Racism

[Buck Turgidson]

So I just returned from a two week business trip to South Africa. It was the third time I had visited the country, the first visit being almost 4 years ago. My impression comes down to this: it is the most racist place on Earth.

Then again, I think that there are degrees of racism, and wonder how racist that makes me myself.

[Leo]

Black people can't be racist. You're wrong.

[Ogaden]

Racial politics has kind of fucked up SA society, it'll take a few decades for that shit to tone itself down.  Apartheid was there for like 100 years, and has only been gone for like 20.

[rabonnobar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_farm_attacks

Sucks.

[Fake from State Jarm]

it takes a long time for societies to put those major rifts and social wounds behind them. several generations.

imo, racism is essentially a cultural problem. a group of people stays in one place long enough, their genetic evolution makes them a distinct race. they develop a distinct culture which becomes part of them and their racial identity. then you have them interact with another group, and even if both groups are generally good people, if there are strong differences and lack of common ground, they will likely become alienated. then if they're still forced into proximity with eachother that becomes conflict, and over generations the specific kinds of conflicts between cultures may become associated with that race, so they form racial attitudes. if these attitudes become solidified into a self-protective sense of superiority vs. inferiority, then, I think that is where it becomes racism.

on the plus side, every new generation has kids with a blank slate that can rewrite their attitudes and look for common ground and build a collective culture and racial identity. but these kids have to fight against previous generations that have even built political platforms based on the old racial attitudes; even minorities can have the attitude of 'we are not them, they are not us' and that can inhibit a cultural renovation. so it's this subtle ubiquitous attitude generated in cycles by cultural dissonance, that is the real issue.

and it's very problematic when people oversimplify it

[Buck Turgidson]

I agree. I think it will be a very long time before wounds are healed. Slavery in the US disappeared about 150 years ago, and there are still very strong rifts in racial relations in the south. South Africa's Apartheid government was using attack dogs trained to kill black people to enforce a 10 pm nightly curfew as recently as 25 years ago.

But with regard to the race/culture link, what about the mixed race po pulation?

[Gangs]

Stories and examples as to what lead to you making this conclusion plox.