Do you think racism still exists today?

1. 68

   samanthamjordanposted 9 years ago

   Do you think racism still exists today?
   
   Despite the progress we, the human race, have made, individuals seem to still experience racist thoughts and actions. Essentially, no ethnicity is excluded from prejudice.

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2. 60

   loveafricaposted 9 years ago

   Definitely, in South Africa for example, it is very much in existence. Your skin colour immediately creates certain prejudices in many racist minds. If you are black there is an unspoken assumption that are lazy, a thief, uneducated and illiterate (until you prove otherwise). If you are white you are intelligent, educated, hard-working, honest (again until you prove otherwise) oh and you are perceived as a racist (if you are white).

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3. 73

   pagesvoiceposted 9 years ago

   Yes, racism still rears its ugly head and it has been going on since the beginning of mankind. For whatever the reason, there have always been those who need to feel superior to others and they accomplish this by berating and demeaning another race. Racism is bred by many factors and quite frankly, in my opinion it occurs more with those who lack a formal education. Racism will wane with a more educated society.

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4. 84

   My Esotericposted 9 years ago

   Absotutely, and in some places like America, it is beginning to get worse again.
   
   It has been observed many times throughout history that people of different ethnicities and/or religions can live together peaceably and with cooperation.  The problems occur because leadership in one group or the other thinks it will be advantageous to them, most often personally, to drive a wedge between the different groups.  They rely on the fact that in times of trouble (which they started) each group will focus inwardly and distrust builds and fractures the good will which once existed among what were peaceable people.
   
   The Bosnian War is the perfect example where, at one point in time, the Catholic Croats, Muslim Bosniaks, and Orthodox Serbs had lived in peace, in many places intermingling with each other.  The leaders of the Orthodox Serbs decided they didn't like the break-up of the artificial Yugoslav State and brought religious AND ethnic war upon the non-Serbs.  One result was the genocide of the Muslim Bosniaks by the Christian Serbs.

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      adagio4639posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      What you're describing is Tribalism at its worst. It's a great observation.

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5. 0

   Stargrrlposted 9 years ago

   I think it does and always will to some extent.  Not necessarily just for African Americans and black people, but all races experience racism.  It's just the way people are.  People aren't always nice, and they can be judgmental.

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      adagio4639posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      You're right, but there is a much stronger racist hate that America has yet to deal with, and that's the Racial Terrorism that was directed at Blacks after Reconstruction. Jim Crow was all about Blacks. No other race faced that.

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6. 86

   tsmogposted 9 years ago

   Differences most likely will always exist. One may say, although there will be differences with this, that there are stages, phases, passages, transformations and too transcendence with differences. A thought exercise is to ponder a moment to realize when did 'race' become a reality in one's life, when did it become an issue, and is it an issue today for oneself. Then, a quandary is those one may interact with while realizing that may be one or many that race is less important, more important, is moot, or not thought of. 
   
   Next, using who, what, where, when, why, how, and how much answer each of those three for oneself. For example 'when' did one see a person of a different race first in life? Where was that? What was the setting? Why was it different? Who did one ask to explain that difference? How was it explained? How much did that difference make? Answer those questions for when it became an issue. Then answer those questions why it is or is not an issue today.
   
   Stereotyping is a common occurrence. Stereotyping is a sweeping generalization. Prejudice is not stereotyping. Prejudice is an attitude. Discrimination is an action. Those three have difference.
   
   A sweeping generalization is all poor people are '________'. Another is all '________' people are poor. The stereotype is not the blanks IMHO. Those blanks are the prejudices. The stereotype is 'poor people'. Once the blanks are filled in within our mind then we discover a prejudice or an attitude. If one only ponders the answer one will still have that prejudice. Once one fills in the blank then there is discrimination.
   
   With a little more thought one may realize or ponder 'poor' to begin with. Poor 'what' or 'of what'? Poor of spirit? Poor of education? Poor of money? Poor of friends? Poor of courage? Poor of fun? Poor of work? Poor of '______'?

