Racism

[too-open-minded]

In my opinion.

 

Racism is actually culturalism, the ignorant are blind.

 

LABELS and CATEGORIES, tools of the trade for the ones who aren't content with not understanding or having knowledge of.

[Iota]

I'd agree to an extent, yes. Far right-winged politicians often use the argument that 'their' culture is being destroyed/diluted by immigration of people from other countries and other cultures. I think culturalism can exist without having said racism though, especially considering the current emergence of multiculturalism in many Western countries.

I also agree with what you said about labels and categories, because they do, inevitably, form divisions between the peoples of a given population. Given that we are all human, we are all very similar, and small differences e.g. language, accent, skin colour... are creating big divisions, and for no good reason. It's the sort of behaviour you would expect from a pack of wild, brainless animals; not the supposed master race.

 

I think these factors play greater importance:

1. Lack of Education
2. Bad Role Model Parents
3. Patriotism
4. Mass Media

Basically, anyway. Many things cause it.

 

I think there is a lot of confusion about racism in a lot of Western countries too, where the 'minorities' are over-protected by the law, to the point where double-standards begin to exist. Where, for example, the nursery rhyme 'bah bah black sheep' was almost eradicated from commercial uses in the UK, because it could be seen as racist, even though it's nothing to do with people or skin colour.

 

Main 'cure' for racism; better and more wide-spread education... and mass media needs to condemn racism and reinforce multiculturalism as a good thing. Seeing as most people listen to their TVs more than anything else today.

 

[iNow]

LABELS and CATEGORIES, tools of the trade for the ones who aren't content with not understanding or having knowledge of.

While I agree that racism is ignorant, and that melanin content of skin does not give the information so many people seem to think it does, I would not be so sure about this comment above. Categorization is a basic approach taken by essentially all biological forms, and this is true even with chemistry and physics to some extent.

 

Think... even intensely basic life forms and single celled amoeba will tend to classify objects and "categorize" things. Perhaps not consciously or with intention, but they will express and react according to distinctions between food and not-food, or "ouch" and "not-ouch." The same can be said of plants (light and not light) and other animals and insects (nectar versus poison, or mate versus predator). This type of distinction and categorization process is really common across essentially all forms of life.

 

Likewise, in chemistry and physics itself. You have negative versus positive charges that express themselves through ions and bonding. It's as if categorization is inherent in the universe itself. The point is that "categories" are in many ways inherent. Even if you completely reject the above assertions as hippy dippy woo woo, labels and categories have also helped us to succeed evolutionary as humans. We classify and label sources of food or sources of water and sources of danger, and we use those categories and labels to maximize our chances of survival in the future. Further, all of these categories and labels tend to help us to pass successful offspring into future generations, and to teach those new generations how to maximize their own chances of survival and successful reproduction.

 

While skin color is not a good way to classify things, and while too many ignorant people make ignorant comments just because someone has a darker or lighter dermal tone, the idea of categorization itself is hardly to blame, IMO. Categorization is common throughout the cosmos in various forms and fashions, and I propose that your criticism would be more aptly directed at our response to those categories and labels, not the labels themselves.

[too-open-minded]

No lol, you are very right iNow. It is not the labels and categories themselves that hinder us, it is our own interpretations.

 

When an ignorant person doesnt understand something, they try to assimilate it most to themselves so they may understand it in the process. Although what their trying to understand is so different that by labeling and categorizing something foreign, they misinterpret it.

 

Think about the cultural difference between middle eastern muslims and americans. Theirs words in arabic that dont even translate to english and vise versa. Their views on modesty are different than ours. Men and women cover their bodies not just women. They believe that the way people look at eachother is not pure like the way god looks at something. That is why they are adamant about their modesty.

 

Our labels and categories misinterpet these things. I'll reiterate OUR. Like you said, its not the labels and categories themselves. It is our interpretations of such.

[SomethingToPonder]

I dont agree with it as a whole. Though i think that in todays age it is all blown out of proportion.
If aliens were to come to the planet earth , I doubt they would look at us differently or choose a "superior" race to contact, due to a religion or color of skin. My bet is they would look at us as being primitive for even having things that would separate our race into segments and that cause a huge amount of the worlds problems.
Although In the time we live in now, Some religions are possibly holding some countries in the past, islam being one of the top of my head. The fact that people are still getting arrested for kissing in public is a good starting point. I mean maybe some people just dont like the culture,not necessarily the race. i personally am not the biggest fan, But respect people's right to choice.

Do you think that 1 maybe 2 hundred years from now we'l all be one big mixed race of humans, Due to people having mixed race babies? maybe even 500 years but same principle, Then we will all just be humans.

[Prometheus]

While skin color is not a good way to classify things...

 

Well said. And the only category that should matter in this context is sentient or not sentient.

 

 

Do you think that 1 maybe 2 hundred years from now we'l all be one big mixed race of humans, Due to people having mixed race babies? maybe even 500 years but same principle, Then we will all just be humans.

 

I hope not, a bit of variety is nice.

 

 

Maybe controversial but a would favour the colour-blind approach over the multicultural approach. I don't need to be sensitive to someone else's culture if i treat them as a human being from the start.

[Phi for All]

Do you think that 1 maybe 2 hundred years from now we'l all be one big mixed race of humans, Due to people having mixed race babies? maybe even 500 years but same principle, Then we will all just be humans.

I've pondered this as well. Would we all be golden-skinned? Would we gain anything else, maybe increased health and resistance to disease? Overcoming fears and prejudices might have even more benefits than just the obvious sociological ones.

[too-open-minded]

I think their will always be discretions even if we are all one race, untill we have a universal culture. I see the human race completely mixing races before we reach a universal culture.