What is Racism?

Rizlared

Rizlared

Well-Known Member
violence begets violence

...but some.people do need a slap

i haven't been able to square that circle yet
 
DiogenesTheWiser

DiogenesTheWiser

Well-Known Member
Rizlared said:
I know, on the surface, it's an easy question to answer but once you get past the basic dislike of a race or the belief that they are inferior to others

What is racism?

The term racist is used a lot on these threads so I'm assuming there are experts on the subject here.

Not so long ago, in England, a high profile sports presenter referred to a black player as being 'coloured'

Front page headlines followed and a public apology released....yet, in America, there is a group called the NAACP who have been fighting for the rights of black people for over 100 years.

(The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People)

The sports presenter in question is of an age where he was taught that coloured was a pc correct term.

Confused?

The Orwellian misuse of language from the pc brigade and HR types of this world have further confused the issue.

Add to that the loss of free speech and the criminalisation of 'words' and we are moving into very dangerous territory.

The Human Rights Act was put in place to protect us ALL from THE STATE.

We are in danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

For clarity...whoever i deal with in life, i choose the words i speak.

They reflect me as an individual.

I prefer to never use the words that are banned by 'race hate' laws because I'm just not that way inclined. As a result, people can make assumptions on my character based on how i present myself.

I prefer it that way. Free choice.

I'm sure there are equally valid, alternative opinions to mine, I'd like to hear them
Click to expand...
Racism is belief in and action based upon the ideology of race.

Race is an ideology of human categorization based on superficial phenotype differences, and the criteria for categorization for one race or another racial group is socially constructed based on the social, political, and economic circumstances of a given era.

For example, the famous American supreme court case, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) legalized racial discrimination in the United States based on a superficial system of categorization. The man who challenged a train company's racial seating rules, Homer Plessy, was phenotypically white. But since he had black ancestry, 1890s society considered him to be "black." So back then, people categorized folks into racial groups based on the criteria that was most important to them back then.

Today, we categorize people into racial groups based on more on phenotype--hair texture, eye shape, skin tone. yet we've all met that guy with obvious Irish or German descent, who wears his hat on sideways, speaks in black slang, and his pants sag down below his waste. He's white, but he may act "black."

As for the NAACP and use of the term "colored" to designate somebody who is African American -- that's a product of race ideology in and of itself, and the fuzzy method by which society figures the criteria for categorizing people racially. "Black" and "white" racial groupings have been constructed categories. "White" in the 1800s meant somebody of Anglo descent. The Irish, while white phenotypically, were considered "black" because they did the work that most American blacks did--agricultural work, hard labor, etc. As these racial groupings were being named in the 1890s and early 1900s, the term "colored" was the polite way back then for saying "black."

And the NAACP was founded in 1909 by a group of interracial socialists, and they named their organization based on the polite terminology at that time for referring to black people or African Americans.

See also the research by Ian Haney Lopez, David Roedigger, Grace Elizabeth Hale, and Noel Ignatiev for further information.

But quite simply, there's only one race of people--the human race. Human beings like to categorize things, so we've done so based on arbitrary phenotype differences, and the categorization system keeps changing.
 
Rizlared

Rizlared

Well-Known Member
DiogenesTheWiser said:
Racism is belief in and action based upon the ideology of race.

Race is an ideology of human categorization based on superficial phenotype differences, and the criteria for categorization for one race or another racial group is socially constructed based on the social, political, and economic circumstances of a given era.

For example, the famous American supreme court case, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) legalized racial discrimination in the United States based on a superficial system of categorization. The man who challenged a train company's racial seating rules, Homer Plessy, was phenotypically white. But since he had black ancestry, 1890s society considered him to be "black." So back then, people categorized folks into racial groups based on the criteria that was most important to them back then.

Today, we categorize people into racial groups based on more on phenotype--hair texture, eye shape, skin tone. yet we've all met that guy with obvious Irish or German descent, who wears his hat on sideways, speaks in black slang, and his pants sag down below his waste. He's white, but he may act "black."

As for the NAACP and use of the term "colored" to designate somebody who is African American -- that's a product of race ideology in and of itself, and the fuzzy method by which society figures the criteria for categorizing people racially. "Black" and "white" racial groupings have been constructed categories. "White" in the 1800s meant somebody of Anglo descent. The Irish, while white phenotypically, were considered "black" because they did the work that most American blacks did--agricultural work, hard labor, etc. As these racial groupings were being named in the 1890s and early 1900s, the term "colored" was the polite way back then for saying "black."

And the NAACP was founded in 1909 by a group of interracial socialists, and they named their organization based on the polite terminology at that time for referring to black people or African Americans.

See also the research by Ian Haney Lopez, David Roedigger, Grace Elizabeth Hale, and Noel Ignatiev for further information.

But quite simply, there's only one race of people--the human race. Human beings like to categorize things, so we've done so based on arbitrary phenotype differences, and the categorization system keeps changing.
Click to expand...
Thanks for taking the time.

