This may true, but what we are trying to avoid is for people to hold corrosive ideas about other people that will result in them being harmed or oppressed.
On the legal side, we need laws to protect people against discrimination.
The social side is more difficult to work out.One basically needs to persuade racists to see their error and change their mind.
racism cannot be eliminated but it can be controlled. Racism is based on conceived ideas and it can be reduced through education and empowering people to think rationally.
Notions or nationalism and race ironically are created and destroyed by history. False histories(movies, news, government properganda, popularist histry books) is the main method of creating them and convincing people of their existence. Learning the truth of history, that they don't exist, is the best way to destroy them. However route 2 is va long way down route 1 and most people are going to drop off along the way.... So better jsut to elimate history altogether......
Racism can start spontaneously in 6 years old kids, even without the parends encouraging it. All it needed is to put a strange looking boy in a homogenous group, and reactions can happens.
Racism is hardwired into human instincts (and in animals, too). It comes from the ancient times when someone that look different was a risk for your life. Is a primitive tendency of man, like many others we have and that are moderated by education.
Racism is a natural thing, though not a good thing, which occurs in the
human mind as we seek to identify ourselves and also define
"otherness". Pinguin is absolutely right, racism was a survival
instinct by which we humans learnt that any other human who differed
from our own tribal group in appearance may not be one of us, and
therefore may be a threat to us.
Racism can be controlled and its effects can be minimised. A few basic approaches are needed.
Firstly, education in schools which aims for integration, understanding
and tolerance. Education from a young age is critically important.
Two, encourage the mixing of ethnicities across neighbourhoods and
suburbs. The congregation of a single given race in each suburb
massively facilitates racist attitudes and divisions, when ethnicities
all live along the same street the barriers get broken down.
Legislation to prevent discrimination and encourage equal opportunity must also be put in place and enforced.
Removing the concept of race & nation (like you suggest) is asking a lot from mankind. The chances of everybody dropping the concept of their race & nation are very slim.
Instead, racism can be kept in check, through good government. It doesn't need to be a rich government, just a government with enough determination to do it. It doesn't take a rich government to enact certain laws, and enforce them. Even the poorest governments have their ways of enforcing the laws they want to upon their people.
Look at the ethnic distribution of this relatively small city.
Notice the tens of thousands from each ethnicity:
Total population
3,380,645
2,473,370
907,270
Canadian
1,885,085
1,244,580
640,505
French
900,485
293,185
607,300
Italian
224,460
154,050
70,405
Irish
161,235
27,295
133,945
English
134,115
29,195
104,920
Scottish
94,705
14,420
80,290
Jewish
80,390
52,090
28,300
Haitian
69,945
61,930
8,010
Chinese
57,655
47,510
10,145
Greek
55,865
44,615
11,250
German
53,850
13,180
40,675
Qubcois
44,965
30,225
14,735
Lebanese
43,740
32,405
11,330
North American Indian
42,655
7,210
35,450
Portuguese
41,050
31,550
9,500
Polish
38,615
17,140
21,475
Spanish
35,245
14,950
20,295
East Indian
32,370
25,760
6,615
Vietnamese
25,605
21,650
3,955
Arab, not included elsewhere
21,545
15,835
5,710
Russian
20,495
7,155
13,345
Ukrainian
20,050
8,035
12,010
Filipino
18,985
16,050
2,935
Belgian
18,695
5,935
12,760
Armenian
18,445
13,710
4,735
Romanian
17,315
11,500
5,815
Moroccan
16,130
10,495
5,640
American (USA)
15,520
2,045
13,470
The above groups have been coexisting peacefully for decades on the same streets (not segregated like some of the barb-wired sections of Paris) because the government has been maintaining a zero tolerance policy against racism for decades. The laws concerning racism are extremely strict, and more importantly, enforced. Complaints of racism at work, by a landlord, etc, are taken very seriously, and dealt with. Does a government have to be rich to enact certain laws and enforce them?
