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White racism

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by Jellyfish Clear, May 11, 2016.

  1. Jellyfish Clear

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    Well first of a sorry if this thread has been done before but I am just to lazy to go look for similar threads.
    Second pardon my ignorance on what I am about to say.
    Today me and my friend got into a little conversation on racism and the topic of racism towards white people was brought up (we are both white). She was saying how it doesn't exist and that you can't be racist towards a white person it just doesn't exist.
    So during this conversation I got a bit confused. I thought racism can happen towards whites but she insisted not.
    So my question does it exist? I ask just because I don't want to be ignorant any more and what she was saying didn't make the greatest sense to me
    Thanks
     
  2. baconpox

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    That's a matter of opinion. I believe it can exist towards white people, because why not? The purpose of words is to clearly communicate, and with the way our language is structured, the power+prejudice definition isn't the more effective way for the word to be defined. People say that racism is inherently oppressive (vs. discriminatory), and white people aren't oppressed, but I think people just want to redefine it so they can say mean stuff about white people or promote their agenda--but it's impractical.
     
  3. FoxEars

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    I could be wrong, but you don't really hear of racism towards white people (me being white myself). Lots of white people grow up in a fairly sheltered life in terms of racism, not exactly being taught about the true extent of racism towards POC today. Yes everyone knows about Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, the slavery of Africans and black and white separation, but that was the past. Forgive me for repeating myself, but we aren't taught about the full extent TODAY. Racial slurs are used quite often, and a lot of the time people don't understand what they are saying.
    Personally, I don't believe that there can be racism towards white people, as talking about how we're easily sunburnt, or I don't know, look like mayonnaise? Isn't exactly insulting when compared to the oppression POC go through on a daily basis. I have a Chinese friend, and they can't walk down a street without "Ching Chang Chong", "Can you see?", "Do you eat dogs" etc being yelled at at them. They were surprised when I, a white person, refused to use a racial slur after a friend of mine called himself said slur. (he's black, don't worry).
    There's a big difference between this and whatever may be said to a white person.

    This is merely my opinion, and I will not be offended if anyone challenges it. However, I do believe that POC understand racism a lot better than you and I.
     
  4. GayBoyBG

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    There can't be racism against whites. What it means(mostly) is, that a particular race is superior or inferior to another. I doubt anyone in his right mind would argue that whites are inferior to any of the other races.
     
  5. HM03

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    Huh? Hey there, please call me out (politely) if I'm wrong, but aren't certain countries like Japan xenophobic? Sure not everybody would be xenophobic, but quite a few. Wouldn't that be considered racist towards white people in a way?
     
  6. GayBoyBG

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    Japan is a bit xenophobic, but that encompasses a lot more than just their views of white people, so I doubt we can talk about white racism. They still struggle with gender equality, as far as I know, but racism - haven't heard about such.
     
  7. edy

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    I don't know about white people (I think I would be considered white by some. I will post a photo of myself very soon). But as mexican, I can feel an anti mexican sentiment getting bigger and bigger In every video about Mexico posted on YouTube. Not even on cinco de mayo these racist Trump supporters dropped their crusade against us
     
  8. Libertino

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    Racism is not about the likelihood of inferiority arguments. Some people do argue that white people are inferior--people argue just about anything under the sun. The rarity of such arguments does not eliminate the possibility of racism against white people.

    The people who claim racism against white people doesn't exist are generally using a specialized academic definition of racism that stipulates it is a system of oppression in which a dominant race oppresses another, therefore whatever race is non-dominant cannot be "racist", although they can still be hateful and prejudiced.

    To me this is an issue of semantics and an attempt to skirt around the real issue. Racism is the belief that racial qualities define superiority or inferiority. Anyone can believe that about any race, so yes, racism against white people does exist.
     
  9. Matto_Corvo

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    Racism can exist towards any race so long as someone is saying something offensive towards/about a race.
    Just because one race has more privilege than another does not mean that they can not experience racism.
    Racism towards any race is stupid no matter what and I can't wait for the day when we stop seeing each other as colors and just as human beings.
     
  10. Shadstack

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  11. Gunsmoke

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    Technically, racism can happen against anybody, but racism against white people isn't really "real" because unlike non-white people - black people in particular - we will not be persecuted for our race or ethnicity.

