<p>I hear it used so often, but I can't think of a good definition. I'm starting to think there isn't one.</p>
<p>An act of prejudice against an individual or a group of people based on their race and/or culture?</p>
<p>Racism is an attitude or act differentiating or categorizing someone or some group based on nationality, ethnicity, or the modern concept of “race” that includes several artificial divisions in the human race.</p>
<p>Racism can include positive behavior or thoughts caused by someone or some group’s ethnicity, nationality, or race, and it can include negative behavior or thoughts caused by someone or some group’s ethnicity, nationality, or race.</p>
<p>This is the denotation (literal definition) of racism. The connotation (what is usually “meant”) includes merely the negative behavior or thoughts based on ethnicity, nationality, or race.</p>
<p>But does the negative behavior or thought have to be unfounded? Also, what if not based on race, but on an explicit correlate of race? It’s really not simple at all. I can’t think of a definition that captures anywhere near all of the ways I’ve heard the word used. My mind is boggled.</p>
<p>Racism is the belief that the genetic factors which constitute race, ethnicity, or nationality are a primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that ethnic differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.</p>
<p>What do you mean by unfounded?</p>
<p>woeishe: That wikipedia entry is under dispute and has all kinds of warning tags on it. Furthermore that definition doesn’t make much sense. The first clause is pretty innocuous. Plenty of people believe genetics are a primary determinant of traits and capacities. It’s a scientific question, actually. The second part, well, any definition relying on putative belief in ‘inherent superiority’ is too loose a definition for me.</p>
<p>BillyMc: Unjustified…? False premises? Illogical? Immoral? What do you want?</p>
<p>Ah, okay. One might say that most racism falls under that (except something like “Hispanic people are more likely to eat salsa,” which follows logically).</p>
<p>But no, I don’t think it’s necessary for it to be racism. Racism is just that; distinguishing based on race (or ethnicity/nationality).</p>
<p>So there’s not necessarily a negative connotation? You sure about that?</p>
<p>There’s a negative connotation in our society, just not a negative denotation.</p>
<p>As I said in my first post, the connotation dictates that the act or thought be negative, while the denotation allows for it to be positive or negative.</p>
<p>Oh I see what you mean.</p>
<p>I’m still not happy with a denotation of a word that is never used that way. What you take to be the connotation, may as well be the denotation: “negative behavior or thoughts based on ethnicity, nationality, or race.”</p>
<p>Now what about someone who says, “I don’t like X race, but only because Y”?</p>
<p>Is that racism?</p>
<p>Yes, it is racism; they are disliking a whole race. Whether it is because of an unfounded “feeling,” or a wrong committed by one member of the race, or a stereotypical characteristic someone doesn’t like, saying that you don’t like a race of people is racism.</p>
<p>I’m sorry I didn’t mean to formulate the statement so strongly.</p>
<p>“I generally don’t like X race, because X is generally Y.”</p>
<p>This is the more realistic scenario. The others are, let’s be honest, straw men.</p>
<p>
I would say this is racist. It is negatively assessing a group on the basis of race, and thus falls in the category. Some feel that certain racist attitudes are justified by statistics, others continue to find them unacceptable. But still, it is distinguishing based on race (and in a negative manner).</p>
<p>On the connotation/denotation point, the denotation is often used in the topic of affirmative action. While affirmative action produces positive results for Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans, it is still often called racist (and it is, though an example of positive racism, and often argued as justifiable given past negative racism). On the same token, affirmative action is often called negatively racist towards Asian Americans. So I think the denotation sometimes is used both ways.</p>
<p>It is a tricky word, and society has a lot of conflicting things to say about it.</p>
<p>If you call that racism, there is something uncomfortable with how broad the term is. The “based on race” part is basically stretched to mean “involving race in any way.”</p>
<p>Nope, the denotation is not used both ways. When it’s seen as positive, affirmative action is never called racist. When it’s seen as negative, it’s called racist.</p>
<p>When affirmative action for URM is seen as good, the policy is not called racism, when affirmative action for URM is seen as bad, it is called racism. Notice that this is independent of whether the policy actually is good or bad for URM. The same goes for ORM affected the other way.</p>
<p><a href=“%5Burl=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12144346-post1.html]#1[/url]”>quote</a> What is racism?
