solving racism

[RWStanding]

Racism is a term that tends to mean whatever suits the user. If it is not defined as part of a holistic ethical-political philosophy it is just whimsy. Merely something to do with ethnicity and culture.
As a part of a whole philosophy it can be used in three ways, taking logic to the extreme - which is difficult to define briefly out of holistic context.
A belief in the innate superiority or inferiority of an ethnic group or groups, and individuals, globally.
A belief in the freedom and autonomy of all individuals within a global society.
A belief in semi-autonomous and diverse ethnic societies, globally. This implying nations, and also a responsible altruistic philosophy.
It is obvious so far as Right and Wrong are concerned, that if a person is altruistic as defined, then that is right and the alternatives are 'wrong'.

[Belinda]

Racism is a term that tends to mean whatever suits the user. If it is not defined as part of a holistic ethical-political philosophy it is just whimsy. Merely something to do with ethnicity and culture.
As a part of a whole philosophy it can be used in three ways, taking logic to the extreme - which is difficult to define briefly out of holistic context.
A belief in the innate superiority or inferiority of an ethnic group or groups, and individuals, globally.
A belief in the freedom and autonomy of all individuals within a global society.
A belief in semi-autonomous and diverse ethnic societies, globally. This implying nations, and also a responsible altruistic philosophy.
It is obvious so far as Right and Wrong are concerned, that if a person is altruistic as defined, then that is right and the alternatives are 'wrong'.

I agree with RWStanding. Racism is a constant rationale among all who believe that might is right.

[commonsense]

Racism is a term that tends to mean whatever suits the user. If it is not defined as part of a holistic ethical-political philosophy it is just whimsy. Merely something to do with ethnicity and culture.
As a part of a whole philosophy it can be used in three ways, taking logic to the extreme - which is difficult to define briefly out of holistic context.
A belief in the innate superiority or inferiority of an ethnic group or groups, and individuals, globally.
A belief in the freedom and autonomy of all individuals within a global society.
A belief in semi-autonomous and diverse ethnic societies, globally. This implying nations, and also a responsible altruistic philosophy.
It is obvious so far as Right and Wrong are concerned, that if a person is altruistic as defined, then that is right and the alternatives are 'wrong'.

I agree with RWStanding. Racism is a constant rationale among all who believe that might is right.

I don’t defend racism.

But I wonder if there’s a biologic component to it, starting in infancy. A newborn begins to recognize its mother’s face and to prefer it to any other from an early age, becoming a full blown stranger anxiety before very long.

This fear of something different seems to be universal and biological, not something cultural. Why the fear becomes so intense as to become hate, I don’t know. I think it’s the job of education and cultural normalization to change the fear into acceptance—a job that is not accomplished in far too many cases.

[MikeNovack]

I don’t defend racism.
But I wonder if there’s a biologic component to it, starting in infancy. A newborn begins to recognize its mother’s face and to prefer it to any other from an early age, becoming a full blown stranger anxiety before very long.

But what you describe is NOT biological. You are saying that "normal expectation" would be learned by the race of the adults and other children among which that newborn is raised. But learned "mother" would not be the biological mother but the woman who nursed the newborn. Many times/places that might be a woman of different race.

I rather suspect the newborn is learning mother/aunt/big sister without reference to race (lacks the classification). You are imagining the newborn would learn as significant "nurse mother has a different skin color than me' but why would the newborn expect the same color? Why not green or purple? I agree learned, but not until an age when more complex parts of social order are being learned, like gender, class, caste, etc. are being learned. The song "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" from South Pacific says eight. That sounds reasonable to me.

[Belinda]

Racism is a term that tends to mean whatever suits the user. If it is not defined as part of a holistic ethical-political philosophy it is just whimsy. Merely something to do with ethnicity and culture.
As a part of a whole philosophy it can be used in three ways, taking logic to the extreme - which is difficult to define briefly out of holistic context.
A belief in the innate superiority or inferiority of an ethnic group or groups, and individuals, globally.
A belief in the freedom and autonomy of all individuals within a global society.
A belief in semi-autonomous and diverse ethnic societies, globally. This implying nations, and also a responsible altruistic philosophy.
It is obvious so far as Right and Wrong are concerned, that if a person is altruistic as defined, then that is right and the alternatives are 'wrong'.

I agree with RWStanding. Racism is a constant rationale among all who believe that might is right.

I don’t defend racism.

But I wonder if there’s a biologic component to it, starting in infancy. A newborn begins to recognize its mother’s face and to prefer it to any other from an early age, becoming a full blown stranger anxiety before very long.

This fear of something different seems to be universal and biological, not something cultural. Why the fear becomes so intense as to become hate, I don’t know. I think it’s the job of education and cultural normalization to change the fear into acceptance—a job that is not accomplished in far too many cases.

