Isn't everyone somewhat racist?

[Caladan]

Its not the first time I see similar sentiments like those in the OP. I came in concat with many Europeans that while voicing very politically correct views in public, in the saftey of their own house say very different things.
for example my wife's family is French, as far as I know traditionally they all vote for the left. when me and my wife got together, I believe one of the first questions that my mother in law asked my wife was to reassure her that I was not a Muslim. she had a sigh of relief when she met me and learned that I'm Jewish.
its not uncommon to see politically correctness and negative notions held about groups of people at the same time.

I don't know. personally I can talk to anyone anyday as long as they are civil. in London, I lived in what was traditionally considered a black neighborhood. people used to tell me I am probably the only Jewish guy around, but I met some really great people there and we hit it off immidiatley.
my generation of Israelis is pretty lucky in that we are a melange of ethnicities, often very mixed, and we have developed a pretty laid back Mediterranean mentality. we are mixed anything from German to Persian. and yes our advantage is that we are also all ethnically Jewish.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

To be racist doesn't necessarily mean to be "against a whole group".
It can be as mild as presuming differences that aren't always there,
eg, white men can't jump, black mothers are single, Revoltifarians are all cuddly.

I would say that is stereotyping not racism.

 

[nnmartin]

even in the most tolerant of societies you don't see a great deal of mixing.

in the UK for instance it is quite rare to see a white man with a black girlfriend.

but this is hardly racism,it's just that people tend to stick with others whom they perceive to be similar.

 

[HerDotness]

I'm sure it's true that everyone has prejudices. I was speaking more of ones that a person suddenly becomes aware of or may simply believe without ever questioning as being "somewhat racist."

For example, since I grew up in the 1950's in a very small town where there were almost no non-whites and not a single black person that I ever saw, my mother explained that black people are just people with darker colored skin.

And yet, when we visited the college my mother had attended in another state, she told me that she'd been very fond of a classmate who was a Negro (as black people were called by whites then.) This woman, Mom said, kept herself exceptionally clean and well-groomed since Negroes have a bad smell if they aren't careful to bathe thoroughly. I was just a kid. I had no way to know that was a bigoted statement and that any person will smell bad if carelessly washed; blacks don't have a distinctive bad smell all their own. It wasn't until I was in college that I thought back to that and realized that it was a bigoted and ignorant statement.

 

[Revoltingest]

I would say that is stereotyping not racism.

We should try an experiment regarding popular use of language.
I'll hold a press conference with TV news coverage.
I'll proclaim......
"That Obama is a watermelon & fried chicken eat'n fellow who is surprisingly clean & well spoken, & sure can dance!"
We shall see if I'm denounced as "racist".
(Ya know....I just realized that everything in the announcement is actually true!)

 

[Shermana]

I love watermelon and fried chicken, it's no fair that blacks get the stereotype for that. I'd eat (kosher) fried chicken and watermelon 7 days a week. Provided that it's cooked in an organic oil.

 

[Revoltingest]

I love watermelon and fried chicken, it's no fair that blacks get the stereotype for that. I'd eat (kosher) fried chicken and watermelon 7 days a week. Provided that it's cooked in an organic oil.

At least you aren't depicted eating haggis.

 

[Father Heathen]

On the subject of racism, one thing that really irks me is the attitude that only whites can be racist or that only whites commit hate crimes. If a black person refers to a white person as "white boy" or "honky", no one bats an eye, but if a white person were to refer to a black person as "black boy" or "******", the shrieks would fill the air. If a group of whites beat a black person, there is public outrage and outcry (and rightfully so). But if a group of blacks beat a white person, there is nary a peep in the media. It's blatant hypocrisy and double standards.
Also, I think when people avoid certain neighborhoods, it's because they fear that they themselves would be targetted due to their own race as an "outsider". So it's not that they are racist, but the fact that others are.
Also, people seem to have trouble distinguishing between race and culture. Personally, I loathe that ghetto gangsta thug culture, but of course no one race is exclusive to one culture, and vice versa.

 

[Mathematician]

Everyone stereotypes; we have to organize information somehow. I wouldn't say everyone is racist. If that were true, the term has little purpose.

 

[Revoltingest]

Everyone stereotypes; we have to organize information somehow. I wouldn't say everyone is racist. If that were true, the term has little purpose.

There are degrees of racism.
Some beliefs & practices are more pernicious than others.
Besides, I'm not pushing it as a definition, but rather a way of seeing things.

 

[McBell]

I know that I am.

I have no problem hanging out with people of any skin color. Having grown up during the 1960's, I fully support the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement. It's wonderful that people of all races can eat in restaurants or stay in whatever motel or hotel they can afford. I couldn't understand as a child when encountering a sign that said "Whites Only" while vacationing in the South how that made sense.

And yet...when I was looking for housing in a city I wasn't very familiar with, one of about 300,000, I was pressed for time to find a place to live and took my realtor's advice when she said that there were some integrated areas that she wouldn't advise my looking into because they wouldn't be safe for a woman living alone. I'd have preferred to take the time to investigate for myself but had to start my new job too soon to be able to do that and still get moved and settled in. Whether or not an area is safe isn't always easily determined by a drive-through, and one can hardly knock on strangers' doors and ask, "Do you think your neighborhood is safe?"

Finding a house I liked that I could afford in a peaceful neighborhood were higher priorities for me than whether or not the area was one of intermingled races.

So, am I a racist? I think so...especially since I'm white and would hesitate to move into a predominantly black or Asian or Hispanic area if I didn't know someone who lived there to enable me to get an insider's sense of what it was like.

How about you? Are you a racist?

