[Know It All]

Ask 99.5% of the indigenous population and they will tell you that they are not racist. I fall into this category, but many will argue. Before we go any further, please do not cut and paste definitions from online dictionaries, because I am not interested.

Liberals define anyone as racist who have any concern what so ever about immigration. My son believes that Nigel Farage is racist, whilst I have listened to just about every televised speech he has made and I haven't found anything he has ever said mildly racist. Just a perception I suppose. I have a policy of treating everyone as an individual. I will not dislike or like anyone because of their race, colour, or faith, and for this reason alone I believe I am not racist. That said, I really don't give a toss if someone thinks I am. However, I am a human being and I am not afraid to admit that I generalise from time to time. For example, and through experience, I have always found the Dutch, Germans, Indians, and Norwegians to be nice people, whereas I have found the Pakistanis, French, and the majority of African nations to be pretty undesirable people. Of course, there are exceptions.

I believe that most people are like me, but to varying degrees. In the right environment I will not hesitate to refer to Asian people as P*k*s, Scots as Jocks, and the Irish as Paddys. The fact that I won't call them this to their face unless I know them well enough to be certain they won't get offended, just makes me civilised. Needless to say, the more liberal minded and politically correct amongst us may not like this at all, but once again, I don't really give a toss. Now, I have been honest, and this isn't about me. Are you racist, and what's your definition ?????

PS. Strangely enough when I put in the word P*k*s the software changes it to Pakistanis, but when I enter jocks or paddys it accepts it. Just another example of PC gone mad.

[Nonsense]

IMHO, the ' indigenous' population of this country are non-existent in respect of the Liberal Lefties, I include the Labour Party in this too.

You see, Labour break things down into little compartments, there are 'ethnics', 'gays', 'migrants'(economic), ' asylum' seekers'(bogus), 'women', 'students'(foreign), 'blacks'(oops!)FULL STOP.

As you can see, there are no, 'disabled', 'pensioners', 'whites', 'English', 'males', 'working class'-definitely NOT, 'white-working class males'.

You see, the latter do NOT exist in their lexicon, I challenge anyone to read the Labour Party Manifesto's for2010\15 to see any mention of the second group, In Labour's eyes, we are the, ' untermenschen '.

SO, YES , there is 'racism', bigotry' in the Labour Party, not unsurprising really, THEY ARE HYPOCRITES -"DO AS WE SAY-NOT AS WE DO", that's their creed.

Is it any wonder that no sensible person votes for them.

[One Degree]

I was referred to an online site to test how racist you are in a book I read. I posted it once earlier. I can not remember it now and could not find it with a quick search. Maybe someone with a memory will recall it.
It was an interesting experience. I believe the people who are most surprised, from my reading, are those who do not believe they are racist, including the people who came up with the test.
It basically shows you a series of pictures and you must react to the pictures immediately. The idea is to find out what you may feel without realizing it.
Good experience for everyone even if you can argue the results just like everything else.

[MistyTiger]

I think that even generalizing or having assumptions about different races shows a degree of racism. We all have judgments and prejudices against citizens of other countries and I think it is natural. We have experiences with different groups throughout our lives.

Like for me, I have found many mainland Chinese to be weird, snobby, spoiled and chilly in their treatment of me. It may be out of jealousy of my US citizenship or they realize that my family is from Taiwan and they hate Taiwanese. I try to like them but something about them has just struck me as hollow and unlikable.

I have found the majority of people around me to be racist. They think that they are superior to me. They pretend that I am not there and therefore not worth their time to interact with, not even a nod or a simple "hi". It is fine though because I can ignore them too.

Racism is a feeling that certain races have a tendency towards certain behaviors or aptitudes. US society is very racist. A classic example is the one about how male black men deserve to be in prison. But not all black men engage in criminal behavior, white men have a high level of aggression as well. But people just assume that black men are criminals even when there is no evidence.

I think it is nearly impossible not to be racist because we all have these preconceived ideas about other races. US media has drilled these erroneous ideas in our head and I have spent years trying to think for myself and looking at each trend case by case. By taking a class on Sociology, it helped me to reduce my generalization habits drastically.

Acting on racist feelings is racism at its worst. Even though I feel negatively about mainland Chinese in general, I would not act on it by inflicting damage on a Chinese or by damaging any property that belongs to them.

[Thunderhawk]

It basically shows you a series of pictures and you must react to the pictures immediately. The idea is to find out what you may feel without realizing it.

Did it take into account human nature to treat people they know as preferable to people they don't know, and that people tend to know many more people of their own culture/race/creed/etc than those who are not?

