What do you consider to be racism?

chenli · **Joined:** Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:51 pm **Posts:** 108

Is it slanderous comments based on a persons skin colour? Race? Nationality?

Zulehan · **Posted:** Mon Sep 01, 2008 9:18 pm

Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Quote:

1: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2: racial prejudice or discrimination

Forumer Darth Wong succinctly addresses the problem with the belief as laid out in the definition:

Quote:

Racism is based on a logical fallacy: the assumption that you can take the average characteristic of a group and assume that it can be used in order to predict the characteristics of any given individual within that group.

Mathematically, suppose you have a Bell curve (group 1) centred around X=500, with a standard deviation of 100, and a second Bell curve (group 2) centred around X=475. The racist would assume that a member of group 2 will have a lower value of X than a member of group 1, and should be treated accordingly. But an individual member of group 2 could quite easily have a higher value of X than a member of group 1, and in fact, the vast majority of the two curves will overlap. Therefore, these kinds of group-based generalizations are useless at the individual level unless the difference in mean values is so great that the majority of the curves do not overlap.

Shroedinger Watcher · **Joined:** Thu Apr 24, 2008 10:24 am **Posts:** 32

A touchy subject for some. Say an Indian and a white man were to apply for a job both are interviewed but the white man gets the position and the Indian does not.

The Indian wonders why he was not chosen, that he did what he could to impress the interviewer but despite it he loses out. If the white man went through the same interview but he impressed less than the Indian then it would be considered racist based on the fact that the white man was picked for another reason other than the purpose of the interview.

Racism can be noticed when a persons belief is met by another, both argue and in some cases fights occure and then of course the hateful words are yelled.

azure.moon · **Joined:** Sun Aug 31, 2008 5:00 am **Posts:** 9

I am genetically bi-racial but look white. I work in a predominantly black environment and find many African-AMericans to be very racist . I really don't like that so many people of color walk around with a chip on their shoulder because of the past. I didn't do it, don't take it out on me!! SORRY this has been wanting to come out for a while!

What do you consider to be racism?

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