People define racism in so many different ways. There's not one clear definition. We had a class discussion about it today, and each class member had there own different take.
So, how do you define racism?
And, by going by that definition, are you a racist?

I think I'm a racist, simply because I'm white, wealthy and I do nothing to support the plight of the oppressed race minorities in our society. Sure, I feel for them, and show empathy towards 'em, but I just don't do anything for them - if you get what I'm on about.
I believe, that to call yourself non-racist you'll have to completely distance yourself from your whiteness and your white privilege.
I am not helping the plight of the oppressed by forcing my privilege down their throats, by driving around in a nice car and wearing half-decent clothes.
I am racist.

I'm always suspicious of Aboriginies for various reasons (I live in a town with a high crime rate, and the majority of those crimes are committed by Aboriginies, including a robbery of our house once), so I guess I am in a way.

I'm not sure. I am self serving and don't really help them, but hey, most people are pretty self serving.

I also feel uncomfortable when I am around aborigines who are constantly swearing and often spitting. But I think that would be the same if they were white. I feel no hate towards them though.

My nana tried to raise me to hate aboriginies behind my mother's back, good thing it didn't work. I've seen some people who just stare at anyone different from themselves, like they don't deserve to live or something, and that to me is absolutly unaccepable. I watched a movie called final solution with my dad, there's some pretty powerful stuff in that.

I wouldn't say i'm "racist", by the normal standards of racism, but there are a certain race of people in my community that I can't help but feel a certain disdain towards.

Not because of where they're from, or their skin colour, but because of their attitutde (in my community) to every other race around them. Surely they're not all trouble makers, and I have friends which are of this race, but I can't help but judge them first, without really knowing what they're about.

An odd situation...

I definately am racist against aboriginals.

I live in an area that has a high percentage of them.

Fair enough some work hard and are ok.

In our street there are housing commision homes and they all have Austar and the kids get picked up by their private school bus at their front door. There are dogs roaming around everywhere and kids in nappies play unsupervised in the middle of the street.

They walk around in groups at 2am and pull palings off peoples fences, rock rooves and break into houses.

Every couple months they get a Skip that they fill with the rubbish and furniture etc that would have been new two months ago and then get given new furniture again. For example, near new microwaves will be trashed and left lying in the middle of the road.

Then there are the ones that live in local parks and just drink, fight and root all day. They hassle everyone passing by for smokes and money.

So to all you people who live with the hard working ones in Sydney etc and feel sorry for what they have been through come and live in Townsville or somewhere similar for a couple of months and I'll show you what the majority are like.
Within two weeks you will get the urge to pull out a shotty and take care of the lot.

I admit it, I am racist. When ever I hang clothes out to dry I have to use the same colour peg to hold the one item up on the line...

I think I can confidently say I'm not racist in any way. I really never consciously acknowledge anyone else's or my own "colour". We're all humans, I guess the colour of people's skin never crosses my mind.

I'm not racist. I hate all fucktards equally. And that's the problem. There's a portion of every race that acts like dickheads, and what gets called racism could be nothing more than people insulting somebody else's race because it's the first insult that pops into their head. True racism is where you take offense every time somebody of another race comes near.

I don't look at people as a colour - I just look at them as another human being. You cannot judge a person purely based on thier colour - I will feel for a poor/unfortunate/sick/depressed/ect person whether they are white, asian, black, male, female, gay, straight and so on. And I will always despise people of all racial types if the case need be.

I think I am definitely racist. In fact I know I'm racist. But every time I think something racist I notice and try to ignore the thought - certainly I don't think I ever do or say anything racists and I've always been a very big anti racism campaigner. But I guess I've been brainwashed to some extent by society and the media.

I sometimes make a point of being racist in favour of minorities - for example I am much more likely to give money to a non white person asking me for money. Infact I think I probably discriminate against white people quite often - but this doesn't bother me very much - despite what some people think - I don't think you can possibly comprehend racism unless you are a real victim of it - and I doubt any white Australian has been a serious victim of racism.

So if a person from another race was to brutally kill someone who was extremely close to you are you saying you wouldn't feel uncomfortable or some form of dislike for that race in the future?

I guess I'm racist but I believe the term has really got out of hand in today's society. I simply can't understand how in today's society two people from different races can argue and each say the most personal and disguisting insults yet as soon as one's skin colour is mentioned that is suddenly deemed unacceptable.

I guess I am racist. I most probably am. I note what colour people are in the streets so does that make me racist?

I have respect for decent, hard working Indegenous persons but I could care less for the persons boozing it up and pissing away their life.

In fact I think the same for non indigenous persons. I could care less for white people wasting their life away as well.

That's actually an interesting question. Is racism ever an understandable reaction? My grandfather was a seargent in new guinea in world war 2 fighting against the japanese. His brother went over with him and never came back. His best friend went and died while WITH my grandfather. Now my grandfather doesn't like basically any japanese people.

Is that an understandable reaction due to the trauma he went through in your opinion?

I don't think so. I've never been mean to someone else because of their race, at least not since I was a small kiddy, when being different is often made fun of. I'm willing to give everyone a fair go regardless where they came from. I even had a black girlfriend at one stage, how non-racist is that?

