Systemic Racism: What’s Your View? Is it As Pervasive As Some Suggest? (page 3)

iXav

IXav, I’m glad you got a definition from Wikipedia so that you could respond. Really glad.

you are welcome

truth_b_known

Racism - the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another (Oxford Dictionary).

It was once believed there were 3 races, Caucasoid, Mongoloids (including Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and American Indians, etc.), and Negroid. Khoisanoids or Capoids (Bushmen and Hottentots) and Pacific races (Australian aborigines, Polynesians, Melanesians, and Indonesians) may also be distinguished.

In the past, Caucasoid human societies believed and propagated the belief Caucasoid persons were superior to non-Caucasoid persons. Asking biologists, "race" is synonymous with "subspecies". There are no subspecies in the species Homo Sapiens. Scientifically it is impossible for humans to be racist against. Homo Sapiens could be racist against Neanderthal, and vice versa.

Is there prejudice and bigotry among humans based on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, etc.? Yes. Is it systemic in the United States? I guess it depends on what system is being referred to.

By statutory law in the United States government and its agents are prohibited from discriminating against persons do to the person's ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, national origin, or religion. By design there is no systemic prejudice in the United States government. If agents of the government discriminate (i.e. act on prejudices as listed) the are in violation of law and should be sanctioned.

Is there socio-economic disparities seen which effect ethnic minorities in the United States at a higher per capita percentage? Yes.

john.prestor

That's a little idealistic. Laws cannot be openly racist any more. That doesn't mean they can't be covertly racist.

hoser

It’s all stratification of society and putting a label on an individual. Is it systemic? Maybe, maybe not

iXav

It’s all stratification of society and putting a label on an individual. Is it systemic? Maybe, maybe not

Stratification will imply that it is systemic

Simon

IMO, "Systemic Racism" is where a system treats people of a certain race differently because of their race, usually disadvantaging one group and advantaging another.

People often think some system must be "systemically racist" because they look at an end result, see a proportion that is different to the general population, and decide it must be so, and then look for the racism that surely must be there ... when of course it doesn't have to be. Less often noticed, but the "correct" mix doesn't mean that a system isn't systemically racist, it could be.

As an extreme example: is a hospital maternity ward systemically sexist because all of the patients are women? No, there are other reasons for the patients being women.

Is the NBA systemically racist because 75% of the players are black? No, there are other reasons for the players being predominantly black.

The only documented and approved systemically racist system I can think of right now is college admissions, which favours black candidates mostly at the expense of asian candidates.

MeanMrMustard

You have a right to your opinion and you can call it BS but having a definition will still help your argument.

I have been in many threads on this very site on "systemic racism". I have begged for a coherent definition. It always seems to be the opponents of the idea that the country is a big racist hell hole trying to figure out what the leftist postmodernists might mean.

I don't think this country is racist.

truth_b_known

Simon:

You bring up a great point that I always pondered. It is the idea that something is wrong if percentages aren't equal.

If X% of the population is <insert ethnicity> then all aspects of society my be made up of the same percentage of that ethnicity. Case in point - prison population. If 10% of the population is a specific ethnicity that nation's prison population must be 10%. If it is more or less the criminal justice system is prejudicial.

However, when things seem way off kilter it does merit the asking of questions.

Rocketman123

Racism is nowhere as prevalent as it once was say 50 years ago, at least in most modernized countries, not saying it doesn't exist but as evidential fact.

The media as of late have spin certain events into acts of racism, when in reality they were not, they were acts of people doing things inappropriately but because the event involved a white person and a black person its labeled as racism.

Simon

Case in point - prison population. If 10% of the population is a specific ethnicity that nation's prison population must be 10%. If it is more or less the criminal justice system is prejudicial.

It should only be that 10% if everyone commits crime at the same rate. The trick that politicians especially do is have people focus on the wrong metric, because most people don't understand stats.

The prison population should reflect the population of those committing crimes, which is likely different to the general population.

There are very few systems where you would expect the makeup to exactly match that of the general population, unless it was a true random selection. There is always some form of self-selection going on as an input to most systems.

Systemic Racism: What’s Your View? Is it As Pervasive As Some Suggest?

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