I’d say it’s probably just cultural differences. But for some reason, I seem to notice it more and more… And I hate myself for it. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-race-of-people-you-do-not-like-no-matter-how-hard-you-try/58833.md?page=3)