Racism alive, but maybe dying

[Loretta]

Unfortunately, yes, racism is still alive and probably always will be, but it seems like the younger generation may be less bothered by these kind of differences than their elders. I've seen neighborhoods that are multicultural and there doesn't seem to be as many negative incidents regarding the different races and/or ethnic groups. What a blessing to see people peacefully living together!

[Maria]

That's true. My neighborhood is racially mixed as are most of the public schools. None of the young people seem to notice.

The only ones getting riled up about calling incidents "race related" are the baby-boomers. At least in my personal experience.

[Monsieur Paradox 智]

We've come a long way.

Prejudice against racial minorities, women, Non-Christians, and LGBT is quite literally dying out in modernized nations. I myself am mixed-race and haven't experienced any noticeable trouble for it, although I suppose interracial Asian families aren't exactly among the most hated groups in the 2010s United States.

Of course the issue of bigotry isn't over, nor will it probably ever be, but it is pleasantly clear that tolerance and open-mindedness are winning and on the rise.

[[deleted user]]

I don't know where you all have been; but this country has slid back when it comes to racism. Even with a black president in the White House, racism has escalated in recent years.

This country is at war with itself on many fronts and the fabric of this United States of America is slowly wearing thin.

Something must be done, and it must be done quickly.

[Maria]

I don't see why people are so upset about a "black" president. Last I heard, he's just as white as he is black, genetically. And wasn't he raised by his mother's parents who are white? How is it that we can say we have a "black" president? We have a human being as president, race: HUMAN. He just happens to have both white and black blood running through his veins.

He, like most racially mixed people, has chosen to identify himself with the black race, but he is half white as well.

[Renae]

Maria you are right. Although that is true for the most part when someone does not agree with him they attempt to call out the color in which they disagree with. Then at that point he is either black, white, or half.

I agree with Valerie. The justification has become because the president is one of color that proves that racist sentiments no longer exist. That's simply not the case. I have seen attacks against the president that stem directly from his race rather than his policy.

They will say they hate his policy but mention something about his color in the same sentence.

[Maria]

You are right, Renae. There are some people who cannot see past his race, therefore any decisions or policies are going to be wrong in their eyes.

I wish people of all races would stop, to coin an over-used phrase, "playing the race card" in every situation. i.e.....

"My son failed a class" - it's because he's black and downtrodden by a white teacher.

"I didn't get that job" - it's because I'm white and they had to hire their "quota" of black people.

How about - your son failed because he either didn't study or needs more help. Or - you didn't get the job because someone else was more qualified than you...

I'm so sick of race being blamed for everything that happens to people - it's just a cop-out so that they don't have to take personal responsibility. They can blame others.

[Loretta]

Valerie

Again, it's the older generation, the baby boomers, that are still stirring up the trouble. The younger generation are more tolerable and definitely more accepting. Each generation they become more and more acceptable of each other. The younger generation have more pressing concerns than me being black and you being white. They have to worry about is there going to be Social Security when I'm ready to retire, with the rise in health care costs, can I afford to get sick? Living next door to a black person or worrying if a black girl has a white boyfriend kind of takes a back seat to that kind of stuff.

[Lis]

Loretta wrote: "Valerie

Again, it's the older generation, the baby boomers, that are still stirring up the trouble. The younger generation are more tolerable and definitely more accepting. Each generation they be..."

Sorry, Loretta, but Ted Cruz, who told us this week that the Senate needs a hundred Jesse Helmses, is not a baby boomer. Rand Paul, who thinks the Civil Rights Act went too far and it should be perfectly legal for businesses to discriminate based on race, and who had on his staff, until inconvenienced by the controversy, a man who thinks John Wilkes Booth was a hero for killing Lincoln, is not a baby boomer--and that staffer was even younger.

I do think millennials and younger are less and less likely to notice race except as a detail of physical description. There are real racists even in those generations, though, and in the generations between them and boomers--and we're getting an extinction burst of especially virulent and open racism, as they realize their view of of the world and their views are basically doomed.

But do stop a moment eho it was

[Lis]

Lis wrote: "Loretta wrote: "Valerie

Again, it's the older generation, the baby boomers, that are still stirring up the trouble. The younger generation are more tolerable and definitely more accepting. Each ge..."

