How can theists/atheists justify racism?

[syo]

theists and atheists both believe we have common ancestors

All humans have a common ancestor. We are all brothers and sisters. Racism is propaganda.

 

[LiveBetterLife]

"Them white people are good at conquering but black people are only good at dribbling balls!" is what you're saying.

No, it doesn't since those things aren't due to biological differences. You're just trying to sugar-coat your own racism and veil it with pseudo-academic language.

That's an incredibly reductive interpretation of my post and a revelation of your own intrinsic racism.

"Them white people are good at conquering but black people are only good at dribbling balls!" is actually what you just said; not me.

Pretty offensive thing for you to say on a public forum too I would add; it really didn't come close to my original sentiment.

I simply made the point that differences based on genetics exist in the world and that exploitation or degradation of human beings based upon those genetic differences is something to be avoided.

You then made an extremely racist statement on your own and claimed I was responsible for it.

Shame on you.

 

[LiveBetterLife]

True, but they're angry for the wrong reasons. While it's perfectly acceptable to be an grey at someone who did something bad/evil, we shouldn't get angry because that person was born in a certain place or has a particular skin tone. Anger has a place in society, and many times is justified, but being angry at a entire group of people we don't even know based on prejudice is completely insane, and in my opinion, against human nature.

I don't know about "against human nature" but I would definitely say that it's something that we as a culture have made a commendable effort to work through/against and that we do our best to resolve over the last 50-70 years.

And rightfully so. Industrialization and modernity changed everything.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

That's an incredibly reductive interpretation of my post and a revelation of your own intrinsic racism.

"Them white people are good at conquering but black people are only good at dribbling balls!" is actually what you just said; not me.

Pretty offensive thing for you to say on a public forum too I would add; it really didn't come close to my original sentiment.

I simply made the point that differences based on genetics exist in the world and that exploitation or degradation of human beings based upon those genetic differences is something to be avoided.

You then made an extremely racist statement on your own and claimed I was responsible for it.

Shame on you.

You're the one who said that biological differences explain European imperialism and blacks in sports. You said that, not me. It's total nonsense.

 

[Darkforbid]

You're the one who said that biological differences explain European imperialism and blacks in sports. You said that, not me. It's total nonsense.

Not completely true, racial differences is an area of research that is not approved of see:
Why Kenyans Make Such Great Runners: A Story of Genes and Cultures

 

[LiveBetterLife]

You're the one who said that biological differences explain European imperialism and blacks in sports. You said that, not me. It's total nonsense.

No:

I pointed out two extremely obvious examples of genetics, geography and ancestry explaining racial disparities.

You said:

"Them white people are good at conquering but black people are only good at dribbling balls!"

Putting it in quotation marks doesn't make you any less than the author of that racist statement.

Think before you post.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Not completely true, racial differences is an area of research that is not approved of see:
Why Kenyans Make Such Great Runners: A Story of Genes and Cultures

Blacks playing basketball is a more recent trend. It used to be mostly Jews and whites that played it. That's what I'm getting at. It's a cultural thing. The running thing only applies to a few ethnic groups that black Americans wouldn't be descended from.

 

[LiveBetterLife]

Not completely true, racial differences is an area of research that is not approved of see:
Why Kenyans Make Such Great Runners: A Story of Genes and Cultures

That poster reeks of the kind of backwards identity politics we see today. Fishing for an argument about why racists are bad but ends up looking like the biggest racist in the thread as a result.

 

[LiveBetterLife]

Blacks playing basketball is a more recent trend. It used to be mostly Jews and whites that played it. That's what I'm getting at. It's a cultural thing. The running thing only applies to a few ethnic groups that black Americans wouldn't be descended from.

Pure ignorance of genetics.

And obviously you know nothing about athletics either.

As long as we're putting words in each others' mouths:

"Most NBA players are black because more black people choose to play basketball."

You're a goofy dude Saint.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

No:

I pointed out two extremely obvious examples of genetics, geography and ancestry explaining racial disparities.

You said:

"Them white people are good at conquering but black people are only good at dribbling balls!"

Putting it in quotation marks doesn't make you any less than the author of that racist statement.

Think before you post.

I was boiling down what you were saying. You said those things and I was just making it obvious what you were saying. What you said was garbage anyway. Europeans didn't colonize countries because of their genetics. Wtf.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Pure ignorance of genetics.

And obviously you know nothing about athletics either.

I know more about it than you.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

That poster reeks of the kind of backwards identity politics we see today. Fishing for an argument about why racists are bad but ends up looking like the biggest racist in the thread as a result.

Actually I loathe identity politics. This isn't the Twilight Zone where you get to make blatant racist remarks, have a person call you out for it and then accuse the person calling you out of racism.

 

[LiveBetterLife]

I was boiling down what you were saying.

No you weren't.

You said those things and I was just making it obvious what you were saying. What you said was garbage anyway. Europeans didn't colonize countries because of their genetics. Wtf.

Europeans spent centuries and millennia honing their ability to war with various, adversarial clustered peoples and were exposed to materials that allowed them to develop world conquering artillery. Empires continued to clash and a race for the world began. The Americas, Africa, Australia and the Indian subcontinent experienced developments that were less advanced than Europeans in those regards and thus were easily colonized.

How would you explain colonization?

 

[LiveBetterLife]

I know more about it than you.

You obviously don't.

You really think there are more black people in the NBA because of a matter of choice?

That really is the funniest thing I've read in a while.

 

[LiveBetterLife]

Actually I loathe identity politics. This isn't the Twilight Zone where you get to make blatant racist remarks, have a person call you out for it and then accuse the person calling you out of racism.

I made no racist remarks.

You then made this remark:

"Them white people are good at conquering but black people are only good at dribbling balls!"

