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  #1  
Old 11-15-2010, 07:34 AM
aegsm76 aegsm76 is offline
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Is racism/intolerance endemic to all races

I am not sure if I have the title of the thread right, but the various discussions in AFF over the last few days/weeks, have got me thinking.
Are we all more prejudiced than we realize?
I include myself in this question.
All of us seem to be very quick to defend people/organizations/viewpoints that are primarily made up of people from our racial or ethnic background.
We seem a lot more quick to defend these, than other issues, and to take these more personally.
As someone who participated in some of the Promise Keeper rallies, the subject of racism always seemed to draw a very emotional response from all men. Thus, I know it was hitting a nerve.
Looking for serious thoughts, without throwing stones!!
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Old 11-15-2010, 07:56 AM
coadie coadie is offline
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Re: Is racism/intolerance endemic to all races

Racism is with us since the tower of Babel. It was cranked up a notch when Darwin came along and folks bought into his theory of ecvolution. Since he claimed we came from apes, he also claimed caucasians were more evolved in distance from the ape brethern.
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Old 11-15-2010, 07:58 AM
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Re: Is racism/intolerance endemic to all races

I think there are still people today... plenty of them... who are racists.

But I also think that we live in an ultra sensitive society that lives in an atmosphere where we are taught how to recognize, label and be offended by everything that could possibly be racism.

We are living in a world of overkill in the area of labeling things as racism.

This plays out in so many ways. Not just in racism. People are "offended" when someone prays. People feel there needs to be recompense when someone says anything in disagreement with their beliefs.

Not just in racism... but in many other forms of human behavior... we live in a society keenly atuned to every little nuance in human activity so that every offense may be labeled & pointed out. It doesn't bring progress.
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Old 11-15-2010, 08:02 AM
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Re: Is racism/intolerance endemic to all races

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Originally Posted by Digging4Truth View Post
I think there are still people today... plenty of them... who are racists.

But I also think that we live in an ultra sensitive society that lives in an atmosphere where we are taught how to recognize, label and be offended by everything that could possibly be racism.

We are living in a world of overkill in the area of labeling things as racism.

This plays out in so many ways. Not just in racism. People are "offended" when someone prays. People feel there needs to be recompense when someone says anything in disagreement with their beliefs.

Not just in racism... but in many other forms of human behavior... we live in a society keenly atuned to every little nuance in human activity so that every offense may be labeled & pointed out. It doesn't bring progress.
I agree - - too much awareness -- just be.
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Old 11-15-2010, 03:46 PM
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Re: Is racism/intolerance endemic to all races

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Originally Posted by rgcraig View Post
I agree - - too much awareness -- just be.
I totally agree we need to "just be".

My personal theory is that racism has always been there, probably no more or less, but we hear it now from so many difference sources. Constant communication and 24/7 news programs (talking heads) and the ability to broadcast one's opinions far and wide is providing the platform and audience. I believe it's only going to get worse.
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Old 11-15-2010, 04:42 PM
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Re: Is racism/intolerance endemic to all races

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Originally Posted by coadie View Post
Racism is with us since the tower of Babel. It was cranked up a notch when Darwin came along and folks bought into his theory of ecvolution. Since he claimed we came from apes, he also claimed caucasians were more evolved in distance from the ape brethern.
LOL. More misapprehensions from coadie.

There is a site in Brazil where dozens of Australian "negroids" were found slaughtered. This site dates back to about 12,000 years ago; long before coadie's "Tower of Babel." The "Indians" of Terra de Fuego (at the tip of South America) are genetically related to Australian Aborigines. Since the remains of other related people are found at far more ancient sites throughout South America, it stands to reason that they were pushed out of their homes by other "Indians." Racism amongst the "Native Americans" was rife.

To find the source of racism coadie really needs to look no further than the story of Cain and Abel. One brother hated the other and killed him. This is the seminal germ of all forms of racism.

Even Darwin, with his "Common Descent" recognized the truths found in this account. Darwin did appear to error when he worried that the culturally and technologically advanced European "races" might displace the indigenousness people around the world. (The Europeans were technologically more "advanced" than others, NOT biologically more "evolved)." A post graduate level course in genetics at any Ivy League University would have helped coadie to understand this. The rest of us can read the best selling book "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond.

Darwin needlessly worried about the loss of "indigenous" people because he had apparently not taken into account the fact that the peoples of the tropics were often more adapted to those environments than their northern brethren. He also seems to have not foreseen the onset of the debilitating sense of ennui that enveloped Europe after the World Wars of the 20th Century.

