racism rā′sĭz″əm ► n. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. n. Discrimination or prejudice based on race. n. The belief that each race has distinct and intrinsic attributes. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffnt&q=racism&ia=definition
Of course there are other divisions used. Race is the most obvious and far reaching division in the USA. I disagree that racism is merely an individual choice; rather it is a system. The system began with the first slaves bought to America.
The terms were decided by the Founding Fathers. They created the laws and customs that determined what kind of place the USA was going to be. And it was their decision that Africans would be chattel slaves and Whites would be the Masters. The rest is history.
You think racism didn't exist until the first African slaves were transported to the New World colonies? I almost brought up the western/American-centric implication in the OP question too, but you've made it much more blatant.
I understand what you are saying. I wish our society had been set up the way you describe. Unfortunately, it wasn't.
I'm sure racism existed in other places besides the USA. This thread is NOT about other countries/ places.
Yes, and that's what's wrong with it. You can't look at racism as just an American concept (and especially not just a white American one). Racism is a human concept. There are obviously specific socio-political and cultural elements too but you're never going to properly understand it without approaching from the human aspect as a starting point.
That it doesn't have a purpose. It can be used or manipulated but that's a significantly different prospect. The "you're never going to understand" in my comment was't meant to be personal by the way. In hindsight, it would have been better written as "we're never...".
I would not call it racist, just discussion. Some of the conclusions it might tend toward could be considered racist, but that is in the mind of the beholder. I behold one race.
My post is mostly oriented to the conditional tense, yours to the past. We are in the present and are trying to affect an improved future. As long as a person draws breath, the person change can mindset. When breathing stops, other changes occur.
Absolutely. But if you think its only one group thats being used thusly, you prolly got a boot on ur neck ur not noticing
You really should study slavery before you come here accusing me of being guilty. Here is a good place to start. It was black Africans who sold black slaves to whoever had goods to trade for them. It was white Americans who freed the slaves. I'm a ninth cousin to Abraham Lincoln and I know of ancestors of mine who participated in the underground railroad. Here, you can look that up too. The way I see it, blacks owe me for my ancestors role in freeing them, or we could just get past it and move on with our lives.
They doing that in the 1800s. Not just the South, the wealthy in the Northeast would use bigotry to keep people divided, and keep them from effectively asking for more pay. They did that a lot. If workers started to organise they would let in immigrants from a different country, so they didn't speak the same language. Then they would bust a lot of heads, and hire some of the new immigrants.
That made no sense whatsoever. The reason people in Africa forced people into slavery was because we were offering money. No demand, no supply... Many would die during the voyage, 1/3 to 2/3s... The mortality rate for slaves, once they got here, was high. But as a way to whitewash history that was clever. But seriously...
Race is secondary to the ability to control a group. It expands across economic lines, racial lines, religious lines, and age lines. Whatever can be used against one group, to dislike another, so the anger isn't aimed at the ones who are actually yanking the strings.
Name a country more racially and culturally diverse than the US. Neither the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights mentions race. In fact, it says ALL PEOPLE.
You guys seem to think dodging the obvious is a life and death matter these days. Hundreds of thousands were forced into slavery because we wanted slaves. Again, supply and demand... We did what we did...
It may be alive and well in some places.... but most generally, in America people are starting to look beyond race. That is, until the baiters start waving the flames of division and bring new focus upon race!
The United States and white majority countries are the only countries that ended slavery. Slavery in Africa, Asia, and the ME is rampant in 2020. White people have done more to end slavery than any other race.
The purpose of the Dem Party's leadership, it's professional race-agitators, and their mainstream media in deliberately enciting periodic bloody and destructive riots in this nation while falsely claiming that this nation is filled with and controlled by White racists is simply to gain political power and keep it. The fact that this cynical political methodology constantly puts this entire nation at risk is simply a byproduct of a 'The ends justifies the means' political ideology of the Dem Party's leadership. But thanks for asking.
