Is it racist to accuse someone of racism?

Post Reply New Topic

Ironically many minorities believe they can't be racists because they are not the majority. If you insist your kids and relatives marry a certain ethnic group then you are expressing racist ideas.
It might not be so bad, though, unless the racism is systematically occurring throughout society and is culturally ingrained. Classism is actually worse.
Ideal society is mobile allowing all members of the community to connect with one another in a civil, meaningful, tolerant way. Their opinions are voiced and heard regardless of race, gender or class. When we start seeing one another as worthy humans, you see a decrease in society's destructive impulses.

Will you please stop assuming s**t about me when you know absolute sweet bugger all about me. It's not the first time you've done it and it's starting to piss me off. I did not mention anything about being a "victim" in this thread nor do I feel like one. I do not live in the US nor do I live in Europe, I live in South Africa and I mentioned Zimbabwe as an example because it's a neighbouring country. And yes, it actually does have something to do with the topic of this thread because, what was the title of the topic again? "Is it racist to accuse someone of racism?" Well, Zanu-PF and Robert Mugabe still use "white colonialism" as propaganda for justifying their institutional racism, it's kind of the same thing.

In the US and Europe, less privileged groups that were subject to past discrimination are classed as "minorities" because they are not part the majority there. In South Africa, white people only make less than 10% of the population, yet apartheid was a racist regime where black people who make up 90% of the population were the ones discriminated against and were disenfranchised. So as one counterexample, one does not have to be in "the majority" in order to be racist.

You mean so that "white people don't go uncounted"? Or do you mean these people are not really white even though they self-identify as white?

Yes, that's what I am getting at. Racism exists when people prefer their own ethnic group over others. When a woman tells her child, "don't date him he's black," she is expressing racist views. She could be saying it about any race or could be any herself. And, she could make the same excuse for many reasons besides race, such as, "don't date him his father is a no good bum, mother is a drunk, brothers are in jail and the family has no money."
Racism is based on race alone though. So, if they voice displeasure based on race, it's supposed to be worse than if they are complaining about the guy because of his family background or lack of resources.

I mean that they were never officially counted as white until there was a threat to a white majority. I'm talking in a purely historical context.

Categorizing someone by the shade of their skin is completely ridiculous. The gene series that determines your skin color is simple enough that even a single variation can have drastic effects on how pigmentation is expressed. I'm just pointing out how "race" shifts when one "race" feels threatened and compelled to add to their ranks.

Does whiteness even exist in an objective way? It clearly has a subjective element. Scientists have a difficult time quantifying whiteness. Physicists would call it a set of frequencies. Anthropologists have a huge selection of whites, at least one of which is green. Statisticians mainly use self report measures.

If being white was easy, then everyone would do it.

It absolutely does not. All "races" are mental and social constructs, which means they can shift and change repeatedly.

Objectively, there's no difference between race and ethnicity.

I only think its racist to accuse someone of racism on the basis of the person your accusing being racist based on the stereotype of race that persons race being racist! Otherwise its just plain bigoted ignorance! The notion of being white automatically making you racist within its self is a racist idea!

Objectively, "race" is a biological term that does not apply to humans.

This is why I choose ethnic groups over race. Ethnic groups traditionally share the same values and culture. They may or may not look the same but they speak the same language and partake in similar customs. It's like being comfortable with familiarity and choosing that over what is riskier.

I don't know about that if that were the case how do you explain some of the physical differences you see between races, and I am not referring to just skin color. To me that suggests there are different races, even without any mental or social constructs. I am however of the opinion there isn't a race that's 'superior' to any other race and no one should be opressed and hated due to their respective race those are mental and social constructs.

Perhaps all people originated in africa, but they did then spread out through the world and so it would make sense they adapted to the climates they migrated to causing actual differences between race...the problem is for some reason people get it in their head that its a reason for hatred. But for all we know maybe there was some alien tinkering going on, that played a role in humanity and the way humans developed, that is probably a discussion better left for another thread and/or forum.

Despite all the superficial differences between humans today, it must be pointed out that in the long ago, there had actually been greater differences between humans. Neanderthals, Desinovians, Homo Erectus, etc. were even more vastly different from humans of today, but as 3-5% of our DNA is of one or all of these groups, yet they still obviously could be counted as human as they had interbred with us. So called "race" today represents miniscule difference in comparison.

I agree with you on some of your points but I would not say you are discriminating the entire population by wishing to date somebody who is attractive and well educated. To wish to date an individual that is attractive is a natural, biological behaviour and to go against it would be counter-productive to our evolutionary urges. Also, being attracted to a well-educated person may be a sign that they are devoted to understanding the mechanisms of the world around you and that is symbolic of a far more general virtue you find appeasing. I find my girlfriends love of reading rather attractive yet I would not say I am discriminating against every person that is illiterate or doesn't wish to read by doing so. I would not say racism is fine. I would say taking race into consideration is perfectly fine since people are defined as you say by their cultural heritage and so forth but making negative associations solely based on someone's biology is very different. Sorry, if I have taken what you said too literally and been too negative. I probably am slightly more stupid than the rest of you on here.

I suppose racism is defined by believing that an individual possesses negative traits solely based on their biology alone however what is a 'negative trait' is easily open to interpretation and could be read in a multitude of ways. A person may think that racism is a positive activity since the categorization of people based on their biology can be helpful and then accuse of a race of being racist, however at that point it would fail to be racism since it is viewed in a positive light. Sorry if that sounds utterly stupid, I think I need to go to bed...