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Why is racism is wrong? . . For most people this a very "religious" tenet. They just believe what they have been told. They have never explained to themselves why they "think/feel" so. . . . They only spew "their" opinion whenever their Pavlovian trigger is pulled. No THOUGHT! Just unconscious response. Are you one of those un-thinkers?

PAY ATTENTION::: To how many will attack me for asking the question. These people are "religious" in the sense that they have just accepted "truths" and have never questioned. . . . . What is racism? To what degree do you feel racist? To what extent are you emotionally able to reveal your actual emotions to strangers? Why would you be so public with thoughts so private?

JacarC 8 Aug 26
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0

If we are to be consistent, just like there is no literal god, there is no innate right or wrong.
There are actions, and there are consequences.

In our ancestral environment a hundred thousand years ago, racism wasn’t wrong. It was adaptive. It conferred survivability for our species.

When we began living in large groups of strangers upon whom we had to depend for sustenance, some of our evolved behavioral adaptations became problematic and needed to be modified to enhance cooperation and coordination inside large, complex agrarian societies. Rules were made which curbed some of those problematic behaviors, and myths evolved to culturally enforce the rules.

Racism is still not wrong today. It is an evolved instinct that must be artificially curbed by cultural means if we are to maintain functional civilization.

No behavior is inherently wrong, but many behaviors are problematic if we want to live peacefully in modern societies.
To whatever extent atheists think racism is wrong, they are under the thrall of religious indoctrination. Whatever cultural or individual force is applied to alter evolved instincts, for the purpose of social cohesion, is functioning as a religion, whether true stories or fictitious ones are employed to enforce compliance. Semantic, I realize, but historically accurate.

Compassion for strangers is not natural, automatic, or “right”. If it exists at all, it is because current, local, cultural norms have welded it to the fragment of naturally evolved altruism that we do possess.

Murder, rape, thievery, and xenophobia are natural. Peace, love, and compassion for strangers are super/natural. That is to say, they have been added to our instinctual substrate by cultural means. And for the record, I’m very glad they have. It’s called civilization.

skado Level 9 Feb 8, 2022

That is ridiculous. Racism is not and could never be adaptive. "In our ancestral environment a hundred thousand years ago." Or confer, "survivability for our species." Because for something to be adaptive there needs to be a survival or reproductive pressure to drive it. And that was impossible a hundred thousand years ago. Since until the invention and wide spread use of the ocean going sailing ship about three thousand years ago, and especially, its widespread use, about five hundred years ago, ninty nine point nine, ( add as many nines as you like, ) of the human species, passed their whole lives without ever encountering a person from another so called race.

Nor does evolution, the genetic sort, deal in such fine judgements, things must be at best be culturally emerged properties from much more generalized instincts. What may have existed as an evolved trait a hundred thousand years ago, was perhaps neophobia, the fear of strange things, as a generalized instinct. Whether that be strange foods, places, animals, weather, etc.. And that could have led, in modern times, to a distrust of strange looking and culturally different people, which could have been formalized into cultural traditions of racism.

PS. " Species survivability " has nothing to do with evolution on the micro scale either, and even whether it is a valid idea at all as a significant driver of evolution, is debatable.

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Any preconceptions about another race or gender are stupid and based on nothing. That is why racism must be destroyed in the modern world—many brilliant and most talented people from different races, religions, or genders. I am alarmed by news like calgaryherald.com when politicians make racist statements. After all, a politician is the face of the people, and the people will never say such things about another nation. It is terrible stupidity, and it is very unpleasant that such people still exist.

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Racism: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.

So reworded: why is thinking one is superior to another based on an inherent, socially constructed trait like race, problematic.

You tell us. If you can. Without exposing your biases and bigotries.

0
  1. Science tells us that we are all so closely related that the idea of race makes no sense.
  2. The old rule that if you want to make a moral system, do it as if you were to be at the bottom of the pile.
  3. If there are no racial differences then you loose a lot of good people from your list of possible friends by falsely prejudging them, and even if there are races and some were better than others, then the weaker should always be treated with greater humanity. So either way it does not work.
  4. Because like religion and god it is a false construct used by people who want to manipulate and profit from others, by lying to them. Every racist needs to ask who is using me.
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People are just/only People. Who reor you, or anybody, to tell others they are somehow "wrong"???????

1

As a younger man I was racist but we can often be racist unawares. Being in the Army helped straighten me out some and over the years I learned more with time. Our earth is a big box of crayons and we that are inside are the colors.

Thank you for this.

0

Just last night I watched a very interesting debate on a French TV show (on n'est pas couche). The presenter had invited several black researchers to discuss the status of blacks in contemporary France. In the precedent show one of the chroniclers had made a remark that seem to have been perceived as racist.
This programme reminded me of a reflection about the establishment of Israel, which I call the Palestinian Liberia.
In the French TV show one researcher talked about slavery in France and French colonies. Orignially abolished in 1793 Napoleon restored it 9 years later … and it took another 40 years before it was finally officially abolished in 1848. One of the researchers made a very interesting point: the quest for identity. Slaves did not have family names. He also talked about the stigma attached to the condition of slavery.
He said that usually people refer to their ancestors of renown. Coincidently just before a French singer was asked about one of her great-great-grandfathers: Gustave Eiffel (1832 – 1923). What references can the progeny of slaves use?

