Comment 60669

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted March 03, 2011 at 11:57:27 in reply to Comment 60590

Sigh, the D-Card. God forbid someone actually open a school book.

Racism isn't just a bunch of nasty "rednecks" who hate coloured folk. That, too, is a fairly bigoted slur in itself. Racism is a social phenomenon, and it's far more widespread and insidious. It isn't just a belief, but a widely articulated ideology of subjugation, and intimately linked to oppression and marginalization of racial groups. The history of modern racism lies primarily in slavery and the colonial era, as a means of justifying slavery and conquest. While Africans and their descendent might be the best known/studied (European views on Africa were very different before ~1500 AD), as a complex web of racism rose to defend slavery, and "keep them down" after it ended. This also involved Indigenous peoples of the Americas, as they earned their own set of racist myths as "primitives", "pagans" and "savages" for the purpose of taking their lands.

The above-quoted comments clearly fit into this pattern - they make negative characterizations about native people (as violent criminals, etc), reject their rights and encourage swift action from the establishment. Oh, and they are in fact supported by vocally white supremacist groups. If it walks, quacks, and looks just like a duck...

Some (official) background: http://www.un.org/WCAR/e-kit/indigenous....

I don't agree at all that "racists are immune to argument". Prejudice exists everywhere, and people change all the time. Racists change all the time, as do sexists, homophobes, or any other group of prejudiced people - attitudes change. Racist individuals are not the problem. Racism as a social phenomena is.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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