When Racism is Bad, and When it isn’t (Necessarily)
I routinely run into people with strong opinions against racism (don’t we all?). The thing is that, in my opinion, they often mix up what matters and what doesn’t when it comes to racism. Let’s first look at what the term means in the first place.
I can find at least two meanings of the word “racism”. Boiled down, the first meaning is a belief in inherent differences between races. The second involves hatred towards or discrimination against a particular race or races.
Now, I can’t see anything wrong with the first belief, at least in its pure form. I think it’s a fairly well-established that there are inherent differences between different races. Take as an example the superiority of long-runners from sub-Saharan Africa, compared to those from other parts of the world. These people simply have greater stamina; their top-athletes do, anyway. This could be because of their slightly different leg-structure, or it could be because of a better ability to absorb oxygen. Either way, they are different (and superior, in this regard).
Having the opinion that races (on average) are different isn’t necessarily an evil thing. What is evil, though, can be expressed very easily: treating people badly. If one treats people badly (and that includes treating people discriminatorily) solely on the basis of those people’s race, then one is evil. This is the second definition of racism as outlined above.
A lot of energy in every-day arguments is wasted on people calling others racist (or at least implying it). And a lot of the time the claim of racism rests on the basis of the first definition of racism, the opinion that races are different. Considering that the truly bad thing about racism is really just the bad treatment of others, this energy should be used on these “true” racists, and not wasted on what often amounts to accusations made by over-sensitive anti-racists, keen on seeing racism in all and everything.
It’s simple, really: just treat others well.
4 Comments »
Leave a Reply
| Next »
-
Add my RSS feed
Punditokraterne- Uriasposten
- 18. maj-apologi: Venstreekstremister omtalt som ‘vrede demonstranter’, ‘helt almindelige… borgere’
- ‘Folk stjæler får’ – omkring påske eller ramadan
- Multikulturelle Oxford: 12-årig pige voldtaget gennem flere år, brændemærket med ‘M, for Mohammed’
- Vollsmose: 18-årig anholdt for ‘gentagne gange at have slået, skubbet og truet uniformerede betjente’
- Retsreportage: Somaliske gaderøvere idømt 6-12 måneders fængsel for gaderøverier mod danskere
- FreeExchange, The Economist
Recent Comments
hay on Some good quotes from Ayn Rand… Nikolaj on About this blog Jerry O'Neal on When Racism is Bad, and When i… lolol on Some good quotes from Ayn Rand… lolol on Some good quotes from Ayn Rand…
Amen— that can be taken a lot further.
We are Homo Sapiens. The word racism, as people use it today, has scientifically no meaning. The human race, or Homo Sapiens, can be compared with one dog race, or one bird race. Sure, dogs of one race can come in different colors and some other features, but their DNA tells us that it is one race. Homo Neanderthalsis though, that was another race that lived side by side with Homo Sapiens. Actually, we mated with them, but eventually, outcompeted them, as did the harsh physical surroundings due to the race’s lack of creativity. Other historical races, mostly our forefathers, whoose bones we have found, like Homo Floresiensis , Homo Erectus, Homo Heidelbergensis, Homo Habilis..ect. All this biological research, almost seems as a waste of time when people keep ignoring science and talking and doing things in therms of the law, monkey see, monkey doo….The actual concern these days though, as well as in history, is religionism. It is religionism we see on news every day…
I completely agree with you. I’m not a racist, but if there’s a thing that annoys me is “political correctness”. I was just reading a book written by Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, called “State of Fear”. In this book, Crichton criticises the belief in global warming and ecologist groups. I’m a biologist and the book bothered me a little, but to some extent he is right about some points. Nowdays, it’s politically correct to consider inherently good the conservation of the environment and ecological causes. But if you say something rather different… they hang you! You are an industry pig. The same thing, but more extreme, happens with racism. There’s practically no way yo can say anything off-mainstream about racism without being inmediately considered as a Nazi.
Political correctness is sometimes a dogmatic view of things that impedes us to rationally think and express new points of view. For them, you are with us, or you are against us. No third opinions, no grays, only black or white.
Interesting blog. Hope you read this and write back! There are few people that really think.
I think a lot of people confuse having a prejudice on a subject or against a person with having a preference.
You can actually prefer one race over another and not be racist, my best friend for about two years was a black guy, he worked for me and we often went out to eat lunch together, but not once did I ever see the man after 4 pm, he went home, I went home.
We loved each other as friends, but at night I wanted to be around people I felt more comfortable with, he also said this but he said it first, we liked each other, but at night I went to be with people more like myself and so did he.
If you assembled 5 groups, all of equal number and condition, and have one to be black, one white, one brown, one from the far East, say China, and the last from Sadie. then turn one black person to roam about. He might visit with one or all of the groups, but after awhile he will end up with the blacks. That does not imply that he is racist, he just feels more at home with the blacks. Lets slow up on calling people racist. And forget the name calling.