Is being a racist really a big deal?

[Stir]

Studies like this have been done. Your assumptions are correct.

True. But it begs the question, again, of Tribe.
Let's say your entire sample size comes from a single village. For some odd reason, scientists have collected babies from all across the world, and raised those children together, so that racial numbers were completely equal. Now assume that there's two other villages that were treated the same. All those children grew up wearing a distinct village-specific colour in their attire. Let's say village A had red, village B had blue, and village C had yellow.
My hypothesis is that people from a certain village will be more likely to want to form bonds of friendship with someone who had more of their specific village colour in their attire than of the others. People from village A would be more likely to wish to form friendships with someone who wore red as their predominant colour. Likewise, people from village A would feel more empathy towards someone wearing red.

According to my hypothesis, race wouldn't matter. Tribe would.

[/COLOR]actually yes, Europeans are always rioting. They even kill over soccer games.

We've got a history of thousands of years of tribal warfare over resources. Unity came in the form of kingdoms, but those kingdoms used to be relatively small (with some exceptions) and even then, clan warfare was a predominant part of our cultures. Cultures. Tribal warfare is something we grow up in; the symptoms have more or less changed, but the basic premise has not.
Europe is still a very tribal place, with a predominantly tribal culture.

[Cybran]

actually yes, Europeans are always rioting. They even kill over soccer games.

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi694.htm

"Hang your electricity. If you want to make your fortune, invent something to help these fool Europeans kill each other more quickly!"

Maxim took the advice. By 1885 he'd invented the first single-barrel machine gun. This "Maxim Gun" fired 666 rounds a minute, and it changed warfare. The Russo-Japanese War was a storm warning of the slaughter we'd see a decade later in WW-I.

European nationalism has hurt europeans more than any other group of people.

[wow2011]

It is natural for humanity to group based on observable pattern. It's an evolutionary trait that helped animals to survive in general. Everyone is a racist (unless he/she is a genetic mutation that cannot discern differences between people) and there is a spectrum to it. This is why we need to educate ourselves to not be ignorant and thinking a certain DNA strand has violence and mayhem built into it (unless proven by scientific studies that shows the exact DNA sequence(s) that cause this).

I think what you are observing has more to do with culture than race. For example, if I end up in some "race" gangster area, I would be worried if I see anyone of that race with gangter signs. That person could be my own race and I would still be worried. I think you should learn to discern the differences between race and culture.

[Paranoid Android]

You think it should be acceptable to give preferential admission to a weaker student just because they fit a certain ethnic profile? Really? Do you really believe that?

Yes!! They did when George Bush was admitted to Yale and Harvard Business School. Again my point is you are such a hypocrit and so ingnorant its sad. Affirmitive Action happens everyday with white people. Its called being a legacy or my dad/uncle was in this social club so I'll hire his son.

If our President had the slightest sense of irony, he might have paused to ask himself, "Wait a minute. How did I get into Yale?" It wasn't because of any academic achievement: his high school record was ordinary. It wasn't because of his life experience--prosperous family, fancy prep school--which was all too familiar at Yale. It wasn't his SAT scores: 566 verbal and 640 math.

They may not have had an explicit point system at Yale in 1964, but Bush clearly got in because of affirmative action. Affirmative action for the son and grandson of alumni. Affirmative action for a member of a politically influential family. Affirmative action for a boy from a fancy prep school. These forms of affirmative action still go on.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Harvard accepts 40% of applicants who are children of alumni but only 11% of applicants generally. And this kind of affirmative action makes the student body less diverse, not more so. George W. Bush, in fact, may be the most spectacular affirmative-action success story of all time. Until 1994, when he was 48 years old and got elected Governor of Texas, his life was almost empty of accomplishments.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/...irm.action.tm/

Also another study by the National Bureau of Economic Research says "Job applicants with white names needed to send about 10 resumes to get one callback; those with African-American names needed to send around 15 resumes to get one callback." So again people are prejudging on name and what that ethnicity/race may bring. I guess some people call this racism. So again to give minorities the opportunities, not free jobs or education is important. Sine the U.S. was pretty much a white and more specific white man dominated society up until 1970's many white men hold positions of power or influence. Well if you are going to hire people that look, talk and come from same background then we wil pretty much be a "lily white" society.

http://www.nber.org/digest/sep03/w9873.html

[Deleted]

If you ask me, no, being a racist is no big deal. It's up to themselves how they think about other people and I respect that.
That's the world I want to live in, I wish people would respect other peoples choices.

[Paranoid Android]

i'd actually argue that affirmative action holds blacks and Hispanics down and creates the overly strict Asian households. It tells blacks and Hispanics that they don't have to work as hard for good result... and when the good result(college/job) comes they often find themselves in over their head... they've been set-up for failure. Likewise, the slack that is given to the blacks and Hispanics has to be picked up somewhere. That's where the Asians come in who have to have perfect resumes in to get into good colleges (4.0 average + extra-curricular activities). Affirmative action least affects white people who are in the middle who neither are given extra slack not are the ones who are expected to pickup the extra slack.

