A Discussion Thread About Racism in America

CapAquaPis

Well-known member
That is true, money corrupt hearts and minds!

I have a question.. before being attacked by terrorist in September 2001, Did American people reject Muslims? or the problem began after that horrible day?

Yes, there was increased Islamophobia and heightened anti-Arabism in the US as a result, but the US government didn't outlaw the Islamic faith nor made it illegal to have Arab ancestry. In WW2, the Japanese in the west coast were forced into military internment camps, as society thought the Japanese were spies or saboteurs or disloyal to the US after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. And in the 1990s, Prop 187 passed by CA voters for undocumented immigrants to not get public services, but the SCOTUS 9th circuit blocked the law from going ahead, because it violated the US constitution and the 1964 Civil Rights Act (discrimination against Hispanics/Latinos based on ethnicity was possible).
 

CapAquaPis

Well-known member
Ohh... well I was just saying from my experience. Almost no one at my high school was racist.

My 17-year old nephew said hardly anyone is racist, but they like to make jokes that are edgy or their parents or grandparents cringe hearing them. They don't really mean it, they find racism and other prejudice to be a huge joke itself. If they're like "hey woman, make me a sammich", sounds awfully sexist/misogynist. Their female friend would make a joke back like "go clean my pool, Mexican" or "light up my cigarette, Negro". :-/ Everyone laughs. The idea of race is foreign to that generation, seen more as pseudo-scientific, unnecessary in life and taboo or something to avoid entirely. And they have a more fluid way in expressions of gender identities and sexual orientations.

Each generation in the 20th century now in the 21st, the 7 generations in the last 125 years, racism becomes less common and more unacceptable. The 1920 generation approved women's right to vote (against Victorian era sexism), the 1940s accepted Jews (part of WW2 American patriotism), the 1970s rejected old ideas about race as unscientific (baby boomer radicalism and liberalism), and the 1990s stood up against homophobia to a point to be homophobe now is a bigger liability than being homosexual or gay/Lesbian.

Looking back and comparison to our present day, we all can learn and unlearn in the process of being or becoming better people towards others. Personally, my grandparents weren't racists honestly, my own parents didn't buy into homophobia in the Republican party before they switched to the Democrats (my Mom's American grandparents were FDR-Truman Democrats) and finally, my greatgrandma was a school teacher in Nebraska in the 1920s told my Mom she knew a "slow" child, but she taught him and made him able to live a normal life, today we consider the child to have a learning disability.
 

CapAquaPis

Well-known member
JupiterASC, an ice cream shop protested laws in Australia didn't recognize same-sex marriage for one day not sale double-scoops of the same flavor of ice cream. Businesses get into political activism to protest social inequalities, discrimination and the like - there was a day when women can call in sick for "being female" (March 8? Intl Women's Day, social attitudes about women are "weak or inferior"). The German grocery store made a great point xenophobia is bad to all of us, esp. in their business practices, and the trade global economy.

Sometimes I wondered if there were no Jewish people, you wouldn't have Moses, Jesus Christ (or Christianity), Karl Marx, or Hollywood (entertainment industry), not even Jonas Salk (inventor of the polio vaccine), Albert Einstein (brilliant tried and true scientific theories), or the Prophet Mohammad in Arabia influenced by Judaism to formed his religion of Islam. People who are racist, just like anti-semitic, need to stop dislike of people based on color or religion. Same applies to misogyny and homophobia both based on male chauvinism.
 

Dirius

Well-known member
The U.S. is one of the least racist countries in the world, just like the U.K, Australia, and many former british colonies. Why is it that somehow, the countries with the least indicators of racism have the largest number of protests against racism and inequality.....?:unsure::unsure:

I'm astonished that no one has mentioned the financial component here. How many people benefit from this social protests, by selling books, getting time on tv, blogs, etc. By stirring up protesters, you get an audience to sell them your ideas. Hate is $$.
 

JUPITERASC

Well-known member
The U.S. is one of the least racist countries in the world, just like the U.K, Australia, and many former british colonies. Why is it that somehow, the countries with the least indicators of racism have the largest number of protests against racism and inequality.....?:unsure::unsure:

I'm astonished that no one has mentioned the financial component here. How many people benefit from this social protests, by selling books, getting time on tv, blogs, etc. By stirring up protesters, you get an audience to sell them your ideas. Hate is $$.
Charlottesville and the Effort to Downplay Racism in America :smile:
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/ji...-and-the-effort-to-downplay-racism-in-america
 

Dirius

Well-known member

Social protests about racism happened way before neo-nazis decided to make public racist demonstrations. :andy::andy:

They are stil a very small number of people that held these views. Neo-nazi groups are common in all parts of the world, and are usually a very tiny minority. That doesn't mean that a country, as a whole, is racist.

Its fine when you want to point out racist cases such as this one, which is a specific one. The problem is when you have groups actively protesting anything about another racial group, just for the sole purpose of hitting the news, and making self publicity, such as black lives matter activists that ask for special black only days on campus. Thats stupid.
 
