So, I caught a tiny glimpse of this program on TV about a rather young fellow who is a white supremacist. I watched for only a few minutes, but it really made me wonder....how can someone be so unapologetically racist and be proud of it? Like, I can't seem to grasp the logic of how someone can be this way and feel justified too. With homophobia, I can at least understand to an extent. Some people are very Christian and just don't want to see people practice something that's described as an abomination in the Bible. Some people just don't want others to "go against nature" and think that if we allow homosexuality, we'll have to allow other taboo relationships too. I get it, I get it. I completely disagree, but I get it. However, I don't get racism. Specifically racism toward EVERY race but your own. Like, you have to be the biggest and most disgraceful asshole to think that you're better than everyone else because of your race. How could someone NOT see that looking down on everyone and even believing they should all either die or go away forever isn't just a tiny bit asshole-ish? I don't get it. Maybe I don't understand because I was raised in a non-hate environment. Maybe public schools brainwashed me into believing in togetherness.
Now, I understand stereotyping, even I'm a little guilty of it. Based on stereotypes, people would think that a lot of black people are thuggish and possibly dangerous for example. And in my area...it's kind of true, or at least they're all "trying" to be thugs. But you'd have to be a real idiot to think that every single black person on Earth is the same. I'm a prime example of a black person who's just about the complete opposite of that stereotype. But in the case of this white supremacist, he's not just hating based on stereotypes, he just believes he's superior in every way because he's white. Even if he met the most gentlemanly black gentleman in all of Gentleman Land, he'd still feel superior to him. I just don't get that!
Edit: Oh hey, I found an article. http://abcnews.go.com/US/white-separatis...d=21466004
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Do you think these things may be rooted in superiority complexes of sorts?
By that I mean that the barer of bigotry feels that he is superior and hence disrespects skin colour, eye shape, sexuality, gender etc.
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All kinds of reasons. Generally, racists often come from a background of subtle racism who are then victimized by someone of another race (compounded that he may have brought it on himself by his attitude as well as driving away/shunning good examples he might've otherwise seen that would counter the bad examples, plus those that don't fit the stereotypes aren't as visible just like many think most gay guys are flamboyant queens because most other gay men are invisible to them as they don't even think to look for them and thus only see the ones who are sure to make an impression and thus reinforcing prejudice) and what is learned in pain is learned. I knew a guy who hates all gays (at least gay men, I asked what his view on lesbians was and he never said) because he was horribly molested as a little boy by a man and I knew a woman who hated all blacks because she was gang raped by black men in such a way that required corrective surgery after and that was her first real encounter with black people (as she avoided them before though she wouldn't have called herself racist before that though she openly embraced hatred of others not white, especially blacks, after that). Once a level of strong antipathy is gained then it's easy to be recruited, some learn "got to stick with your race." It's important to note that all races have their haters as well as people who subtly shun (or at least keep at a distance) those not of their race which reinforce it even more so plenty of bad apples among other races also encourage racism (in their own as well as those not of their own) in a vicious circle.
It's part of the tribal circuits in the brain that identify the familiar and the safe and the unfamiliar and dangerous. It kept our species alive throughout prehistory and many people have a hard time fully letting go of those survival circuits in the brain which creates an intense loyalty to race, religion, nation, and/or other tribal affiliations while fearing those outside of it. (More than that, such survival instincts helped avoid getting poisoned by making generalizations about plants and animals, for example.)
And then there are the same reasons people join a cult. I knew a guy from White Aryan Resistance who bragged of the rituals of WAR he took part in, and one was some kind of scripted speech that included the lines (as best I recall), "The war goes well and if Hitler is dead then he lives in my heart." It gave structure and meaning to his life, made him feel braver and part of something bigger than himself, and as he was socially awkward the WAR was probably his first real connection that became his friends and new family. Heck, he tried to convince me to run away with him and let him "protect" me but his self-esteem came from his membership in WAR.
Speaking of which I've found it interesting that those who believe the white race superior are typically the dumbest, dysfunctional whites who are failures and the last of the people anyone would want representing them (and that would include Nazi Germany, as their beliefs have nothing to do with it, though in our modern world it certainly doesn't help). This isn't always true but most of the time it is (at least as far as I've observed, it's possible there are a lot more smart and cunning members who simply blend in better so I don't notice them and may be brilliant and capable people, in which case I bet they hate the dysfunctional members as well along with their desperation for members that compel them to accept them into their organizations). That makes me wonder if they don't embrace supremacy of their race as a way to feel better about themselves.
