Can Anyone be Racist?

[Kilgore Trout]

People rather just say that everyone is a little bit racist, and just move on with it. But if you don't have a society that fosters it, it doesn't matter what an individual thinks, because they can't act on it.

I'm a white male, but have no decision making power in any part of the system. So, I assume from your argument, that I can't actually be racist then, as I can't act on it societally.

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

I'm a white male, but have no decision making power in any part of the system. So, I assume from your argument, that I can't actually be racist then, as I can't act on it societally.

Sure, you don't participate in it. But the system still favors you.

I guess I don't look at it as people being racist but more of a system that allows racism to exist. Before the system allowed it to exist on an individual to individual level as well as a societal basis. Now it is more of a culture/society of racism, that isn't focused on the hatred part.

 

[Monotheist 101]

Can a person who is a racial minority in America, such as someone of African, Asian, or Native American descent, practice racism against Whites?

The question would seem very unlikely to me, except that I've now and then heard people assert that it is impossible for a person who is a racial minority to practice racism because racism somehow requires that one be of the majority or dominant group in a given society.

However, I myself think the best definition of "racism" (so far as I'm concerned) allows for the possibility that anyone, regardless of race, might practice racism. That is, as I define it, racism is the conceptual reduction of a person or group of people to no more than their race. Thus, everything a person might be, in the fullest sense of those words, is seen through the lens of racism as of at least secondary importance to that one thing -- their race.

So, do how do you define racism? And can a anyone be racist according to your definition of the term, or is it impossible for some people to be racist?

Yes they can, if they believe in supremacy..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_supremacy

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Racism is not specifically about supremacy.
Racism is not liking a Race for any reason. but it is usually complex.
You can be racist against another race because "you" think it is superior or different in some way.

A belief in racial superiority is only one class of racism.

From wiki

Legal

The UN does not define “racism”; however, it does define “racial discrimination”: According to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,

the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.[20]
​

This definition does not make any difference between discrimination based on ethnicity and race, in part because the distinction between the two remains debatable among anthropologists.[21] Similarly, in British law the phrase racial group means "any group of people who are defined by reference to their race, colour, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origin".[22]

 

[Curious George]

Or a Goy, a Gajo, a Gringo...

It is in human nature to consider "foreigners" as not worth of so much consideration.

Almost funny actually.

Do people use gringo in Brazil? In Mexico gringo usually just refers to foreigners (especially Americans but guero is used for light skinned folk, then there is always gabacho which is specifically for whites.

 

[Father Heathen]

I don't think minorities (in America) can actually be racists. They can certainly hate other people (particularly white people), but being racist against them? Idk.

Racism is about feeling superior to another group because of your race. And In America, well whites are in general the ones in charge. So you can't as a minority practice racism against a white in America.

Again though that doesn't mean you can't hate white people, or think negatively about them, but it just doesn't do anything.

Again, to demean and denigrate someone based solely on their skin color is racism. You don't get to redefine words in a sad attempt to gloss over glaring double-standards.

 

[Poeticus]

Again, to demean and denigrate someone based solely on their skin color is racism. You don't get to redefine words in a sad attempt to gloss over glaring double-standards.

I agree with you. I told him that there is a difference between supremacism and racism. All supremacists are racist. But, not all racists are supremacist. I don't think he understood that, though.

 

[Breathe]

Again, to demean and denigrate someone based solely on their skin color is racism. You don't get to redefine words in a sad attempt to gloss over glaring double-standards.

I'm with you. I think it's actually dangerous to think that minorities can't be racist.