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CapAquaPis

Well-known member
The main issue on racism is socioeconomic issues and income disparities between White and African-Americans. On average, Whites earn above $125,000 a year vs. Blacks earn on average $55,000 a year. This is caused by 4 centuries of lack of inter-generational wealth for Blacks, which many Whites accumulated then passed on to the next generation of children, grandkids, great-grands, and descendants. There are many lower-middle class and low-income Whites, like 20% vs. 35% of Blacks - but over 50 million Whites vs. 15 million Blacks. The Civil Rights movement in the 1960s opened doors and opportunities, but the USA since the 1980s became more socioeconomically inequal, and this will affect African-Americans more than majority of Whites.
 

waybread

Well-known member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVJkLcDVUIs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLPj2h0N3bU

I think a big problem is that people who live in the ranks of a privileged ethnic group-- even if they are not wealthy or face some other type of discimination-- do not, and perhaps cannot understand how life feels to a member of an under-privileged ethnic group. We have to somehow get outside our own life experiences, and truly need to see and listen, even if we cannot truly "walk a mile in the other man's shoes."

I think the Black Lives Matter movement brought to national attention the problem for African American males of "walking while Black" or "driving while Black." It did not do so without multiple injustices, but angry young people and highly stressed police forced to make split-second judgement calls cannot always predict the larger consequences of their actions.

I experienced privilege growing up in a professional class white suburb. I took it for granted, and as a child, I didn't even understand why "those poor people" couldn't just have a nice house like my family did. Some real world life experience and a wonderful African American college roommate later, my naivete shrank slightly. When I tried as a woman to enter a male-oriented profession, I found that privilege cut across several axes, notably gender. So we may not experience racism personally, but we can try to understand it based upon another type of discrimination that affects us personally.

So it's a constant learning process. And fear of the Other is a big inhibitor to learning.

Those 20-year old Nazi sympathizers marching in Virginia were both very young and afraid.
 

AppLeo

Well-known member
quote-racism-is-the-lowest-most-crudely-primitive-form-of-collectivism-it-is-the-notion-of-ayn-rand-86-69-70.jpg
 

david starling

Well-known member
If there was some way to stop describing people using colors, and instead, refer to them by culture and group history, I think it would be a step forward. Labels are a powerful influence. "Native American" instead of "Red-race", "Afro-American" instead of "Black", "Euro-American", instead of "White", etc.
 

david starling

Well-known member
Hey, how about those Redskins! And, isn't it an appropriate name for the athletic franchise of the Capital city of the nation that committed racially inspired atrocities against the indigenous culture, while expropriating their land?
 
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david starling

Well-known member
re: Native Americans
Other naming conventions have been proposed and used
but NONE are accepted by ALL indigenous groups :smile:
Typically, each name has a particular audience
and political or cultural connotation, and regional usage varies.



That's a problem with labels. For example, the children of Mexican immigrants have various names for their groupings from one State to another. It's not a "one label fits all" situation. But,"Latino" is being used indiscriminately, regardless of what Spanish-speaking culture is involved, or whether the people immigrated here or were born and raised here.
 

david starling

Well-known member
All those descriptive labels refer to "Americans"
thus underlining
the disregard of the mass genocide
of the vast majority of the indigenous peoples

and the theft of their land

regarding the indigenous peoples :smile:
whose land has been stolen
the label pre-fix "American" simply adds insult to injury

Good point. Except, there are Indigenous peoples in Canada, Honduras, Ecuador, Chile, etc. And this country is NOW referred to in geopolitical terms as "America", so Indigenous cultures based here, that survived the Holocaust, are accurately described as such. Not all "Indigenous" cultures have the same historical legacy.
 

CapAquaPis

Well-known member
That's a problem with labels. For example, the children of Mexican immigrants have various names for their groupings from one State to another. It's not a "one label fits all" situation. But,"Latino" is being used indiscriminately, regardless of what Spanish-speaking culture is involved, or whether the people immigrated here or were born and raised here.

or the definition of Asian-American, between 25 to 35 Asian nationalities and ethnicities (immigrants or native-born) in East, Southeast, South and Central Asia (the continent). Pacific Islanders too from the Pacific ocean region. And Middle Easterners are counted as "white", like Arabs (20-25 nations), Armenians, Assyrians, Azeris, Afghans, Kurds, Persians and Turks.
 

david starling

Well-known member
"Aboriginals" could be used, but you'd still have to specify their group history. Also, it's been taken to mean the Indigenous cultures of Australia and New Zealand. Admitting this land is now under the effective control of a group calling it "America" (notice the exclusion of Canada and Mexico in the slogan "Make America Great Again", even though those nations are North-American as well) isn't the same as excusing what was done, and is still being done here.
 

CapAquaPis

Well-known member
An article on my newsfeed this morning: America was never white and will never be. http://www.newsweek.com/america-was-never-white-and-it-never-will-be-655363 The first US census in 1970 found about 26% (may be as high as 35%) of the population was black or 740,000 Africans, about 90% of them were slaves. Also between 5-10% are Native Americans with US citizenship. and many Irish and German immigrants, as well earlier Dutch, French and Swedes before the British colonial era (but the Spanish were already in Florida).
 

david starling

Well-known member
An article on my newsfeed this morning: America was never white and will never be. http://www.newsweek.com/america-was-never-white-and-it-never-will-be-655363 The first US census in 1970 found about 26% (may be as high as 35%) of the population was black or 740,000 Africans, about 90% of them were slaves. Also between 5-10% are Native Americans with US citizenship. and many Irish and German immigrants, as well earlier Dutch, French and Swedes before the British colonial era (but the Spanish were already in Florida).

Right. The CULTURE of this Nation is currently of EUROPEAN origin. But, you, yourself, shouldn't have to be of European origin to FULLY participate in it and benefit from it. That's where the racism comes into play.
Try eliminating the label "White", and substitute "Caucasian"(a label referring to those primarily of European origin).
 
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