The Causes of Racism?

[Oswy]

At another forum I've seen right-wingers argue that racism is 'natural' and an evolved trait which encourages self-preservation of kin groups through the identification and suspicion of those who clearly appear to be non-kin (i.e. by having a different skin colour).

As far as I'm concerned this is a highly distorted argument but what is the best way to characterise the roots of racism?

English anti-Irish racism in the nineteenth century is an example of how white people were able to conceptualise other white people as sub-human so the idea that it's all about colour strikes me as bullshit.

[RoterAnarchie]

again, historically grown
people just put their own tribe first and detested tribes they didn't know
in one tribe people looked more alike then they did intertribe
so who looked different was hated, or they were atleast very carefull and suspisious

these days you can say racism is between cultures and nationalities
color is just a remnant of the past, when someone with another color automatically was form a (faraway and thus hostile) tribe

[Kropotesta]

again, historically grown
people just put their own tribe first and detested tribes they didn't know
in one tribe people looked more alike then they did intertribe
so who looked different was hated, or they were atleast very carefull and suspisious
I don't think they hated the way looked, beens humans origionally came from the African continent.
Also in hunter gather tribes I guess the tension between tribes was more between resources as it was pre-agricultural. However I do doubt that autonomous groups were particulary hostile towards one another.


these days you can say racism is between cultures and nationalities
color is just a remnant of the past, when someone with another color automatically was form a (faraway and thus hostile) tribe
Racism is between races, that is what racism means. You seem to be talking about xenophobia.

[RoterAnarchie]

I don't think they hated the way looked, beens humans origionally came from the African continent.
Also in hunter gather tribes I guess the tension between tribes was more between resources as it was pre-agricultural. However I do doubt that autonomous groups were particulary hostile towards one another.


Racism is between races, that is what racism means. You seem to be talking about xenophobia.

In Belgium we tend to throw that all on one big pile.
To say there are different races is actually already a crime here.
they speak of 'vermeend racisme', guess you could translate it as 'so called racism' and 'so called race'

there can be racism between someone from polish descent and a native while they're both just as white


It has never been proven we come from africa, it has long time been assumed and has not been disproven yet. Yet it's still only a theory.
It's perfectly possible there was something we can call human on South America or Australia or... first

[Mariner's Revenge]

Racism, like all oppressive social doctrines, is a very complex situation that has many sources and definitions so there is no simple answer.

Racism in some form or another has existed throughout human existence but the racism that we today takes it a step further. Racism in the past did not have to do with genes, but of culture. The Greeks considered everyone that was not Greek (barbarians) inferior and that is how past racism usually worked. As kropotesta mentioned, that would be more xenophobia and nationalism than racism.

Skin color did not have much to do with past racism. The Egyptians had many different skin colors in their ancient societies and I believe the Indian caste system is not skin color dependent, but I'm not completely sure. I do know that many Northern African societies were very mixed (very dark blacks and blue eyed blond hair people) and they functioned well.

Racism in the modern form is much more detailed and adds the actual element of "race" into it. White supremacy, the form of racism we see today, states that humans considered "white" are superior to all other skin colors and cultures. To break this down, white supremacy is more cultural than skin color oriented and we can see that by watching who benefits from white supremacy and who doesn't.


Being "white" started with the British who believe that people of Anglo-Saxxon descent are superior all other people. But, slowly that expanded to not only a single culture, but humans that shared western culture (primarily Anglo-Saxxon) and had a pale skin color.

This can largely be seen in the early United States and even today. In the 1800s and early 1900s, people of Irish, Polish, Italian, etc descent were not considered white in the United States because they did not share western culture even though they had a pale skin color. But eventually they assimilated into western culture and became "white". If we see someone of Irish, Polish, Italian, etc descent today that still practices their ethnic culture, they will still not fully benefit from whiteness because they do not practice western culture.

The second aspect is skin color. Today, even though many people of color have assimilated into western culture (I do not consider African American culture western even though it is very western influenced), they will not be able to fully benefit from white supremacy because they are not white. I do not think I have to go into more detail with this.


So, to give you a simple answer as possible, I believe that past racism (nationalism) will not go away unless completely replaced with a higher force (humanism) and I know that the skin color aspect of racism can go away because that is phenotype and cultural divider. If we raised children to divide ourselves on eye or hair color or even height (Brave New World) we will see a completely different social structure than today. Besides that, "race" does not exist because that is largely based on phenotype, which has no connection to genotype. People with black skin can consist of Africans, Middle Easterners, South Asians, Aboriginals, and South American natives and many people of Middle Eastern, South Asian, Hispanic, and North African descent can pull of being "white" in our society today.

[Zurdito]

economic competition between communities

[Vanguard1917]

The key source of racism in modern history has been the bourgeois establishment, in particular the bourgeois state. Although racism is indeed a complex phenomenon, it needs to be understood as primarily a top-down phenomenon. Racism has historically increased in society as social and political elites have given their official sanction to it. By the same token, it declines as a force in society as these elites are no longer able or required to give their stamp of approval to it and encourage it.

[Mariner's Revenge]

Yes, working and middle class whites do not benefit from racism, only the ruling class does.

It has been shown in studies that whites living in areas with many African Americans will get paid less than areas with only whites because racism causes the wages of African Americans to be lower, causing white wages to drop as well. Also, time and energy that could be used to attack the elite class in terms of unions and such will be wasted on stupid race conflicts.

[spartan]

I personally believe that alot of racism is sexual based.

You often see alot of young men of varying races who will get angered by "their" women dating outside their race.

I even remember when frequenting some porn websites that alot of people left racist comments on interracial porn video clips. Now what i found most funny about this was that these racists had actually deliberately taken the time to seek out interracial videos on a porn website and after more than likely masturbating off of it (As it was made obvious by their comments that they had watched the entire thing and what racist would watch an entire interracial porn clip?) they then leave a racist comment!

I think that deep down alot of these racists are actually turned on by the thought of sex between different races and the whole racist element is probably a part of that (Fantasy) or a cause of that (Self-denial).

This is just one (Small) aspect to racism though and i would guess that it isnt just one thing that is the cause of racism but many things sometimes combined (Sex, anger, jealousy, etc).