Racism: Willful or Innocent Ignorance?

[HelioPrime]

So my older sister had her grad party this weekend and attending was one my my friends who for the lack of a better term is Mulato (half black/white) She meet my grandparents and the moment she is out of ear shoot my nana asks "You know a colored girl? ____, I don't want no colored grandkids! You know what they did to that couple in the news? Shot them did and robbed their house they did!

So. Racism exist. I'm sure we all know it and can even find it in liberal enclaves like Connecticut, or probably even in wonderful liberal Europe.

But how does one become racist? At a certain point, once an adult and educated is racism the result of just plain ignorance and upbringing? This would make it less your fault and more than fault of society around you as a whole.

Or is racism always a case of willful ignorance and each person should be held accountable. No person can be innocent of being racist in the modern world.

Or other: feel free to explain.


I'll start: I choose option 1 because like by Nana, some people are just "old school." They were brought up to think some people inferior that others. It's just how they were raised and everyone around them held the same view.

[LadiesMan217]

I think it is a little bit of both. If you are raised with someone telling you that blacks are inferior or mexicans are dirty etc. then you are likely to carry that into adulthood and it is up to them to reverse their thinking. But I think that there is less racism than most black people think and more then most white people think and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

[SoylentGreen]

It's not just white people who express rascism . I have heard the same from all races.
Mostly it is ethnic identification. People feel comfortable among those they call their own and suspicious of outsiders.

[Jinei]

I think racism originates from xenophobia and that phobia is passed down to further generations as hate and alienation. And people often fear the unknown. Given these two things, I would say that it was both ignorance and upbringing,

[Rogue Cardinal]

I think it starts with upbringing. But it doesn't have to. A person could totally be ignorant of race issues and have something traumatic happen to them at the hands of a person that is different from them and from then on express hatred for that group of people based on the on incident.

Both set of my grandparents are old school racist. My Mothers said especially against blacks. But my mother was never racist. Raised me and my brother to be totally cool with PEOPLE. We weren't allowed to refer to people based on skin color at all. People were people.

My Dad's side of the family is racist against anyone that isn't Scottish! HAHAHAHAHA Pretty messed up position to be in. White people that hate white people!?!?!?1 That's my Dad's side!

Again though my Dad somehow saw past that. And tuaght me that it's just utterly stupid to dislike a whole peoples based on color of skin. You can hate a person but not all people of one color based on one person. It's just illogical to do so.

By and large...though both of my parents seemed to get their head around the whole racism thing.....I do think it's just taught.

Another aspect is segregation and stereotyping. Children are taught stereo types about other people and then aren't allowed to see those people. when they finally DO see those people the appearance is dead money on and thus they justify everything they have learned again based on appearance.

It's pretty jacked up.

Every culture has racism. Americans take a bad wrap for it because your supposed to be the melting pot.....and your not.

[SoylentGreen]

Rogue CardinalEvery culture has racism. Americans take a bad wrap for it because your supposed to be the melting pot.....and your not.

I think america takes a bad rap because of the history and issues surrounding the black / white people. At least that is what I mostly hear about .
New Zealand has racism , pakeha don't like maori, maori don't like samoan , samoan don't like indian, and so on.
Australia is a place of real racism where they all the different races blame each other . Try being a lebanese at bondi.
The english hate the french, the french hate any one who doesn't speak french.
It's all one big happy dysfunctional family.

[Gods_Mercenary]

America takes the rap because we had it institutionalized, rather than present but slightly undercover. As to racism, the main cause is probably one of the human tendency to enjoy sorting everything into nice, neat groups (with people preferably friends and enemies) and assigning labels. Humans have evolved in close, tight knit groups that depended upon one another to fight the outsiders, and the same thing happens today.

[Kickthat]

In my opinion it is to do with upbringing. Often if parents or respected peers show a racist attitude then it may be easy to slip into it.

However a lot of older people are at the least slightly racist because they have seen a rise in immigration and perhaps dislike the change, as well as having been brought up in a time when it was acceptable to be a bit racist.

There was an issue in England a few months back as to whether young children should be charged for racist language.
This of course is absurd, but also shows that ignorance may be a reason for racism. Unless someone is very young i cannot understand how ignorance can be an excuse.

[grandpa]

Quote by: Kickthat In my opinion it is to do with upbringing. Often if parents or respected peers show a racist attitude then it may be easy to slip into it.

...especially if they are respected or encouraged for their opinions and actions.

Grandpa h.

[Rog]

Racism is human nature, it is natural to humans to break themselves in to categories and sub categories. We try being civalized about it, but I don't think it will ever go away. Upbringing also influences it.