Since we aren't using standard definitions, Ill use my own for racism: using one's power to favour and disfavour groups based on one's own prejudice of those groups rather than individual merit.
As for how racist am I: There are racial/ethnic differences but they are irrelevant legally. They are also not applicable on the individual level (barring medical issues and social events), so I don't need to care about it on a day to day basis. Some call it fence sitting, to those simpletons I call it nuance.
Over the last few years my view has become untenable in the left as they equate it with racism, and thus evil, yet the Alt right now has a similar view to mine. I am annoyed as my once 'reasonable middle ground' position now has the same sound bite as everyone "my view is based in truth, the rest of you are fucked in the head".

[One Degree]

Did it take into account human nature to treat people they know as preferable to people they don't know, and that people tend to know many more people of their own culture/race/creed/etc than those who are not?

No, this is not an attempt to label everyone racists for political reasons. It is an honest attempt to understand genetic/cultural reasons that affect us. It is not a blame game, but simply an interesting experiment. I get called a racist on POFO sometimes, yet I did not show an unusual amount of bias on this test. I was actually surprised I was not as bias as even I thought.

[Thunderhawk]

It basically shows you a series of pictures and you must react to the pictures immediately

Sounds like its about reaction rather than higher thinking. The initial thoughts of danger/food/fuck/rock is quickly followed by in-group/out-group classification. Things we don't know we generally score worse than things we do know. By requiring you to react immediately, you aren't thinking on the matter. Sounds like that test would see if you are well exposed to different cultures/peoples/etc..
'seems you didn't react well to South East Asians. Please watch Season 2 of Travel Planet to bring up this value'

[One Degree]

By requiring you to react immediately, you aren't thinking on the matter. Sounds like that test would see if you are well exposed to different cultures/peoples/etc..

Yes, they address this at length. I will try to find the book or site for further reference.
Edit: @Thunderhawk
http://thetab.com/us/harvard/2015/11/25 ... l-you-1719

This article has a link to the site. I tried to connect to the site to give you a direct link, but it would not let me because my ip address had changed and my time limit on the test had timed out. They seem to have limits on how often you can take the same tests so their study is not corrupted. You will probably be able to connect to it. As you can see, it is a Harvard study.

[Diligent]

I wouldn't characterize myself as racist, but there are elements of certain cultures that I dislike. I also feel though that this is to do with the culture, and that if you take an individual from one culture and raise them from birth in another, they would be completely different - regardless of their "race".

[Know It All]

IMHO, the ' indigenous' population of this country are non-existent in respect of the Liberal Lefties, I include the Labour Party in this too.

You see, Labour break things down into little compartments, there are 'ethnics', 'gays', 'migrants'(economic), ' asylum' seekers'(bogus), 'women', 'students'(foreign), 'blacks'(oops!)FULL STOP.

As you can see, there are no, 'disabled', 'pensioners', 'whites', 'English', 'males', 'working class'-definitely NOT, 'white-working class males'.

You see, the latter do NOT exist in their lexicon, I challenge anyone to read the Labour Party Manifesto's for2010\15 to see any mention of the second group, In Labour's eyes, we are the, ' untermenschen '.

SO, YES , there is 'racism', bigotry' in the Labour Party, not unsurprising really, THEY ARE HYPOCRITES -"DO AS WE SAY-NOT AS WE DO", that's their creed.

Is it any wonder that no sensible person votes for them.

Are you a politician. Look at the thread title and answer please

[Know It All]

I wouldn't characterize myself as racist, but there are elements of certain cultures that I dislike. I also feel though that this is to do with the culture, and that if you take an individual from one culture and raise them from birth in another, they would be completely different - regardless of their "race".

This is similar to my thread. Treat everyone as an individual and attempt not to make assumptions. Regardless of what any PC nut or liberal may tell you though, people from certain countries and cultures have traits, and these have been earned. I won't bother to give you examples, but I am sure it won't take most of you more than a few minutes to come up with some yourselves. Regrettably the word "racist" is one some people like to throw around without giving much thought to what it REALLY means

[Potemkin]

Regardless of what any PC nut or liberal may tell you though, people from certain countries and cultures have traits, and these have been earned. I won't bother to give you examples, but I am sure it won't take most of you more than a few minutes to come up with some yourselves.

Do you mean the Dutch...?

You mean the Dutch, don't you?

[Know It All]

Do you mean the Dutch...?

You mean the Dutch, don't you?

Can I have some of what your smoking ?

[Suntzu]

I figure I'm about as racist as Al Sharpton.