I know I wouldn't. Anyone is capable of murder against anyone.

I'm against racism completly.

I don't openly show hatred towards other races, either, nor do I hold such thoughts in my head. Even so, I believe that racism is not only about direct oppression, it's also about indirect oppression.
We are part of White Australia, which is a racist society, so how can we call ourselves anything but racist?

For somebody to say that they don't differeniate between a person's colour is, I believe, crap. Everybody notices an individual's colour.

Good point. I think it's an understandable reaction, but that doesn't make it right. Still, it's easy to sit in my comfy chair and say that your grandpa, and my pop for that matter, should see past somebody's colour/race - it's obviously not that simple, though.

What gets me is the people who have no basis for their racist bias, whatsoever. The ones who are racist simply because they blindy follow the bull shit media stereotypes/public mis-information.

This is interesting.

I see myself as not racist. Why? Because I don't judge and discriminate against people purely based on race or religion. It's that simple.

I reckon every race has their own bunch of saints and assholes.

For example:

Then you're not racist, plain and simple. You would be racist if you did not have respect for decent, hard working Indegenous persons, because of their race. That's the way I see it.

Heck no, what does their skin colour have to do with anything?! :blink:

Not many of you seam to know what racism is but heres the official definition.

Bisically, racism is when you make a generalisation about someone because of their race.



I do not believe that one single person can call themselves 100% not racist. It's human nature to judge people when you see them, before you meet them. That's why smbolism is so aparent in movies, societ judges. eg: You see a man in a BMW, your gonna think hes rich and succesful arn't you? But what if you see an aboriginal driving that same car? You are going to believe something different arn't you? If you say no then really, stop kidding yourself.

I can admit I do feal un-easy around aboriginals but I have had bad experiences with some aboriginals. That people is racism, I fell uneasy around aboriginals I have never seen before because of bad experiences with other aboriginals. That is racism because I have made a generalisation.

I'm sure (in fact I know) everyone here is a recist in one way or another but seriously, it's human nature. It really isn't that bad except in extreme cases.

That's not true mate. I know you would be. Like I said, its human nature and nothing to be ashamed of.

No, seriously, that's rubbish! It's nothing do do with human nature! I fail to see how on Earth anyone murdering someone I love would cause me to generalise any race...

Dunno how your mind works mate, but mine doesn't work that way.

I'd like to think of myself as non-racist, this has come about as a result of my school being so stern on the subject, frequently having anti-racism displays and shows which mainly consists of ethnic dancers and musicians made of students from my school.

Even with these stern, non-racist beliefs, as much as I wouldn't like to, I often do find myself being racist toward the aboriginal community, not like yelling obcenities at them or something, but more or less judging them as a culture rather than an individual. But this has arose to the fact that they live up to their stereotypical image of an aboriginal being a lazy, ungrateful bum. In the short time I went to work at Redfern, I witnessed several things such as each recycling bin out on the street filled to the brim with beer bottles, some households with extra cardboard boxes for the overflow of bottles. Aboriginal people standing out side their homes chanting "Spare change love?". And a young lady fleeing into the train station after she felt intimidated by the group of Aboriginals youths behind her. The infamous Redfern Riots were at the spot where I would exit the train station each day. And the equally as infamous "Block" adjacent to the station, a place filled with drunk aboriginals, sitting on milk cartons. Normally I would see this as the impact society has had on the culture, however, Aboriginal welfare centres are situated only a stones throw away from the trouble spots, society is trying to lend a helping hand, but they only seem to shunt it aside. Also hearing three young Aboriginals girls talking about the police on an episode of 60 Minutes, it was obvious of their misguided upbringing, refering to them as heartless pigs, and saying they would like to get revenge for the little Aboriginal boy who died, the excuse for the Redfern riots. And the mere fact that children were in the front line of the Redfern riot is very disturbing.

I would not like to show a racist feeling towards Aboriginals, there are many out there, trying to make something of themselves and earn an honest living, however the large majority of Aboriginals themselves are causing these feelings or racism.

Granted. You have to at least admit your in the minority though?

While we're on the subject, i'm going to admit my mild racism towards the Japanese. My grandfather was a Major in Papua New Guniea and saw some really bad things there (He took photos of beheaded Australians who had had their heads cut off by the Japanese but they were taken off him because the army didnt want to demorilise the australian public knowing their sons were being mercylessly beheaded.)*

As a result off this, my grandfather was very racist towards Japanese for the rest of his life, which in turn rubbed onto my dad which he has rubbed on to me.

yeah i guess i am rascist. although Townsville was labelled as "Most racict city in Australia" by a bunch of hippy fuks awhile back so what can you expect.

like GT my experience of aboriginals has not been the best over the years. walking through a park that was ok about 6 months ago that had been turned into an aboriginal camp and was filled with garbage and semi consious aboriginals was kinda of a turn off. seeing one passed out on the strand (townsvilles main beach strip) right next to a family area was also not a good experience.

i dont think myself "better"t them in many ways but seriously the amount of fucked up aboriginal vs number of normal ones make me sad. although there are a lot of white fuktards around...

