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The Forum > Article Comments > Racism is not simply black and white > Comments

Racism is not simply black and white : Comments

By Ghassan Hage, published 16/6/2006

Discrimination and bias can exist among minority groups too.

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It is easy enough to find racism if you look for it. An Iranian friend is barred from the house of his father-in-law (a Lebanese Maronite) because he is a Muslim, despite being an agnostic. The father-in-law has disowned his own daughter and grandson as well. A Malay acquaintance, wandering through Redfern with a blonde blue-eyed friend, was told by an Aboriginal man (who presumed she was Aboriginal) that she shouldn't be hanging about with "white trash". An elderly Russian lady, apropos of nothing, told me that my suburb was going to the dogs because of "all the asians". Further afield, recent comments on Condoleea Rice in China http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1461208,00.html demonstrate a deep well of racism in China.

Some prejudices (anti-Semitism comes to mind) are deeply ingrained. Others are merely the product of fear of the unknown. Still others are a way of blaming life's disappointments on someone else.

Fads in prejudice come and go. I'm the product of a "mixed marriage" (Catholic and Protestant) and amazingly enough there are still Micks and Proddies holding onto their hatreds.

The best cure for prejudice is mixing with people from other cultures on an equal footing. Some of the problems at Cronulla can be explained by the fact that the Sutherland Shire is a monoculture, where you can live without meeting anyone who challenges your prejudices.

What we saw on display in both the riots and the revenge attacks were tribalism, machismo and misogynism. Combined with alcohol it makes a pretty ugly picture.
Posted by Johnj, Friday, 16 June 2006 7:37:18 PM
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The benefits of multiculturalism is highly questionable. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/happiness_formula/5012478.stm
for more details.

Multiculturalism is as excessive as the capitalist society that creates it - with origins from 18th century slavery in the United States to boot!

Some seem to suggest on this forum mukky culti would cure all our problems rather than create it. What do we do? Import migrants into any white monocultural place to suit some ideological objective?

In reality, racism is only a moral issue when the discriminated is helpless and unable to fend for themselves. For example, a wealthy indian is unlikely to take offense to racial diascrimination the SAME way an impoverished afro-american would. Anti-racism is a patronising acknowledgement of our supposed 'privilege'.
Posted by davo, Friday, 16 June 2006 8:26:47 PM
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Racism is natural and normal.

It is a cultural universal that people prefer to live around other people they feel safe with. They wish to live with people that they who they consider are their kith and kin, who have the same standard of behaviour that they have based upon the same cultural values that they have. The primary purpose of racism is defence of territory by a group as a survival imperative. Prosperous communities can afford to be tolerant but cummunities under stress can be very intolerant.

A couple of hundred years ago, the evangelical social crusaders of the time identified "the seven deadly sins" as the root of all evil. Todays evangelical social crusaders have added "racism" to that list. The thinking seems to be that when racism is destroyed, everybody in the world will sit around the campfire singing "Kumbaya" and the world will live happily ever after.

That this worldview might be considered somewhat potty can be illustrated by the Jewish experience. It would be hard to find any people who have suffered more from racism than the Jews. So it should be obvious that they of all people should be against it. But in Israel it is either the Jews or the Arabs that march into oblivion, and the Jews have decided that it is not going to be them. It goes without saying that the Jews are very racist towards the Arabs and vice versa. Such behaviour is not only normal, it can even be considered admirable, in wartime.

But even within the Jews there is racism. When the Jewish diaspora came together in Israel it became a meeting place for Western and Eastern (Orthodox)jews who's cultural values were so divergent that they decided that they did not like each other. Both groups routinely sneer at each other with the terms "Frankum" and "Goyem".

Sounds like racism to me.
Posted by redneck, Friday, 16 June 2006 9:20:27 PM
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Hi y'all
Is what is natural always good?

I can understand a father seeing his daughter in an abusive marriage being willing to kill her husband, it is certainly natural. But would it be good for the father to do so?

It is natural, because of ignorance, prejudice (and I do not use these words pejoratively), or bigotry, to worry about who is living nearby. Sometimes it is also warranted.

The question transforms itself into something along the lines of:
"Is it always good to act in accordance with how we feel or think at some particular time in some particular circumstance?"

While the answer on some occasions, in some circumstances, might be that it is good to act in accordance with how we feel or think at that time in those circumstances, this is not the case at all times, in all circumstances.

Recognising that fate and the future may be capricious (our daughter may nmarry a muslim), we need to think coolly and carefully about some things, at some times, in order to make good decisions about our future, our country's future, and about what we do that influences these things.

Dr. Hage's article can be read as a call to this kind of awareness.

I thank him for it.

odsoc
Posted by odsoc, Friday, 16 June 2006 10:46:52 PM
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'Racism' is a fairly new word used to cry down something that has always existed.
It is deeper that a clash between cultures , it is a survival instinct that we have all carried since the beginning of time. It is a defensive instinct that probably has been our savior.
But it has become the watchword for trendoids to control our instincts and for a long period ,it has worked.
We do feel more comfortable with those who share our culture, our traditions. We can relax among those with whom we feel at ease and those who have shared our common heritage .
There is nothing wrong with that. It simply being human.
Posted by mickijo, Saturday, 17 June 2006 3:29:44 PM
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"....extermination of Muslims on the grounds that they are racists."I thought there were quite a few Muslims like Abu Bakar Basheer who wouldn't mind exterminating "the infidels",but we cannot critise them since they are a minority group who must be understood and tolerated.

It is about time all language of intolerance and hate was removed from so called Holy Books and then some logic may enlighten us all.
Posted by Arjay, Saturday, 17 June 2006 3:58:09 PM
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