---------- Post added 2013-01-28 at 02:32 PM ----------

actually yes, Europeans are always rioting. They even kill over soccer games.

Wow so since black and hispanics don't work hard the Asians feel its their duty to pick up the slack??? Alrighty then.

I dont think how say African-Americans or Latino's education and employment have any affect on another ethnicity thrives or declines. I don't know how u correlate the two together. Also, while I'm not a sociolgy expert I can safely say that the ethnic groups of African Americans or Hispanics have been held back more because of socioeconmic issues more than they think they are entitled. I could even go to say a white kid, well any kid in suburbia but lets stay on the lines of race for arguements sake think they are more entitled than some poor kid in the inner city, rural country.

As far as your sterotype of Asians or what/who Hispanics and African Americans are, well I think I know which side of the fence you are on.

[Ebildays]

i'd actually argue that affirmative action holds blacks and Hispanics down and creates the overly strict Asian households. It tells blacks and Hispanics that they don't have to work as hard for good result... and when the good result(college/job) comes they often find themselves in over their head... they've been set-up for failure. Likewise, the slack that is given to the blacks and Hispanics has to be picked up somewhere. That's where the Asians come in who have to have perfect resumes in to get into good colleges (4.0 average + extra-curricular activities). Affirmative action least affects white people who are in the middle who neither are given extra slack not are the ones who are expected to pickup the extra slack.

You are not taking in account that a lot of inner city schools which have mostly black and Hispanic student are behind the schools in better areas. It is not that they don't work hard it is that while they did work hard it was on studies that were not up to grade.

[TheyCallMeTarzan]

I really don't care as long as you keep it to yourself. You can bet your ass that every single member on this forum has ugly traits, but we hide it differently, and most people are good at it. We are all prejudiced to different things, and that's part if being human. There's an evolutionary reason to it, even. Just don't be an ass, then you can think what you like.

[oxymoronic]

This is due to the environment the people grew up in. It has nothing to do with race. It just so happens that black people make up a large portion of the ghetto population. I'm black. I've never committed an act of violence, I've never done drugs or drank alcohol (though I've been offered on several occasions), and I've never broken the law. It's obvious that you are ignorant to other races or else you'd be able to see that not every black person is a violent criminal.

Also, I realize this post is centralized around discrimination of black people, but that's the most prominent form of racism in the U.S. (except maybe middle eastern people, which is still wrong.)

Wish people would stop thinking this. Rich black people do more crime than rich white people - check the stats

[wow2011]

Wish people would stop thinking this. Rich black people do more crime than rich white people - check the stats

You mean rich gangsters like rappers and sports player who grew up from ghettos?

Lots of rappers/bballers were hoodlums before they got rich. Some of them got clean and some of them "stayed real" and make money with their gangsterness. Either way, if you want a fair comparison, compare the culture they grew up in.

[oxymoronic]

You mean rich gangsters like rappers and sports player who grew up from ghettos?

Lots of rappers/bballers were hoodlums before they got rich. Some of them got clean and some of them "stayed real" and make money with their gangsterness. Either way, if you want a fair comparison, compare the culture they grew up in.

hmm, i guess i could agree - most of those players did come from rough backgrounds

[thaimeson]

I'm not sure why this thread hasn't been pulled yet, but while it's up, I guess I'll contribute.
Racism is a bad thing. It's a terrible thing. People that your ideology are the same people that tell their kids to hurry up and stay close whenever someone of colour is walking behind them. The same people that give sideways glances at you and treat you, upon first meeting you, as if you're a ticking time-bomb. It hurts more than you could possibly know. Every single time, without fail. And it's just ridiculous.

[Themius]

If you ask me, no, being a racist is no big deal. It's up to themselves how they think about other people and I respect that.
That's the world I want to live in, I wish people would respect other peoples choices.

Hmm nah... I don't think bigotry should be respected at all. It's pure ignorance.

[Spectral]

If you ask me, no, being a racist is no big deal. It's up to themselves how they think about other people and I respect that.
That's the world I want to live in, I wish people would respect other peoples choices.

What a weird thing. You think other people's choices should be respected, but not necessarily other people if they have the "wrong" skin color.

[kukulcan13]

As far as i'm concerned your only racist if you HATE people specifically for their race

Judging people from statistics isnt racism, and being prejudice against certain people due to past experiences isnt racism either. As a kid if you get stung by a wasp you learn, same goes for people. its very human to look for patterns in behavior and 'judge books by their cover', which isnt even a bad thing, people portray how they want to be seen and should be judged by that.

on another note, give individual people chances, if somebody from a race you tend to think negatively of talks to you, dont be rude, treat them as you would any other person. you might find you have alot in common with them, not everyone from a race is the same.

judge people as people not as a race, but dont be ignorant of statistics.

