the something starts with the assumption that one race can do something another race can't and it easily becomes definition 1, "one race is superior to another" and by definition "one race is inferior to other races" and that is what is commonly refered to as racism.

common examples are

all orientals must be smarter then all caucasions because they get better grades.

all blacks have a natural sense of rhythm.

all mexicans are lazy.

all blacks don't want to work.

all chinese are inscrutable.

all jews are good business men.

the "all," whether spoken or just tucked away in the mind of the "racist" is the bad.

it leads to value judgements about one group that is not true.

it does have one advantage. the "racist" does not have to know a person he/she meets, because the "racist" knows the new person by his/her race. it's the "all" that causes the problems between people of different races.

babies are born pure, they have to be taught to be prejudiced.

as difficult as it is, if a person can examine the prejudices he has been taught, and can understand the fallacies, that person will no longer say things like: joe lewis is a credit to his race, marciano was never refered to that way, for a mexican, he works hard, i once had a jewish boss and he was a nice guy, and all the other clichés that we use and take for granted as acceptable, when they are not.

understanding why other groups cringe at certain clichés, might eliminate those clichés from our

vocabulary.

Compay, i hope you understand why i was so angry at you.

All Italians are great athletes

Go Italy - Win the Cup

Via Italia

Well-put, Rick. Seriously. Your own? Or a cut-and-paste?

Not sure if Compay was unclear on his own anti-semitism. I suspect he thought it was funny. It's not.

Hate is a bad, bad thing. Compay covers two in that thread: homophobia and anti-semitism. Gotta compliment the brother for tryin'!

Also, if you refer to any group as "you people" or "those people"....THAT is racism.

If you refer to YOUR OWN group as "my people", it is just ethnic pride.

Your interpretation seems appropriate Rick.......and it fits me to a "t".....I am a racist; I am not however discriminatory.....and I harbor no hatred for other 'races' in my heart.

Sorry, but it is the best I can do...........I grew up making jokes about jews, blacks, and mexicans; but I never hated or disliked any per se.

I have the opportunity now to pass along some "better" attitudes to my little girls and will do so of course, but who can tell what they will pick up "out there".......I didn't learn racism from my mother.

And you of course will decide if and when it's tucked away in the mind of the "racist' right Rick.

Around here it's more often used as an attempt to silence someone that disagrees with the "progressive" point of view. Most often used when a lack of facts makes it the only way to continue the argument.

Replace "all" with "most".

Still racist?

Replace "most" with "many"

How about now?

Replace all with some or a and it's still racist if it comes from the right direction.

Racist is still king but homophobe , Nazi, and fascist are in a real close race for #2.

Rick called me a bigot last week because I disagreed with him on WMDs in Iraq.

Dr. P. said the same thing because I assumed jokingly that Rick might play bingo.

That was kind of my point. Just assuming that someone is or isn't something based on their race or religion is stereotyping which is a form of racism.

But, that being said - where do you think stereotypes come from? Asian kids aren't smart? Jewish guys aren't good businessmen? Black people can't dance? Japanese tourists don't walk around with cameras? Stereotypes aren't based on one person.

racist!

yeah- you go wop-

huh huh racism. racism can be funny!

hate, not so.

look, i know that sounds incredibly ignorant. i'm willing to accept that. jokes about ethnicities are funny because they point out certain things that follow a stereotype.

the lazy mexican.

the short straight black haired oriental.

the greasy italian.

the basketbal playing black.

the money hoarding jew.

the rhythm-less white guy.

blah blah blah. insensitive? maybe a little. consider growing up in lost angeles, being half mexican, half chinese, surrounded by mexicans, a few blacks, a very few middle easterns, some orientals, and, of course, some whiteys-you just can't get away from whitey...was a real treat, let me tell ya! i have very little hate in me, and none of it aimed at skin.

my brother and some of out best friends rented a house together when we were in our early 20's. it was dubbed the ethnic barn, for obvious reasons. all of us aware of each others' familial origins, and both embracing and ridiculing each other for it. not out of hate, but because we knew & loved each other and realised the stupidity/ignorance for hating someone for their skin.

in our livelyhood, we encountered a lot of racism (punk rock was REAL close to racist skinheads), and we were vocally and physically against it, and shared each others pain...ever been jumped by skinheads? i wouldn't recommend it... but it still never soured me from embracing whites.

you know who is an **** and who is just making an "off color", or "racist" joke. is it wrong? most likely, in the public eye. in the backyard of my parents house? hell- it was encouraged...

try being called a "bink"-

nine

and before you correct me about the word "oriental"-

i can't stand being called asian. really. don't care for latin either.

oriental is fine by me. so is mexican. and by the way? where the hell is cacasia?

Whatda ya mean rhymeless white guy?

roses are red violets are purple...

I'll get back to ya.

lets not forget about the **** size stereotypes.......great stuff for jokes there!

Oriental - Small

African American - Large

White people living in Pittsburgh of Lithuanian/Slovak/German/English - GIANT

lol!!!

LOL...good one!

Charlie

MikeyRavioli 6

all,most or many, are just different ways of demonstrating the same thing.

rugrunner 5

there isw no way for me to know what is in someone's mind until he/she speaks and gives me a clue.

my purpose was to explain to some people why they should understand why people get mad because they know the person posting or speaking has made a judgement based on race.

rugrunner 7

i did not call you a bigot because we disagreed about WMD.

i called you bigot because like me re the mad man running this country, i am bigoted against him and you are bigoted for him.

in parlance, bingo is generally thought of as a church function.

if you don't wish to understand my point, and

Dr Peeperhill gave you an example, then don't. it's your world whitey.

Nine, you are very cool, and Andy, you are "endowed" with great insights.

IMO, there's SOME truth to all stereotypes- whether they are good or bad.

Are our differences to be attributed strictly to the environment?

MikeyRavioli 8

you and i agree in your first paragraph.

we almost agree with "Stereotypes aren't based on one person." usually it's based on a friendly collective agreement among racists that certain races have certain characteristic. "they" are all alike thoe XXXXX.

in the south, not everyone was a member of the KKK.

not all germans were nazis.

sometimes it is a single person that generates the racism, both malcolm x and louis farrakhan, come to mind.