(June 2, 2011 at 2:55 pm)Aerzia Saerules Arktuos Wrote: Racism is the result of valuing one 'race' higher than others at a particular thing.
That is not entirely accurate. Racism is valuing a race higher than another race, but not in a particular thing. It is not racist to say black people tend to be better at basketball, but it is racist to say, white people are superior to black people.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/racism
Quote:a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
(June 2, 2011 at 2:55 pm)Aerzia Saerules Arktuos Wrote: I can be a (positive) racist towards blacks in basketball. I would then favor Kenyan Bucks for a basketball team from the onset. Sexism is no different in this regard, and I can easily be so by valuing women higher than men or men higher than women for any single task. And like most things... they are a matter of degrees (strongly racist towards X for Y/weakly racist towards Z for A)
I see racism as negative even in this regard. Look at it this way, say a man is more inclined to be good at things that women are good at. Well, if everyone just assumes he is not because he is a man and "values" women for these skills, he may never find a job, because of sexism.
(June 2, 2011 at 2:55 pm)Aerzia Saerules Arktuos Wrote: A generalization does not necessarily have no reasoning behind it... there are several reason that I consider no tree to be worth my talking to. A 'group' of similar bodies is necessarily attributing at least those values to that group. No tree can talk, no tree can hear, no tree can compete with me in Chess. If one miraculously escapes this mold, then it is no longer a tree, but a being worthy of a unique understanding.
Trees do not make up a race, Sae. Therefore, that is irrelevant.
(June 2, 2011 at 2:55 pm)Aerzia Saerules Arktuos Wrote: It so happens that I cut a wise swath through 3 different types of trees we have around here. Birch catches slow and burns long. Spruce catches quick and burns quick. Alder is junk. This is a process of simplification that is generalizing 3 entire groups... but it is also a necessary function of our brains. If I had to judge every tree every time I saw a new one (or even an old one from a new side), I would never get out of a forrest.
People are not trees.
(June 2, 2011 at 2:55 pm)Aerzia Saerules Arktuos Wrote: Racism at its core then, is simplification. It depersonalizes entire groups (all of which are simplifications) to judge them on a whole. I agree that this is not entirely accurate with people (some whites infact are not sissies, and they are called russians), but it also is not entirely accurate with trees. The fact that there are two groups with different characteristics means that there are differences between both groups... and herein lies the crux of racism: a focus on what is different between things rather than on what is the same. It simplifies everything and draws back to look at their perceived differences, and the result is a difference in value that has some declaring the differences to be so minute as to wonder why the distinction and has others firmly believing that an entire set is inferior (and necessarily another superior).
The problem with this analogy, Sae is that just because a group of blacks, whites, hispanics, etc. are culturally more prone to be good at something does not mean they are all good at that thing. Therefore, even with so-called "positive" connotations, it is incorrect and encourages racial gaps that should not exist in society as a whole.
(June 2, 2011 at 2:55 pm)Aerzia Saerules Arktuos Wrote: I also object to violence committed over religion and skin color. Geographic location, on the other hand, is militarily strategic. I object to violence to take swampland, but to take a mineral rich mountain? I'll have violence if it's worth it
It is not racism to attack people in a location for resources or military strategy. That is government and military-related, not race-related. However, if you attack a country to "kill the infidels," "wipe out the *insert ethnic slur here*," then it is racist and I find it repulsive.
