Can only white people be racist?

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oliver109 said:
This topic is mainly about racism in America and other English speaking nations where the white man has the upper hand and is in control of most institutions. Racism is always wrong but it is especially bad when it is perpetrated by white northern Europeans as that group as a whole is more privileged strictly speaking than other racial groups with a few exceptions, i believe that when a person has more, more is expected out of them and that includes showing respect to all other races and giving them opportunities to thrive. I don’t think America has done that to a great enough extent.
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Well, the OP didn’t say that in his/her original post…

People from all over world visit Catholic Answers, not just white people.
 
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I would certainly say that east Asians can be racist to a large extent, in Japan there is a lot of hostility to the Chinese in the same way there was a big hostility in Germany towards Polish people, racism is everywhere.
 
oliver109 said:
Racism is always wrong but it is especially bad when it is perpetrated by white northern Europeans as that group as a whole is more privileged strictly speaking than other racial groups with a few exceptions
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Why only northern Europeans? What makes northern Europeans more privileged than people who’s ancestors are from Italy, Greece, Spain & Portugal?

My European ancestors are from Spain, Italy, Greece, England & Germany (at least the ones I know of).

What makes my English & German ancestors more “guilty” than my Spanish, Italian & Greek ancestors?
 
JHC said:
I keep hearing that only white people can be racist. Is that true?
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Racism is bigotry or prejudice against others on the grounds of their race. Of course non-whites can be bigoted; so yes, non-whites can be racist.

In North America, white people (Caucasians) outnumber everyone else by a huge margin. This means it’s much easier on the whole for bigoted whites to oppress others. Hence oppression of non-whites by whites is the most common case.

That being said, racism and oppression are not the same thing. Somebody who lacks power to oppress those they’re racist against–may still be racist.
 
oliver109 said:
I would certainly say that east Asians can be racist to a large extent, in Japan there is a lot of hostility to the Chinese in the same way there was a big hostility in Germany towards Polish people, racism is everywhere.
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FYI - those two examples are not really racism. They are examples of ethnicism

They are closely related, but racism is based primarily on physically characteristics/traits of the way someone looks, while ethnicism is based on their ethnicity.

racism = based on skin color, hair texture, eye shape, bone structure, etc.
ethnicism = based on ethnicity

NOW: they are both bad, but there is a difference.
 
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No.

Racism is a universal phenomenon that afflicts/ has afflicted all human societies in varying degrees. As others have pointed out, racism exists in places where Europeans and people of European descent do not constitute a significant or noteworthy population, such as in Asia or the Middle East. I live in Lebanon, where some people are very racist towards peoples like the Syrians or the Palestinians. When I lived in Saudi Arabia, I witnessed racism by Saudis against other Gulf Arabs such as the Qataris and the Omanis and even against myself as a Lebanese person once or twice. Even in countries that are racially homogenous, people may still be “racist” towards members of ethnic groups of the same race. It is up to you to educate yourself and your children to resist the human tendency to dislike that which is different to us, and to combat racism wherever you find it.
 
In America the people of northern European descent who regarded themselves as “settlers not immigrants” generally looked down on migrants from Italy, Ireland, Poland etc, even today in England people generally hold unfavorable views of southern Europeans regarding them as lazy, corrupt and hedonistic, it’s a Protestant thing i think as in Britain at least there has always been a big anti Catholic sentiment. Coming from a Spanish background myself i do think Spain as integrated non white people much better than England or America, having so many years of Moorish occupation meant that the Spanish are more at ease living with people of a dark complexion(who make up perhaps 20% of the population) than others.
 
One of the many things that intrigues me about CAF is that topics related to the ‘culture wars’ in the US can go on for dozens of posts (like this one) without anyone mentioning Catholic teaching. And this despite the fact that this thread is in the ‘Apologetics, Social Justice’ forum. It is as if there is a "Catholic’ side to people’s minds and a ‘US politics’ side. I am not saying this is wrong. I am just making an observation.
 
0Scarlett_nidiyilii said:
What does this word mean?
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Nobody answered your question, so I googled it. The answer can be found under “transitive verb,” #2.


Back to the OP, when I was in the USAF in the '70s, we had to take mandatory Race Relations classes. When I went thru ours, the party line was that Blacks could not be racist. When our instructor (a Black man) started laying that out, we in the class jumped all over him. Bottom line – any ethnic group can be racist / ethnicist / whatever.

D
 
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To hold up one race of people as being greater or lesser, more agitated towards evil or less so, more or less capable of some thing, to suggest that they can do what another cannot, places them fancifully outside the human race, as something other, just as racists tend to do. “These people are not human”

Probably not in our best interest to do so.
 
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JHC said:
I keep hearing that only white people can be racist. Is that true?
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I’ve never heard that, and no, it’s not true. I had friends in college who were from a particular Asian country, and they used to make all sorts of racist comments about blacks, whites, Chinese, Japanese, you name it.
 
There’s another thread that might shed some light
on what you’ve said.
 
Often times people mistakenly say “racism,” when they actually mean “prejudice.”

Racism refers more technically to a system; where prejudice refers to treating / believing something about someone because of their race.

Any person can be prejudicial; and most governmental, tribal, and ethnic groups can be racists through their policies and so on.

Each person can change their own prejudicial actions and thoughts.

Racism is addressed in a larger way, and requires cooperation of groups, those in power, those who make laws and rules and takes longer to redress.

Deacon Christopher
 
Absolutely not.
Last time I checked, we are all “the human race”.
Hate does nothing positive.
Discrimination based on skin tone would be wrong.
Dominus vobiscum
 
JHC said:
I keep hearing that only white people can be racist. Is that true?
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Nope, I know indigenous who are very racist against certain groups and organisations but thats another story. Yes they are non white.
 
Code: 
I live in the Philippines.
Some people here don't like Chinese people.
 
Your first step, that is, putting people into boxes, is a normal way of relating to people. We have a tendency to put everyone and everything into boxes: in psychology, this is called concept categorization.

Your second step, stereotyping, involves unconscious, implicit beliefs that are generally passed down from one generation to the next during childhood. We are unaware of these stereotypes but most of us hold them.

Your third step consists of prejudiced attitudes. These are conscious thoughts and feelings about others, usually those who are outgroup members, but sometimes ingroup members as well. These attitudes may or may not lead to discriminatory behavior.

Racism follows this order of thinking and behavior. Institutional (structural) racism is a bit more complex because it involves group dynamics and processes. But it starts with our normal way of relating to people in order to function more efficiently in a complex world. And therefore all of us are prone to racism; it is not only confined to “bad people.”
 
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Everyone is racist–or prejudiced, if you prefer that word. But we can divide racism into explicit and implicit. Explicit: “You can’t in this seat because you’re black.” Implicit: You are interviewing two candidates who are equal in every respect. One is black one is white. You hire the white candidate because you have a “gut feeling” or “are more comfortable.” If you want, switch to a black boss hiring a black candidate.

If you think you’re not implicitly racist, feel free to take this test:

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

The moral difference is the same as if you had an inclination to drink too much. If you say “No, not me, I never drink too much” (but you do), you’ve got a problem. If you have an inclination to favor people of your own ethnicity (and we all do) and you say “No, I treat everyone the same” (but you dont…) you’ve also got a problem. The solution is obvious: recognize that you have a bias and compensate for it. Ideally—and it’s happening more and more–people will make friends with “George” and will care as little about George’s skin color as the color of his eyes or hair, or how tall he is. If you see “George” as an individual person, and not a representative of a certain ethnic group, if that never enters you mind, you’ve done it with one person. There are millions more.
 
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