When I see rampant racism in any part of the world, I don't blame the people as much as the governments.
Yes rot is always from top to bottom. A policeman overlooking a beating, the police service not disciplining and punishing the policeman, the courts not convicting are all such rot, simply empowering the law breakers. Racist or not. Govt dont have to be rich. Look at Cuba, where the Govt follows the policy of preventative action in all spheres of governance. So prevention of crime, decline in health etc.. It works.
There will be the Ivan's of this world who are born with a natural disposition towards violence and chaos. Law enforcementis the answer.
Best way to combat racism is prosperity. Properous people don't fight, its kind of hard on the china and silverware. Which is why you have Toronto. However in cases of clear exclusion, like paris, you have the ghettos.
Racism can start spontaneously in 6 years old kids, even without the parends encouraging it. All it needed is to put a strange looking boy in a homogenous group, and reactions can happens.
Racism is hardwired into human instincts (and in animals, too). It comes from the ancient times when someone that look different was a risk for your life. Is a primitive tendency of man, like many others we have and that are moderated by education.
Pinguin
Racial tolerance and genuine curiosity can start spontaniously in an isolated community encountering foriegners for the first time.
There's nothing hardwired about it, it's purely the local culture that has developed.
I agree with Leonidas.Rascism and corruption cannot be eliminated.They can be de-escalated.
"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. "
--- Joseph Alexandrovitch Brodsky, 1991, Russian-American poet, b. St. Petersburg and exiled 1972 (1940-1996)
Best way to combat racism is prosperity. Properous people don't fight, its kind of hard on the china and silverware. Which is why you have Toronto. However in cases of clear exclusion, like paris, you have the ghettos.
This is very, very true. Thanks for pointing it out, Sparten.
Best way to combat racism is prosperity. Properous people don't fight, its kind of hard on the china and silverware. Which is why you have Toronto. However in cases of clear exclusion, like paris, you have the ghettos.
Couldn't disagree more, your statement seems to be a generalization. The prosperous well to do white farmers in Africa and America were racist. They burned and hanged Negroes for sport. Sometimes it is the power and influence wielded from money that is responsible for the spread of evil. Any news network would tell us that.
Money and prosperity works both ways. it can be an exclusive or an inclusive prosperity. That exclusivity is generally kept in place by use or threat of violence.
There is only one way to eliminate racism: intermarriage and assimilation.
Societies should combat racism through the integration of the outsiders into the local communities. One of the worst mistakes a country can do is that, instead of promoting intermarryage and assimilation promotes "diversity". I mean, that racist and segregationist dogma called Multiculturalism, that put every people in its hole.
The so call "celebration" of diversity is precisely what form and mantain isolated groups inside a society.
Let's put these in other terms. In the U.S. there is a society for whites and a society for blacks, a culture for whites and a culture for blacks, an heritage for each one, and a history for each one. That way the U.S. will never be ONE country but two or more parallel societies.
Brazil, on the other side, is a country where intermarryage is widespread. In there you find Blacks, White, Amerindians, and all theirs combinations in all degrees, living together in the poor and middle classes neighbourhood without big deal. In Brazil there are Whites that pray to Yemanja and practise Candomble, and Blacks who sind Fado and go to the Catholic church. And boths have traditional Indian foods for meals. All people share the same culture, and theirs pride is to be Brazilian.
The U.S. is a rich country and Brazil is still poor. But I got the impression people in Brazil accept themselves better, and are even happier.
Let's put these in other terms. In the U.S. there is a society for whites and a society for blacks, a culture for whites and a culture for blacks, an heritage for each one, and a history for each one. That way the U.S. will never be ONE country but two or more parallel societies.
I live in the United States, and there is no "great divide" between whites and blacks. Sure, there are neighborhoods dominated by whites, and some dominated by blacks, but there are many neighborhoods will you will find both living in harmony. Your view of America is a more similar to what America was like during the Age of Segregation.
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