boyfriday Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I see it as hatred of a group of people who are a different colour to yourself or being a **** to people due to their skin colour simply. However it seems to some people just a tool to win a argument or beat someone down who has different opinions to themselves, to get their own way, to get out of trouble, to be seen to have the moral higher ground. The sort of people who use it this way are not much different from the people who really are racist because they come full circle spewing bile. To be honest IanG the people I see gratuitously use the race card here are more often than not the people who generally might be regarded as 'racists'. How often do we see posts like "I can't say what I want about Asians for fear of being branded a racist"? Or "I'm not being racist but..." then go on to make crass and negative generalisations about people based on their racial origins? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chorba Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 Really, the notion that there are clearly-distinguishable 'races' is nonsense. I completely agree The concept of 'racism' more often signifies xenophobia. It's not unnatural for anyone: a. to prefer those similar to oneself; and b. to look askance at those different from oneself. "Natural" is not always good. We are all "naturally" inclined to have racist/xenophobic thoughts sometimes. We have to fight this nature of ours. As simple as that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barleycorn Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I'm not really noticing a pattern, other than acknowledging the self evident one that we tend to subconsciously prefer people from our own ethnic group, or do you think that isn't true? I'd certainly like to hope it wasn't. I distantly recall some good research into this phenomenon but I'm damned if I can find it now. Racism and evolution do not make good search terms when what your looking for is the evolution of racism and not evolution is racist. Did come across this however which is somewhat interesting. jb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagel Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I'm not sure about all this talk of healthy gene pools. It smacks of eugenics. Do 'healthy gene pools' evolve or are they just a random feature of genetics? I think the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyfriday Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 "Natural" is not always good. We are all "naturally" inclined to have racist/xenophobic thoughts sometimes. We have to fight this nature of ours. As simple as that. I agree chorba, I've said before here that we all make generalisations about people based on what they look like, but it's acknowledging that and not accepting it as a virtue which is the important thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nagel Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 "Natural" is not always good. We are all "naturally" inclined to have racist/xenophobic thoughts sometimes. We have to fight this nature of ours. As simple as that. I agree with all that, especially the line "we have to fight this nature of ours". I defy anyone to say they've never had a racist thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just_words Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I agree with all that, especially the line "we have to fight this nature of ours". I defy anyone to say they've never had a racist thought. It's natural to try and sort things into groups, but there is generally only one answer so there will be many wrongs ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barleycorn Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I'm not sure about all this talk of healthy gene pools. It smacks of eugenics. Do 'healthy gene pools' evolve or are they just a random feature of genetics? I think the latter. All 'healthy gene pools' have evolved to be what they are (and indeed are continuing to evolve), defining what a healthy gene pool is is however somewhat more problematic and involves many arbitrary values/limits/criteria/whatever. As for eugenics it need not necessarily be a bad thing but does by definition discriminate. jb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyfriday Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I distantly recall some good research into this phenomenon but I'm damned if I can find it now. Racism and evolution do not make good search terms when what your looking for is the evolution of racism and not evolution is racist. Did come across this however which is somewhat interesting. jb That's compelling stuff barleycorn, the part relating to humans is thought provoking: There is a fourth kind of group altruism which is specific to human beings. Human beings are the only animals (except possibly dolphins and whales) that have complex languages and abstract reasoning. They are the only animals that have structured cultures that endure over time. As a result humans are the only species that has - that can have - a well developed abstract moral sense. In an evolutionary sense, moral cultures are the cultures that survive. All do better if each helps the other. Cultures have laws, rules of behaviour. Those who violate the cultural norms, outlaws, are exiled in one way or another and do poorly. Those who accept the norms, the good citizens, reap the benefits of living in a successful culture. This is not a simple matter. As we see all the time, there are conflicts between individual benefit and "doing what is right". And sometimes the decision goes one way and some times it goes another. The upshot is that for humans our notions of right and wrong are not hard wired in our genes; they are taught to us by our culture. And although the hard rules of selection still apply their operation is very indirect. Human beings have been in the culture business for a very long time; cultures evolve but they don't evolve in the way that species evolve." I'm being playful here but I suppose one example where gene diversity could be demonstrated to be a good thing is Australia, where the incidence of skin cancer has increased dramatically due to the introduction of Europeans to the country. Conversely the indigenous population have a genetic propensity to diabetes which can be life shortening. It could be argued that the white Australians and the black ones should get their act together to ensure their long term future! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odin's Wrath Posted August 4, 2011 Share Posted August 4, 2011 I'm not sure how you can be proud of your own race since as there may be people who are members of it who have qualities you don't aspire to, but you can certainly be proud of who you are based on your achievements and ambitions in life, in my opinion. Fantastic post. Something we should all aspire to really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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