In the case of this specific guy you're talking about...he was raised in the South and may have been raised as I was. The schools I went to spread some racism, often subtly but sometimes (when the class was all white) in overt ways including being made to read how the slaves were better off as slaves and even preferred it (though I didn't believe it the school did manage to get me to hate Yankee Carpetbaggers/Reconstruction even more than slavery). In his case he probably comes from a family that embraces white superiority as some do, and I mean more than subtly ("subtle" racism condemns the overt kinds like say cross burning or lynching or neo-nazis and yet believe races have their place, so for example they may be absolutely fine with a black janitor and treat him with genuine goodwill and courtesy but refuse to see a black doctor and feel hostility to a black POTUS as that's violating certain unspoken rules similar to how men and women are supposed to obey certain rules or risk alienating many people around them). Adding to this would be his spending a lot of time online with kindred spirits so that he comes to see that as normal rather than the exception and that naturally made him who he is. This is all a guess, of course, and it could be his family is ashamed and horrified by his activism the same way a family would be if their kid joined a cult, but I'm saying I can understand how it happened.
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Racism is about 'I'm better than you'.
My mother was a devout bigot, she hated everyone, and was actually a miserable bitch (hey she called me the 'son of a bitch' all the time, so what does that make her?).
I figured out real early on that most of her problem was she hated herself, hated her life, hated not having friends, hated not being as rich as she wanted to be, hated living where she lived - everything about her life made her miserable. She felt less than, thus sought to find ways to feel better than....
So she externalized her self loathing on outward sources and played the 'because I'm X - I'm better than Y.' It was far from the truth, she was just sad and pathetic and no one really wanted to be around her.
Then there is taught bigtory, the person isn't really feeling unworthy thus needing an object to scorn, instead they have been taught that they are better than for so long it becomes an ingrained belief. KKK members are often this type, bigotry has become generational. A terrible family tradition that is passed down from generation to generation.
A few years ago I watched a show (Phil, Sally, something like that) where a Aryan Brotherhood man and his 6 year old son were on and the 6 year old son was spouting the Aryan Brotherhood philosophy. The child was raised in an environment of hate, thus will most like grow up to continue the hatred, unless he can manage to become more than his programing. He was taught to believe he was better than... because his skin is white. He will grow up to believe that and live that, unless he is a rational thinking being and actually can overcome that programing.
Where are the roots of hatred? Humans evolved to fear 'other'. It was a necessary thing, way back before humans were in control of much, there was limited resources and competing tribes. Further more their were competing hominid species, Neanderthal, Homo Erectus - perhaps others lost in the fossil record.
We evolved an 'Us Vs Them' instinct/mentality which served us well over the millions of years where we were hunter gather's - perhaps even longer depending on the ancestors leading up to homo sapience. As we got more complicated in the fore-brain, we came up with new ways to hate 'other' and with new ways to conceptualize and justify our irrational animal hind-brain 'fear' of other.
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Racism first, and foremost is a survival instinct, a defense mechanism of the human race taken to the extreme
a certain group tries to ensure the survival of its set of DNA and that's about it..
now, there's a number of things one does to ensure this, one such thing is developing a sense of superiority and righteousness about your own pheno/genotypical traits..this leads to take measures otherwise unthinkable in the segregation, isolation or elimination of any other groups, so to sensure that its your DNA that perpetuates in time, thus establishing genetic dominance.
the differences of other racial groups are seen as a threat to genetic dominance, and thus it needs to be controlled or eliminated..
it can happen also not even in a racially homogenous country if such country has developed a deep sense of nationality, hence, xenophobia..
as for the caucasian supremacists, the best known expression of racism, it's easy to understand where it comes from: Europe...
European colonization of unknown lands led to an increased sense of superiority most particularly towards Amerindians and Africans, as these native people had not reached the advances that Europe had seen.
So, these were "backward", "inferior" races in comparison to the "civilized" Europeans.
to "bring civilization" to these places was always a perfect excuse for colonialism, "the white man's burden"
in some cases like the person mentioned, this process of thinking has been taken to such a state by raising, environment, etc, that is has taken a virulent form..steming out of pure paranoia and fear of anything that's different
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I don't see why it's even an issue.
We all are humans. We all proposedly started from Africa and even if we all didn't, we're still bound by a common thread.
Dogs come in different shapes and colours, yet they're still dogs no matter which way you turn them.
Racist people just need a mirror, cause they've deluded themselves.
I don't try to understand ignorance. Let them figure it out.
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I was born and raised in "The South" (USA), and I still live there. I have seen all forms of prejudice.
Prejudice is a inherent trait in all humans. Prejudiced comes from the issue of being treated worse than another culture, or being more excluded from another culture or race. Prejudice also comes from people who cannot fathom what a "concept" is.......a "concept" being something different, out of the ordinary, and outside their small scope of what they were raised with.
It does NOT matter if you segregate yourself by color, race, sex, or religion......there is ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS going to be prejudice.
I took a Sociology class in high school. Our teacher was awesome. In order for her to show us all what prejudice and persecution felt like, she picked two "leaders" in the class. These "leaders" were given a division of the rest of the class as countrymen.
Keep in mind this was a small class of about 15-20 people. And it was a class project that went on for a few weeks.
