What is your theory on why racism exists?

It could be many reasons

Ignorance, stereotypes(Americans are fat, Brits love tea, Mexicans mown lawn, etc), intolerance and much much more

The media is pretty much why. But yeah what is your theory or reason why you think racism exists?

It stems from a fear of the "other" so basically anyone different from oneself.

Arrogance and ignorance. Equal measures of both.

Because white people exist.

*runs away*

I think people see their own race as a family or tribe so they look out for their own race more than another race.

I think it's just natural for people to want to feel superior to others, whether it's biological or subconscious drives, people want to be better than others, Doctorates, the wealthy, tall people are valued more by society whether it's right or wrong. Racism is just an easy way say "im better than that guy", after all it's easier to mindlessly bash rather than improve oneself, like get a g.e.d. as so many racists seem to lack.

The media is not pretty much why.

The reason why ultimately boils down to basic human biology. There's a limit to the number of people that a human being can conceptualize as actual human beings rather than just things. As humorously explained in Cracked's "Monkeysphere" article, it's like this: if you had one pet monkey, he'd be your best friend. If you had four pet monkeys, you'd love them all as friends. You'd see their unique character traits. One monkey is the playful monkey, one monkey is the surly monkey, one monkey is the horny monkey, etc. And each monkey's unique personality makes you love it more. But if you keep getting more and more monkeys, eventually there's gonna come a point where they stop being individuals, and you instead just start seeing an endless sea of monkeys. The more monkeys you pile up, the more their differences evaporate and the more they all start looking exactly the same.

This is not inherently a bad thing. This is probably also largely why we're here. Human beings didn't always live in cities with millions of people. Rewind to the year 100,000 BC, when humans lived in small tribes of a few hundred individuals, and the survival advantage becomes pretty clear. Try to look at everyone as individuals, and the tribe across the river might slaughter you all. Whereas iff you look at that entire tribe as the same person (and imagine that person as an asshole), you've got your guard up when dealing with them. Furthermore, you very well may slaughter THEM and take their resources, thus helping to ensure your survival and prosperity. Racism is based on a human mental mechanism that in all likelihood is a big reason why we haven't yet gone extinct.

The problem arises the context changes. I mean, we're still for the most part essentially the same as we were 100,000 years ago, but the societal context in which we live has changed DRASTICALLY in a really short amount of time. Even though we live in cities with millions of people, we haven't evolved the MINDSET of a species that NATURALLY has to interact with that many people. Our brains are still telling us that only about 200 "real people" can exist, while society demands that we interact with "OMG, sooo many people, it makes my head hurt." The only way to cope is to divide the shitload of people that we have to deal with into CATEGORIES. And then treat everyone within that category as the same person.

That's why we have racism.

That's why we hate telemarketers.

That's why people make blanket statements against artists or politicians or corporate executives.

But it's also not all bad. That's also why I might donate to disaster relief. I don't know those guys, for all I know they might be assholes. But the second I see MOTHERS grieving on TV, the second that I see FAMILIES in pain, I get into action. That's just as much of a stereotype. After all, lots of mothers are horrible and lots of families are pieces of shit. But once you remove that context and present it as just "a mother in grief", then that CATEGORY exists on my sympathy checklist.

Anyway, racism is just a natural extension of fundamental human behaviour: not the racial aspect, but the aspect of taking lots of different things and thinking of them as being the same. Now, the criteria for differentiation may vary (it may be jobs, or race, or hair color, or what music you like, or how much money you have). But they're all displays of the same fundamental human need.

The problem with racism is that race as a criterion for lumping people into the same category has sort of ceased to be beneficial to human interactions. If race was EVER a good criterion for lumping people together, it certainly stopped being so once the world got big enough and inter-connected enough for us to stop being able to practically live in our own racial bubbles. Like, if you're a company that would benefit from tapping into the growing Chinese market, then it's PROBABLY not a very good idea to harbor ideas that the Chinese are giant assholes. Oh, you're still gonna stereotype them by SOME criterion, but it's time to remove "Chinese people" from your "things I really hate checklist".

As a species we stereotype regardless if it's positive or negative. It's natural.

I bet if all of you (including me) saw a black guy with dreads and baggy shorts, we think he's a thug but he's actually top high school kid who got accepted into Harvard (true story but can't link it since I'm on my phone).

It's natural to stereotype. Everyone (this includes the entire animal kingdom) does it. Teach people to think critically about stereotyping others and accepting that not all stereotypes are true.

I wouldn't go as far as to say "It's natural to stereotype". I just think we deal with profiling so often that it's almost as if it's being normalized.

It IS natural to stereotype. The human mind is simply biologically incapable of seeing every single thing as an individual.That's precisely why we place things into categories such as "species" or "races". If we didn't stereotype "carrots" or "wheat" as being edible, then we'd be pretty fucked whenever we got hungry.

"Oh, I know that potatoes are edible, but I can't act like this potato is like all of the other potatoes I've ever eaten. It's possible that this potato is extremewly deadly, even though there's no direct indication that it is deadly. So in the interest of safety, I'd better get further information on this specific unique potato before I eat it, even though I'm SOOOO hungry."

Or you could just eat the potato because it's clearly a normal fucking potato.

Now, that's not to say that RACISM is a beneficial thing, especially within the context of today's world. But STEREOTYPING is absolutely a natural thing. Furthermore, the ability to stereotype is one of the things that is necessary for our SURVIVAL.

It comes from our instinct to survive and to automatically distrust and fear anything we don't know

/thread

divide and conquer

It's natural for people to divide themselves by differences. I grew up in a pretty much entirely white area and even still people divided themselves and made fun of others based on anything they could. From the area of of town to clothes you wore to music taste to nationality. Race is just another difference to pick apart.

Too many factors to list.

