Do you consider yourself racist?

[justoh]

What's your definition of racist?

Hate to break it to you, but being tribal is in your nature as well.

What's wrong with the ordinary definition? Anyway, now we're up to at least 28 self-identified racists! egads

 

[Victorian Gray]

It really is quite simple:

"Definition of racism in English:

racism
Syllabification: rac·ism
Pronunciation: /?ra-?siz?m

noun

1 The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

1.1 Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/racism

 

[shortylickens]

I'm white and I stand up for logic, so yes I am a racist.

 

[Atreus21]

I'm racist but I don't know it.

 

[brianmanahan]

It's an open poll. No need to get defensive.

it's a joke, no need to get defensive.

 

[brianmanahan]

"Definition of racism in English:

racism
Syllabification: rac·ism
Pronunciation: /?ra-?siz?m

noun

1 The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

wait, that means that almost every RPG ever created is racist...

 

[justoh]

wait, that means that almost every RPG ever created is racist...

rpgs don't hold beliefs?

 

[alcoholbob]

Was racism ever truly based on nothing other than skin color? Seems to me that things like "blacks aren't capable of caring for themselves, blacks are happier when someone else is making their decisions, blacks aren't like us" have just been replaced with "blacks are violent, blacks embrace thug culture, blacks are criminals". If people want to believe themselves superior, they can always find a reason.

And yeah, racism is a dying problem with our society. But like any other dying beast, it can still fuck you up before it stops breathing if you are unlucky - and it can still pull through if we become complacent.

Every state handled segregation differently. In some states native americans and hispanics were considered legally white and could use white facilities and go to white schools. In some states if you had a single drop of "nonwhite" blood you were considered "colored". Some states wanted segregation because they thought some races were incapable of an existence equal to whites. Some states created laws to protect whites because they believed whites couldn't compete on equal grounds against other groups (Chinese-only taxes, exclusion laws because the Chinese worked "too hard"). It's a different story in every state.

 

[shortylickens]

wait, that means that almost every RPG ever created is racist...

Yes.
There is rampant racism in games. Many of them are based Lord of the Rings and Tolkein was an uppity white Englishman.
Theres an idea that its OK because its fantasy but its still there.

 

[Jaskalas]

What's wrong with the ordinary definition?

I find that races only exist due to our tribal nature. We separated ourselves over thousands of years. Now that the separation has been broken we're slowly melting together. I favor this union.

It's difficult to agree on the poll's meaning without first spelling out a few things. You appear to think anyone not flat out answering "no" is a supremacist who treats others badly. That's just not the case. The question was not defined as such.

 

[werepossum]

I believe racism is instinctual for humans, so is territorialism. We only need to look to our simian ancestors and relatives to see that differences between 'tribes' wreak fear and anxiety. We used to need to keep invaders from taking our tribe's food and water sources.

It only takes a little sophistication to overcome these instincts, but sadly most(?) people embrace them even though they don't serve us anymore. I've posted here before about a black man who approached me on the train and said, "Mutha f@ckin' cracka, you gonna die mutha f@cka," which was ironic because I've been a champion of civil rights since I knew what they were. I never play the disabled card, but he was saying this to a man (me) in a manual wheelchair.

Disagee. Babies and even small children don't discriminate based on skin color, yet babies and small children are the most vulnerable. (And there are instinctive fears, such as of loud noises.) Small children can see that others are different, but have to be taught that different means bad.

Every state handled segregation differently. In some states native americans and hispanics were considered legally white and could use white facilities and go to white schools. In some states if you had a single drop of "nonwhite" blood you were considered "colored". Some states wanted segregation because they thought some races were incapable of an existence equal to whites. Some states created laws to protect whites because they believed whites couldn't compete on equal grounds against other groups (Chinese-only taxes, exclusion laws because the Chinese worked "too hard"). It's a different story in every state.

True. My point though is that institutional racism has to have some logical basis, otherwise people won't accept it. Ergo it was not "blacks are second class because their skin color is darker" but rather "blacks are second class because they are less intelligent, more brutish, less trustworthy, uncivilized, etc." Doesn't have to be a particularly sensible reason because people can recognize their competitive advantage and therefore can simply not analyze the reasons, but it has to be something people can use to justify their acceptance and still consider themselves good, decent people. Same thing today - white people wouldn't accept more stringent/un-Constitutional police searches of blacks just because they are black, but will happily accept more stringent/un-Constitutional police searches of blacks just because they tend to be criminals at higher rates.

Same thing with gays. People who oppose gay marriage will attempt to justify the discrimination even though the reasons seldom hold water, much less are persuasive. Humans are inherently possessed of an understanding of fairness, so we need something we can use internally to justify it. (Interestingly, chimps and even monkeys have this same understanding. If a monkey sees another monkey receiving a better treat for the same task, that monkey will pitch a monkey fit even though normally it's content with the treat it received.)

 

[bradly1101]

Disagee. Babies and even small children don't discriminate based on skin color, yet babies and small children are the most vulnerable. (And there are instinctive fears, such as of loud noises.) Small children can see that others are different, but have to be taught that different means bad.

I think a lot of instincts come from the basic instinct to mimic. I take your point though, and it relates to my own experience.

I was a 'babe' when it came to understanding why people are racist until I was in my late teens. I grew up in a lily-white neighborhood, and never saw anyone of another race except in books. Those biographies of Martin Luther King made me see that differences can be embraced, and even bring strength and heroics.

A black family moved in when I was in 5th grade. The children were in my grade and younger and were welcomed readily at school. The girl in my grade ran for class president and won. She aced her classes like it was nothing.