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7. 61

   Epleeba1posted 9 years ago

   I grew up in the south during the 1960's when racism and segregation were blatantly public. I personally saw public water fountains and restrooms labeled "white" and "colored". I was schooled in an all-white primary school and had no exposure to black people until middle school. My parents warned me about how to deal with blacks - based on their perceptions and racial stereotypes. I entered middle school with a real hatred and distrust of blacks. It took me many years to overcome this early bias based on what my parents taught me.
   
   I am back living in the south today and I can say that racism is still very real here; and I suspect most of the country. The concept of "political correctness" has forced the racism undercover but it still exists in the hearts of many people. They will never publicly acknowledge their hidden racism but it does exist. I regularly hear racist statements from people who look around furtively for non-white witnesses before speaking. It is important to understand that these "closet-racists" are mostly older people raised during the same era as myself. This type of racism is becoming less prevalent as they/we die off. There are some younger people who learned this perspective from their elders and didn't have the intelligence to understand the error of their ways. I suspect some politicians and business leaders have similar hidden feelings and that these feelings can influence their day-to-day actions in subtle ways. Yes racism truly exists today but in a hidden and hard to combat way.

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      My Esotericposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I am a transplanted CAian & now live in rural FL via metropolitan  VA.  What u say about the embedded racism is absolutely true except I disagree it is not only the old.  My wife's children exhibit the same foulness and feel fully justified for i

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      adagio4639posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Well said. I was born and raised in the North, but lived in Birmingham AL for about 10 years. It's not as overtly spoken these days, but it's still there beneath the surface and it appears in their legislation.

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8. 82

   Kate Hposted 9 years ago

   I think no matter where you go people will judge you based on all sorts of things including race, gender, and clothing.  I think in America the media and certain politicians have made it more of an issue than it needs to be in order to gain attention or votes.  They seem to enjoy dividing us.  I will admit at times I think of stereotypes when I meet people based on their appearance but I let their actions speak for themselves and I don't judge someone based solely on appearance.  I think the majority of people are that way.

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   1. 84

      My Esotericposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Just think how much less pretentious the world would be if it were simply one big nudist resort.  It might go a long way to reducing stereotyping when the mask is removed.

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9. 60

   adagio4639posted 9 years ago

   The question seems really strange to me. I understand that there are some out there that think racism is dead and gone, but these are people that don't seem to have any awareness of what's going on around them. A good friend of mine is one of the most intelligent men I've ever known, and he thinks that racism no longer exists, or if it does, it's in the form of reverse racism. I realized that his intelligence seems to be compartmentalized to such a degree that the sociological impact of racism on this country hasn't really registered with him, and that the election of the countries first Black American. (Some still don't think he's an American) hasn't erased centuries of hate.
   
   The recent findings of systemic racism within the Ferguson MO police department, and the SAE Fraternity's overt racist video should tell us something about whether racism is still alive or not.
   
   I would say that as long as conservatism exists as a "legitimate" ideology, racism will be with us. It's embedded into the ideology.
   
   Conservatism is the product of the anti-Enlightenment ideology of Edmund Burke and the re-affirmation of it by Conservative writer Russell Kirk. Burke was a traditionalist conservative as was Kirk and traditional values are held fast by conservatives.
   
   In his chapter on southern conservatism, Kirk writes “that while human slavery is bad ground for conservatives to make a stand upon, yet the wild demands and expectations of the abolitionists were quite as slippery a foundation for political decency”.
   
   Describing “Negroes” as “the menace of debased, ignorant and abysmally poor folk” he argued they “must tend to produce in the minds of the dominant people an anxiety to preserve every detail of the present structure, and an ultra-vigilant suspicion of innovation”.
   
   According to Kirk, “In politics we do well to abide by precedent and precept and even prejudice, for the great mysterious incorporation of the human race has acquired a prescriptive wisdom far greater than any man’s petty private rationality.” Kirk is justifying prejudice here and we have many examples of conservatives over the years taking that justification to heart.
   
   This is the ideology of conservatism as presented by those who gave the conservative movement it's name. Racism and prejudice are embedded into it, and conservatives must grapple with this as long as they call themselves "conservative".

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