Why are people racist? It doesnt make much sense?

Answer 1

People are raised racist and they will remain racist. its mainly from the things they are taught. Its sad for a little kid about 4 years old to already hate other people.

Answer 2

They just are. There's many closed-minded people who only see their vain reflextion in the mirror every morning. If you're not white, you don't belong living in 'the hood'. If you're black you must be ignorant. If you're chineese, you must be smart.

..No, race is part of culture, culture is everything..Variety, difference, just everything. And colour is colour..It doesn't mean anything. A white person can be dumb, stupid, brilliant, fast, fat, skinny..so can a black person, so can a chineese person, so can any other race out there.
Now, i wonder to myself wether i should call African Americans "black people" because i feel as if im offending them. But they shouldn't be offended. Reality has just made that word seem like something of offense to that culture, when its not.
People are racist because they don't understand what reality or life is. Because they're spoiled. If one person from every race was the last people on earth, race would no longer matter..All that would matter was sticking together and surviving, and they'd soon realize how racism doesn't matter and how racism is a good thing and how being racist is the most ignorant thing a person could base their life around.
Maybe that's what we need to set the word civil right again..
Racism has always been a problem and always will.
There's only a handful that really know that mind is over colour.
Take care!
xx

Answer 3

Let me preface this by saying that these are two theories that I have heard during my master's studies....and that both make a lot of sense to me.

1) No one can have personal contact with every example of everything, so they generalize based upon limited experience. This is actually a GOOD thing. It saves us time (and often pain, money, etc.) in life. For example, if I touch one hot stove and get burned, I can generalize that all hot stoves will burn me--and make the decision to avoid touching them. Unfortuately, we can also make faulty generalizations: If I get sick after eating oreos, I generalize that all oreos will make me sick. It may be that I just had the flu. Still, that generalization is in my mind. To take this to people, one bad experience--either in a person's direct experience or told to them by someone else, can lead to a generalization based on race, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, political views...you get the idea. Keep in mind that not all of these stereotypes are negative ones--but that doesn't make them any more true or any less hurtful. (If you don't believe me, ask a tall person how often s/he gets asked if they play basketball.)

2) Another theory is that people have a tendancy to put everyone into two groups: "us" and "them." This has to do with Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the need to belong. Again, this is not inherantly a bad thing. We need to belong to a group, whether that is a family, a club, or just a group of friends that eats lunch together. The danger comes in when the jump is made from "we're different from them" to "we're BETTER than them." It is at that point that hatred begins.

Is it an answer? No. There is no good answer, really. But I hope this has given you something to think about. Ultimately, if we each thought for ourselves, this type of hatred would be much, much less frequent in this world. Thank you for not being a part of it.

Answer 4

Ignorance and insecurity. I grew up living on military bases. The majority of the population were straight white males. That's all I knew. Of course only being around that environment there were all types of fears about "different" people and races. When I moved out on my own I became intertwined with all kinds of different races, cultures, lifestyle preferences etc. What I found was that really everyone's the same. We all have the same goals, thoughts, dreams. Regardless of the labels placed on people we are all the same. Now I have friends who are gay, straight, black, Hispanic, rich & poor. Some I have come to feel like they are family. So when you open your eyes and ears you will find that, surprise!! Everyone's the same.

Answer 5

Well...most of the time people are racist is because of how they were raised. Their parents probably raised them to believe that they "higher" than those of a different race. Other times...it is because they are insecure in themselves. They need to put other people down to make themselves feel better. Also...people of a different race sometimes don't act or look like them. Humans fear what they don't understand. This fear leads to hate...which results in their racist feelings.

Answer 6

I agree it doesnt make sense. People are people and you shouldn't judge by outside apearances. Some times people are racist because of the way they were raised, and they think because their parents tell them its okay, then it is okay to be racist but its not.

Answer 7

Many people fear what is different. Others are ego-driven--they are perfect, so anything that is different than them is, by definition, imperfect. They talk about how different "cultures" are wrong, but in the larger sense, I don't think they're taking into account one thing--we ALL come from different cultures, in a way. All of us have exposure to different stimuli, different family lives, different jobs, different friends, different heredity, etc. Taking that into account, each of us is our own little culture, and being prejudice against others just because they have a little more or less melanin in their skin doesn't seem very smart.

Answer 8

Not many are (at least not in the U.S.). Racism is the belief that one race is inherently superior to others and deserving of rights denied the others. It is an outmoded concept kept alive for the personal glorification and profit of certain individuals and groups posing as champions against it.

In other countries racism and sexism are simply tools of oppressive power.

Answer 9

People are racist because someone influenced them into putting on their blinders. It truly does not make sense. But, life is full of adversities. It's how we teach adversities that makes a difference.

Answer 10

no it doesnt, but like most forms of "Bullying" as i am going to called it, it stems from somebodies insecurities. Another theory is that these people are honestly ignorant enough to believe that their race has qualities that make them superior to other human beings!! silly, isnt it?