We need to ask science to answer "This fear of something different seems to be universal and biological, "

[Belinda]

ChatGPT a moment ago:

Infants show a natural preference for the familiar — familiar faces, voices, and especially language. This suggests a biological bias toward safety and social cohesion. But who counts as “familiar” is shaped by experience, not hardwired. So the fear or wariness of difference is partly innate, but its targets are learned.

[popeye1945]

ChatGPT a moment ago:

Infants show a natural preference for the familiar — familiar faces, voices, and especially language. This suggests a biological bias toward safety and social cohesion. But who counts as “familiar” is shaped by experience, not hardwired. So the fear or wariness of difference is partly innate, but its targets are learned.

The greater the differences, the harder it is to identify oneself with the selves of others, and where there is no identification with, compassion does not arise. This explains why many people have no compassion for animals. It should make one wary of such people, in that they cannot probably identify with their kind. A psychopath is an example, but all people have an element of psychopathology in them; it's just part of human nature. Sameness is more comforting than the concept of difference. Just as experience is truth, it takes effort to challenge one's own experiences, and that is troubling and a cause of disease, as in dis-ease, uncomfortable.

[Belinda]

ChatGPT a moment ago:

Infants show a natural preference for the familiar — familiar faces, voices, and especially language. This suggests a biological bias toward safety and social cohesion. But who counts as “familiar” is shaped by experience, not hardwired. So the fear or wariness of difference is partly innate, but its targets are learned.

The greater the differences, the harder it is to identify oneself with the selves of others, and where there is no identification with, compassion does not arise. This explains why many people have no compassion for animals. It should make one wary of such people, in that they cannot probably identify with their kind. A psychopath is an example, but all people have an element of psychopathology in them; it's just part of human nature. Sameness is more comforting than the concept of difference. Just as experience is truth, it takes effort to challenge one's own experiences, and that is troubling and a cause of disease, as in dis-ease, uncomfortable.

No, psychopaths are diseased. Healthy human nature is whole and not lacking in sympathy .

Scientific studies of infants go to show this is the case.

[Immanuel Can]

The “Woke Left,” which prides itself on its “anti-racism,” is actually the chief force keeping racism alive today. They believe people “socially-constructed,” not born, constituted in their “identities” by particular “politics” and “locations,” and that they are so are totally predetermined by their “positionality” and have to speak in the “authentic voice” of their (Woke-defined) “communities” or be denied any “authentic” identity at all. The Woke also believe in a thing called “whiteness” and “white privilege,” which are made up of nothing but skin-colour. And they believe in “blackness,” and “aboriginality” (they don’t care which “aboriginality” it really is). And they absolutely bust their buttons with pride that they alone can locate these “intersectional” identities and “re-voice” them, “re-center” them in their power relations to the larger society.

If racism ever went away — if it even diminished so much that it was no longer a serious issue — the Woke would just sit down and cry. They LOVE racism. How else can they justify their own role as “advocates of the oppressed,” or virtue signal how wonderful they personally are to their upper-middle-class, Western parents and neighbours, or “punch an Nazi”? If racism ever even reduced, they’d have to invent additional ways to dig some up — like “microaggressions” so small that even the alleged perpetrators don’t realize they exist, or “systemic oppression,” in which no particular racists are at fault, but everybody can be condemned as “complicit,” simply for failing to admit that this mysterious “systemic oppression” exists.

The last people who ever want racism “solved” are the Woke. It must NEVER be solved, so far as they are concerned: it must be perpetual, universal and forever ready to be mined to the surface from the substrata of Western life. And this is why you never hear them promote the MLK dictum that a person should be “judged by the content of his character, not the colour of his skin”: for they care nothing for character, and everything for skin. It’s only reference to skin that keeps their skin-deep 'virtue' intact. Without that adversary, they’d be nothing. They’d lose all public relevance, and have to leave the government-funded college, or the corner Starbucks, or the dole line, and go and get a job and add some real value to the world.

Want racism solved? Start by dumping the Woke.

[MikeNovack]

The “Woke Left,” which prides itself on its “anti-racism,” is actually the chief force keeping racism alive today.

Wow!

So it's the prophet
Standing on a bench in the park
Railing "Cease your injustice"
Feed the hungry among us
Make a home for the stranger"
He's the problem
Stone him into silence
Stop up his mouth
For were he not speaking
There would be no injustice
None who hunger
Or who sleep on the sidewalk.

[Immanuel Can]

The “Woke Left,” which prides itself on its “anti-racism,” is actually the chief force keeping racism alive today.

Wow!

So it's the prophet
Standing on a bench in the park
Railing "Cease your injustice"
Feed the hungry among us
Make a home for the stranger"
He's the problem
Stone him into silence
Stop up his mouth
For were he not speaking
There would be no injustice
None who hunger
Or who sleep on the sidewalk.

When have you seen one of their “prophets” feed anybody? And when have you seen their social justice warriors save anybody? They’re terrific talkers, those people…but they never seem to make the lot of the “oppressed” any better.