The next year they were gone though, and I asked my dad why a whole family would move in only to move out a year later. He told me that the parents were harassed into moving, and that the local police were apparently looking the other way. It made no sense to me that any of this had happened (I later learned that the city - in coastal southern CA - had a law on the books until the '70's that said if you were black and didn't live or work in the city, you weren't allowed to travel through the city).

My job after high school was for a local large retailer (Gemco), and my boss approached me one day to follow him outside. He said that we were going to help catch a shoplifter. I asked what he looked like, and he said, "It's a spook." I said, "What's that?" He told me and I could see the hatred in his response.

We waited outside the store and when the shoplifter came out, he was approached by about five of us. He tried to run. My boss grabbed his arm which swung his back directly into me. And my boss yelled, "Grab him!" So I put my arms around his torso, and my boss proceeded to give him a pummeling until someone in the crowd that had formed pulled him off.

Racism became suddenly very real. As I always do, I try to determine peoples' motivations, and I'm sure poverty drove that man to steal groceries, and I know the store cannot stand for that, yet I sympathized; if it wasn't for that job I don't know what I would have done.

Now I see racism on all sides and in a lot of places (even on comedy shows), which leads me to believe in my instinct theory, even if the basic racism instinct is born from the core instinct to mimic.

 

[werepossum]

^^ I think a lot of this is circular. White store owners see black shoplifters and decide it's okay to hate blacks and treat them differently because they are shoplifters. Blacks who might ordinarily never steal see the white store owners treat them like shoplifters and decide they might as well be shoplifters since they're getting treated that way anyway. Goes back to cops too. Heavily black neighborhoods see cops driving by and those cops remain strangers, only stopping to arrest (or beat, or shoot) people they know or with whom they can at least identify. Cops see a sea of black faces and gradually stop discerning between the law-abiding majority and the law-breaking minority. Thus both parties begin seeing the other as stereotypes. Cops never help anyone because the black community never helps them; the black community never helps them because they see no sign the cops are on their side. When cops walk the beat, they know the people as individuals and the people know them as individuals, not just as someone defined by superficial characteristics.

I do agree that we instinctively cluster with those like us, but I also believe that we're instinctively drawn toward that which is different. What we define as "like us" and what we define as "not like us" is what is learned, and that I think is what overrides our attraction to those who are different.

 

[LightPattern]

IMO it is simply understanding that there ARE differences between the different races and their cultures. I think some would say that seeing any differences at all makes you racist.

These people really get my goat. Same thing about people who think if you acknowledge there are more differences between men & women then the presence of a dick or boobs, makes you sexist.
Secondary sexual characteristics are very real people! Our brains and hence our minds are not immune to these effects.

 

[justoh]

Yes.
There is rampant racism in games. Many of them are based Lord of the Rings and Tolkein was an uppity white Englishman.
Theres an idea that its OK because its fantasy but its still there.

No. Games don't hold beliefs. They're programs?

 

[justoh]

I find that races only exist due to our tribal nature. We separated ourselves over thousands of years. Now that the separation has been broken we're slowly melting together. I favor this union.

It's difficult to agree on the poll's meaning without first spelling out a few things. You appear to think anyone not flat out answering "no" is a supremacist who treats others badly. That's just not the case. The question was not defined as such.

People answering "everyone is a little racist," or "i'm more racist than most" are self-identifying as racist. Get it?

 

[MongGrel]

I like to think I'm not racist, but deep down even trying not to be I know I am to some extent.

I'm much less racist than probably 98% of the people walking about I'd say.

 

[MongGrel]

People answering "everyone is a little racist," or "i'm more racist than most" are self-identifying as racist. Get it?

And anyone saying they aren't are lying to themselves.

 

[shortylickens]

No. Games don't hold beliefs. They're programs?

Oh god, you have no idea whats going on here, do you?

 

[justoh]

And anyone saying they aren't are lying to themselves.

nope

 

[justoh]

Oh god, you have no idea whats going on here, do you?

Dunno. Pretty sure games can't think. Only people can be racist. What am I missing?

 

[werepossum]

No. Games don't hold beliefs. They're programs?

Games have content; therefore games can be racist. Term papers can't hold beliefs either, but write a term paper about how blacks are inferior to whites and everyone will call it (and you) out as racist.

Let's make an example. Create a version of SimCity with two sectors, white and black. In the white sector, you only have to create factories to keep them happy. Work work work work work. Baseline crime is 0%, so you must devote no resources to police protection. In the black sector, you have to provide free food, free health care, free transportation, free child care, etc. or the blacks will riot. Baseline crime is 50%, so you must devote a lot of no resources to police protection, but every 10% of resources allocated to police protection gives a 25% chance of rioting. Are you really going to say that isn't a racist game?

It isn't just the creators either; it could just as easily have been created by black people to make a point. The game has content, ergo the game can be racist. And it doesn't have to be nearly that blatant; in Daikatana, the minority characters were the very worst kind of stereotypical caricatures, and in the end one of them stabs you in the back. (Or would have, had the game as released not had so much fail that you couldn't get to that point.)

 

[Udgnim]

everyone is a little racist

I don't hate skin color

I do hate certain aspects of different cultures

 

[justoh]

It really is quite simple:

"Definition of racism in English:

racism
Syllabification: rac·ism
Pronunciation: /?ra-?siz?m

noun

1 The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

1.1 Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/racism

I like to think I'm not racist, but deep down even trying not to be I know I am to some extent.

I'm much less racist than probably 98% of the people walking about I'd say.

Nobody can be more or less racist than anyone else. You either are or you aren't. There can be differences in the behavior/conduct related/incidental to racism, but racism itself is the underlying belief, and it's either on or off.

 

[TreVader]

everyone is a little racist



I don't hate skin color



I do hate certain aspects of different cultures

Statements that start with "Everyone is" are usually total bullshit.



What aspects of which cultures are you speaking of?