Thank you. Very interesting. Important that we learn what other cultures/countries are like so we can learn about ourselves.

0

It is certainly an advantage if one knows the reasons for one's thinking and beliefs. But all people, at some stage, will just embrace a convention. I prefer someone who is just a Pavlovian non-racist to someone who can explain their racism eloquently.
Racism is not the only -ism we should stay away from, just as we should try to combat types of xenophobia.

I admit to unknown racism. I have regular experiences providing me with examples of what i did not know. Some of these moments are color/race related. These bits are usually found in my having not thought about a particular group of people behaving in a particular manner. This is more a lack of awareness than in any way a comment upon my thinking of my "superiority." Especially when the moments demonstrate a different color's performance of skill i do not possess. Nonetheless, they are racially connected in my amazement.

Yet::: Racism/xenoism is a genetic survival mechanism. This is not something we can merely dismiss with education. But, at this moment it is the only tool we have.

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Racism causes us (anyone on one side of racism) to dismiss or ignore the humanity, contributions, and potential of those of the "other side". In social structures like the US, it's also a way to create a dominant ruling class that actively denigrates the rights of another group. Without the belief in racism, it's much harder to enforce the social rules about who can live where, or have what job, or why someone deserves to be treated better/worse. To overcome that thinking is such a huge change in thinking, for so many people, that a knee jerk belief in "anti-racism" was needed. Jyst like a knee-jerk belief in racism was required just a few generations ago.

1

Racism is the negative side of human group instinct and tribalism. I think everybody has a racist impulse, but we should work to consciously counteract or suppress it. The positive side can be ethnic pride, but personally I aspire to see people as just individuals.

2

Basically a tool to keep us hating each other and ignoring the ones who want to control us, like Nazi or white supremacist, the rich are left alone and control things while we fight each other

bobwjr Level 10 Aug 27, 2019
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You are despicable. I grew up in a family of racists and fascists. I've got to fight against racist thoughts all the time. Racism is wrong because it makes us think that people, yes people, are less than us simply because of the color of our skin when really they're our betters.

Not just the colour of their skin... the shape of their eyes, the texture of their hair, etc. Think of the 1 drop rule many americans subscribe to after all and all the mixed light/white skin kids/adults out there that have other distinguishing "racial traits"

@demifeministgal the "celebrities that are really black, even though they look white" click bait "news" is still all over the place on social media. all those "investigative journalists" uncovering the truth about that "one drop". its horrifying, because it wouldnt be there if it didnt sell.

You have NO idea what i think.Asking the question is not an indication of any affiliation negative or positive with the content and subject of the question. Time to learn how to read for comprehension and to NOT attempt to kill the messenger.

Obviously you are able to PROVE you are NOT a racist.

0

I believe that racism is wrong because it is illogical, unscientific, and counter to us being human. Our skins have adapted to climate due to evolution, if we who are pale skinned had not had ancestors who had moved from Africa to more northerly climes, we too would be dark skinned. Basically, what I’m saying is, it is unintelligent and uninformed to be racist. Ignorance of scientific facts causes people to be racist in the same way it causes them to be religious. A combination of both racism and religion is therefore doubly ignorant.

@Matias I cannot put myself back into the time when these ideas were universally believed, I can only talk about today when we have the benefit of scientific knowledge. If I had been alive in earlier times I presume I would have thought as others did. With the knowledge that we have all evolved from the same group in Africa, then that changes everything, These eminent thinkers of their time would be unlikely to still hold these views today.

Racism/xenoism is a basic genetic survival mechanism. Not easy to overcome. Just like the sexual desire/imperative.

3

Why? Because "race" is a null concept. All humans are the same race or species. Our common ancestor, approximately 200,000 years ago, was dark-skinned. Any genetic variation since then in skin pigmentation is simply natural selection for climate regions after the migrations out of Africa. It has nothing whatsoever to do with character, intellect, or the host of attributes with which skin color has been wrongly associated in popular legend and prejudice.

You might just as well say that Trump is an idiot due to his white skin, and Obama is a genius because he's black. But that observation, again, is completely unscientific. Skin color is completely unconnected to anything else. There is no such thing as "race" other than as a cultural construct.

That is why racism is wrong, from a scientific point of view. It's provable. As an atheist, that's what I care about.

As a human being, what I care about is that racists (on all sides) are dreadful people who do dreadful things and then try to justify themselves by saying, "Well, why is racism really so wrong, anyway?" You should be fucking ashamed of yourself.

"You are not one of us," is a basic genetic survival response. We can not address the consequences of our behavior if we deny the reality of why our behaviors exist.

0

I think you're trying to say the belief that racism is wrong is just dogma? If you believe the Humanists tenents are correct then you try to believe and live the fact that racism is wrong. We probably all are guilty of some form of racism. But we learn from those experiences.

Our current concepts of what is right, good, reasonable,.... Are all based upon the development of the frontal lobes of our brains, and the immense data we have gathered during the past 200,000+ years.

In just the past 500 years, the west has significantly progressed to understanding what is in the best interest of all of us. We are still babies. Racism is reasonable. Denigrating others is learned stupidity.

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