Why is it wrong or right to be racist?

Question

There are many people in the Answers community who are vehemently anti-racist, and there are also alot of people who are very derogatory to all sorts of "types" of people. In your opinion, why is it intollerable to be intollerant on the basis of race, or why is it an OK position to have?

OK then, I'll put it in other words: Is it OK or not OK to be a racist? Why or why not?

True, there is no right or wrong answer to this. I asked for opinions, not a decree from a divine arbiter. Even when the issue is complicated and there are no "right" and "wrong", there are still better and worse answers. Some will be more thoughtful and reasoned than others. And? Shall we only ask "yes" or "no" questions?

Answer 1

Everyone is racist to some degree. Everyone. I don't know that it's "wrong". I think it IS wrong to be evil to others and many people allow their racism to push them to do evil things.

Racism - a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement.

Believing that Asians are intelligent is racist. Believing that Mexicans have beautiful hair is racist. Believing that the French are romantic is racist. Racism itself isn't evil.

Answer 2

Last summer I was in Dallas attending concert festival thing. After one of the shows we got lost in a fairly poor neighborhood looking for food. It was about midnight, and every place we saw that looked open and service food was crowded with young black guys hanging out. I remember feeling uncomfortable with stopping there, so we moved on. Here is what I was honestly thinking at the time: I have no problem with blacks, they are not different people, this isn't even an issue. But... what if they have a problem with me? That was the justification I had for pussing out and fleeing. I was afraid I would get hassled just for being a white guy.

Now I know I'm not racist like Adolph Hitler or Osama bin Laden ... but these run-ins make me think? Am I a little racist? Is it unconscious racism? Are we all a little racist whether we like it or acknowledge it or not?
I think we all are, if we like it or not.

Answer 3

I am pretty much not a racist and find little good in it. I celebrate most of the difference and embrace the similarities between people. I also have zero tolerance for racism. I do not think it is ok to have anywhere and I do what I can about it.

I am white. My daughters are Eurasian/Native in looks. I got more than just a few hassles over this issue of "sullying my pure white blood" when they were young. Rather than get upset I just played with it and did not let it get to me.If I ask my girls if they have ever had to deal with racism they would most likely wonder if I had a fever.

The world is getting smaller and people are blending into a homogenous whole. Get used to it.

Answer 4

It is an extremely wrong thing to be a racist! How to treat others cruely because we are different, DISGUSTING! There is no such thing as an American Purebred Human. During the American Revolution, what was the war basically fought by? Many different people; African Americans, Scots, Irish, English, and just a different variety of the world. We are all the same. No matter what color you have we are all the same! Yet people with narrow minds believe that they have to be better because they are white or anything. WE are all the same! Make peace not war brother!

Answer 5

I dont think we will ever be able to change the way people think or what they believe, nor should we try. We have come along way in the way people are treated regardless of race and we should stay on that road. I believe that the forcing of beliefs on another only feuls the fire of hatered. As long as they dont directly effect the livlihood of others let them wallow in their world of hate. I do believe that we have become quite oversensitive today and at times, depending on the situation, revert back to the old sticks and stones. Our oversensitivity is just one more thing that the mongers feed on. It is an ugly part of our society that I dont believe we will ever be without, so we have to learn how to live with it, not accept it, but live despite of it.

Answer 6

It's not a good idea to be racist as it's not based on fact, but fear of something different. It also becomes a self fulfilling act as the people who are the subject of racism become marginalised and then do the things that the racists think they'll do. No matter what race or colour, people are basically the same the world over.
Racists are the cause of the social unrest by marginalised minority groups.

Answer 7

Racism is a belief system or doctrine which postulates a hierarchy among various "human races" or ethnic groups. It may be based on a conception assuming inherent biological differences between different ethnic groups, which would be purported to determine cultural or individual behaviour. However, modern racism discourse may also coincide with contemporary scientific researches which have criticized former "scientific racism" discourses, popular until World War II and which claimed that the "race" was a biological and anthropological reality. Thus, they may, on some occasions, accept the cultural relativist viewpoint which criticize any attempt in hierarchizing various cultures among them, while continuing to support a racist discourse. However, instead of being based on a biological definition of race, this contemporary racism accepts cultural and historical differences, but claims they justify, at the minimum, separatism between various ethnics groups.

Racism may be described as a strong form of ethnocentrism, including traits such as xenophobia (fear and hate of foreigners), views against interracial relationships (anti-miscegenation), ethnic nationalism, and ethnic stereotypes. Racism has been a motivating factor in social discrimination, racial segregation, affirmative action and violence, spanning from hate speechs, pogroms and massacres, to genocides and ethnic cleansings. In a less dramatic manner, racial discrimination is also common, although illegal, in many states. Furthermore, distinctions of various ethnic groups may be instrumentalized by politicians who practice "race baiting" in an attempt to win votes.

Answer 8

Racism is not an "OK positon". It's looking down on specific people because of where they came from and its disrepect for different culture, things that are not chosen at birth. I'm not speaking for myself, but a lot of people are sensitive in this subject. It isn't always that case that they are hurt by people's words against them, but sometimes just because they know it's wrong and are simply angry that someone could say bad things about another because of things that do not give choice to who they are.

Answer 9

Being racist makes a person look uneducated to the world around them. Racism from an individual shows that person to be closed minded.

Everyone of God's children were created the same on the inside as well as the out. We all have two eyes, two ears, one nose, one mouth, two arms and two legs.

Could you imagine a world where everyone was the same color?
Thats like saying every plant has to be the same color.
Color is a sign of beauty. Would you want to look at a painting that is all one color, and every painting after that has to be that color?

Diversity is a sign of beauty.
Hating those whose pigments are a different color than yours, to me, is considered completely intolerable.

Answer 10

Its wrong because if u think that u r superior , there will always be people that think THEY r superior than u, so in the end everybody is the same. and there will always be these kind of people , so just don't be like that and make the world a bad place, life is too short to be like that, so just be nice to other people like UUUUU !!! -live life to its fullest !!!, dont make mistakes u'll regret later in your life....!!!