There is this common misconception that prior to a certain time, like usually 1970, 1980, or 1990, everyone was a racist bigot and then suddenly, there was an 'enlightenment' and everyone rejected racism.

Now, I'm not very old, but this seems like BS to me. Sure, people today are more politically correct, but I think the prevalence of racism has changed little since the Civil Rights era. I read so much racist crap on the Internet and ever since Obama was elected, racism has gone more out into the open.

Yes since the late 60's and especially since the end of the cold war people condemn racism more. But i dont think people in the past were really any more hateful, maybe just a bit less likely to have friends of other ethnic groups/races.

it's improved somewhat, but i feel like anti-racism alone isn't attacking the root problem which is hate itself. sure we could all marry people of other races into a nice shade of brown, but it wouldn't get of hate, without rejecting all hate, we would simply pick on other people for different things, like say what subculture they are or what decade they were born in.

There is this common misconception that prior to a certain time, like usually 1970, 1980, or 1990, everyone was a racist bigot and then suddenly, there was an 'enlightenment' and everyone rejected racism.

Now, I'm not very old, but this seems like BS to me. Sure, people today are more politically correct, but I think the prevalence of racism has changed little since the Civil Rights era. I read so much racist crap on the Internet and ever since Obama was elected, racism has gone more out into the open.

Yes since the late 60's and especially since the end of the cold war people condemn racism more. But i dont think people in the past were really any more hateful, maybe just a bit less likely to have friends of other ethnic groups/races.

it's improved somewhat, but i feel like anti-racism alone isn't attacking the root problem which is hate itself. sure we could all marry people of other races into a nice shade of brown, but it wouldn't get of hate, without rejecting all hate, we would simply pick on other people for different things, like say what subculture they are or what decade they were born in.


Our society still carries a lot of cultural baggage, I think especially within the african american community there is a lot of double standards and something called colorism. Colorism is a pretty prevalent in a lot of african americans, a lot of the females bleach their skin to have a lighter tone, lighter skinned is praised as desirable and attractive, straight hair is seen as superior to kinky hair. Just watch various hip-hop videos, they glamorize the lighter skinned ladies, Lil Wayne even dissed his own daughter, saying he won't have another child that has her dark skin >:(. What's really bad is that alot of black colorist/racist won't get the same kind of public backlash as a openly white racist, a lot will say this is due to white guilt but the african american community continues to perpetuate these self-destructive and self-hating cultural bs. There's a documentary called Dark Girls that came out last year, it goes in depth about this very serious problem(especially for dark skinned african american females). Seems there is still a mental slavery with a lot of african americans.

Our society still carries a lot of cultural baggage, I think especially within the african american community there is a lot of double standards and something called colorism. Colorism is a pretty prevalent in a lot of african americans, a lot of the females bleach their skin to have a lighter tone, lighter skinned is praised as desirable and attractive, straight hair is seen as superior to kinky hair. Just watch various hip-hop videos, they glamorize the lighter skinned ladies, Lil Wayne even dissed his own daughter, saying he won't have another child that has her dark skin >:(. What's really bad is that alot of black colorist/racist won't get the same kind of public backlash as a openly white racist, a lot will say this is due to white guilt but the african american community continues to perpetuate these self-destructive and self-hating cultural bs. There's a documentary called Dark Girls that came out last year, it goes in depth about this very serious problem(especially for dark skinned african american females). Seems there is still a mental slavery with a lot of african americans.


two words: Michael Jackson.

The racist Obama haters (no, I don't mean to categorize everybody who disagrees with Obama's policies as "racist") just happen to be loudmouths and rather prominent on internet discussion forums. They don't truly represent the American demographic.

However, I think that there remains a lot of discomfort with discussing race. Due to our turbulent past with regards to race relations, things like political correctness are a way for our society to try to make amends for that. Still, many people give in to prejudiced conceptions of other people.

I do think today is less racist than the past, but I would venture to describe the current social climate as volatile.

I think we're seeing more racism than yesteryear, today we're seeing more "racial profiling" in 2012 than we did back in the 70's and 80's.

I don't think the racial profiling has gotten worse, just more broadcast. 

Racism is something that will never go away, I am afraid.  There will always be people out there that see someone with a different skin color as inferior.  I hope the younger generation proves me wrong.

