Condemn racism, and bigotry

I read "everyone is a bit racist" when some people try to justify an instance of racism, and bigotry. I claim that this is not a justification at all, and that stating it is merely descriptive of how people behave, but does not address the normative issue of "how we ought to behavior". When confronted with racism, and bigotry, we ought to condemn it.

TuringEquivalent wrote:

I read "everyone is a bit racist" when some people try to justify an instance of racism, and bigotry. I claim that this is not a justification at all, and that stating it is merely descriptive of how people behave, but does not address the normative issue of "how we ought to behavior". When confronted with racism, and bigotry, we ought to condemn it.

All injustice is justified, and that is always my big clue that I might be doing something unjust, when I open my mouth to defend it... Still, I do not like every culture with equal affection, and I will not pretend to... It is not racist, and in spite of it being across the board, I would feel less than human if I did not give people an open mind in which to prove me wrong... In other words, even when I have made up my mind about a certain culture, I try to not prejudge individuals because to do so is not Justice...

Fido wrote:

TuringEquivalent wrote:

I read "everyone is a bit racist" when some people try to justify an instance of racism, and bigotry. I claim that this is not a justification at all, and that stating it is merely descriptive of how people behave, but does not address the normative issue of "how we ought to behavior". When confronted with racism, and bigotry, we ought to condemn it.

All injustice is justified, and that is always my big clue that I might be doing something unjust, when I open my mouth to defend it... Still, I do not like every culture with equal affection, and I will not pretend to... It is not racist, and in spite of it being across the board, I would feel less than human if I did not give people an open mind in which to prove me wrong... In other words, even when I have made up my mind about a certain culture, I try to not prejudge individuals because to do so is not Justice...

I don 't understand your English. Where are you from?

TuringEquivalent wrote:

Fido wrote:

TuringEquivalent wrote:

I read "everyone is a bit racist" when some people try to justify an instance of racism, and bigotry. I claim that this is not a justification at all, and that stating it is merely descriptive of how people behave, but does not address the normative issue of "how we ought to behavior". When confronted with racism, and bigotry, we ought to condemn it.

All injustice is justified, and that is always my big clue that I might be doing something unjust, when I open my mouth to defend it... Still, I do not like every culture with equal affection, and I will not pretend to... It is not racist, and in spite of it being across the board, I would feel less than human if I did not give people an open mind in which to prove me wrong... In other words, even when I have made up my mind about a certain culture, I try to not prejudge individuals because to do so is not Justice...

I don 't understand your English. Where are you from?

Where I am from is where I am: Planet Earth... Where are you from: Uranus???

Fido wrote:

TuringEquivalent wrote:

Fido wrote:

TuringEquivalent wrote:

I read "everyone is a bit racist" when some people try to justify an instance of racism, and bigotry. I claim that this is not a justification at all, and that stating it is merely descriptive of how people behave, but does not address the normative issue of "how we ought to behavior". When confronted with racism, and bigotry, we ought to condemn it.

All injustice is justified, and that is always my big clue that I might be doing something unjust, when I open my mouth to defend it... Still, I do not like every culture with equal affection, and I will not pretend to... It is not racist, and in spite of it being across the board, I would feel less than human if I did not give people an open mind in which to prove me wrong... In other words, even when I have made up my mind about a certain culture, I try to not prejudge individuals because to do so is not Justice...

I don 't understand your English. Where are you from?

Where I am from is where I am: Planet Earth... Where are you from: Uranus???

That is funny, if you are 12. Where is this aggression coming from?

TuringEquivalent wrote:

Fido wrote:

TuringEquivalent wrote:

Fido wrote:

TuringEquivalent wrote:

I read "everyone is a bit racist" when some people try to justify an instance of racism, and bigotry. I claim that this is not a justification at all, and that stating it is merely descriptive of how people behave, but does not address the normative issue of "how we ought to behavior". When confronted with racism, and bigotry, we ought to condemn it.

All injustice is justified, and that is always my big clue that I might be doing something unjust, when I open my mouth to defend it... Still, I do not like every culture with equal affection, and I will not pretend to... It is not racist, and in spite of it being across the board, I would feel less than human if I did not give people an open mind in which to prove me wrong... In other words, even when I have made up my mind about a certain culture, I try to not prejudge individuals because to do so is not Justice...

I don 't understand your English. Where are you from?

Where I am from is where I am: Planet Earth... Where are you from: Uranus???

That is funny, if you are 12. Where is this aggression coming from?

I hate injustice, as racism is... But that does not mean I have to like all other cultures, especially when the reason we see them in this country is because they do not stop at the destruction of their own societies and environments... I think it is just about as stupid to say you hate a race as to love a race...All relationships are individual, and people may think to exclude people by race from their relationships, but at some point, all people relate... So I take it for granted that I am already in some form of relationship with people of different cultures, and even if I may find qualities in a person's culture that I do not like, I do not try to saddle every individual with the wrongs, and failings of his culture which he may be suffering as I suffer the wrongs and failings of my own culture... It is not wrong to judge... Judgement is knowledge, and knowledge is judgement... But of individuals we should not judge, because they are infinites... Until they are dead they are all in the process of becoming, and to judge them is to wrong them...

I would give you an example of my judging of other cultures, but I am afraid I would leave my self open to be judged, and rather badly... In fact, though I may judge other cultures, I do so from the perspective of a culture that is far from perfect, and they never are... So, though I judge, I do not take my judgement so seriously that I actually discriminate against some one... I take people as people, as much to learn about other cultures as to avoid harsh judgements against people who hardly deserve them... There is a bit of amature anthropologist in me... Enough so I can defer absolute judgement...

Fido wrote:

I would give you an example of my judging of other cultures, but I am afraid I would leave my self open to be judged, and rather badly... In fact, though I may judge other cultures, I do so from the perspective of a culture that is far from perfect, and they never are... So, though I judge, I do not take my judgement so seriously that I actually discriminate against some one... I take people as people, as much to learn about other cultures as to avoid harsh judgements against people who hardly deserve them... There is a bit of amature anthropologist in me... Enough so I can defer absolute judgement...

I notice that many tradition, or cultures developed out of necessity, and situation. For example, ancients franks never wish themselves, because there is a stigma to wishing oneself. This lead to the development of cologne. If you judge, it is only because you don 't understand. If you try to understand why people do what they do, then your negativity will be gone.

Racism is a topic that always bemuses me, because these days it means much more than 'discrimination based on race'. To be against discrimination based on race is fine, and a good thing. To be against judgement of another culture is a nonsense that can stifle sensible and often necessary debate.

That said, it's a tough thing to separate, because discrimination based on race stems from generalisation without discernment (that the individual is not the group). Without generalisation, discernment is not needed. However, without generalisation, general problems cannot be addressed.

In relation to 'judgement', it is insanity to try and say that a person should not judge, because judgement is very much in human nature - to judge how something relates to you. We do it all the time (whether we confess to it or not), and being social creatures, it is impossible to stop. You could perhaps suppress the open expression of it through guilt (as is the current method), but that simply creates silent resentment. A better way is creating social awareness...but of course this will have a fairly limited success while cultures gather into separated enclaves (whether that be social groups within a school, or suburbs within a city etc).

The 'movement' against racism has created it's own problems by attempting to suppress 'the racists', rather than inform. Perhaps this method will work along the lines of the Nazi Germany theory that if you teach children a history, and punish anyone that says differently...then the children will grow up believing the taught history.

The latter have no referents in the sence that genes do not organize themselves into discrete biological entities.