Racists Are From Another Dimension!

reply to post by Hefficide

We don't seem to be having a conversation at present

I've kind of been feeling that way for hours. And unfortunately your sudden interest in human unification and concerns over weakening through divisiveness...when up until now you've pretty much been exclusively been talking about legalities and civil rights...doesn't lead me to believe this new angle is likely to be fruitful either.

I've asked many questions, posed many ideas, and you haven't really responded to any of it with anything more than some vague notions of how you think things ought to be be with very little explanation of why. And even that hasn't been very consistent.

My goal here is logical consistency. Making vague statements about how you think things "should" be and then claiming by "should" you meant "expect" and then turning around and complaining that the conversation has become an exercise in semantics...I'm not really sure what I can say to that.

I've laid out my perspective in great detail in previous posts. And I think that perspective is logically self-consistent. But after all these posts, I'm still not sure why you believe the way you do...and I'm starting to suspect that you don't either.

In Afrikaans they say "soort soek soort" meaning in english "birds of a feather flock together". What I have experienced is that it is easy to get branded as a racisit, just because you prefer to associate with other people of the same race and ethnic group.

I personally feel more attracted to people of my race, ethnic group, culture, religious beliefs, language, etc. Does that make me a racist? No, I don't think so. It is just interesting to see how easily a white person is branded as a racist. I have no issue with any other race and find other cultures interesting, but there are obviously a lot of difference between cultures, races & ethnic groups. I am very aware of race. Denying the difference between races, I feel, is really a bit hypocritical.

Racism can be based on the outward appearance of deep socioeconomic underpinnings, so to an extent, racism is perfectly justifiable.

For example, if you look at all of the crime, drugs, SPEECH PATTERNS and general environment in predominantly black ghettos and inner city neighborhoods, you may correlate the socioeconomic state of the environment - ecosystem even - as a product of black predominance.

Most black people talk as different from whites as foreigners with thick accents do. Don't ever say this though, or you are condemned as a racist. In fact, the only black people I've ever heard speak proper English were college educated... and most were immigrants who migrated from Africa or the Carribean, through Europe, and eventually into the US.

reply to post by Ysterlong

I personally feel more attracted to people of my race, ethnic group, culture, religious beliefs, language, etc. Does that make me a racist? No, I don't think so.

The question of whether it makes you a racist would likely to answered differently by differently people. Personally, I say the question is irrelevant. It's simple harmonics. Some combinations of things go together pleasingly. Some don't. If you play an A and a C note together, they will make a chord. If you take that chord and add an F, you will still have a chord. But if instead, you take that A and C and add a B note, you will have discordance.

That doesn't mean that B is evil. And if you acknowledge the discordance, it doesn't mean you hate B. You simply recognize that these notes don't go well together. If you take the F that you previously combined with A and C, and combine it with the B instead, you will also have a chord.

Harmonics are not limited to music. Races are like musical compositions, each sharing a variety of notes and chords, but with their own themes. You can insist all you want that "we're all people," and you'd be right. Just like all the notes in both "Who Let The Dogs Out" and all the notes in Mozart's Flight of the Bumblebee are "all notes." But if you try to play those songs together you're probably not going to get a pleasing result.

Yes, some individual notes and some individual chords within each of those songs will be compatible. But the songs as a whole will stand better on their own than they will together. Races are like this. Yes, some individual people can appreciate and relate to individuals and components of other races. But unconditionally mixing races and cultures is going to create discordance.

Pizza is not enhanced by adding chocolate syrup. Mozart is not enhanced by having Snoop Dogg provide vocals. If an individual doesn't want to mix with individuals of another race, there's nothing wrong with that.

reply to post by LordBucket


Well said LordBucket.

You are good with words - that is exactly the way I see it.

reply to post by LordBucket


You coming up with this: "So you accept that discrimination is ok, but it's only discrimination based on race that's not ok?"

from reading this: "Discrimination and racism are not the same at all."

makes me feel that you are intentionally trying to distort what I said!

Racism is a false philosophy. Discrimination is an act of choosing, and has nothing to do with racism, unless race is the sole basis of those choices.

Once again I say: Discrimination and racism are not the same at all.

Don't twist my words to sound like I support racism or even racial discrimination. I don't! There is nothing in either one of my posts that even remotely indicates that I do.

See ya, Milt

reply to post by BenReclused

Don't twist my words to sound like I support racism or even racial discrimination. I don't!

I understood that, but from the context of the post, it sounded to me like you were acknowledging that discrimination is not a bad thing. For example, if somebody were to say about someone that they "have very discriminating tastes" in regards to their preference of wine, that would generally be a compliment. Most people seem to agree that simply choosing things that they like is not bad.

Discrimination is an act of choosing, and has nothing to
do with racism, unless race is the sole basis of those choices.

Right. Discriminating is the act of choosing, presumably based on preference. And speaking loosely, I was suggesting that racism is the acting of discriminating based on race.

The question is....why is discriminating based on race not ok?

If I may quote myself from this post:

"If I decide that I don't like dogs, and refuse to let them into my home, noone will consider it a question of morality. My neighbor can decide that she only wants to date tall men, and act on that decision, and she will not be accused of being evil or immoral. The mormon boy down the street can decide that he's going to marry a mormon girl, and refuse even to consider anyone who isn't, and nobody will think this odd or unusual. If a group of girls want to have a "girls night out" and tell the boys that they can't participate, that's totally ok and nobody has a problem with it."


I can discriminate based on species, immutable physical characteristics like height, religious and philosphical beliefs, gender...just about anything...and nobody has a problem with it. But replace the basis of discrimination in any of these scenarios to race, and suddenly people think that what they're doing is wrong.

Why is discriminating based on race not ok?

reply to post by LordBucket


Hi LordBucket,

Well..., discrimination, in and of itself, IS a good thing, if used with proper discretion! We all discriminate when we make choices!

I find four distinct definitions or discrimination in my dictionary. You seem to be limiting this word's definition to only one of them.

Even when discrimination is applied to a group of people, based on that group's unique characteristics, it doesn't have to be a "bad thing". If I'm looking to hire a research scientist, I'm certainly not going to waste my time interviewing those without a degree in some area of science. This fits the same definition of "discrimination", as it would as used in "racial discrimination", "religious discrimination", "color discrimination" (even as applied to a group of objects) or any other form of group discrimination.

Don't you feel a descriptor is necessary before a moral judgement can be made? I certainly do!

Hell, even racism doesn't have to be a "bad thing". There is nothing wrong with "birds of a feather" flocking together.

Morality always depends on our motivations and intentions. Words are only a tool, and the words "discrimination" and "racism" are often misused and even more often abused.

See ya, Milt