What is 'Racism'?

[unspammable]

If you look up 'racism' in the dictionary, you will get this:

1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

--merriam-webster.com

Definition (1) obviously presupposes (2), but is nevertheless inadequate for most people, since someone can hate a particular race without thinking it is 'inherently' superior or inferior. If someone does, s/he will be called racist anyway.

Definition (2) is correct, but not on its own; if you can identify a black person from a crowd of whites, that is 'discrimination', and yet everyone does it.

So what do most people mean by racism?

[eufrenio]

For what it´s worth, here´s a quote from a post of mine on a related thread:

My belief is that everybody on earth is more or less ethnocentric or racialist if you like, i.e., every single ethnic group or nation on earth likes to be with their own, believes they are the best, and would discriminate against other groups. That´s human nature: how would you define the in-group if there was no out-group? Fourier, the anarchist thinker once wrote: if we are all brothers then I have no brothers.

Now, racism and its opposite ideology anti-racism are purely artificial. No group dislikes or refuses to cooperate with other groups simply because they are different or less pure by principle (that´s obviously the racist side of the equation), and no group naturally prefers other groups over its own including harming one´s group to favour an alien group, again by principle (this is the definition of anti-racism, although I suspect that what passes for anti-racism is usually racism under a different name or even ethnic interests in disguise when it helps undermine a rival ethnic group) . Racism and anti-racism are modern constructs that go against the pragmatic aspect of human nature, and are not to be confused with healthy ethnocentrism or racialism..

dodona.proboards35.com/index.cgi?board=anythinggoes&action=display&thread=1125361674&page=1

[asdf]

My thoughts exactly!

[yigal]

its funny i used to get "mistaken discrimination" when i was younger

in school i was a dumb cracker
in a greek fair i was a malaka turk
in israel in a bar i was a bedouin its crazy

[Batrus]

unspammable said:

since someone can hate a particular race without thinking it is 'inherently' superior or inferior. If someone does, s/he will be called racist anyway.

I think it's much more common that people think they belong to a superior race and don't hate other races. Most average white guys probably think that white people are smarter than black people, but don't hate them. Or at least that's the idea i get from speaking to them.

Anyway i classify racism as a word which denotative meaning have been overcome by it's connotative meaning. Like "freedom" or "honor".

[yigal]

batrus said:

unspammable said:

since someone can hate a particular race without thinking it is 'inherently' superior or inferior. If someone does, s/he will be called racist anyway.

I think it's much more common that people think they belong to a superior race and don't hate other races. Most average white guys probably think that white people are smarter than black people, but don't hate them. Or at least that's the idea i get from speaking to them.

Anyway i classify racism as a word which denotative meaning have been overcome by it's connotative meaning. Like "freedom" or "honor".

well they are, and asians are smarter than white guys and (ashkenazi) jews are smarter than asians, this all of course on average and not written in stone

[Batrus]

I was refering to potencial biological intelligence. And that's still being discussed.

Besides, Jewish isn't a race. At most it can be a cluster between european and semitic.

[yigal]

i think it may indeed be bioligical and not cultural because tests conducted in england came out with simmilar results on Asian/black iq bias

i mean i aint racist because im triracial therefore dont belong to any specific race but just parroting iq studies

[yigal]

batrus said:

I was refering to potencial biological intelligence. And that's still being discussed.

Besides, Jewish isn't a race. At most it can be a cluster between european and semitic.

i meant ashkenazi jews u know that i myself am jewish
so i know its not a race since im triracial, im yigal btw i just changed my display name

[Batrus]

I can read below your name that you're jewish.

[asdf]

"Semitic"? Their "non-european" DNA is identical to Kurdish DNA. Kurds aren't bloody "semitic" so "semitic" means crap in this context.

[Batrus]

yigal said:

i think it may indeed be bioligical and not cultural because tests conducted in england came out with simmilar results on Asian/black iq bias

i mean i aint racist because im triracial therefore dont belong to any specific race but just parroting iq studies

But it has also been registered many iq variation during a time too short to be a product of evolution.

[yigal]

batrus said:

I can read below your name that you're jewish.

yeah i didnt mean to imply i was part of the privlaged IQ gifted group, i am not ashkenazi in part or in whole

i since corrected my statement by clariffiying i meant ashkenazi jews

[Batrus]

seizure said:

"Semitic"? Their "non-european" DNA is identical to Kurdish DNA. Kurds aren't bloody "semitic" so "semitic" means crap in this context.

What cluster do kurds belong to?

[Batrus]

yigal said:

batrus said:

I can read below your name that you're jewish.

yeah i didnt mean to imply i was part of the privlaged IQ gifted group, i am not ashkenazi in part or in whole

i since corrected my statement by clariffiying i meant ashkenazi jews

I didn't think you were doing it.

What's an ashkenazi jewish, anyway?