Is it wrong to be racist?

[TG]

I'm not but how much should it matter if I were so long as I did not spew hatred or discriminate?

While sipping a cup of English Breakfast (why can't I get ceylon any more)  in the morning I tend to open the links on the front page of this site and see what the papers have to say. In the comic section (Daily Mail) I read an article about a woman who wanted non white people to leave the room while she was giving birth. She was being castigated for her actions.

I have to wonder what is the purpose of the anti racist sentiment in this regard. I accept wholeheartedly that discrimination on the basis of race should be stamped out but this goes further than that. It's already unacceptable to voice any opinion or prejudice based on race but it's almost as though anti racism has moved to the point where it is unacceptable to have a preference based on race.

Unacceptable to even think it!

If this is the case then have we, ableit belatedly, fallen into the pages of 1984? Should those who have these views be re-educated, cured even?

[merlinCOV]

If i see a black man or Chinese i know instictivly we are different,,, surely that is raceism? Of course it is,,,,,, recognition of differences,,If i see a man with a F**king knife aimed at me me i know he wants to kill me,,,if an Irishman talks to me i know he's Irish, We've have it instilled naturally as a defence to recognise the difference from the year dot. It doesn't mean we automatically hate them now does it? We still keep the stone axe handy. And we always will.

[Libertarian]

If i see a black man or Chinese i know instictivly we are different,,, surely that is raceism? Of course it is,,,,,

Racism is when people are prejudiced or discriminatory on a racial basis. We all make judgements based on appearances. Someone's look, posture, their attire, body language, height, age, grooming. It isn't something you can stop yourself doing it is human nature - you make judgements based on when little information you have and you fall back on stereotypes, on prejudice if you like. And noticing someone's race is hardly something a sighted person can avoid doing either. If you want to define racism so widely then everyone is racist.

A more useful definition would be one that applied to some people but not all.

[John]

I were so long as I did not spew hatred or discriminate?


You`re painting with a very broad brush here TG.


There are attitudes and actions and habits and theories and practices which it is quite legitimate to hate and to discriminate against. Indeed some of these things would make you less than a right thinking man if you did not oppose them.

I`m thinking along the lines of torture and those who practice it, femalr circumcision and those who practice it, peadophilia and those who practice it, legal decapitation and amputation and those who pratice it.Stoning to death...

These are just some of the things which I hate and discriminate against. When I think of these things I cheerfully accept that my attitude makes me racist, proud of the fact indeed.

[TG]

I were so long as I did not spew hatred or discriminate?


You`re painting with a very broad brush here TG.


There are attitudes and actions and habits and theories and practices which it is quite legitimate to hate and to discriminate against. Indeed some of these things would make you less than a right thinking man if you did not oppose them.

I`m thinking along the lines of torture and those who practice it, femalr circumcision and those who practice it, peadophilia and those who practice it, legal decapitation and amputation and those who pratice it.Stoning to death...

These are just some of the things which I hate and discriminate against. When I think of these things I cheerfully accept that my attitude makes me racist, proud of the fact indeed.

It doesn't, not in the context as you have described above. A case of hating the sin but not the sinner. Hating a muslim who advocated stoning would not make you a racist unless you hated a muslim who condemned it too, or hating a christian who bible thumped a man to a lethal injection and the one who condemned this.

[Libertarian]

When I think of these things I cheerfully accept that my attitude makes me racist, proud of the fact indeed.

So it falls to me once again to condemn the proud proclamation of the self-confessed racist on this forum. Oh well.

Once again the idiocy, the intellectually bankrupt credo of the racist is laid bare. If a black person does something wrong it is because they are black and all black people are to be hated. If a Muslim does something wrong it is because they are a Muslim and all Muslims are to be hated.

But if white people do something wrong, oh I don't know, genocide or starting World Wars, colonialism, slaughter, genocide, global environmental destruction, whatever, is it because they are white? Do all white people have to be hated? No of course not. They are inately superior.

Pathetic. Beneath contempt.

[John]

I hate both the sin and the sinner.

Libertarian bin Spongehead is making excuses for the most abhorrent religious practices again? Did I  link any of those vile practices to any race or religion? No that was Ali Libertarian again.

How do you link paedophilia with racism Ali? Clever lad. Does torture have a link to racism in your tiny diseased mind? The only reported cases of torture lately have been alledged to have been perpetrated by us the Brits, and the U.S.