Remember the BLM riots? Countless “oppressed” neighbourhoods burned to the ground, millions of dollars donated by well-meaning folks simply disappear into the pockets of organizers, businesses destroyed, Korean shopkeepers beaten, and off an duty black police officer murdered…and which one of those neighbourhoods “served” by social-justice “prophets” is better today than it was before the riots?

I can tell you the answer: not one. The whole point was to express hatred of the status quo, and to position protesters as virtuous, but not to make the lot of the oppressed one iota better.

[MikeNovack]

The “Woke Left,” which prides itself on its “anti-racism,” is actually the chief force keeping racism alive today.

Wow!

So it's the prophet
Standing on a bench in the park
Railing "Cease your injustice"
Feed the hungry among us
Make a home for the stranger"
He's the problem
Stone him into silence
Stop up his mouth
For were he not speaking
There would be no injustice
None who hunger
Or who sleep on the sidewalk.

When have you seen one of their “prophets” feed anybody? And when have you seen their social justice warriors save anybody? They’re terrific talkers, those people…but they never seem to make the lot of the “oppressed” any better.

I don't know what it's like in your neck of the woods. But around here the volunteers you'd encounter in the soup kitchen, food bank, survival center, settlement house --- talk to them. You'll find some are religious folks and some secular, even flaming reds.

[Immanuel Can]

I don't know what it's like in your neck of the woods. But around here the volunteers you'd encounter in the soup kitchen, food bank, survival center, settlement house --- talk to them. You'll find some are religious folks and some secular, even flaming reds.

Well, I’ll tell you.

I’ve been in jungles and plains in central Africa, in the land of the rural poor in South and Central America, in the street camps of major cities, and in the second largest slum of displaced people in the world. In such places, I’ve met thousands of wonderful Christians, doing all kinds of good work for the poor. Seriously, you would not believe what these people do.

Do you know who, in all those years, I’ve never met where the poor are struggling? Atheists. Marxists. Social Justice types. Not one, not anywhere, not doing anything. But if I go to my local universities, I can find plenty. If I troll the upper middle class neighbourhoods, I’m more likely to find them than not. Maybe there are one or two out there…maybe…but they’re not where they can be found. I’ve found a few non-religious types, but not the anti-racist kinds. The social justice “warriors" spend their time elsewhere…the coffee shop, the college campus, their parents’ basement…anywhere easy virtue can be had, and the price to be paid is very small.

But when the poor are suffering, they’re overwhelmingly absent.

[popeye1945]

ChatGPT a moment ago:

Infants show a natural preference for the familiar — familiar faces, voices, and especially language. This suggests a biological bias toward safety and social cohesion. But who counts as “familiar” is shaped by experience, not hardwired. So the fear or wariness of difference is partly innate, but its targets are learned.

The greater the differences, the harder it is to identify oneself with the selves of others, and where there is no identification with, compassion does not arise. This explains why many people have no compassion for animals. It should make one wary of such people, in that they cannot probably identify with their kind. A psychopath is an example, but all people have an element of psychopathology in them; it's just part of human nature. Sameness is more comforting than the concept of difference. Just as experience is truth, it takes effort to challenge one's own experiences, and that is troubling and a cause of disease, as in dis-ease, uncomfortable.

No, psychopaths are diseased. Healthy human nature is whole and not lacking in sympathy .

Scientific studies of infants go to show this is the case.

It's a developmental thing through the stages of maturation that all individuals have elements of psychopathology. Still, one develops in sympathy just as the power of reason does not develop until, on average, around seven years old. Still, a mature individual, a normal individual, has elements of psychopathology in their makeup. No, psychopaths are not diseased, it is a lack of development in certain parts of the brain, you cannot actually hold someone responsible for what they cannot precieve or feel, even through the strong trait proves dangerous to society at large.

[Belinda]

The greater the differences, the harder it is to identify oneself with the selves of others, and where there is no identification with, compassion does not arise. This explains why many people have no compassion for animals. It should make one wary of such people, in that they cannot probably identify with their kind. A psychopath is an example, but all people have an element of psychopathology in them; it's just part of human nature. Sameness is more comforting than the concept of difference. Just as experience is truth, it takes effort to challenge one's own experiences, and that is troubling and a cause of disease, as in dis-ease, uncomfortable.

No, psychopaths are diseased. Healthy human nature is whole and not lacking in sympathy .

Scientific studies of infants go to show this is the case.

It's a developmental thing through the stages of maturation that all individuals have elements of psychopathology. Still, one develops in sympathy just as the power of reason does not develop until, on average, around seven years old. Still, a mature individual, a normal individual, has elements of psychopathology in their makeup. No, psychopaths are not diseased, it is a lack of development in certain parts of the brain, you cannot actually hold someone responsible for what they cannot precieve or feel, even through the strong trait proves dangerous to society at large.

Lack of development is part of what I mean by "disease". Disease has several categories of cause some of which are mutually inclusive. The category of disease implies the category of health the literal meaning of which is 'whole'.