I don't think the racial profiling has gotten worse, just more broadcast. 

Racism is something that will never go away, I am afraid.  There will always be people out there that see someone with a different skin color as inferior.  I hope the younger generation proves me wrong.


There will always be people who will find a reason to hate, if it isn't color it's religion, if it isn't religion it is economic group, etc etc.  Racism, or any negative ism, an easy way to make someone feel better about themselves without having to actually do something worth feeling good about.

So true. 

Racism has changed over the years, but it root cause remains the same, and has to due with power.  Racism, or the defining of others as inferior, is the way the powerful justify the exploitation of the weak.  It is both personal and institutional, and spreads from those who actually are powerful to those like them who are themselves powerless.  The Tryvon Martin case exemplifies both types of racism.  Zimmerman is just a regular guy infected with hatred for blacks for whatever non-reason.  The way the cops handled him, and the way the courts handle blacks/latinos in general is institutional racism.  It certainly is a good think for people to search their own feeling/prejudices and work through them, but it is at least as important to understand and confront the racism built into the system itself.

Have things improved?  Sure.  Lynchings are now quite rare, the KKK can no longer stage a mass march in D.C., and our system of apartheid has been abolished (to some degree - it is now economic), but most elements of institutional racism remain.

I don't think the racial profiling has gotten worse, just more broadcast. 

Racism is something that will never go away, I am afraid.  There will always be people out there that see someone with a different skin color as inferior.  I hope the younger generation proves me wrong.


racism is something some people live with, It's either race or religion that someone has a problem with.

From my innocent and naive life, yes we are less racist today. Key word is 'less'.
There's still a lot of racist people in this world though.

Unfortunately, it is human nature to hate people who are different-different color of skin, different religion, different political beliefs, different economic status, etc. etc. It has always been that "Us vs Them". Several years ago, I was helping out at the local high school theatre department. They put on a play by that name "Us vs Them". Two groups were basically the same but yet they distrusted each other.

As Carlos has said, it is a way for the powerful to exploit others and to encourage that hatred. It is so easy to make people afraid of others so they won't see what the people in power are actually doing. If you turn on the news you can see people trying to make others afraid of other people (Fox News is good at this). We have to fear immigrants because they are going to take away our jobs (of course there is nothing about the people who hire said immigrants because they will work for a lot less than others will). This way, immigrants & non-immigrants won't unite to improve work conditions & wages. People will vote against their best interest when they are afraid.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JjiaRJqKIU



Cat

Unfortunately, it is human nature to hate people who are different-different color of skin, different religion, different political beliefs, different economic status, etc. etc. It has always been that "Us vs Them". Several years ago, I was helping out at the local high school theatre department. They put on a play by that name "Us vs Them". Two groups were basically the same but yet they distrusted each other.

As Carlos has said, it is a way for the powerful to exploit others and to encourage that hatred. It is so easy to make people afraid of others so they won't see what the people in power are actually doing. If you turn on the news you can see people trying to make others afraid of other people (Fox News is good at this). We have to fear immigrants because they are going to take away our jobs (of course there is nothing about the people who hire said immigrants because they will work for a lot less than others will). This way, immigrants & non-immigrants won't unite to improve work conditions & wages. People will vote against their best interest when they are afraid.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JjiaRJqKIU



Cat


I don't think it is "human nature" to hate other people.  It might be human nature to be leery of that which is strange, different, or merely new, but that is different than hate.  After all, humans are curious beings, which is essentially why we rule the planet.  Our nature is to explore what is new, not fear and hate it.  Hate is, as the song suggests, is taught.  But that curiosity leads to another part of our nature, our desire to control, which leads to the exercise of power, or a struggle for power over the new.  When the new is new people that can easily lead to racism. 

Hate is definitely a taught behavior.  Put a bunch of 2 year olds in a sandbox and they will play with each other without worrying about skin color or politics or religion, etc.  Grown-ups could learn a lot from toddlers.

I don't think it is "human nature" to hate other people.  It might be human nature to be leery of that which is strange, different, or merely new, but that is different than hate.  After all, humans are curious beings, which is essentially why we rule the planet.  Our nature is to explore what is new, not fear and hate it.  Hate is, as the song suggests, is taught.  But that curiosity leads to another part of our nature, our desire to control, which leads to the exercise of power, or a struggle for power over the new.  When the new is new people that can easily lead to racism.