[Spectral]

As far as i'm concerned your only racist if you HATE people specifically for their race.

I don't really get why you think you should invent your own definition of words. A good general operating definition comes from Wiki:

Racism is usually defined as views, practices and actions reflecting the belief that humanity is divided into distinct biological groups called races and that members of a certain race share certain attributes which make that group as a whole less desirable, more desirable, inferior or superior.

[hakujinbakasama]

I don't really get why you think you should invent your own definition of words. A good general operating definition comes from Wiki:

Because it's a stupid summation?

[Stir]

Judging people from statistics isnt racism, and being prejudice against certain people due to past experiences isnt racism either. As a kid if you get stung by a wasp you learn, same goes for people. its very human to look for patterns in behavior and 'judge books by their cover', which isnt even a bad thing, people portray how they want to be seen and should be judged by that.

on another note, give individual people chances, if somebody from a race you tend to think negatively of talks to you, dont be rude, treat them as you would any other person. you might find you have alot in common with them, not everyone from a race is the same.

judge people as people not as a race, but dont be ignorant of statistics.

This is a load of bollocks.
To judge people from statistics isn't racist at all, no. To judge the behaviour of certain RACES because of certain statistics about certain SUBCULTURES is absolutely racist.
To judge someone based on past experiences with someone else of the same race is understandable because of the wiring of the brain. It is also incredibly STUPID. It simply means you do not have the capacity for awareness of your own thought processes. It is also racist.

You say we shouldn't be ignorant of statistics, and believe you me: I'm not ignorant of statistics. Nor of what they imply. But people aren't great staticians (not even staticians are great staticians), and the implications of statistics are easily misinterpreted. These misinterpretations are often favoured over scientific evidence.
For instance:
A survey shows that 40% of all crime in a certain (large) area is performed by smurfs. In that same (large) area, Smurfs make up only 35% of the total populace. Now; you could argue that this is clear evidence that smurfs are naturally inclined to crime. Now take a look at that same area. In 80% of that area, the amount of smurfs is about 10% when compared to snorks, the 'peaceful' people. However, in the remaining 20% of that area, which happens to be a single neighbourhood, the amount of smurfs is 90%, and snorks only make up 10% of the population.
Generations back, smurfs were treated much differently. They were poor and uneducated. They banded together. Their children didn't get much of an incentive to get a good education, because smurfs were generally seen as inferior, and wouldn't get much of a job anyway. Evidence of this was seen by all smurfs, and they decided that there wasn't any point in bothering. Then a few smurfs thought: 'Well; if we can't get what we need the honest way, we'll go criminal!' Considering the poor state of smurfs, and the fact that they could clearly see the much privileged state of the snorks, this wasn't actually that bad an idea. It caught on. Soon, crime became a part of life. Competition became rampant, which ramped up violence. And now, people would avoid smurfs wherever they see them, and act much more favourably towards snorks. In fact, a lot of people are now believing that violence and crime are a part of smurf nature; that their race is inferior...

Self-fulfilling prophecy. And while the statistics are right, that doesn't mean the statistics have a conclusion as to the cause of those numbers. That's not up to statistics.

[Giants41]

Because your judging people you don't know. I judge people but only after i have met them. Nothing really to do with skin color.

[Pum]

I've done the forums things before on other sites and usually somewhere along the lines somebody will try to label me a racist. Over the years I've grown to accept it (dont really think I am though). I've never hurt somebody over race, hell I still hold a door open for somebody other than my race, I treat them absolutely the same irl but I am a lot more wary of some races compared to others. I guess what it stems down to is being a realist that acknowledges some races are prone to violence, drugs, and general mayhem. Don't really know what I'm trying to get out of this but I'm tired of others thinking racist people are bad. There is many degrees of racism, please don't lump all of us together and dismiss an individual so easily because he/she doesn't think like you.

I think that racism is bad because generally its connotations are immoral and quite simply unfair, unjust, whatever you want to call it. People branding other people for being racist because they're not attracted to black or asian people are just idiots.. Personally I don't think it's the same as having preference to someone with blonde hair over brown hair, but why should it be wrong to have preference over races? I'm sure people of varied ethnicities also have their preferences.

The only problem I have with your opinion is how you think some races are more prone to violence and drugs etc. I think because in society black people have been vilified so much over the years in stead of white people, their actions are exaggerated and made seem worse than their white counterparts. But I'd like to see a global statistic where it shows that black people commit more crime than white people.

P.S. I am drunk, forgive me if there is incoherence.