I think Chomsky gives a rather convincing answer;

"There has always been racism. But it developed as a leading principle of thought and perception in the context of colonialism. That's understandable. When you have your boot on someone's neck, you have to justify it. The justification has to be their depravity. It's very striking to see this in the case of people who aren't very different from one another. Take a look at the British conquest of Ireland, the earliest of the Western colonial conquests. It was described in the same terms as the conquest of Africa. The Irish were a different race. They weren't human. They weren't like us. We had to crush and destroy them. No. It has to do with conquest, with oppression. If you're robbing somebody, oppressing them, dictating their lives, it's a very rare person who can say: "Look, I'm a monster. I'm doing this for my own good." Even Himmler didn't say that. A standard technique of belief formation goes along with oppression, whether it's throwing them in gas chambers or charging them too much at a corner store, or anything in between. The standard reaction is to say: 'It's their depravity. That's why I'm doing it. Maybe I'm even doing them good.' If it's their depravity, there's got to be something about them that makes them different from me. What's different about them will be whatever you can find."

I think it's a superiority complex that only some people have. From my experience MOST people aren't racist. There are just some that have that complex.

I think it mainly boils down to this really, people are just scarred of the unknown. Stereotyping doesn't help when it includes things like mugging, terrorism, violence, etc. and religion often makes things worse too.

There is a difference between categorising people based on physical differences and geography and being a racist.

Difference in human beings are biological.

Racism is just ignorance, hence the reason it cannot be defended rationally.

TC is about stereotypes....that isn't racism. 7

As for why racism exists.....ignorance really.

Its evolutionary. Fear of others who are not your race. They are not like you and not like us. It means they are the enemy. It means you feel more loyalty towards your own race which leads to breeding with your own race which will help the race to survive.

I blame history.

Cultural evolution

In my opinion ..... black people victimise themself too much to get free sympathy

"runs away too -->swoosh "

My theory, racism is something that starts and once it has started it's really hard to end it. Best thing is to never let it start in the first place.

Probably boredom. If you have stuff going on in your life you don't want to waste energy and time on being bitter against those damn Turks.

Racism is based on stereotypes, dude.

simple answer...a lot of humans generalize things.

Group mentality and apprehension of others.

We Humans are very selective and social creatures, we do enjoy to be in a "group" based on how we define ourselves and the world around you. Which can be seen in the way we identify ourselves and the area we are in.

"I'm American, Canadian, French, Chinese, Swedish, Polish, Australian, Nigerian, Libyian etc."
"I'm White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Albino etc."
"This is my neighboorhood, town, city, county, region, state"

We move into various groups and sometimes those in other groups are the outsiders, sometimes you witness or hear some within that group has done something you dislike or fear. And then you start judging, resenting or look down upon that group.

People are assholes.

Honestly, this is probably the most accurate answer.

White, Cis scum.

@Aljosa23: :P

@bunchanumbers: @lucianocasanova: It's not due to evolution nor is it due to the media.

There was a time where 'racism' did not even exist. Under the Roman Empire, there was little racial discrimination; the Romans didn't even know how to be racist, nobody did at the time - hence why black people in the Roman Empire became soldiers, leaders and even emperor's - they had slavery, but it was not race-based whatsoever. Same with the Greek Empire. Even during Shakespeare's time, he wrote the play Othello - in which a black general is highly respected among his white peers. Race is a social construct.

It mostly began and flourished in the 1700's; it's under-pinning in race-based slavery. Racism was used to justify economic exploitation. The concept of 'race' hasn't been with us forever; just mostly since the 1700's onwards. There was a time before race as a construct even existed.

The PC answer is to say racism has always existed, but it hasn't.

It spread globally from 1700's with expansion.

Racism is the belief that specific race/s are inferior to other races. Stereotyping is NOT necessary.

racism, whatever'ism, somebody different... that's about it

Looking down on or hating others is easier than working to better your life.

Thinking that violence is justified because of your lot in life - "It's not fair."

Refusing to grow up.

Not having a conscience or care about your community.

And yes, the media and a certain political party that answers any argument that challenges their agenda with the race card is sure helping things.

lol...you're so cute.

How the **** are you supposed to believe that specific race/s are inferior to other races without holding the stereotype that X race has qualities that make then inferior to Y race or Z race? The mere fact that you're assigning such attributes to A RACE at all requires stereotyping, unless you've personally met and gotten to know every single member of that race.

Agreed. Mainly ignorance though.

Is it racist if you get pissed off from minorities who move into your country and refuse to assimilate...and whine and bitch about how their "old" country is so much better than the one they are currently in?

Hey, I might pick up Navajo one day. Doubt it, but I might.

Oh for fucks sake. Some stereotypes exist because it's cultural. That does not mean accepting that different cultures are different is racist. You abuse the word racist.

What the hell are you talking about? Where the hell in any of my posts did I suggest that accepting that different cultures are different is racist? Where did I say that some stereotypes are or aren't cultural, and what the hell does the fact that a stereotype is cultural have to do with racism?

Are you okay, bro? I'm a little bit concerned. Usually you make at least a little bit of sense, but right now you're talking complete and total nonsense.

its really competition. Seeing others that are different as competition. Its a fear type of instinct

basically this. deep seeded evolutionary measure to be suspicious of those outside "our" group. while may have served protective purposes and strengthened community bonds back when we were smart apes roaming around africa, in modern times we tend to trip over it often.

People thinking they're a different kind of human because of their genetics, or that culture and race are similar things.

I stopped using the word race because it's nonsense, *race* is not a cultural difference. You being black or white means jack shit in and of itself.

You'd make racism go away if we can get rid of the idea of race altogether.

I

Tensions and clashes across cultures over values and way of life. Racism isn't just about race, it's about the cultures that divide those races.