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Where is racism today?

MKGirlism

3DS and Wii U Game Developer
414
Posts
11
Years
Hoohoo! Me oh my! Indeed, sir, indeed! >.>

Doesn't want anyone to confuse her gender; confuses gender of other people.

Also, Europe being referred to as "UK" is something I commonly see in YouTube Comments, Website Comments, and what not.
Poland being referred to as "Auschwitz" is something I just know since a few days, though.
 

zakisrage

In the trunk on Highway 10
500
Posts
10
Years
Doesn't want anyone to confuse her gender; confuses gender of other people.

Also, Europe being referred to as "UK" is something I commonly see in YouTube Comments, Website Comments, and what not.
Poland being referred to as "Auschwitz" is something I just know since a few days, though.

I find your comments extremely ignorant. You can't judge all Americans by ones you've seen on the Internet. I'm not even American and I HATE it when people mercilessly bash America as if it's the root of all evil. (There are many countries that I hate more, like Turkey. I can't even tell you how much I hate Turkey's racist, violent government.)
 

MKGirlism

3DS and Wii U Game Developer
414
Posts
11
Years
Wait wait wait.
In which sentence did I say it applies to all Americans?
If I say "Americans", I mean to say, "the average American", not "all Americans".
Besides, the Post you've quoted doesn't mention that word anywhere.
 
5,983
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Who's the average American? Mathematically that's a tall order :P I don't think Americans are that geographically inept.

A lot of people think only Lebanese Christians (especially Maronites) can be considered white. Lebanese Muslims are considered brown by a lot of people. Which is especially ridiculous since I have blond and redheaded Lebanese relatives who are all Muslim and 100% Lebanese. Some of my paternal relatives look French or English - I think my family might have distant ancestors who were Crusaders from Europe. (If that's the case, then somewhere along the line they must have converted to Islam.) Even my own facial features look more Western European than Middle Eastern, despite the fact that my colouring suggests Arab.

I am hesitant to consider myself white since I know people who equate "white" with being Anglo-Celtic. It's annoying because a lot of people have light colouring - not just people who originate from the UK and Ireland.

It's very interesting that people associate Muslim with foreign, and as a result consider some Levantines white and others not even though they come from the same gene pool. I think people can be very choosy about who is and isn't a certain race. It probably stems from a political motivation more than any "objective" criteria.
 

MKGirlism

3DS and Wii U Game Developer
414
Posts
11
Years
The average American is the average American.
There are so many Americans on this Planet, you just can't make them all equal.
Not even nationality can't be counted as equal, there are people in the USA with a different nationality, or even nations with people from the USA.

Also, Muslims isn't a Race, nor it's a Nationality.
Muslim is a Religion.
 

zakisrage

In the trunk on Highway 10
500
Posts
10
Years
Accusations of racism can get messed up. People get accused of racism when criticising cultural practices, even if they violate human rights. There are people who are afraid to report female genital mutilation in sub-Saharan Africa for that reason.

They falsely accuse Arabs of doing it. I've spent years in Lebanon and I've NEVER heard of a single FGM case in Lebanon. I've even heard Turks and Iranians getting accused of doing it when it does not exist in either culture. The only Arab countries I can think of where it's practiced are Mauritania, Sudan, and Egypt.

People who think Islam is misogynistic are wrong. FGM is not allowed in the Koran - not at all. Don't let Daniel Pipes or Ayaan Hirsi Ali try to tell you otherwise.
 
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287
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11
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If you mean the U.S., then yes - we are.

You'll find videos and such of people interviewing Americans about geography and then laughing at them for getting the question wrong - but then you have to ask, how many Americans did it take them to find those who were so inept? For every ignorant answer, there were probably many more correct answers in between that they just don't show. The stereotype that the US is geographically inept compared to other countries is just that - a stereotype. It is true that there is less focus on the rest of the world in the US media and a poorer emphasis on geography in some schools, which could lead to less geographical knowledge in some populations but I don't think that generalizes to all by any means.

I'm curious - what do people think of affirmative action programs? I personally like them, I think they help even the playing field a little bit for minorities, who are faced with a subtle disadvantage in multiple domains throughout their life. I know that some people find them absolutely abhorrent though.
 
10,769
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14
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Let's try to bring the discussion back to the topic of racism and not get on a tangent about America education, though feel free to start a new thread about that if you'd like.

