I like to think I am not a racist, I work with people from many different backgrounds and do not judge people by their ethnicity or colour of their skin, I know people from different cultures I would consider as freinds. Reading this on the BBC and the way it refers specifically to what “white people” have said makes me think that this in itself racist.

[list]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25652133[/list]

Where do we draw the line with reference to differentiating people by colour.

It also makes me think have I said anything to anyone that could be considered racist. I know that I will have as different people see things differently but I have never been accused of being a racist, apart from my mates mental girlfreind but that’s entirely different.

Guilt complex, is it?

We all have prejudices. We have a choice as to whether we discriminate based on them.

there is a sliding scale of racism and there are many grey areas.
it’s certainly not black and white…
[groan]

I think you’ll struggle to get a decent conversation on here about racism as people with opinions will be too scared of posting them due to being scared of being branded a racist or a PC bore, that’s if the mods don’t can the whole thread for that negative attention it may bring.

I’m not racist I just hate……….

(I’m being ironic by the way before I get banned..!!!)

Certainly not a guilt complex and I feel it can be a grey area with sliding scales. Just that when someone writes these things you would hope that it didn’t come down to what white people say about other cultures rather about how different culture talk of one another.

If I was for example to dislike the French, they’re white so that’s ok it’s not racist, similarly the Irish? But I wouldn’t be allowed to dislike Nigerians or Indians.

Mods reading Brakes post it was not my intention to bring negativity etc but I can see where you are coming from Brakes. Naive of me in here! 🙁

We all have prejudices. We have a choice as to whether we discriminate based on them.

It is indulging prejudice that is wrong. And we have a choice to re-educate ourselves to deal with our learned prejudices.

That one is concerned about racism is a good thing.

“The things white people say” Would that be to generalise ?

It annoys me when people think you can’t differentiate people by colour/religion/etc in the same way that you can by height/weight/hair colour/whatever. That is not racist IMO.

It annoys me when people think you can’t differentiate people by colour/religion/etc in the same way that you can by height/weight/hair colour/whatever. That is not racist IMO.

It can be funny though. I was at a gathering once where someone was suggesting that there was someone I should speak to and tried to describe their appearance to me, “the gentleman in the corner of the room with the beard”, no, I picked out the wrong beardie man. “No, he’s wearing a blue jumper”, again I picked the wrong chap out from who I could see.

Having pointed out the correct person, I confirmed my understanding that it was the ONLY PERSON IN THE ROOM WEARING A TURBAN!!!

“The things white people say”? How about “the things black people do” or “things brown people think about”?
Racism is racism, no mater which direction is flows.

A lot of it is down to context. For instance, Quinten Tarantino uses “****” quite a lot in conversation and in his film cameos, but nobody turns a hair.

I’m not racist I just hate……….

(I’m being ironic by the way before I get banned..!!!)

You b@stard!
I’m a green person with buck teeth! 😉

… and this guy:

thinks all white people are “devils”.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

We do differentiate though based on culture, sex, sexual orientation, religion throughout our culture and media, often descriptively such as the guy in the turban above. From “the Femail” pages in the Daily Fail to BBC Asian Network. I just find it difficult if we create these artificial boundaries and highlight differences that we are not allowed to differentiate and we then start treading on eggshells.

Humour is the most dangerous platform perhaps but its still amusing to observe differences but many see it as racist. Are we getting too uptight about all of this, has PC gone too far?

I firmly believe we should all live happily with each other and embrace diversity for everything good it brings but the minute someone says anything untoward that has the remotest possibility of being misunderstood they are immediately branded racist or sexist etc.

everyone is equal some more equal than others, some richer, some poorer, some more beutiful or handsome some ugly, some obnoxious, some caring.

We discriminate every day on who we talk to or sit next to, raism its just an over hyped word, used to try and segregate people into groups or areas.

Treat others as you would expect otheres to treat you , no matter whatever colour of their skin.

I will admit to a wry smile listening to a radio report from Hull the other day when some voluntary worker was moaning on about the influx of Roma peoples into the area, how the place was going to the dogs, because there was furniture dumped in the street and no one felt safe anymore. He then off into one about how they didn’t even try to integrate into the community……… The irony being that he was of Pakistani origin. I can definitely remember pretty much word for word the same stuff being trotted out about the Italians, Portugese, Greeks, West Indians, Indians, Pakistanis, Other East Europeans et al. Presumably if you go back far enough you’ll find some Anglo Saxon manuscript moaning about the bloody Normans, coming over here, undercutting the local Barons with their foreign ways etc etc.

Personally I think its healthy to be reinvigorated and challenged every now and then, kicks the complacent up the duff basically.

We all came out of Africa, with [probably] a little bit of existing Neanderthal/Erectus genetic admixture.

In essence, far more unites us all than divides us.

Yup, and we are united by our common tribal ancestry which has left us all with a desire to belong to a group, to have an affinity for those like us, and to distrust those who aren’t like us.

How much we are able to, or choose to use our intelligence to filter our genetic predispositions in deciding who’s “like us” and who’s “not like us” is a very interesting subject. – off to try and find some interesting articles.

which has left us all with a desire to belong to a group, to have an affinity for those like us

You’re so right – if I meet anybody running those shoddy press-fit BBs, I kill ’em.

PF30 POWAH!

PF30 POWAH!

*sharpens flint arrowhead.

[prepares armaments]*

*poos in hand

Some interesting comments from our being genetically predisposed to act like a tribe, actually never considered that. I also agree that I have problems with people I have problems with and their culture never has anything to do with it, there are idiots in all cultures.