A group of us where dissing niggers and while one was just walking beside us. He said "Hey guys, having fun?". We laughed our faces off.

My dispositions towards aboriginals are;

1) Consciously held.
2) Descriptive, not evaluative.
3) Just a "first best guess".
4) The product of each aboriginal individual that I have met/experienced.

That a healthy stereotype, I believe.

I don't know. I guess a form of acceptance could be established after quite a while but I doubt anyone could treat another race that caused the such trauma, likewise for the Japanese with relation to us, normally immediately after such an experience.

I dunno.. I'm friends with people of all races, but I still laugh at jokes involving the word 'nigger' and stuff... But i also laugh at white people too... Does that even it out? i don't know....

Don't forget to laugh at yellow's and jew's too :P

I don't think I'm racist. If I am, it's on the rarest of the occasions and even then it's likely I'm not serious. I mean, I'm the only Turkish guy I know who makes fun of his country of blood (I consider myself Australian): for example, their past conflicts with, and some of their resentment for, the Greeks. Really, I could pull fun at any race but I'm never ever serious about it. Every race has a long and dirty history.

define racism.

honestly i feel that if you dont discriminate someone of a different race,den you're not racist.i'm chinese,live in a multi-racial society,but hardly hang out with people of different races.not coz i dont want to,but i dont really get the chance.

and how is one influenced into racism? dere's definitely someone that influences your thoughts and decisions.i dont believe anyone is born racist.you dont know what kind of people are behind these nicks you see online.
coz of al qadea,many people dont like malays/islamic people. why sterotype? black,white,yellow,brown,we're all differnt and special in some way or another,but yet we've got a bad point underneath those special points. so if you discriminate someone coz of their race,you're actually discriminting your own race. coz you show your ugly side to others around you.

Racism is not that simple. 20 words does not do justice to what racism is.

From what I've read on here, and from my own life experience, it's fair to say that racism can be placed into 5 categories, and there's probably even a few more -
1) Peope who out-and-out show dislike/hatred to another race. Who think that their race is the greatest.
2) People who notice somebody else's colour, and may or may not base judgement on the person because of it.
3) People who advantage a particular race. This does not have to be their own race.
4) People who recognise that we live in a racist and unequal society, and thus because we live-it up in such a society, we are racist.
5) See below.

Nicely put.

It's so hard to not cross the street when you're confronted by a group of "non-whites". It's the fear (unfounded?) that has been instilled in us by the media, our parents, and whomever else has influence over us. It's not right, and I feel that even the simple act of crossing the street to avoid possible conflict is very, very racist. From now on, I'm not going to cross the street!

I'm racist, ageist and sexist ....but mostly indifferent. Ive had a hard time growing up as a strong black man in Australia. Luckily Im hung like a bear. Baby's arm holding an apple.

I dont declare myself as non racist. But I do try and vote against legislation that discriminates against others based on race, sexual preference or age. If people want to hold little hatreds deep inside I dont care. Just keep away from the polling booths. And maybe forget about a career in teaching..... and politics .....and law inforcement.

He should've ripped your faces off!

That's a fucked up comment, and my respect for you has gone down by a whole heap Caff.

The fact that the guy was friendly enough to greet you punks should be proof enough that they're not all assholes... :angry:

Turkish!!

Well....first it was Superman, now this! Definate grounds for a blood feud :P

I'm Greek btw ;)

LOL!

Evolution today, Cyprus tomorrow...

im not really racist...i have a few friends who are however which sometimes actually annoys me.

If anyone race was in the bad books with me itd would be aboriginals. but thats just a stereotype. I really usually judge people on a person to person basis. You cannot admit that aboriginals dont have a bad stereotype of the angry, bashing youngsters. WHich yeh, its probably true, for some...not all.

Their are however thigns i dont like. such as, Black people can comfortably call each other niggers, yet when a white guy calls one a nigger, they kill him...? i dont understand this :(

I dont understand why a name could cause someone to want to kill someone else. suppose im being quite naive but hell, im still young.

No no, I think when a white guy calls a black guy a "nigger" it's not right, as its usually meant with criticism, similar to me calling other wogs "wogs", but if an Australian guy says it, it usually comes with criticism..unless you know them of course ;)

I just hate how it's perfectly OK for black people to call white people "whiteys" or "honkeys", but if i walked up to one and said "yo blackie" i'd have a million people down upon me. That's the main thing that pissess me off about this whole "white man" "black man" thing.

As I said much earlier - people who have not experienced real racism cannot comprehend it.

Why does being called a "Whitey" offend you Manny? What is it about that phrase that makes you feel inferior? Why is it racist to call a white person whitey?

It's not that it offends me personally. I just hate the fact that if I called a black person "blackey" in the derogatory way black people say "whitey" i'd be frowned upon...and not just by black people, but it seems ok for black people, even "funny" to be using a similar term in the same manner.

Is it because people let them get "away" with more because they fell sorry because of their opression in the past? I think it's bullshit personally.