I think affirmative action programs are a kind of halfway measure. Good, but not ideal. There is merit to the claim that they unfairly discriminate against white people/non-minorities, but then minorities/non-whites get discriminated against in other areas of society. I'd rather not have either face discrimination, but I do think it can help offset some of the imbalance.
 
319
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10
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  • Age 30
  • Seen Jun 19, 2022
Well, we generally only have one class about Geography in basic education in the United States. And, atleast when I was in that class, we didn't learn Geography.

So yah.

--


I've found that hybrids are discriminated against more than those "purely" of a race.
 
5,983
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15
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Personally, I'm not a fan of the idea of affirmative action. Representation on a race basis might be important for certain kinds of democracies that are segregated on race lines, but to do so in the private sector is over the top. I don't like its attitude - it feels like a crutch. The fact of the matter in university selection is that 50% of the time (if you're black) you /aren't/ as good as the guy beside you. It sounds like a quick fix to me. What should be emphasized is affordable housing, investment in standards for education - and I don't mean teaching standards, but making sure the education system is able to deliver quality education to everybody, not just to the rich or those who live in better neighbourhoods.
 
319
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What should be emphasized is affordable housing, investment in standards for education - and I don't mean teaching standards, but making sure the education system is able to deliver quality education to everybody, not just to the rich or those who live in better neighbourhoods.

I reject this idea. Affecting the housing industry so that it is more affordable will decrease the amount of people going to apartments and hotels, which will decrease the quality of those places. In addition, more affordable housing would also mean making cheaper houses which itself decreases the quality of homes themselves.

And I am 100% against having education as a standard and the funding of such a standard. We have the internet now. The only thing educational institutions can provide is additional learning aid - which would be teachers - and thus your idea that the focus should be on education instead of teaching standards will FURTHER decrease the ability for teachers to ACTUALLY teach. Which nowadays, they can't, since everything they do is done per schedules, texts, and guidelines forced onto them which keeps them from teaching in their own way and, thus, teaching at all.
 
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I reject this idea. Affecting the housing industry so that it is more affordable will decrease the amount of people going to apartments and hotels, which will decrease the quality of those places. In addition, more affordable housing would also mean making cheaper houses which itself decreases the quality of homes themselves.

Absolutely, there must be a balance between price and quality. However, the fact of the matter is when parents in poor neighbourhoods have to worry about rent and bills it decreases their quality of life, their quality of parenting, and their ability to consume into the economy. The market will continue to discriminate on a price basis, so I don't see how other more expensive forms of housing be affected. The housing market is heavily segmented, which is why we have multi-million dollar lakefront property as well as cooperative, subsidized apartments for single moms. So I don't see there being a race to the bottom in terms of price and quality. Even though it's economics, race has economic impacts. Investment leads to returns, and so an investment into equality is a smart choice.

And I am 100% against having education as a standard and the funding of such a standard. We have the internet now. The only thing educational institutions can provide is additional learning aid - which would be teachers - and thus your idea that the focus should be on education instead of teaching standards will FURTHER decrease the ability for teachers to ACTUALLY teach. Which nowadays, they can't, since everything they do is done per schedules, texts, and guidelines forced onto them which keeps them from teaching in their own way and, thus, teaching at all.

Yeah, using the word "standard" really makes my passage unclear. I mean to equalize the education system, so most people can enjoy an education that works for them, instead of this pyramid structure which has the elite schools at the top while its foundation decays to the detriment of the masses. So I meant standard in the sense of allocating resources in such a way that everybody benefits, instead of the privileged winning out.
 
319
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  • Age 30
  • Seen Jun 19, 2022
I see...

Then, in both those cases, you still need a standard - a "quality standard", to be more precise. In each industry, if a certain level of quality is not kept up by sellers / educational institutions, then those places will be quickly dealt with so that they either do meet the standard or are destroyed.
 
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I think to summarize my views on correcting racism, I prefer altering the supply side of the equation, versus the demand side. Give the aggrieved minorities better living conditions, access for the masses to a proper education and change will come in time. It's better than picking someone on the basis of "well, there should be more x minority, so we'll take a couple more of them". I don't know if that attitude of affirmative of action actually changes the public's attitudes - it seems like it would cause resentment more than reconciliation from how heavy handed it is.
 