[/quote]
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<p>Part of the answer can be found in the question itself; because a mind must exist for a question to be asked. And the dynamic of racism is a phenomena that occurs in a human’s mind/psychology as a result of questioning the [ingroup/outgroup</a> status](<a href=“http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Ingroup_outgroup]ingroup/outgroup”>Ingroup outgroup | Psychology Wiki | Fandom) of an individual or individuals. </p>
<p>The field of [Evolutionary</a> psychology](<a href=“Redirect Notice”>Redirect Notice) is founded on the simple premiss that [“everything</a> is the way it is because it got that way.”](<a href=“Center for the Study of Complex Systems | U-M LSA”>Center for the Study of Complex Systems | U-M LSA) Therefore, racism is a byproduct of our collective evolution. However, it appears that it’s a recent (in evolutionary time) development and [not</a> a dynamic we must be a slave to](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/6961066-post41.html]not”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/6961066-post41.html). From the paper ‘[Can</a> race be erased? Coalitional computation and social categorization](<a href=“http://www.pnas.org/content/98/26/15387.full.pdf+html][i]Can”>http://www.pnas.org/content/98/26/15387.full.pdf+html)’:</p>
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<p>StitchInTime, racism is not ingrained within us by biology because the modern concept of race is not a natural one, but an artificial one imposed in the last few hundred years by European imperialists trying to justify their actions.</p>
<p>
I didn’t say that racism is described in a positive manner, but is often used to describe positive acts and thoughts (see my first post).</p>
<p>Just because a term carries a connotation does not invalidate its denotation.</p>
<p>It is a difficult term to fully grasp, but there is a definition, whether you like it or not.</p>
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<p>Yes affirmative action may be a positive act to you.</p>
<p>But to the person using the word ‘racism,’ it’s a negative act. Otherwise he wouldn’t use the word (as I said before). His intention, then, was to denote a negative act. </p>
<p>In this respect, the meaning of a word cannot be separated from the intention of the user. This makes me question whether value concepts like positive or negative even make sense in the denotation/connotation paradigm. Or perhaps they do, but they belong always in the connotation.</p>
<p>Finally, my attitude is that definitions are not absolute. Challenging them should be okay.</p>
<p>I always thought that racism was the belief that one race is inherently superior to another race. I have never heard of it having a “positive” denotation. The definitions on dictionary.com all seem to fit my definition of racism, but perhaps other dictionaries have more broad interpretations of the word.</p>
<p>I do not mean this to be offensive in any way, shape, or form, but I think the term “racism” is used way too often nowadays in situations that don’t warrant it. For example, if someone were to say “All Asians are good at math,” is that racist? I would argue no, because it doesn’t imply that one race is superior to another and doesn’t convey hatred for a whole race. Such a statement is stereotyping, impolite, and ignorant, certainly, but I would not say that it is racist. But many people in today’s world would argue that it is.</p>
<p>I think that in today’s society, the worst thing you can be in the eyes of others is racist (and rightly so). However, I think that has led to politicians, etc. crying racist all the time in attempts to discredit their opponents, because saying that a person or a policy is racist is the surest way to stir up outrage at that person or policy. In this way, I think that people have lost sense of what the original meaning of racism was so that it is now a broad term that can be used any time anyone makes a statement that has anything to do with race.</p>
<p>Again, none of what I have said is intended to be offensive in any way, nor is it intended to downplay the genuine racism which unfortunately persists today. I just think that the word “racism” is overused is all. And my opinion is based entirely on the fact that I believe the definition of racism is what I said above, so if people have different interpretations of the word “racism,” I can see how they would disagree with me. But this is my opinion.</p>
<p>People act racist to other people because in their time they have whitnessed a common, reoccuring feature in a person of a certain color, gender, etc. </p>
<p>I believe these generalizations are not dependent on race, but on how the individual was rased, as this will determine how they act. And how they act, determines how you feel about them. </p>
<p>How they were raised then isn’t dendent on race, but that persons culture, which is correlated to race.</p>
<p>Ex. - As I walk around on campus, I notice a lot of asian females are very shy/timid. When I am walking down the hall one way and they are going the other they always move out of the way for me. Now is this because they are Asian? No. It’s because of the culture they were raised in that caused them to act this way. Therefor you can’t say this of true of all Asian women. Nothing is true of all individuals in a race. But, do to the higher likelyhood an Asian female is raised under this type on culture there is a higher likelyhood they take on this personality.</p>
<p>Ex - I could try to say the same thing about black females seeming to be always super loud and obnoxious, and relate it to the fact they are name “Uniquewa,” but that would probably sound more racist. Plus, in my experience, it is also more isolated.</p>
<p>Ex- or, uh, Brunettes are smarter than Blondes :D</p>