I couldn't agree with that last paragraph any more than I do.

I find it a constant source of frustration how much time, energy and resources are wasted on hate...but divide and conquer has successfully kept the 1% on their perch so its not going to change any time soon i guess.

So you've helped my understanding regards NAACP and the use of the word coloured being due to the age of the organisation.

Still not understanding why an apology was required from the presenter for using the word coloured...however silly i find the definition to be.

School taught me to use the word coloured...public enemy taught me otherwise.

It wasn't the schools values i inherited
 
DiogenesTheWiser

DiogenesTheWiser

Well-Known Member
Rizlared said:
Thanks for taking the time.

I couldn't agree with that last paragraph any more than I do.

I find it a constant source of frustration how much time, energy and resources are wasted on hate...but divide and conquer has successfully kept the 1% on their perch so its not going to change any time soon i guess.

So you've helped my understanding regards NAACP and the use of the word coloured being due to the age of the organisation.

Still not understanding why an apology was required from the presenter for using the word coloured...however silly i find the definition to be.

School taught me to use the word coloured...public enemy taught me otherwise.

It wasn't the schools values i inherited
Click to expand...
African Americans--what they are called--has a history in and of itself.

The Spanish and Portuguese called Africans "negra" and that eventually turned into "Negro" and the infamous n-word epithet. In America in the olden days, African Americans were called "bondpeople" if enslaved, and "free black" or "freeman" if not. This is why lots of African Americans today have the surname "Freeman."

After emancipation in 1865, blacks were referred to as "freed people." The first generation in American to reach adulthood after emancipation, the 1890s generation were called "Negro" and "colored" most of the time. Eventually, by the 1960s, Afro-American and later African American became the nomenclature.

And not every black person in American agrees with the "African American" label, claiming that they have not affiliation whatsoever with Africa. Lots of Caribbean blacks as well dislike the label.

If Americans weren't so obsessed with race, maybe we just call black people "Americans" like we do everybody else.
 
esh dov ets

esh dov ets

Well-Known Member
Rizlared said:
I don't know about other countries, here we have a high profile music awards ceremony called the MOBOs

The Music Of Black Origin awards.

Now the existence of these awards gives non black racists (as, let's be fair, black racists exist) ammunition. They say such things as "you wouldn't be allowed a music of white origin awards ceremony"

Would a music of white origin awards ceremony be deemed racist?

Ignoring this...as people suffering confirmation bias (by definition, racists) will cherry pick anything that reinforces that belief, what troubles me is a conversation I had with an ex colleague some years ago.

Her name was (and presumably still is) Michelle, who, it's necessary to add, was a young black woman.

It went like this...

Michelle: " are you watching the mobos tonight?"

Me: "nah, with the exception of the mercury music awards, i don't bother with awards ceremonies"

Michelle: "I've never watched the mercuries. I only watch the MOBOs. Oasis & all that, that's white boy music, what's that got to do with me?"

^^^^^this is my problem^^^^^

You see, the MOBOs are doing nothing more than shifting units by selling identity (and exacerbating issues in the process)

Oasis....a rock and roll band.

rock and roll origins....Chuck Berry, Little Richard

before that the blues

So a band like Oasis, by definition, is music of black origin.

So my issue here isn't the existence of the MOBOs but how their limited format can help shape a negative, and inaccurate, outlook.

Michelle was obviously within her rights for any band to not resonate with her...but for her to do so on racial grounds irrespective of the history of black music i find troubling
Click to expand...
Why is there a niche or a need for an mobo? It sells of courser. Also , do you see that there is a lack of representation in the popys and those. Not only that but many prefer that. So there being a black awards show is a win win for racists. Gives black power a forum separate from the whites and still only includes a few ethnicitys in public. Black and white.


This is to the op since no one will answer.
There are many forms of racism. .. you are probably holding racist believes about your own race without realizing it. Little things. What do looks tell you about someone? There is implicit racism and explicit racism. Looksism classism sexism and racism all must be learned and usually are taught on earth by modern man. These isms are unnecessary man made constructs. These constucts serve power unbalance and the crushing of the bottom 90%
 
Rizlared

Rizlared

Well-Known Member
esh dov ets said:
Why is there a niche or a need for an mobo? It sells of courser. Also , do you see that there is a lack of representation in the popys and those. Not only that but many prefer that. So there being a black awards show is a win win for racists. Gives black power a forum separate from the whites and still only includes a few ethnicitys in public. Black and white.


This is to the op since no one will answer.
There are many forms of racism. .. you are probably holding racist believes about your own race without realizing it. Little things. What do looks tell you about someone? There is implicit racism and explicit racism. Looksism classism sexism and racism all must be learned and usually are taught on earth by modern man. These isms are unnecessary man made constructs. These constucts serve power unbalance and the crushing of the bottom 90%
Click to expand...
Strongly agree with this.

They couldn't have us all treating each other as equals though...we may gain collective unity.

They wouldn't want that
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top