Because neither side, the racists and the victims, are willing to say we are all equal. The anti-racism this day is race empowerment when it should really be race-equality.

Reason

United Kingdom2770 Posts

February 24 2009 07:08 GMT

#123

At my high school ethnic groups clung together like ants at sea.
This may be due to racism, or may be one of the causes of it.
What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Savio

United States1850 Posts

February 24 2009 08:55 GMT

#124

On February 15 2009 15:52 Jibba wrote:
Savio, both sides of that argument are dangerously oversimplified. You can't simply suggest that racism doesn't factor into a disproportionate number of minorities being in prison because a disproportionate number of minorities commit crimes, when it may be that the cops reporting crimes are as racist as the judges sentencing them.

Ignoring race is definitely problematic as well though.

It would be really incredible if the major reason that more minorities are in jail it due to the racism of the justice system rather than actual current difference in socioeconomic circumstances and subcultures. For what you say to be true, you would have to have racist cops in every single state in which minorities are overrepresented in prison, then you would need to add onto that racist a racist justice system in all of those states again to convict them to actual prison sentences. Then we could break it down by county and say the same thing would have to apply in every single county in which we find this phenomenon.

That really would be incredible. But I don't think it is the case.

The fact is that people who grow up in single parent homes and poor neighborhoods and then are exposed to a culture of "gangsta rap" are more likely to commit crimes.

distant_voice

Germany2521 Posts

February 24 2009 09:01 GMT

#125

because people are scared / sceptical of what is different / alien / unknown to them / new

dubRa

2165 Posts

February 24 2009 14:16 GMT

#126

"see constant politicians blame outsourcing as problems of people stealing jobs from Americans" What happened with America is the freeland and the Statue of Liberty?

Amber[LighT]

United States5078 Posts

February 24 2009 14:44 GMT

#127

There is racism because people believe in racism. This is how everyone is brought up. People who think they are "the most open" are in fact the most racist since they tend to believe everyone is worse-off and must be helped, not noting the possibility for people to actually function without pity.

I'll be honest black people are the most racist in the United States at least. The entire election was racist in 2008 and I'm going to pursue that as my capstone next fall, if I'm able to :/

Jibba

United States22883 Posts

February 24 2009 16:52 GMT

#128

On February 24 2009 17:55 Savio wrote:

Show nested quote +

It's the combination of two socioeconomic groups and 2+ subcultures acting within eachother. In some areas, "gang culture" might be a practical response to an abusive police force/justice system, while in others it may be idiotic or caused by some other reason. It's tempting, but it's also usually a mistake to try and claim an overarching theme for any type of social behavior.

Again, racism isn't just an overt practice by people who hate other groups. It's aversive as well, so a judge who is loaded up with way too many cases to handle might defer to a police officer rather than the accused, and make that generalization in part due to the way he was brought up. It's doubtful that any person makes a decision without some inherent bias, and in this case the bias is usually in favor of the upper class, whites or males because those are the groups that hold the most power in society.

Patriot.dlk

Sweden5462 Posts

February 24 2009 17:31 GMT

#129

I'm not going to go very deep about this, but in reality it's all about us being stupid animals with limited ability to communicate and work together.(comparing to what would've been needed to have peace).

In sweden, people who are racists have a strong opinion about foreigners who has fled here from war or for other reasons. They are often different and (at first) they don't fit in very well and it's not hard at all to be a hater.

If you don't commit yourself to understanding the bigger picture you can see a bit of the truth and base your logic's on that. And it's also very convenient, It's like believing in god - you can blame shit on something.

The mindset is sometimes a little bit like piracy. "I know downloading is wrong but I don't give a shit".

A racist could go "I know every person deserves to live and be free from torture and whatnot but i don't give a shit".

This kind of mindset is not always bad, it's a tough world out there..

DeathSpank

United States1029 Posts

February 24 2009 18:39 GMT

#130

racism exists because there is more than one race ....\o/