(January 20, 2015 at 10:09 am)Blackout Wrote:Quote:We had that asshole a few weeks back saying that minorities cannot be racist. Was he being dishonest, or simply stupid?True story, but while every race can be racist, I'm not particularly worried about racist statements about whites because I know they'll never impact politics, in fact, there's no political party that has, as an ideology, to kick out everyone who isn't white... Usually racism is a reference to discrimination against people of colour because they are the minority in the west (for now) and it's far more common.
Seriously, Gawdzilla has a point: if you're saying "x race cannot be y quality", you're talking out of your ass. FNM made an overbroad, unnuanced statement.
It depends a lot on which definition of "racism" you're using. There is an extremely popular definition among Anthropologists today, which goes like this: Race prejudice + power = racism.
It's based on approaching the definition backwards, so to speak. If we agree that racism necessarily causes mental, emotional, physical, and economic harm to entire groups of people (those who are the target of racism), then the definition makes more sense. Bigotry against the Irish used to be a serious problem. Today there are probably a few people who still feel that way, but because they have no power and their bigotry is not institutionalized, it doesn't affect me (3/4 Irish) in any way.
Personally, I think there needs to be another word for race prejudice + power. Most people think of "racism" as simply "hating people & believing that they are inherently inferior simply because of their racial characteristics." Trying to re-define "racism" more narrowly will only lead to pointless arguments.