Meganium

[i]memento mori[/i]
17,226
Posts
13
Years
I think in my area, we have our own form of racism here. We have three types of racist groups: the Mexicans who are originally from Mexico, the Mexicans originally from the US, and the Americans. Sadly I fall under the second group. It's so weird, really. We even have a racist gang up north, and that's where most of the crime reports are coming from.

Racism is everywhere, as a full-blooded Mexican myself I can feel the pinch of it everywhere I go because every time an average American sees a Mexican speaking Spanish they would immediately think we're illegal immigrants, especially if you go a little more north up in the state. And sometimes when an American gets killed here they would assume a Mexican did it. Oh, and this is something I would loooove to discuss, and I hear this all the time: "Oh, all the Mexicans get the good jobs!!!" You know what? That is half-true, half-false, and let me explain why: The managers and/or owners of the employers manipulate the hiring process in order to give their "friends" an opportunity to work. But also, you have to blame the recruiting managers from the border towns that post these job opportunities in unemployment centers in Mexico in order to recruit employers from Mexico, in which a passport or visa, as well as an ability to speak little English are the only requirements. Some employers would provide them benefits such as insurance, and possibly room & board if they have to travel. So, sometimes that argument about Mexicans getting all the jobs is kinda invalid.

It's the same with schools here, really. One of the requirements to enroll in a public school here is to have a school official visit your house only to prove that you live there. Reportedly this only happens to Mexicans because they ALWAYS assume we're manipulating the enrollment process and ditching the education system in Mexico just to obtain a slightly better education here in the United States. If the student doesn't have a place to sleep in, they will reject your enrollment. Colleges & universities here are more welcoming to the people from the other side of the border, the only disadvantage is that they do not get the same benefits as a person residing here in the US. Thankfully, there are a few schools in Calexico and El Centro that take in students from Mexico no matter where they live, not only because they prefer the education system here in the US, but it also gives them the opportunity to explore the best of both worlds.

I can explain a little more later on, but for now this is just a take. xD
 
10,769
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It's the same with schools here, really. One of the requirements to enroll in a public school here is to have a school official visit your house only to prove that you live there. Reportedly this only happens to Mexicans because they ALWAYS assume we're manipulating the enrollment process and ditching the education system in Mexico just to obtain a slightly better education here in the United States.
That's interesting because I'm from the northern part of the state and as far as I know this doesn't happen up here. Of course I'm white so if it does happen here I probably wouldn't know about it. Of course the further north you go the whiter things get, generally, but in the bay area where I live there are lots of pockets of people of different races and backgrounds, but still most of the racism is toward Mexican/Hispanic people.

I do know that the high schools in the area that have a higher number of Hispanic students are the ones that are generally poorer. I don't know if that's a case of families only able to afford to live in the poorer areas or of those schools not getting as much support or what causes what, but the end result is that it's the richer, whiter kids who are getting a better education overall.
 

zakisrage

In the trunk on Highway 10
500
Posts
10
Years
It's very interesting that people associate Muslim with foreign, and as a result consider some Levantines white and others not even though they come from the same gene pool. I think people can be very choosy about who is and isn't a certain race. It probably stems from a political motivation more than any "objective" criteria.

Muslims are guilty of it too. Two of my Muslim friends are blond - one is Turkish and one is Bosnian - and I've never heard either one of them describe themselves as white. My Bosnian friend even has blue eyes - he thinks that the other kids wouldn't be as nice to him if he looked Middle Eastern like I do. Then again, he also considers his blond hair to be a bad thing, since some Muslims associate blond hair with "sinful" Western people. And our media never seems to complain about Turks, Bosnians, and Albanians the way they do about Lebanese, despite a lot of Lebanese being just as secular as them.

I myself can be a bit critical of the exaltation of blond hair - especially on women because blonde women are put on a pedestal and portrayed as ingenues. There's nasty stereotypes of Mediterranean men "lusting" after blonde women, which explains why in my first post here I mentioned that Lebanese Australian men are portrayed as being lecherous towards white women. Also notice how pretty blonde women and girls garner lots of attention when missing compared to everyone else. I am sick of hearing about Madeleine McCann and Natalee Holloway. The coverage of the former is ridiculous - I mean, dozens of people (blondes included) go missing every day in my birth country and no one gives a crap. And the latter is going to remain a thing as long as Nancy Grace milks it to death (I heard about this woman and I don't get why any news station would hire someone like that). Missing White Woman Syndrome really makes me mad.
 
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