And as I attempted to add at the end, remember who it was that put their lives on the line in the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties: it was those boomers you despise, and the generation before the boomers. They dtood for equal rights and an end to racism when it was truly dangerous to do so.

[Loretta]

Perhaps you are right, but racism is taught. Someone taught them to hate. There used to be a commercial on TV that said: you have o be taught to hate and fear. You have to be taught from year to year. If we teach our children to hate, they will hate and they will teach their children, but if we teach them to love, they will also teach their children and their children will teach their children and so on and so on. Hate is a powerful emotion and most people hate what they fear or are unable to understand. But, I believe that love is just as powerful. Love can erase fear and can cause that which you don't understand to be made plainer and more understandable. Yes, I suppose racism and bigotry will always be alive somewhere, but we don't have to feed into it. It's a choice.

[Monsieur Paradox 智]

Racism, like all other forms of bigotry, is a learned behavior, ingrained into young minds by corrupted parents or communities.

If you were raised by open-minded parents of the modern age in a relatively liberal and culturally diverse city, you're probably not going to become a racist. Why would you be, after all? No one pops out of the womb with a raving distaste for Latinos. People are quite simply products of their environments (mentors + friends + society + education), and entirely non-racist environments do not generally breed more little racists. Of course youths can be "just as" racist; to deny this is naïve and potentially ageist. But the difference is that racism is gradually dying within society as a whole, and parents who want to maintain racist, sexist, homophobic, religionist, et cetera mentalities in their children find it increasingly difficult to do so. If you can keep your kids in near-isolation, it's fairly easy to convince them of your prejudiced lies; small towns, rural areas, and so on are great places to do trap them in. But, oftentimes, after the heavily-brainwashed child leaves the nest, they will be exposed to other types of people and eventually (whether in weeks, months, or years) come to the revelation that African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Middle Easterners, atheists, LGBTQs, Muslims, the poor, first-generation immigrants, Hindus, et cetera are just normal, hard-working, well-intentioned American citizens with lives and families; people that aren't so different from yourself and that you can't accurately slam wild negative generalizations upon. Passionately bigoted parents have to resort to increasingly more aggressive methods, such as homeschooling, excessive monitoring, censorship, conversion camps, college/education/science-bashing, et cetera because they can't rely upon the majority of the country to inject them with prejudiced values instead. These sorts of neurotic behaviors incite ridicule and accelerate the decline of racism. Bigots are a dying breed and they are often well-aware of it; hence, the insanity increases and anyone with a shred of sense seeks to escape it.

Of course racism, or any other form of prejudice, isn't dead. Anyone who claims otherwise is fooling oneself, isolated and ignorant, or attempting to promote some sort of agenda. But it is faltering and declining and fading. It is being backed into the closet. The concept of genuine meritocracy, based on genuine initiative and hard work rather than the socio-economic status of one's parents or some other arbitrary factor (birth date, race, sex, location, nationality, etc.), is gradually nearing reality. People who rage against equal rights activists, aid to the disadvantaged, and education are generally closet-bigots who bemoan the decline of the unfair and un-deserved advantages of genetics and public piety and family wealth. Poor you, who can't automatically make the top 40% of the world by the virtue of low melanin levels. Poor you, who can't snap nasty comments about people simply for being different without some sort of backlash or social repercussion. Poor you, who can't find a submissive wife who will unquestioningly obey you and worship your every word. Poor you, who can't, on account of low academic performance, gain entrance into Stanford despite your daddy sitting on millions. Life will never be entirely fair, but we can always make it more fair. It all starts with open-mindedness and understanding.

[Laura]

Loretta wrote: "Valerie

Again, it's the older generation, the baby boomers, that are still stirring up the trouble. The younger generation are more tolerable and definitely more accepting."

I disagree. I teach middle school. I work with children, ages 11-15. At the beginning of the school year, the most common question I hear is "What are you?" The children aren't interested in learning who a person is; they wish to learn what a person is so they can pidgeonhole and categorize their peers into easily organized compartments.

And it's self-perpetuating. Who taught them to ask "what" (a question word used for nouns/things in English) instead of "who" (the question word for referring to people)? They're too young to be filling out their own paperwork with the ubiquitous "What is your ethnicity?" or "Check your race."