I guess like many things if we over analyse we can find fault in everything and occasionally, or often the media and PC try to portray things as black or white with no in between or context.

[prepares armaments]

Too bad you’re constipated… taken down even as you strain.

Serious people will be very serious about the differences, in a positive or negative way. Less serious people will deal with things in less serious way. The art is knowing which you are and who you are talking to at any given time.

For the record, I am an non-serious non-racist but could occasionally be mistaken for a serious racist if I was taken out of context by a serious non-racist.

Racism is racism, no mater which direction is flows.

Well, yes, but. If all the power and wealth is over on one side, the racism flowing from that side in the direction of the other side is a rather more corrosive brew than the stuff coming the other way.

If a significant explanation for all the power and wealth ending up on one side is (to caricature) that the lot on that side were historically so amazingly racist that they reckoned capturing the other lot and making them work without paying them was the best they deserved (say) then that argument is even harder to ignore. A couple of hundred years of slaving and mass-killing isn’t really equivalent to a few jokey tweets, even discounting the former for the fact that the worst bits stopped 3 lifetimes ago while the tweets are happening right now.

about the differences

I generally find that this applies to the entire human race, regardless of colour.

For example, I hate lawyers. 😉

loddrik – Member

I’m not racist I just hate……….

(I’m being ironic by the way before I get banned..!!!)

had an Indian friend, Neelay, when at school/college. used to say to him and others (we’re not rascist, we just don’t like Neelay”…. 🙂

all taken in good spirit of course. he killed himself a few years after, mind

I – generally – find that this applies to the entire human race, regardless of colour.

True dat.

White people are just as “racist” as any other ethnicity.

But here in Britain, we’re not allowed to point that out.

BigBummy, agreed. The problem is that because this tribalism, group psychology, fear of the “out-group”, trust of authority figures, is all so deeply established within us, it’s always been a relatively easy trigger to pull with any human group of people/populations/groups to get them to do things. Slavery, genocide, purchase of a certain newspaper, holocaust, purgings, warfare generally, rape as a weapon of war, all of the human wrongs of the world start with “they’re different, they don’t matter as much as us.”

Doesn’t really matter whether that difference is down to language, skin colour, dress sense, gender, hometown, choice of football team, chance allocation to a group of 11-12 year old protestant mid-west American schoolchildren…

A couple of hundred years of slaving and mass-killing isn’t really equivalent to a few jokey tweets, even discounting the former for the fact that the worst bits stopped 3 lifetimes ago while the tweets are happening right now.

Exactly (my bold). The enslavers are all dead. Nobody has anything to feel guilty about. All anybody need do is ensure that we are all treated equally and that slavery never happens again (so far so good).
There is no jokey racism and shot like this sets the anti racism lobby back. Is “things black people say” OK? Nope. If it’s not appropriate in both directions, it’s not appropriate at all.

BigDummy sorry for the typo, spotted too late to edit!

xiphon – Member
White peopleEthnic groups are just as “racist” as any other ethnicity white people.

But here in Britain, we’re not allowed to point that out.

FTFY.
A girl of my acquaintance, who is Indian, was allowed to have a white boyfriend, do all the things that her Western friends did, right up until she announced that she was getting engaged to him, at which point she was cast out from her family. She still got married, but I’ve no idea if the family rift was ever repaired.
Is that sort of racism acceptable?
Not to me it isn’t.

Racism is believing a particular race has intrinsic properties.

Generalising any group of people is just that – generalising. As it happens, there are many overlapping classifications we could use, and race overlaps with socio-economic class and nationality. So you might say ‘white people say this’ when you mean WASPs of low intelligence. Is it racist? I don’t think so, unless you think they say that BECAUSE they are white.

It’s really no different to people saying stuff about cyclists or IT managers. That’s why you end up with “I’m not racist but…” and all this confusion.

As for the girl in th vid, she’s just too angry. Yes, black people did die from racism, due to slavery. We should abolish slavery. We should also work to reduce social disadvantage to ALL groups, regardless of race.

If you really are not racist, you can say things like ‘that black guy over there’ or ‘the guy in the turban’, that’s fine. I once asked my Ghanaian colleague if all Ghanaians are short. He said that people from Southern Ghana were short (as he was).

We are all racists if we do not treat everyone fairly. Can be interpreted as race related unfairness …

I treat everyone fairly as zombie maggots (guilty before proven innocence) regardless of the skin colour.

I step on you.

😈

According to my wife Australians are racist and I am also a racist for even daring to mention the high murder rate in some parts of the Caribbean.
But what does she know coming from a family of monkey eating small islanders.

It can be funny though. I was at a gathering once where someone was suggesting that there was someone I should speak to and tried to describe their appearance to me, “the gentleman in the corner of the room with the beard”, no, I picked out the wrong beardie man. “No, he’s wearing a blue jumper”, again I picked the wrong chap out from who I could see.

Having pointed out the correct person, I confirmed my understanding that it was the ONLY PERSON IN THE ROOM WEARING A TURBAN!!!

Racist.

nick1962 – Member

According to my wife Australians are racist and I am also a racist for even daring to mention the high murder rate in some parts of the Caribbean.
But what does she know coming from a family of monkey eating small islanders.

Aussie(not sure if they changed) treated the Aboriginal people as inferior beings.
Caribbean gang members treated others as inferior to be disposed of.
Islanders treated other islanders as inferior.
You highlighting Caribbeans as murderers implicating that the race like killings, hence can be seen as less civilised.

See I prove my point that everyone is racist and we are all guilty until proven innocence. Zombie maggots we become according to Yodda.

🙄