[merlinCOV]

I know a Hazelnut from an almond,, i love hazelnuts,,,i love green i hate red,,,discrimination,It isn't racial hatred,,, it's knowing the difference, inherrent by recognition alone, and inborn in all of us by our very survival over may thousands of years since we stood upright,,,er, can i call a black man a black man? or a coloured, a generation before that? Or a lot worse before that even? Racialicm is catholic,,,every man on this earth knows it.And whatever his colour or creed is victim to it, and if a pakistani or a chinese slaughtered your wife, would you not concider yourself racist by the time you got over it?   mmm. If i lost my partner to a white, like myself,, i wouldn't hate every white. So ask yourself a simple question. Who loved Germans in WW2?

[Libertarian]

I hate both the sin and the sinner.

... and everyone else who happens to be members of your diverse hate-groups. For the racist and bigot no actual sin is required, the association with the hate-group is enough.

Whatever legislation may be in place, while there are still people with these debased views then Dr King's dream that "my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" remains unfulfilled.

[John]

You simple minded idiot. I only stuck that bit about racism on the back because I was sure you would make a racist remark of my post.

So tell me bird brain; how do you make a hatred of paedophilia racist? And torture? The fact that some of the practices I mentioned are mostly carried out by a certain group of peoples I cannot help. It is totally unreasonable, but who the hell ever said that you were reasonable? to suppress criticism of and to deplore these practices because the perpetrators` amour propre may be offended.

Most people, this may come as a surprise to you, dislike these practices as much as I do.

[Libertarian]

There really is no need to keep repeating how you justify your proudly proclaimed racism. Anyone unfortunate enough to be reading this will have got the message by now.

[marianne]

racism is wrong, but can legislation ever prevent it?

I, for one, probably have more things in common with an educated black African woman than some women from the UK... Perhaps this statement might depict my non-racism, but will make me sound snobbish.

[Libertarian]

racism is wrong, but can legislation ever prevent it?

Legislation guaranteeing equality is necessary but not sufficient. Racism exists in some people's hearts and is beyond the reach of the law. Decent people, the "live and let live" majority, should not be complacent - exposing and confronting racism is still necessary.

[Tattie]

Legislation guaranteeing equality is necessary but not sufficient. Racism exists in some people's hearts and is beyond the reach of the law. Decent people, the "live and let live" majority, should not be complacent - exposing and confronting racism is still necessary.

All that sounds very noble, but isn't it equally a duty of "decent people" to expose and confront practices that are abhorrent to the society within which we live in the UK?

For example, arranged/forced marriages, honour killings, female genital mutilation etc are practices linked with the followers of Allah who emanate (mainly) from the middle east and parts of Africa. In confronting these quasi-religious traditions you inevitably come up against "a race" and could thus be accused of "racism", could you not?

It's too lazy to label someone as the forum racist for essentially expressing the view that the practices referred to above have no place in our society. You've shown a prejudice that I didn't think you had.  

[Libertarian]

All that sounds very noble, but isn't it equally a duty of "decent people" to expose and confront practices that are abhorrent to the society within which we live in the UK?

That would be an awfully long list to tackle, I don't have the time. But if someone comes along and starts posting in favour of "practices that are abhorrent to the society within which we live in the UK", like racism for example, then they can expect to be challenged.

For example, arranged/forced marriages, honour killings, female genital mutilation etc are practices linked with the followers of Allah who emanate (mainly) from the middle east and parts of Africa. In confronting these quasi-religious traditions you inevitably come up against "a race" and could thus be accused of "racism", could you not?

It rather depends how you do it. Nobody who speaks up against horrendous mysogenistic practices is going to find themselves in an argument with me about it. Of course it should go without saying that the great majority of Muslims are against these practices in the same way that the great majority of Muslims are against Islamic terrorism. And there are probably some non-Muslims who share some of these vile practices too. It is a question of identifying the correct target. I would talk about "people who practice FGM" whereas the racist/bigot would talk about "Muslims" so as to implicate the whole of their hate-group, about 20% of the world population, in some revolting but relatively uncommon practices.

It's too lazy to label someone as the forum racist for essentially expressing the view that the practices referred to above have no place in our society. You've shown a prejudice that I didn't think you had.

Eh? Can you have missed this? "I cheerfully accept that my attitude makes me racist, proud of the fact indeed."