At this stage, the baby boomers are the grandparents of these kids. It must be the parents, generations X and y, who are teaching the kids racism. The boomers don't have that kind of influence over this generation.

[Hind AlKhayyal]

Yes I believe racism is still alive but it will soon die with more educated generations

[Kaela]

Just as sexism is slowly starting to fade, racism has begun to fade between "african-american"/black/persons-of-color/whatever nomenclature that is currently considered "PC" and "white"/"caucasian"/what-the-hell-ever.

The fact that we still ask for race on college applications bothers me. The fact that we have switched from being racist towards P.O.C. to being racist towards anyone who looks "muslim" (whatever the hell that means) is really frustrating and disheartening as a young person. But I do think my generation might pass on better values towards race/culture relations and around discrimination around sexual preferences to our children. I don't think I will see the END of racism (in my culture) in my time, but I do think things will get a hell of a lot better.

[Kewannah]

No, racism isn't dying or on it's way out. People were just a little better about keeping it under wraps until social media came along.

There are still race clashes between various groups in the United States and abroad. Same as always, just in different combinations than before.

[Scarlett]

Actually racism wont die unless we completely change our society (im a sociology major). Unfortunately a new form of racism exists now called color blindness which is a concept used by white people to ignore racial inequality and believe everyone has an equal playing field. Currently, racism is more institutionalized. For example, black people on average make less than any other race, policies like the school closings in chicago significantly effect minorities, in low income neighborhoods schools on average receive less funding than schools in wealthy or middle-class neighborhoods. So the fact that people our posting that racism is ending just proves how much of an effect color blindness has. So dont ever think racism is dying were as racist a society as ever, but how racism is portrayed has changed.

[Kewannah]

Scarlett wrote: "Actually racism wont die unless we completely change our society (im a sociology major). Unfortunately a new form of racism exists now called color blindness which is a concept used by white people..."

I didn't know there was a name for it. Thanks so much!

[Scarlett]

Kewannah wrote: "Scarlett wrote: "Actually racism wont die unless we completely change our society (im a sociology major). Unfortunately a new form of racism exists now called color blindness which is a concept use..."

Your welcome in my race and ethnicity relations class we have read some good books you may be able to get from a library. One is called Racial Formation in the United states by Omi and Wanant and the other is Rethinking the Color line by Gallagher. (I may have misspelled their names a bit). There are pretty differecult to get through. I struggled through parts of Racial Formation but they are great and extrememly useful reads even if they are a bit dry.

[Ryanne]

Loretta wrote: "Unfortunately, yes, racism is still alive and probably always will be, but it seems like the younger generation may be less bothered by these kind of differences than their elders. I've seen neighb..."

Unfortunately, where I live, that couldn't be farther from the truth. It seems that there are certain racist remarks/ stereotypes that have become the norm for younger kids. There are also groups that still think it's ok to be racist, as if there will be a perpetual chip on the shoulder passed from each generation to the next. That's sad. I think society is less bothered by certain things but not anywhere close to the acceptable level where it should be. It's just not so broadcast anymore unless it's a horrific tragic story or big names get involved and push for publicity to make a change.

[Kewannah]

Ryanne wrote: "Loretta wrote: "Unfortunately, yes, racism is still alive and probably always will be, but it seems like the younger generation may be less bothered by these kind of differences than their elders. ..."

I agree. Racism is very much with the younger generation. Now it's geared towards people who appear Indian/Arabic Muslim and I've seen a lot geared towards Hispanics. The groups being targeted may be shifting but it's not going anywhere.

[Jazz]

After 9/11 racism has been amplified. Maybe not in all towns or all people. But just like people prefer different flavors of ice cream...racism will always exist on different levels...

[Ellen]

Monsieur Paradox wrote: 'Prejudice against racial minorities, women, Non-Christians, and LGBT is quite literally dying out...'

Actually, hate against racial minorities, women, non-Christians etc is still a problem. Especially on the internet there's loads of it. It is getting better, but it's WAY far from dying out. Read these links, they're interesting.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/...

http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/201...

[John]

I lived through the Civil Rights Movement in the early sixties and remeber when my school was integrated. I lived in a small town and everyone was treated with respect even though there were social separations.

We may have had separate entrances at the movie, but the overt rascism is much worse today. Reality is distorted quite a bit by the media. Some needed gains seem to have brought a new set of problems.