Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
Face it people, racism had it's place and time. yes, it is way past that and we are moving more and more to a global economy and one human race, but the fact is, racism, pride in the group, preservation of one group at the cost of another was all part of the evolutionary development of mankind.
It's a form of tribalism, and group-dynamics, with a nod to the principles of "coopatition" (cooperation and competition combined) and game-theory. It's unfortunate in this day and age, if one uses race alone to discriminate, but in terms of "racial" behavior, I would actually agree that it is evolutionarily ingrained into us. Then again, so is humping like a dog if we had the chance, and yet, society has managed to largely control our basal urges of that nature in public as well. So "manual intellectual control of our evolutionary racial urges" is certainly possible, but it does take effort. The really intersting thing is that many people, of many different races, all exhibit these sorts of underlying behaviors. There is no one "racist race". They all are. All people. All humans. But like many other similar traits, the difference between being "civilized" or not, comes down to how you deal with and control your behaviors when interacting with others. Some people have more difficultly with that than others, and some are just more honest about their feelings of that nature than others.
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
the irony of this is politically is, the Liberals who want to push Evolution into the schools want to tell you racism is pure evil and there was nothing good about it.
it's simply not true. economics (scarcity of resources, grain, land, human ingenuity) and hardship against the enviroment bred racism within man. it was natures way of weeding out the weak. the whole EVIL empire idea, we need an evil empire to push development otherwise we get complacent.
In today's world, I see different forms of tribalistic behavior taking place, in terms of economic levels and brand-identities, and also a form of "corporate tribalism". Those factors, in terms of a person's discriminatory behavior towards others, are just as powerful as racism, but mentioned far less often. For example, I've heard women make comments about "Oh, I'd never go out with him, I *only* go out with guys that wear such-and-such brand". An example of discriminator behavior, just like racism, but with a slightly-different twist. If she had said "because he's such-and-such colored skin", she would be branded with the label "racist", but because she limited her discriminator behavior to being based on non-racial factors, she's just... "normal". (Well, sort of, I think some people that think in that way are lacking in other ways, but that's another issue.)
However, there is still, I suppose, one important distinction between the two - you are born into a race, you can't change who you are. You could switch the brand of clothing that you wear, but cannot (easily) change the color of your skin. (M.J.'s case notwithstanding.)
So I guess the problem is, is it the discrimination itself, or the fact that the discriminating behavior is based upon a factor that someone cannot willingly change, and thus has no effective control over the discrimination that is shown to them?
What about "lookism", which is a form of discrimination - widely practiced, but rarely acknowledged - based on a persons looks / attractiveness and whatnot. Certainly, in terms of evolutionary use in selecting a mate, such factors are very important (even though many deny it profusely when asked, especially women), but such discriminator behavior is also widely secretly practiced in many other fields, such as business hiring as well. I've seen it firsthand, time and time again, too.
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
racism also defines people too. asians do better at academics because of the stereotypes. blacks do better at athletics because of the stereotypes. we are motivated to live up to the stereotypes at times.
Some of that is true, I think that it is a natural human trait to attempt to live up to expectations as well (especially parental ones), and that if one fails to break free of those "limits" place on them, by someone else's expectations of them, then yes, they will likely end up the way that they feel they "deserve", whether or not that is an accurate depiction of their capabilities and potential achievements or not.
Originally posted by: PlatinumGold
so flame away.
I guess I mostly agreed with your post, so I'll await the flames to my post as well.
🙂