[Political Interest]

Its very interesting that interactions between people of two ethnicities can often be more awkward than they need to be. A look in someone's direction or a frown in someone's direction might be interpreted as racism when the person giving the look or frown is simply feeling sad and stairing into space or something behind the other person. An unpleasant individual who might be unfriendly and rude to anyone of any background will always be seen as racist if they are rude to someone of another ethnicity. Its completely normal that these interactions be awkward but we should not think the worst of an unsmiling stranger or someone giving a frown in our direction.

As for racism, I think I am one of the least racist people in the world. In fact I have such little racism that I far exceed most so called "anti-racists", although such people would probably consider me very racist. Their ethnocentrism prevents them from understanding me, however. Most of my friends from a young age were not from my own race and I still develop very close friendships with people from other races to this day. The ignorant liberals of the West would probably consider my opinions on mass immigration and multiculturalism very racist. What is funny is that such people barely interact with anyone from a different background and rarely have friends from different races. It is often middle class types that will think I'm a racist because I make very blunt statements about the reality of the world, which they somehow interpret as bigotry. The funny part is that I have never attributed negative qualities to entire ethnic or religious groups, but the mere allusion to significant and hard facts upsets them for some reason. It may be they who are the racists because they are drawing the conclusions in their own minds and assuming that I am thinking the same. I am most certainly not.

Anti-racism today has become not so much about not being unpleasant to people of other races but more about going out of one's way to show how liberal you are. It is therefore not based on a real desire for goodwill and friendship with people of other backgrounds but instead a fear of looking like a bad person. It is also often used as a cover for anti-white racism, for while it is completely unacceptable to assign negative traits to an entire non-white ethnicity it is perfectly fine to do so to white people. Incidents of anti-white racism are ignored or downplayed as having no real long term significance. Even the words "anti-white racism" make most people raise their eyebrows in skepticism as something insignificant or even something impossible.

As for my definition of racism, I would define it as the assigning of negative traits to an entire ethnic or religious group. Criticism of mass immigration and multiculturalism is not racist when it is not accompanied by criticism of whole groups of people. For example, if someone worries that mass immigration could result in Europeans becoming an ethnic minority in their own ancestral lands, this is not racist unless it includes negative statements about particular ethnicities. Criticism of the policy and its effects is not racism. Likewise, when certain individuals make negative collective statements about white people, this is racism. Therefore to say that whites inherit a legacy of slavery and colonialism, or to ask all white people to stop being ignorant bigots is as equally racist as a white man asking all Muslims to stop being extremists.

[Tewodros III]

[removed by moderator Prosthetic Conscience: rule 2 violation. Remain courteous and respectful to other users of the forums at all times. Do not make personally directed attacks on any other user ]

[Drlee]

In order for the word "racist" to have any meaning at all it must refer to actions. Worrying about the three young black males walking toward one is not racist unless you act against their best interests. Our OP has denigrated "liberals" several times. He doesn't really know what one is but that is common.

I am not racist because I try not to be. A real effort. That said.

I do not want my country to allow large numbers of immigrants to enter here. Is it because I hate Mexicans? Nope. It is because I value the wages of my fellow Americans. I do not favor the entry of large numbers of Middle Eastern Muslims. Is this racist? No. It is defensive. Same reason as above and add to that the difficulty of vetting people entering at all.

So can we agree that racism is not racism until someone is harmed?

[Political Interest]

So can we agree that racism is not racism until someone is harmed?

Agreed. It is only racism when someone suffers negative consequences. Hurt feelings and imagined offenses are not really racism.

Verbal abuse, physical violence and denial of opportunities or service are the real racism.

There is ultimatley no solution to prejudice, other than education. The race baiting that progressives indulge in only heightens racial tensions.

[One Degree]

Verbal abuse, physical violence and denial of opportunities or service are the real racism.

I agree that would be a much better definition than 'what you think I think', but even then how do you know I punched someone because they were a different color or simply because I found that individual offensive?
Racism requires your action was based upon a person's race and not other factors.

[Kaiserschmarrn]

So can we agree that racism is not racism until someone is harmed?

Agreed. It is only racism when someone suffers negative consequences. Hurt feelings and imagined offenses are not really racism. Verbal abuse, physical violence and denial of opportunities or service are the real racism. There is ultimatley no solution to prejudice, other than education. The race baiting that progressives indulge in only heightens racial tensions.

I disagree. Somebody can be racist without harming anybody. The most obvious example is a racist person never coming in touch with anybody of the ethnic group/race which the racist person regards as inferior. Having said that, if people are actually harmed, it is obviously the most important and serious consequence of racism.