Unfortunately those two are about the only insightful replies I received. The majority of the responses I got were sarcastic and the comments were in no way applicable. Someone even left me this youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gZ0x8AVaBI&feature=related Lovely. I guess many didn't take my philisophical question that seriously.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Do you think everyone is a little bit racist
I gained a lot of great insight from my status about racism. One of my favorite responses was a friend who didn't think racism was evident but that "everyone just recognizes the immediate difference in cultures." I think this is true and also shows that people are really afraid of the word "racist". I actually had a friend who said, "I think everybody is... but I don't think racist is the right word for it." The word naturally has a very negative connotation, and people seemed to be doing anything to answer around that term. Racism does still exist, we're just afraid to call it that. Another friend replied, "Maybe it's just the fear of the unknown." I think that's a great way to describe the type of "racism" many feel. We just may not know how to react when others have different traditions or beliefs than our own; we, therefore, can become a little prejudice against them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I agree that people have different definitions of the word racist. I think that we need to be careful how we apply the word because, as a friend said on my wall, if you tell an ignorant man that he's a racist...he may actually believe you.
Well I had a good laugh about the alpacas anyway. Although... do you think the alpacas are racist? Their leader was WHITE!!!!!
I love the comment that your friend left on your wall about being careful how you label people. The key word in that phrase is "ignorant." I think that the fact that most people are aware that racism is not good makes them at least one step above ignorant. The more self-aware we are and the more alert we are to the messages in the media will help us not be ignorant.
i loved how you said people are afraid of the word "racist". i see how it does have a negative connotation and appeal to it, but do you think it should replace discriminatory or prejudice? i agree, people are afraid of the word, but in reality, they are racist.
We think of what racism has meant in the past and we dont see that same kind of racism today. So we are reluctant to call what we see "racism" because of the way we understand it. Maybe that is where the word "stereotyping" came into play. We feel stereotyping is a lot less harmful, much like the way racism today is less harmful as it was in former times.
Post a Comment