What is "Racism?"

[Druidess]

And what is not racism?

I hear this term quite a lot these days. Some people are of the opinion, that its overuse has reduced it to a meaningless epithet. I would tend to agree with this view and would add that the overuse of this word also detracts from real issues related to differences between people, causing actual harm.

Here is the dictionary definition of Racism:
1.a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2.a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3.hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

What is racism and what is not. In your opinion, do we experience significant levels of racism in Ireland?

[Bi ciuin]

[Lonewolfe]

A natural but unfortunate part of human behaviour.

[Catalpa]

When the Irish stand up for themselves...

[Fractional Reserve]

racism is in your head , discrimination you can see.

[Kevin Parlon]

I hope this thread comes up with some interesting points of view and not shape throwing.

[johnny365]

The majority of so called Iirsh "Racists" speak out about Roma for example because of the criminality they call "Culture". Therefroe people do not have problems with race, they just dont think our country should be opened up for groups that provide nothing postive to society.

[Houyhnhnm]

Racism, to me, is a belief that race is the primary determinant of a person's capacities.

[Telemachus]

Its a form of modern hysteria that arose as a critique of the War by cultural marxist elements that infilitrated the top of western Universities in the 60's.

The word wasnt really in the lexicon prior to that.

It's not the realisation that say west-africans on average make better 100 metre runners than Europeans due to the structure of their muscles, or that Askenazi Jews have unusually high IQs, but rather its just a tool to suppress the identity of western European ethnic groups. God forbid they might say end up gassing millions of Jews due to an overly scientific and utilitarian view of the value of people.

Its as plain as day when you look at this chart of the incidence of the word 'racism' in books in the last century.
http://books.google.com/ngrams/chart...&year_end=2000

[Kevin Parlon]

Here is the dictionary definition of Racism:
1.a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

Let's examine that statement.

c1: a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races
c2: determine cultural or individual achievement
c3: usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

If this definition is widely accepted then a lot of the chatter on here, condemned as racist is not. Key here is clause 2 and the word individual. It specifically does not mention group acheivement. I will ignore clause 3, because only the very stupid would hold to it.

Let's imagine there are two schools. One is made up primarily of Kenyans. The other is made up of Koreans. Now, would it be racist to imagine/predict/say that the Kenyan school will excel at long distance running but not at maths and the korean school will excel at maths and not at long distance running?

I don't think so. And that statement above, the dictionary definition of racism would back me up. Because I am not making as laid out in clause 2, individual acheivement, but am rather making generalisations based upon real world experience/observation and commoin sense. What's my point?

Making general observations or characterizations about the group achievements or cultural output of a given group is not racist.

Agree? Disagree?