This climate led Europeans away from colonizing the lands of "brown people" and into a program of importing "brown people" into Europe to make up for declining birth rates. In the end, the technologically less advanced people may end up inheriting Europe from their more "advanced" predecessors much like the way the Germanic "barbarians" inherited the old Roman Empire.

The Christian Faith itself was the primary source of "racist" ideas throughout most of the church age. However, eliminating Christian dogma from the debate as the more extreme secularists have proposed did not do away with racism. Instead, the old tribal feelings still lingered and hatred is still rampant.

You can't stop people from killing one another by removing their religious differences alone. People are clever. They will find a lot of reasons to kill one another. The massacres of the professed "atheists" of communism shows that class and societal ranks are "reasons" to kill and hate. 200 years of Religious Wars in Europe shows that finding a common creed is illusive and tends toward war and hatred.

The German expansion in the East - begun as a series of Christian Crusades against the Lett speaking peoples around the Baltic and culminating in the Holocaust carried out by the Nazis shows how religion can be made to serve evil ends.
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Old 11-15-2010, 05:03 PM
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Re: Is racism/intolerance endemic to all races

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Originally Posted by rgcraig View Post
I agree - - too much awareness -- just be.
I think that one problem that has become evident is the idea of Rousseau's so-called "Noble Savage" and the continuing influence of this meme in today's world. Rousseau (1712-1778) speculated that it was the social institutions that made man "cruel" and aroused hatred. By removing man from the prevailing social institutions we could, in theory, "improve" human beings to become more like the way Rousseau imagined the new found "natives" lived around the globe.

Sadly, Rousseau himself doesn't appear to have ever left the European continent and his "Noble Savage" doctrine was suffered from being seriously misinformed. "Natives" in the Americas would travel hundreds of miles just to hunt down, murder and eat the hearts and livers of their enemies. I for one don't find that to be very "noble."

The Aztec Empire was cruel, needlessly superstitious and bloody and enslaved hundreds of thousands of other Meso-Americans in a tyrannical regime. They had the practice and history of several preceding empires to serve as wonderful examples.

The oldest archeological site in my state is a cave furnished with a hearth stone (dated about 11,000 years ago). The remains of a family of four were found in this cave. Their skulls had been crushed and there were scrape marks on the inside of the skulls. Further, a coprolite was found "dumped" right in the center of the hearth stone. Chemical analysis of the coprolite revealed that it came from a human. Also, the presence of certain proteins indicated that this human had ingested human flesh.

That's oldest testament of human activity around these parts. Not very "noble."

The "Noble Savage" doctrine has fueled reverse racism in today's society. It has spawned the ideas like "Blacks can't be racist." (Just ask any "white" girl who is dating or has married a "black" man how she is treated by the females in her paramour's family - or examine any of a number of different "combinations"). The

"Noble Savage" creates an environment where hate is tolerated in many diverse communities and even has institutionalized racism and hate. Look at how racist Democrats can freely act when treating or reporting on "black" Republicans. The media doesn't believe that Dems can be "racist" - and so racism is not only tolerated, it's promoted.
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Old 11-15-2010, 10:20 PM
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Re: Is racism/intolerance endemic to all races

It depends on who has the power and wealth. That race is the race that has the ability to execute racism.

Racism is systematic and destructive for all involved.

Humanity is capable of all sorts of evil-- regardless of the shade of their skin.




However, prejudice is human nature, and may be necessary in some situations.

What would you rather endure-- to be carried in a pine box by six or tried in a court room by 12? Sometimes, common sense requires prejudice.
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Old 11-15-2010, 10:27 PM
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Re: Is racism/intolerance endemic to all races

Racism is different from intolerance. Both are different from prejudice.


The problem in trying to have a conversation about subjects like this is that people are too loose with their words and definitions.
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Old 11-16-2010, 10:01 AM
aegsm76 aegsm76 is offline
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Re: Is racism/intolerance endemic to all races

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Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson View Post
Racism is different from intolerance. Both are different from prejudice.


The problem in trying to have a conversation about subjects like this is that people are too loose with their words and definitions.
Good points, JD. I agree that sometimes people have definitions that are so different that they are arguing about totally different things.
You said something in your previous post about racism, that raised a question.
Are you saying that racism can only be practiced by someone who has power or authority over another?
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