    However, to say that there has never been racism against white people is incorrect. (I'm considering Italians to be "white" for this but some people think that Italians are Latino, I'm not sure.) Look at all the bullshit that Italians and Irish people dealt with in America during the early 1900s, for example (although I suppose that's an issue of nationality rather than race). However, you don't see Irish people in the modern day being victims of American police brutality, however, you often hear about the police shooting black teens for doing essentially nothing and it's so, so horrible. Similarly, Trump probably would not turn white refugees away from America's borders (sorry if that's incorrect, I am not American), but people from the Middle-East? Yep.

    Huh. I hate it when people say that white people have no culture. Get out, Europe has LOADS of culture, please stop equating "white" with "white American".
     
    #11 Gunsmoke, May 11, 2016
    Last edited: May 11, 2016
  12. Matto_Corvo

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    I hate it when people assume white Americans are with out culture.
     
  13. Chiroptera

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    Racism can happen with anyone. Obviously, because of history, we have a much more intense racism towards black people, and that's still a problem nowadays. But, when a black person says that "marrying white people is wrong, because they are oppressors", that is racism too.

    It's the same thing of when an LGBT person doesn't want to befriend a heterosexual, because they are the "oppressor, evil group".

    Prejudice can happen both ways. If one way is more common, that doesn't exclude the other, and both are problematic.

    Why can't we just forget about skin colors and respect everyone? Meh...
     
  14. Pret Allez

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    Sure, there's such a thing as racism against white people. It stings so bad, man. It stings so bad.

    Just like all those slurs against straight people and cisgender people.

    Really makes them quake in their boots.
     
  15. Aberrance

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    No, white people can't experience racism. Of course they can experience racial prejudice or discrimination due to being white (especially where they're a minority in that country) but racism is compex and it links back to the way different ethnicities have been oppressed and were/are viewed as inferior to white people. White people can't experience or relate to that kind of racism because they've always been at the top of the hierarchy. Also the institutionalised racism in today's society is solely towards people of colour. White people don't experience any of that.

    I mean, what kind of racist things can you say to a white person other than someone like calling them a cracker or saying they have no culture? The cracker comment relates back to when white people used to crack whips on black people when they were slaves so that's a pretty tasteless insult in itself if you're black.
     
  16. Gunsmoke

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    Exactly, whilst it can technically exist, it doesn't hurt white people, not in the same way that we have hurt non-white people in the past, and how some white people still do in the present.

    President FDR rounding up Japanese-Americans into internment camps when Pearl Harbour was bombed (they leave that part out of the history books) is much worse than a Japanese person sarcastically saying "white people" or something.
     
    #16 Gunsmoke, May 11, 2016
    Last edited: May 11, 2016
  17. Matto_Corvo

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    You know saying that a person can't be hurt by racism because they are white is bullshit.
    Just like saying cisgender or heterosexual people can't be made to feel bad because they are cis/hetero is bullshit.

    We are all humans. Just because one group is privielaged does not mean that they can't feel.

    The definition of racism is "poor treatment or violence against people because of their race." click here.
    No where in those definition does it say that only one race can experience racism, or that one race can't at all.
    Yes, white people do face less racism than others, but they still face it and they know better than to say anything because they do have it far easier than others. Which, by the way, most white people I know feel shit about.

    The only way racism will stop is if we stop focusing so much on the color of those around us and just treat each other like living human beings who can all feel.
     
  18. BryanM

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    White people cannot experience racism. The reason being that racism must exist on an internal, interpersonal, and institutional level for racism against white people to exist. In the US at least, there is little internal and interpersonal racism against white people and no institutional racism against white people. Therefore in the US at least, racism against white people is nonexistent. This is not to say that people can't be PREJUDICED against white people though, because prejudice is a work that more correctly fits a lot of what I've seen said in this thread when it comes to racism against white people.
     
  19. 2Sides

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    Oh yeah you can be racist towards anyone. White people (not all but some) took racism to a whole new level during WW2. It was mainly Europeans.
     
    #19 2Sides, May 11, 2016
    Last edited: May 11, 2016
  20. Gunsmoke

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    THIS.

    You know, I study psychology and it has literally been proven that black people are more likely to be sedated and given emergency injections for displaying schizophrenic symptoms than any other ethnic group.

    So, basically, black people (yes, I KNOW that black people aren't the only ones who experience racism, I am paraphrasing a study here) are more likely to be restrained for unusual behaviour than anyone else is. But sure, the police force can't be racist.

    At the end of the day, a girl named Shaniqua is more likely to get her resumé binned by a potential employer than a girl named Rachael is.