What is racism?

cormy3
Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:54:46 +0000

Just because you hold negative stereotypes doesn’t necessarily mean you’re racist because at some point or another everyone negatively stereotypes someone of a different race. The difference is you have to realize stereotypes don’t apply to EVERY one in the race. A lot of people who are actually racist believe so deeply in the stereotype that they apply it to EVERYONE whether they actually hold true to whatever negative stereotype is being applied.



That’s an easy standard to meet. I don’t think anyone believes EVERYONE of a certain race fits a stereotype. Yet they may still believe that the generalization drawn from the stereotype applies very widely. For example, I bet even a white supremacist would acknowledge that there are very intelligent URMs. He would acknowledge exceptions. Are white supremacists (the majority) therefore not racist? I’m not judging you, by the way, just curious.



Everyone does hold negative stereotypes of other people, but it’s when you act/speak on it that makes it bad.



So non-racism is a hypocrisy where your words and actions run contrary to your thoughts and beliefs. Being racist, then, is nothing more than a matter of politeness.



Yes. Only some black chicks are lound and obnoxious, not all of them.



Okay. Many people say this all the time, but they’re labelled as racist. What’s your take on that?

Furthermore, what about someone who believes this and then bases his actions on it. Such as, he refuses to date black women because, probabilistically, they have higher chances of being loud and obnoxious. This person admits that not all are this way, but given the pragmatics of navigating our world – wherein the amount of women he will have the opportunity to meet is finite – the use of generalization is justified in this way just like any sane person would generalize that the College Confidential forum is filled with people interested in college.