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Post by Toasted Cheese on Apr 4, 2020 7:29:42 GMT
Racism can often be an ideal card to play when selective reasonings and agendas are on the table. It exists, but within whom? Racism is normal to an extent. We are social animals and have the capacity to care for those within our "group" (which is complex in civilized society) and to be wary of the other, those who are different. For example I was raised in a predominately blue collar Irish American community and there were very clear lines between "us" and "them". Us were family, church, school, and community in roughly that order; they were overwhelmly white protestant, mostly Irish, German, French and English (usually mixed). The Other were everyone else. To a person raised in a more cosmopolitan community, like where I now live, "us" includes multiple races. Both my kids have diverse friend groups that include Africans, Indians, Asians, African Americans, and Asian Americans. The worst racism is institutionalized racism that disadvantages groups of people, that is where the focus needs to be. We will never eliminate individual racism because millions of years of evolution have taught us to prefer those most like ourselves. My dog loves us, she loves other dogs, but she visibly becomes more excited around other yellow labs, labs in other colors, and yellow medium dogs in that order. Yes. The term gets misappropriated and this is often born out of personal insecurities as well. Those that call out racism of white folk, can often act and project the same attitude and behavior of what they are initially condemning. It is when absolute hate and sense of superiority over someone, away from ones own fold of familiarity, becomes about dominance and extremist ideology, that it becomes a problem and needs to be curbed. People need to be realists and stop being so darn precious about the colour of their skin, or shape of their eyes etc, and what others may think about them. Everyone of us has experienced some form of bigotry or prejudice of some sort and there are a myriad reasons for this. Cultural differences and traditions are also going to play a part in how others perceive someone else. These things can't be helped. I feel that when the racist card gets played, it can become about entitlements most of the time.
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