Week 3: Racism in the Western World

D&D University

It's been a while since we've done a debate for D&D University so here's our 3rd topic for it: Racism and race relations in the Western world (particularly America), a topic I know you all love <3

What are the main problems regarding race in today's world? What can be done to fix them? blahblahblah you guys know what to do

.....Just try to keep in mind that this is about your ability to debate the topic and not a place to, ya know, do that thing y'all normally do where you make generalizations and launch personal attacks and all those other fun things ya do when this topic comes up.

I guess I'll get this party started with a lil push

I honestly think that a lot of the current problems we face with racism will die out when the older generation, well... dies out. Keep in mind, I said a lot of, not all of.

The newer generation seems to be way more in tune with the fact that racism is still a problem, while the older generation continues to deny it(forsomereason).

The big issue in a two-party system with a strong and mobilized ethnic group, african-americans, is that they become captured by one party, the democrats, and therefore the party doesn't really need to cater to the needs of the group. It's not like african-americans have much of an alternative.

Blacks consistently vote democrat election after election, and conversely, whites tend to vacillate, which means parties and members tend to vacillate around non-black needs.

I think a multiparty system might address this issue, or we can address issues of polarization and activate class identity over racial identity. (poor whites and poor blacks for instance are the core of the republican and democratic party respectively, and are played off each other.)

Essentially, there is structural racism at the very least. Though, there is evidence that these structures at their lowest common denominator (bureaucrats) tend to have racial preferences whether they are cognizant or not. Read Disciplining the Poor.

Here in Romania, we can't say we're "truly racist", but we do have an inter-ethnical dispute with gypsies, which actually look differently from Romanians (they are related to Pakistanis and Indians). I don't have anything against them, but many of them tend to disbehave in society.

Aside from that, I think racism is a big problem for the Western world. Why the hell does your race matter, you're not guilty of anything just because you're black. Not to mention the South African apartheid period and all the racial scandals in soccer.

I think lack of exposure (both in media and everyday life) to other races and cultures works to hinder acceptance and contributes to racism. It can be difficult for people to get to know and understand minority groups for a number of reasons, I believe the main ones include:

• Minority groups that arrive to countries as immigrants often settle in immigrant areas - as a result they mingle with people similar to themselves and limit relationships with other groups
• Immigrants and their children may identify themselves as the nationality of the country from which they arrived as opposed to the country where they live and are citizens
• People tend to form social groups with those similar to themselves, which may limit networking across different races and cultures.

These aspects can make it difficult for groups to understand each other, which could lead to a default perception based on stereotypes or a negative view because they're considered "not like me".

I believe greater diversity in media will help. Knowing that individuals from other groups have similar ambitions, dreams, senses of humour and trials in life would do much to improve understanding and acceptance.

As a white, middle-class American, I'm not exactly in touch with racial issues. When I see a black person on the street, I often overthink about racism, which in turn is racism. I know logically that there isn't anything wrong and never intend to do anything discriminatory, but something subconscious is definitely there.

To me there is only one cure; exposure. 1/3 of the kids in my school are black, but I never notice. I never judge them due to their skin, though there is one kid I'm pretty sure plays the race card just to be a dick. Mostly because he's a dick in every other aspect as well.

Here's a quote that pretty much sums up the message:

Prejudice is an inner negative feeling one harbors toward another because of that person's membership in a "group" different from one's own. Discrimination is an outward manifestation of that inner negative feeling. Work to control discrimination. There isn't much you can do about prejudice as defined.

- Gene Duncan

Click to expand...

The guy also hated gays, so maybe he's not a credible source. But being a hypocrite doesn't make you wrong.