Yeah, human nature is not the right word. More like society instills it into the psyche.



Cat

Hate is definitely a taught behavior.  Put a bunch of 2 year olds in a sandbox and they will play with each other without worrying about skin color or politics or religion, etc.  Grown-ups could learn a lot from toddlers.


no person(s) should ever worry about skin color or religion, God always told us to love another.

I don't think it is "human nature" to hate other people.  It might be human nature to be leery of that which is strange, different, or merely new, but that is different than hate.  After all, humans are curious beings, which is essentially why we rule the planet.  Our nature is to explore what is new, not fear and hate it.  Hate is, as the song suggests, is taught.  But that curiosity leads to another part of our nature, our desire to control, which leads to the exercise of power, or a struggle for power over the new.  When the new is new people that can easily lead to racism.


Agree with everything except the first sentence.  When we explore and get burned, we hate.  Back in the day, the price of a repeat mistake was often so high as to reduce one's chances at reproductive success.  The survivors are those who learned to hate instead of fear.  In our natural state, we appear to fall somewhere on the spectrum on between bonobos (the polymorphously perverse freaks of nature who settle their differences with orgasms) and chimps (who can be downright nasty in their tribalism to the point of being one of the only species other than homo sapiens to have invented warfare).

We're smart enough to overcome it.  But we have to overcome it.  It's not natural.

Since CatwomanofV beat me to the "South Pacific" reference and helped a bunch of kids remix that track into a completely different play, I'm taking it to 1991.

EImj7IrXiow

"What is it - in the nature of man,
That makes us hate, and cheat, and steal, and kill?
Why do people get off on bigotry, intolerance and racial intolerance?
There’s something wrong with human nature."
  - Gary Clail and the On-U Sound System, Human Nature, 1991.

I don't believe we can fix the underlying flaw (at least not for a few million more years, should our species last that long), but we can recognize it in ourselves, and when we do, we can remind ourselves that it's just a 3.6-billion year-old feature that's largely outlived its usefulness.  Unless you spend every night after the show walking through dark alleyways in the nightclub district (or for the melanin-enhanced, if you spend your days driving well-maintained vehicles through expensive neighborhoods), it's an instinct that's not completely obsolete -- but for the other 99% of your day, it's obsolescent.  Sometimes, people do the strangest things.

The past was more racist from back in the 70's you had words ( no offense to anyone) like negro, n--gger and cracker.

If only it were names that were what racism was all about…I’d be a lot more comfortable being able to identify a racist just by the names he calls me.  At least you’d KNOW who they are and who is under the white hood (so to speak). Real racism today is much more subtle, so much more insidious than name calling and some racial epithets.

Further than that, I don’t necessarily agree that those words aren’t heard/used anymore; just that they are not used in mixed circles anymore doesn’t mean they aren’t being used by bigots in their own private circles or by other likeminded (close-minded) people out there.

What we have now is more sophisticated racism (which is more difficult to fight against) as opposed to more blatant racism that was more prevalent in 50’s America and before.

Nowadays we have “profiling”, “voter ID laws”, political gerrymandering…its called everything by everyone but what it is, racism. Just a lot more sophisticated than it used to be…different plans/method, same purpose and end result.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a LOT better than what it was, this country has come a LONG way, but I’m not settling for what it is now…but it will never completely go away.

EImj7IrXiow

"What is it - in the nature of man,
That makes us hate, and cheat, and steal, and kill?
Why do people get off on bigotry, intolerance and racial intolerance?
There’s something wrong with human nature."
  - Gary Clail and the On-U Sound System, Human Nature, 1991.

Sometimes, people do the strangest things.


Such a great record!
8)

Mark Stewart and The Maffia is another favorite of mine from On-U-Sound.

Such a great record!
8)

Mark Stewart and The Maffia is another favorite of mine from On-U-Sound.


Technology Works, but it doesn't take an Einstein with a Mind at the End of the Tether to realize that As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade, we're all Learning to Cope with Cowardice.  What's My Mission Now?  Stealing in the name of the Lord to bring about Heaven on Earth while Strange Things happen?  That's Reality... :)