Is racism ever justifiable?

I don’t think it would be justifiable (meaning right, or good, or correct) but it can be understandable.

If a person grows up in a neighborhood where almost everyone he sees or knows is of one skin color, then he either sees something on the news, or goes to another community, and sees someone of another color doing or saying something bad, and they have not been taught by their parents and their communities to judge each individual person on their merits, rather than on their skin color, you can see how this kind of stuff starts. And top that with other people in their own community and skin color judging the “others” by their skin color, then that bad habit is continued. Top that with having a history of bad race relations in our country, written down in the history books, if someone sees that, but it is not tempered with the positive changes that were made after that, and again, the parents and the communities have not helped this person to see things another way, then that’s how it starts and continues.

It doesn’t really matter what color any of the people are, this kind of crap happens in all kinds of communities in which the circumstances I just mentioned are similar.

^You stole a lot of thunder just now… GA.

No.

I literally just saw this Clip from All in the Family from 1974 that kind of shows what I’m talking about. Interesting timing huh?

Scroll up to 1:30 where it really gets good, ahem, well bad actually. It’s hard to believe that people still think like this : (

No. It’s ridiculous to dislike someone because of the color of their skin, or facial features, or national origin. I don’t define racism as simply “dislike” but it’s definitely part of racism.

@Kardamom A lot of the people I know grew up free of any prejudices, definitely not racism, and they change their tune through experience as adults. They don’t become racist in my opinion, but interacting with different groups they develop some negative stereotypes if their interactions are over and over again frustrating, or negative in some way.

I think we need to back off the idea that seems to be prevalent in our culture these days that “racism” or other “bad ideas” that we suppose people have are some kind of evil manifestation, and that these kinds of evil simply cannot be tolerated. And then we act accordingly.

Racism that rises to the level of “bad acts” against others, that is, actions that are directly harmful to a person, okay, that’s bad and the bad acts need to be stopped, perhaps the offender punished.

But racism as it is generally perceived: prejudice against a person because of bias against real or perceived racial membership or characteristics – that’s just “bad thought”, the same as “witchcraft” (nowadays, in the West) or any other irrational belief.

So, yeah, “some manifestations” of racism need to be stamped out, and with no doubt. But the catch-all charge of “racism” against someone who is generally no worse than “irrational” or even “stupid” or “ignorant” ... the universe will take care of those people. They’re more to be pitied than condemned.

Examine your own self: Do you believe that you are free from all irrational belief or behavior? Do you suppose that you should be punished or condemned because of the irrational beliefs that you may hold?

Lighten up. Some people will always be irrational. I guess we’ll still get by okay, as long as we don’t try to hang them all.

^If you’re talking to me, no, I’m no more free of irrational thought than the next person. IMO… And. I never mentioned evil. This thread was generally about observation, and perception… Even environmental effects on human psychology…

When I was kind of young. I lived for a while in a mostly black neighborhood in the South. At school, I was definitely a minority (white male. ) I suffered through a lot of racist behavior. The kids stole from me, beat me up, and bullied me daily. The ones who didn’t, watched my misery. They did nothing usually. The kids, the black teachers did nothing. Maybe because they condoned the actions of the others. I’ll never know. I’ll never forget…

The one thing I didn’t do, was blame the black community (as a whole) for my troubles.

That was in the mid 1980’s…

I try to see things from other’s points of view. I often thought that I could be racist, because of life experiences. But, I’m not. I just thought those people,who were mean to me, were jerks. As I lived on, some of my best friends are black, or brown. My life,and this country, are richer because of them. I would die for most of them…

I think, personally, that now is one of the most important times to be coexisting. To be teaching coexistence. To be united. To recognize the value of diversity of color/culture…

However, to repair the damage, we must understand what caused it. I’m trying to see if anyone has any example of racism being ok because of a person’s life experience.

@CWOTUS . Thank you for you response. It was enlightening. I think you’re right. Racism, whether excused or not, is just a thought pattern. Acting (IRL) on a controversial thought, is the real problem…

Well said.

Well, the OP mentioned specifically not liking someone because of the color of their skin, period. Which is ludicrous, of course.
I have a grand daughter who starts the summer out white. By the end of the summer she’s as brown as brown can be. Rick and I joke about the old Coppertone commercials.
She and her older sister, who is white white, no matter what, were taking a bath the other night, and the little one said, “Why am I so brown and you’re not?”
Big sister replied, confidently, “That’s because you’re Mexican, see.” It was hilarious!
So, if skin color is the issue I like the kid in the winter, but not in the summer.
And that’s how much sense it makes.

Yeah. My Mom will tell whoever listens, that as a little boy I would get “brown as a biscuit.”
Like I’ve said, she has photos of me in a speedo as a toddler. I guess I was tan…Now, I’m usually pale…

It’s hard to see why skin color was ever an issue. I guess it was more to do with cultural, or religious differences…

Well, on a primitive level, we fear those who are different.
On a human level we know that that can be ridiculous. But then, with the advent of slavery, there were those who had to convince themselves that Africans were not as smart as “real humans,” they were sub human and could not be trusted. To view them as regular human beings wasn’t acceptable. They couldn’t enslave regular human beings.
Sadly, many kids grew up absolutely believing that.

Not justifiable but understandable. I am not racist in the least, but, I can tell you, I was seriously bullied as the little blonde white girl in a hispanic/native american middle school years ago in the early 70’s when my father moved us for an Architectural project he was designing for the BOIA in New Mexico. I was one of 3 white kids in a public school and it was a nightmare.
I was bullied, harassed, stolen from, threatened and I flat out quit going to school and moved back to CA. to live with my grandmother the next year.

Racism is a wide street and being the Gringo on the reservation was not a good time.
I never felt contempt for the totality of hispanic or native american people but yeah, I really fucking hated the ones that bullied me. Some bad ass kids.

^Yeah . I just didn’t like certain people who acted a certain way to me, that happened to be a different race…

I judged them by their actions, not really their skin color….

I was bullied for being a girl.

Yes. Death to all humans! All power to the cat race!

The “races” back in the day were defined by more than skin color. It had to do with nose width, or nose being Semitic, or eyes slanted, etc. A “white” personal who gets tanned darker than a black person who has a fro and wide nose, the racist person is not only looking at skin color, and neither were the people who originally decided human beings should be catagorized by race.