Is RACISM uniquely evil?

[Bill the Piper]

Colour of your skin has no relevance for ethics. But so does the football club you support. Or the type of music you enjoy. So why should racism be more evil than hating people for supporting another football club or listening to musical genre you despise?

When we think of racism, we usually think of its extreme manifestations like slavery. But there is, or used to be a lot of casual racism. One of my friends dislikes Jews, but has never assaulted any. My grandmother had this casual dislike for Blacks. Is such casual racism really that bad?

[Eric the Green]

Your race is not really your choice, unlike your football team or your music. Hating people for who they are is worse, yes.

[Bill the Piper]

(03-09-2019, 09:45 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Your race is not really your choice, unlike your football team or your music. Hating people for who they are is worse, yes.

For many people, a sub-culture and music they listen to are the core of their identity, while race is peripheral.

Class is also not your choice, yet classism is not condemned as much as racism.

[Eric the Green]

(03-10-2019, 08:52 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:

(03-09-2019, 09:45 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Your race is not really your choice, unlike your football team or your music. Hating people for who they are is worse, yes.

For many people, a sub-culture and music they listen to are the core of their identity, while race is peripheral.

Class is also not your choice, yet classism is not condemned as much as racism.

No, wrong on all counts.

Class can change if you are lucky or work smart or get the right social government or community-organized programs in working order that can help you move up economically. Those on the left are strongly against such classicism as neo-liberalism/conservative trickle-down economics. Remember in the Bregman video the Thatcher quote that poverty is a personal defect? That's the neo-liberal dogma that true liberals and progressives oppose. NO, one's class is NOT their identity. That's the whole point.

I think people ought to be sensitive and cultured enough to rise above and see beyond just the dominant popular music styles of today. That is their choice, not their identity. The generally-lousy pop and "alternative" pop music of today doesn't need to be the core of anyone's identity! Yes, people can listen to what they want and that's their right. They can also be open to other possible sources of music (including from their own or other generations) that uplift and enrich their lives instead of dragging them and keeping them down in cynicism and angry ugly screeching. And that is where people should stop being offended! 

People can appreciate any sub-culture they wish; that is not who they are, though knowing and experiencing other cultures can touch and expand their life and become a part of themselves. And people are entitled to their own opinions about cultures.

Racism can be a temptation, because people may not routinely associate with folks they are not used to being with. We need to rise above that. We need to be willing to experience how other people experience life, put ourselves in others' shoes, and not be racist or hate or discriminate against any people who are different in any way from us, as long as they are not harming others. I am not like anyone else, and I can't expect them to be like me.

[Bill the Piper]

(03-11-2019, 01:36 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Racism can be a temptation, because people may not routinely associate with folks they are not used to being with. We need to rise above that. We need to be willing to experience how other people experience life, put ourselves in others' shoes, and not be racist or hate or discriminate against any people who are different in any way from us, as long as they are not harming others. I am not like anyone else, and I can't expect them to be like me.

Above all, racism is shallow since it notices "zoological" characteristics but overlooks intelligence and personality, two things that make us human. That's why I'm worried about the very notion of identity rooted in inherited biological characteristics. A Black American and Black Ugandan have few things in common save the colour of their skin. An educated Black American has much more in common with his White university friends than with the Ugandan. My relationships with people and ideas I believe in are way more important than the colour of my skin and shape of my school.

Perhaps the most radical solution would be morphological freedom. Spend some time as a White-looking person, then as a Black, or cat-eared mutant. Experience these perspectives in the most direct way.

[Marypoza]

(03-12-2019, 08:49 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:

(03-11-2019, 01:36 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Racism can be a temptation, because people may not routinely associate with folks they are not used to being with. We need to rise above that. We need to be willing to experience how other people experience life, put ourselves in others' shoes, and not be racist or hate or discriminate against any people who are different in any way from us, as long as they are not harming others. I am not like anyone else, and I can't expect them to be like me.

Above all, racism is shallow since it notices "zoological" characteristics but overlooks intelligence and personality, two things that make us human. That's why I'm worried about the very notion of identity rooted in inherited biological characteristics. A Black American and Black Ugandan have few things in common save the colour of their skin. An educated Black American has much more in common with his White university friends than with the Ugandan. My relationships with people and ideas I believe in are way more important than the colour of my skin and shape of my school.

Perhaps the most radical solution would be morphological freedom. Spend some time as a White-looking person, then as a Black, or cat-eared mutant. Experience these perspectives in the most direct way.

-- some dude actually did that in the 1950s during the Civil Rights Era. Darkened his skin, permed his hair, & went down South. Then wrote a book about his experiences. May have even been made into a movie. Found a link:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-cult...-74543463/