Why are people racist? Why does racism exist?

Question

How does this play out on a evolutionary standpoint? And does racism stem from social and cultural beliefs?

Crimsyjo · Accepted Answer

I've never really understood this. Seeing my children when they were young, they didn't seem to question other children's differences other than in an observational way and I don't understand how/why we lose this? I can only presume it is cultural and social conditioning depending on where you live and how exposed you are to multicultural diversity.

I live in Oxford, UK which is close to London and very multicultural.

I think every person should be judged on WHO they are as a person and not what they look like. A bad person can be any race and calling them out for being a bad person shouldn't automatically be called racist if they are a different colour or nationality to yourself.

It's racist if you judge them based only on their colour/nationality. Why would people do that? I don't know.

However I think there is a deep subconscious evolutionary mindset behind this. Much like people are still afraid of snakes and spiders from an old evolutionary instinct of survival. Which is triggered by pictures and videos of the "threat" despite our logical modern minds knowing it is not a real threat.

Back in time when people lived in smaller tribes or villages, any outsiders would he a threat to your survival. Another tribe/village may rape and destroy you to take over your land and resources. Therefore there is perhaps still an innate fear of anyone who is different to us. To "our tribe".

For people/children that are brought up around multicultural diverse populations I think helps as our minds will see many different looking people as belonging to our "tribe" now compared to decades ago.

I really do hope that racism truly becomes a thing of the past! The world is much more fluid and open than it ever was thanks to travel, Internet, TV and social media!

Fatoumamoud · Accepted Answer

From ignorance and ego. Some Americans and Asian hated me because of my skin color or because I am pure African. Calling my skin is dirty because theirs is white. Bunch of dumb ass people.

ManOnFire · Accepted Answer

The human heart tends to be based in their camp vs our camp. Groups like to think of one as being worse than the other, or theirs being better than theirs. And as much as people like to say skin color doesn't matter, in many people's eyes it really does. We even see a case of racism in the Bible when Miriam criticized Moses' wife Zipporah, who was Ethiopian, criticizing her for being just that. Then God struck Miriam with leprosy, which affects the skin and it's color. This tells us that God was not pleased with racism.

Fair skin, or white skin, usually is the skin color that is esteemed as the greatest, most beautiful, etc. And not even entirely from just fair skinned/white people, but even by races who are not that. The world does judge people by how light or white their skin is, or by how dark you are, and believe that being white is best and will get you all kinds of advantages.

In the middle east, Muslims are ten times happier when a white person - but namely a white woman - converts to Islam, but they think lowly of black skinned people and call them "abd" which means 'slave.' In India they are crazy about white women and many white British women have nearly been raped there. In Asia, Asian women tend to be obsessed with white men and feel they are superior partners. Latin Americans also prioritize white skin and barely acknowledge their own black populations. And even our own black American men are obsessed with white women.

Most racism really is rooted in skin color before actual cultural differences, and that's what makes it so bad.

HawkPerception · Accepted Answer

Racism is normal. When you go into school, you will always see people group with people of their own kind. While there are some groups that are mixed, the majority of them tend to be around the same kinds of people. You get white people chilling with white people. Black people chilling with black people. Chinese people chilling with chinese people. Indian people chilling with Indian people. Middle eastern people with middle eastern people. Emos with emos. The jocks with the jocks. Sometimes you get mixed groups with other races that try to chill with popular, attractive white people. And sometimes you get white people trying to be into black culture. But the majority tend to stick with their own kind. People tend to be uncomfortable with differences.

Read this article.

https://inclusions.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Children-are-Not-Colorblind.pdf

GoodGuyBreakingBad · Answer

People have no brains, they don't care whose feelings they hurt.

NaultD · Answer

Social and cultural development. Back in the day before the industrial revolution it was a zero sum game. Only way to have more is to take from someone else. So it's easier to take from "others" sub human. "We are doing them a service uplifting them" as the powers at be rob everyday people in a far off land blind.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/rvskMHn0sqQ

Today we have a positive sum game. Not only that compromise for any human rights for one group or even individual hurts all of humanity and holding us back to true freedom.

FunkyMonkee · Answer

Who knows? But, it's always been here! It's only very recently that it's been made such a big deal of!! Mostly because of thin-skinned pinheads.
I saw a video again about 6 hours ago of Don Lemon interviewing Morgan Freeman and Don was saying how tired he is of talking about racism and how he wishes people would stop it and Morgan said, "Stop talking about it! Making it a bigger issue than it needs to be is the real problem, here." The more you keep talking about it, the longer it's gonna exist!

idonotlikeyou · Answer

Some people think they are better than others. Some are envious because they are at the very bottom of the social food chain. Others believe that physical aspects we didn't choose, such as gender or skin color, predetermine us as socially inferior.

Billlewis · Answer

Well, only about a decade and a half after being arguably the most racially harmonious nation in history, our two most lethal, enemies, Democrats and the corporate media painstakingly contrived, crafted and cultivated a culture of falsehoods, deception and outright lies, many of which were, unfortunately quite convincing to, the segment of the population most often associated with them.

blowfish1235325 · Answer

My dear friend, racism exists all over the world, it existed in ancient times, racism never stops, the main reason for racism is that some people see some races and cultures as inferior, or some societies or countries have little development, so you can hate it, another reason is that a civilization or country has killed the people of your society, so you can hate it.

Anonymous · Answer

Humans think themselves modern and sophisticated, yet they act like they are still in indefensible small communities of eons ago, fearful of attack from the other camp over the hill.
So you might consider it's not racism, it's fear that their little community may be infiltrated, corrupted or destroyed.

NathanDavis · Answer

stupidity exists, ignorance exists... hatred does exist, and these do not mix well at all sometimes

Joshydavid25 · Answer

Racism stems from a very perverse tribalism of thinking groups are have inherited traits specific to them, whether negative or positive.. So basically it's taking Humans tribal nature in a different spin..

exitseven · Answer

Humans are a tribal species. Tribes are like wolf packs. They stick together,, They prefer to associate with other members of the tribes and often fight other tribes for survival. People can find all sorts of reasons to hate their fellow man. Race is just one of them

Berethor · Answer

Make sense to prefer the company of your own people as long as you are avoiding incest.

KostasKouvalis · Answer

Because of certain bad behaviors that are common in other races.

Babygirl_S · Answer

They want to feel superior for merely existing

handsomelad70 · Answer

I believe so, plus white supremacy is woven into the fabric of societies.

patois · Answer

Just sell him the grape juice...

Snakeyes7 · Answer

Mostly due to bad experiences with people of that race.

Dargil · Answer

At this point in time, it is because people like you talk too much about it.

Dongie · Answer

It's a contagious social disease.

Iron_Man · Answer

It’s a shame. I get along with everybody

In_Trance · Answer

because mass media keeps talking about it

normalice · Answer

It is tribalism but for more distant tribes.

dreamstar72 · Answer

Because of news and politics

sirderpsalot123 · Answer

Bad experiences probably

jahaims · Answer

Ignorance

Anonymous · Answer

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Why are people racist? Why does racism exist?

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People have no brains, they don't care whose feelings they hurt.

Why are people racist? Why does racism exist?

Most Helpful Opinions

What Girls & Guys Said

People have no brains, they don't care whose feelings they hurt.

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