Multiculturalism is less likely I would think to spawn racism than segregation. You cannot fear something if you live among it, get to know it and make friends with it.

Ignorance is more likely to spawn racism because it makes stereotypical judgements purely on race without knowledge or experience.

From birth to the age of 12 I lived in a very multicultural society - a mixture of Australian/Anglo, Chinese, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Vietnamese, Yugoslavian and a larger Indigenous population. It was the Darwin of the 60s well before the term multiculturalism had been phrased. As a young child this was normal and there were no deep ethnic tensions that I remember in school other than some issues with Indigenous Australians regarding alcoholism (the parents not the kids).

Then I lived in a very working class Anglo culture for five years. However, while there was no racism as such (given the monoculture) the school was fraught with many more tensions than the one I left. Mainly due to poverty, lack of education and class politics.

The way I see it the world is surely a better place when we learn to live with one another even if there are a few initial teething problems.

In a free society we can be what we want and think freely but multiculturalism did not spawn racism, racism was well and truly around since early times. Fear is not a new phenomenon. Hitler used this fear well, when demonising Jews. The idea of purity of race is also not a new phenomenon.

(Celivia forgive me - that Godwin fellow again)

ALGOREisRICH - Yes you're right. Racism can only be perpetrated by white people. Basically the modern PC meaning of racism is anything that puts an ethnic minority at the same level as the host population, doesn't let them get ahead.

pelican - "Multiculturalism is less likely I would think to spawn racism than segregation."

Put you thinking cap back on mate. Multiculturalism is culture segregation.

"Ignorance is more likely to spawn racism because it makes stereotypical judgments purely on race without knowledge or experience."

A stereotype can only be created by experience.

"In a free society we can be what we want and think freely but multiculturalism did not spawn racism, racism was well and truly around since early times."

Racism is a natural thinking process. We're comfortable around our own kind, that's why after 40000 years of homo-sapience we have different races and not a single race of people. Since races of people exist, it means racism has also always existed. This fact is undeniable.

Bigos: << I could link you 100s of DNA studies >>

<< Since races of people exist, it means racism has also always existed. This fact is undeniable. >>

I think you're confusing 'race' with 'ethnicity'. Don't worry, it's a common mistake among the ignorant and/or racist.

<< American Anthropological Association
Statement on "Race"
(May 17, 1998)

In the United States both scholars and the general public have been conditioned to viewing human races as natural and separate divisions within the human species based on visible physical differences. With the vast expansion of scientific knowledge in this century, however, it has become clear that human populations are not unambiguous, clearly demarcated, biologically distinct groups. Evidence from the analysis of genetics (e.g., DNA) indicates that most physical variation, about 94%, lies within so-called racial groups. Conventional geographic "racial" groupings differ from one another only in about 6% of their genes. This means that there is greater variation within "racial" groups than between them. In neighboring populations there is much overlapping of genes and their phenotypic (physical) expressions. Throughout history whenever different groups have come into contact, they have interbred. The continued sharing of genetic materials has maintained all of humankind as a single species. >>

[cont]

[cont]

<< Physical variations in any given trait tend to occur gradually rather than abruptly over geographic areas. And because physical traits are inherited independently of one another, knowing the range of one trait does not predict the presence of others. For example, skin color varies largely from light in the temperate areas in the north to dark in the tropical areas in the south; its intensity is not related to nose shape or hair texture. Dark skin may be associated with frizzy or kinky hair or curly or wavy or straight hair, all of which are found among different indigenous peoples in tropical regions. These facts render any attempt to establish lines of division among biological populations both arbitrary and subjective.

Historical research has shown that the idea of "race" has always carried more meanings than mere physical differences; indeed, physical variations in the human species have no meaning except the social ones that humans put on them. Today scholars in many fields argue that "race" as it is understood in the United States of America was a social mechanism invented during the 18th century to refer to those populations brought together in colonial America: the English and other European settlers, the conquered Indian peoples, and those peoples of Africa brought in to provide slave labor. >>

http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm

This statement is as true for Australia as it is for the USA. Let me know what else I can clear up for you.

CJ Morgan;

"I think you're confusing 'race' with 'ethnicity'. Don't worry, it's a common mistake among the ignorant and/or racist."

How, where did I confuse the two? Just because you say/think, that someone is ignorant/racist, it doesn't make them so.

Everything you quoted agrees with everything I have said?

"Let me know what else I can clear up for you."
Everything. I'm not sure what you are on about, after all keep in mind I'm ignorant. You might want to spell it out for me.

'afternoon all...

This thread has certainly precipitated some compelling exchanges !

Myself, on the extreme 'Right Wing' - a bigoted, racist, violent and corrupt retired copper. And, oh yeah a Veteran. And no, I've never actually massacred any women or children - but I did callously 'jolt' from his sleep, and out of a tree, a minuscule member of the primate family, with a fearsome SLR !

While ever this world continues to prevail, bigotry in ALL its guises, shall exist. All we humans possess our own prejudices, bias, and intolerances. Governments mandating that we shall all accept, tolerate, and 'embrace' others, though well intended, is simply quite vacuous ?

When I was in the job, I saw some shockingly brutal and merciless crimes, directly attributable to RACE issues. Asian on black, black on asian, asian on islanders, white on whoever.. whatever constituant you wish to nominate ?

I reckon people are like water, we find our own level; pool, and exist, until the rains bring more, only to either evaporate, or again, seek our own level; and........

Gotta go !

Before so doing I must say, I always
enjoy commentary from C. J. Morgan !

Cheers...Sung Wu