Define "racist"

 

[Sweet Marie]

I don't believe we are all racist but we are certainly prejudice. We all have a sense of in-group and out-group. This is important especially when we are children. A child that lacks this sense is in danger of kidnapping or a long list of other terrible scenarios however unlikely. Our brains make us listen to our in-groups (mom and dad) without question. If you are a child standing in the middle of a road and dad says "get off the road" and you don't because he didn't give an explanation for why you shouldn't be on the road, you might already be dead.
What this in-group/out-group bias turns into when we become adults depends on our individual experiences. Our jump to prejudice is not unusual and is sometimes necessary to keep us safe but is not always logical. A persons physical appearance (sex, skin color or dress) tells us very little about there personality or intentions, but is sometimes our only tell. Walking alone down a dark alleyway (being female, about 5ft and 120lbs.) it is useful for me to judge a stranger as a threat. If the stranger is of a different race than I am, I should not be more or less inclined to feel that person is threat, but the more differences physically between me and that person the more my brain says they are dangerous. In social situations where we are safe and have more time to gain information about a person, this automatic bias is not needed or useful in this situation.
When we talk about where we live, it would be better to ask what type of experience you want to have. If the community seems to have more similarities to you (wealth, education and possibly religion), it would be a reinforcement of what you already know or believe. If the community appears to be different, the possibilities of new experiences would be much greater. New experiences good and bad give us a wealth of knowledge and force us to grow as individuals.
I would hope for all adults to grow out of the child like bias towards "in-group", as I believe it would give us more knowledge, understanding and compassion.

 

[HerDotness]

Define "racist"

As I mean the term here, it involves accepting as true certain generalizations about a group of people which you aren't positive are true.

I don't know that it would have been unsafe for me to live in or near a predominantly black area, but I believed that it's risky to move into an area mostly inhabited by people not of one's own race or ethnicity. I am still uncomfortable by the realization that I'd rather live where there are mostly whites.

 

[Shermana]

At least you aren't depicted eating haggis.

I hear Haggis is quite delicious, in fact, your post inspired me to google Kosher haggis, and lo and behold, there's a new place not too far away that is selling Kosher haggis burgers.

Kosher haggis burgers as Gorbals cuisine hits Los Angeles | Caledonian Mercury - Strangelets

I eagerly await to try.

 

[connermt]

I know that I am.

I have no problem hanging out with people of any skin color. Having grown up during the 1960's, I fully support the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement. It's wonderful that people of all races can eat in restaurants or stay in whatever motel or hotel they can afford. I couldn't understand as a child when encountering a sign that said "Whites Only" while vacationing in the South how that made sense.

And yet...when I was looking for housing in a city I wasn't very familiar with, one of about 300,000, I was pressed for time to find a place to live and took my realtor's advice when she said that there were some integrated areas that she wouldn't advise my looking into because they wouldn't be safe for a woman living alone. I'd have preferred to take the time to investigate for myself but had to start my new job too soon to be able to do that and still get moved and settled in. Whether or not an area is safe isn't always easily determined by a drive-through, and one can hardly knock on strangers' doors and ask, "Do you think your neighborhood is safe?"

Finding a house I liked that I could afford in a peaceful neighborhood were higher priorities for me than whether or not the area was one of intermingled races.

So, am I a racist? I think so...especially since I'm white and would hesitate to move into a predominantly black or Asian or Hispanic area if I didn't know someone who lived there to enable me to get an insider's sense of what it was like.

How about you? Are you a racist?

In my experience, very, very few are 100% "this or that". Everyone is a little bit of everything, including racists.

 

[McBell]

As I mean the term here, it involves accepting as true certain generalizations about a group of people which you aren't positive are true.

I don't know that it would have been unsafe for me to live in or near a predominantly black area, but I believed that it's risky to move into an area mostly inhabited by people not of one's own race or ethnicity. I am still uncomfortable by the realization that I'd rather live where there are mostly whites.

What if you know that statistically in certain areas that certain groups of people are more likely to have a problem with your being in a certain area?
Would you consider that racist?

 

[Road Warrior]

I think xenophobia is a survival trait and, therefore, yes, all of us are a "somewhat racist".

A few hundred years of relative civilization doesn't negate a few hundred thousand years of evolution in the species of modern man.

However, given that we are, supposedly, civilized human beings, then by virtue of our intellect we should be able to rise above our baser instincts just as we rise above inclinations to rape, murder and take from others.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

If you're racist for understanding and being aware that there are people with different skin colours than your own, then you are sexist for being aware and understanding the difference between a male and a female.

 

[HerDotness]

What if you know that statistically in certain areas that certain groups of people are more likely to have a problem with your being in a certain area?
Would you consider that racist?

Not really. Avoiding that area because of a known threat would simply be prudent. I was speaking of my hesitancy based upon lack of knowledge of the city as well as having simply accepted my realtor's assessment. Maybe she was correct, and I'm feeling guilty with little reason to do so.

And shortly before we moved from the city mentioned in the OP, I saw a letter to the editor of the local paper discussing how the writer, a black male professional, felt somewhat disloyal because he'd found that housing in largely white areas was nicer on the whole, better maintained and the area generally safer. He mused about why was it that black areas of the city seemed to be much more prone to drive-by's and gang violence and why didn't people figure out some means of opposing and discouraging such things. He said he'd like to be able to live among blacks but chose not to because so many black neighborhoods were poorly maintained and unsafe.

An elitist attitude? Perhaps.

 

[Road Warrior]

If you're racist for understanding and being aware that there are people with different skin colours than your own, then you are sexist for being aware and understanding the difference between a male and a female.

Agreed, but don't stop there. Include religious beliefs (or lack of them), nationality, regionality, language, height, weight, hair color and every other human difference that exists in the world.

We are what we are and the sooner we understand why we are what we are, the better off we will become.