Then you claimed that I was the one who said it.

Wake up to yourself. Racism is a serious charge and you shouldn't go throwing around accusations as recklessly as you apparently do; often people who do this sort of thing have serious issues regarding psychological security regarding their own identity and place in the world - does that sound like you?

 

[Twilight Hue]

Theists believe all humans are descendants of the first couple, created by God. Atheists believe all life evolved from a common ancestor that appeared millions of years ago and evolved into different life forms, including ours.
Despite our many differences, theists and atheists both believe we have common ancestors. So, if we both believe we come from the same DNA pool, how can anyone justify racism? How ca we see other human beings as inferior, less deserving or less worthy?

I tend to think racism is more culturally based and associated with how people look from various places.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I’m going to distinguish the more everyday racial prejudice from the more elaborate intellectual and “academic” justifications for racial superiority or inferiority as it may help to try to get inside the mind of a racist and how these views were once widely held but have since fallen out of favour.

The belief that we are all part of the same species has not always been accepted. In 1950, after the end of Nazism and World War II, the United Nations published a series of statements under the title of “the race question” which attempted to set out the scientific arguments against racism , including the belief in common origins.

However, this was a response to the “scientific racism” of the 19th and early 20th centuries which lent views of racial superiority scientific credibility. (Wikipedia says scientific racism even dates back as far as the 16th century.) These are now generally regarded as pseudo-scientific, although controversy continues on the political implications of certain subjects, such as studying possible relationships between race and intelligence and studying relationships between biology and social behaviour or “socio-biology”. These are all part of similar disputes that developed out of the eugenics movement, now largely discredited due to its use by the Nazis.

Whilst we today still believe race determined physical differences within the human species (skin colour, eye colour, hair type, etc), the Nazis and other racists took this further to believe that race accounted for moral, psychological and spiritual differences between racial groups as a justification for legal and political inequality. The view that we are all part of the human race entails a spiritual equality in that we are all capable and deserving of freedom and dignity, whereas the more intellectual racists views reject this position.

The Nazis conception of race didn’t simply derive from pseudo-scientific sources, but included religious elements as well. This included attempts at incorporating Nazi ideology into Christianity as “german christians movement” such as “positive christianity”, the more pagan “german faith movement” and the mysticism of esoteric nazism.

Although Nazis were strongly anti-intellectual (believing in the importance of action and the power of the spoken word over the written one), they had their share of Nazi intellectuals willing to elaborate a racist ideology. So you had Alfred Rosenberg publish “the myth of the twentieth century” in 1930 as probably the second most important volume in nazi ideology behind Hitler’s Mein Kamphf. These intellectual currents also worked their way in to ongoing cultural and scientific disputes such as the Nazis attack on “degenerate art” and controversies over Einstein's theory of relativity, each justified as an attack on the “jewish” spirit undermining the spiritual and cultural values of the aryan race. Sometimes this meant appropriating existing ideas to serve as justification for their ideology, such as Fredrich Nietzsche s concept of the superman (despite the fact Nietzsche was not an anti-semite).

The more common racial prejudices have their ancestry in these often more intellectual attempts to rationalise racism making their way in to the mass media and popular culture. An example might be the film “The Birth of a Nation” (1915) which presents a revisionist view of the history of the confederacy as a “lost cause” and presented the klu klux klan in a heroic light.

Although what I've said so far refers mainly to white supremacy, there have been attempts to justify black supremacy and other races as well, each having their effect on politics and history.

So there is a wealth of ideas appealing to both scientific and religious authority to justify racism if someone is so inclined. But since the Second World War, these have been generally buried and don’t generally make it in to wider consumption. The current rebellion against perceived “political correctness” has regrettably brought some of these ideas back out in the open and in circulation amongst the wider public and made racist attitudes much less marginalised and more visible as a result.

I think about Geronimo and how his racist views started. In light of what had happened to him and those he cared about, I'd probably end up 'justifiably' racist too considering everything that had happened to him.

Then there's the type of racism where it's just based on superficial appearances.

You don't look like me, and you're weird acting, so stay away from me type of mentality so I don't 'catch' it.

I think a lot of it has to do with hardwired evolution and the fact that we are collectively territorial creatures and protective of one's own kind and ways to a larger extent.

Personally, I think we can and to an extent had evolved out of it, and happily multicultural, but the hardwiring will still remain in place, because you essentially have made another camp and group of people who view others with distain that don't fit the mold of multiculturalism so becomes that vicious cycle that we see today imv.

 

[Road Less Traveled]

Too sensitive of a topic to even discuss much anymore. Too easy to twist words, and turn anything into racism.

A white man can be married to a black woman, have a kid of their own, and adopt a kid from each background ... never speak a word....and still somehow get called and perceived as a racist.

Is it racist to have an honest acknowledgement the different biological abilities that some in a particular race (in general) have as opposed to another race (in general) in certain areas, professions, etc?

 

[SugarOcean]

Theists believe all humans are descendants of the first couple, created by God. Atheists believe all life evolved from a common ancestor that appeared millions of years ago and evolved into different life forms, including ours.
Despite our many differences, theists and atheists both believe we have common ancestors. So, if we both believe we come from the same DNA pool, how can anyone justify racism? How ca we see other human beings as inferior, less deserving or less worthy?

Racism afflicts all races and is expressed by all races.

This Christain doesn't justify racism.
We are all made in the image and likeness of the Creator. One from the same.
Melanin protein is nothing to be "proud of".

 

[Road Less Traveled]

Perhaps one day there can be people from each race or tribe calling the other a ‘derogatory’ name for their race or tribe, each acknowledging their gifts and lack of gifts and all laughing about it with one another taking no offense while putting the past behind.