These leaders were given the freedom to choose a captain, who in turn, would pick a Mayor, and the rest of us were civilians. The civilians could not do anything without the permission of the Mayor, who could not do anything without the permission of the captain, who could not do anything without the permission of the leader.
The leaders were allowed to create their own rules and "society", including any prejudices that came up. After all this was an exercise in prejudice.
After a few weeks, the teacher called the leaders up to her desk Each leader explained to the class who each person was in the group, and how they arrived at making decisions for their society.
Leader A explained that he chose the laws they ended up with, because of what his captain and Mayor suggested to him, without him knowing anything about the civilians. The civilians were classified by "lefties" and "righties" (which hand you wrote with and used more often). "Righties" were given freedoms to do as they please, as long as it did not upset the balance of rules the Mayor was in charge of. The "lefties" were harassed, made fun of, and not allowed to have any freedoms, because "lefties" were the minority and considered "freaks".
Leader B explained that the laws they ended up with were based on hair color and eye color. Blondes and brunettes. Blondes were considered "better" in every way, because "blonde" is pretty and popular. Brunettes were the "working class", forced to work for the blondes. Then your "class" of blonde was based on your eye color......blue eyed civilians had the most freedoms, green eyed blondes had lesser freedoms, and dark eyed blondes had lesser freedoms than the green eyed ones.
The brunettes were also classified by eye color. Blue eyed brunettes did not have to work as hard as the green eyed brunettes, who didnt have to work as hard as the dark eyed brunettes....who, of course, were the "grunt" workers.
It was interesting to the teacher to see that one "civilization" created more indepth rules and laws than the other.
Which goes to show you, it doesn't matter WHO is predominant or more popular, there ARE going to be prejudices.......race, sex, color, religion, clothes, food, hair color, eye color, where you live, what you live in, what you drive, where you work.......even what your name is.
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Coming from "The South", as stated, I have seen all sorts of prejudice.
The worst prejudice is the one you are born into. What your parents and relatives have brainwashed you with while growing up. What makes the difference, is if you are able to take charge of your own mind and your own consciousness and control it yourself. To think for yourself, to discover the truths on your own, and not to believe all the crap that has been force fed to you during your life so far.
Not many people have the "brain power" to do this. They would rather be led, than to think for themselves, regardless of how ignorant or dangerous the ones they follow are. This makes them extremely dangerous, as they will believe ANYTHING they are told.
This is the majority of bigots in this country.
There are smaller amounts of bigots and prejudiced people for other reasons.
A good example is my sister. She is a bigot about blacks. She hates black people, she cannot tolerate black people. Even though when she was in grade school, one of her best friends was a black girl, but she doesnt remember this.
As far as my sisters life goes, every place she has been, every school she has gone too, every job she has ever worked, every business she has ever shopped in, blacks get treated like royalty. They get what they want FIRST, before anyone else. They get the better raises, they get the bigger offices, they get the better benefits and perks, they get sit on their asses all day while collecting these "high end" paychecks too.
My sister is like me, she is a hard worker and takes pride in whatever it is that she does. But has always, ALWAYS been thrown back, down graded, or pushed aside to let some black person take what she has worked so hard for.
She bought a house many years ago. It was small house, very nice. It was an old house that was completely restored. My sister lived there for a while, then she decided to live someplace else and keep that house as a rental.
The woman she rented it too was a black woman with three boys. They were in this house for almost a year. The woman never paid rent, not one time. Yes, she paid the deposit, but that was it. My sister took her to court and the woman lied to the judge about paying rent, saying she did....but did not have any proof, so the judge found in favor of my sister.
The next day, when my sister went with the police to have the woman evicted, the house was empty...they fled. But this black woman and her kids destroyed the inside of the house. They ripped all the pipes out from under the sinks, they ripped all the electrical fixtures out of the walls and ceilings, the pissed and shit all over the carpets, the ripped up the tile in the kitchen, the broke all of the windows, and they knocked holes in the walls.
This, on top of everything else, has turned my sister into a bigot. And I dont blame her. Yes, she knows not all black people are like that, but she has been treated like garbage in favor of blacks all of her life, and to top it off, she was trying to do this black woman a favor who wanted to rent her house, and ends up getting her house completely destroyed! So, she will never see anything different when she looks at blacks, other than despicable, disgusting, cockroaches of humanity.
Not ALL people can be judged harshly for their prejudices, as many of us have good reason for it.
I have my prejudices too, but I know not all people are the same....but it is those in the majority that make it difficult NOT to be prejudiced against them all.
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partis Wrote:
Heres one explanation…
This is what is known as a "political racist".
Anyone who does not conform to the majority of the political mind, is deemed a racist.
This man is awesome, and I wish he was here in the USA. He is absolutely correct on so many levels....including the politicals importing hate, war, and overcrowding on purpose.
I am a racist.
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Understanding a racist...
