Enzo Fernandez

comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 30 minutes ago
comment by Arne Sabah Nur (U1282)
posted 47 minutes ago
South America has a big problem with these things.
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Our species as a whole has a big problem with these things.
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Really? Has racism always existed?

comment by Arne Sabah Nur (U1282)
posted 10 seconds ago
comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 30 minutes ago
comment by Arne Sabah Nur (U1282)
posted 47 minutes ago
South America has a big problem with these things.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Our species as a whole has a big problem with these things.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Really? Has racism always existed?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

That depends on whether you're talking about the word or the act.

comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Arne Sabah Nur (U1282)
posted 10 seconds ago
comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 30 minutes ago
comment by Arne Sabah Nur (U1282)
posted 47 minutes ago
South America has a big problem with these things.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Our species as a whole has a big problem with these things.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Really? Has racism always existed?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

That depends on whether you're talking about the word or the act.

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So tell me about the word and also the act. I thought racism was invented in Europe around the 16th century or thereabouts.

comment by Arne Sabah Nur (U1282)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 2 minutes ago
comment by Arne Sabah Nur (U1282)
posted 10 seconds ago
comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 30 minutes ago
comment by Arne Sabah Nur (U1282)
posted 47 minutes ago
South America has a big problem with these things.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Our species as a whole has a big problem with these things.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Really? Has racism always existed?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

That depends on whether you're talking about the word or the act.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
So tell me about the word and also the act. I thought racism was invented in Europe around the 16th century or thereabouts.

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I believe the word itself came into use around the second half of the 19th century, as part of the attempts made by Europeans to justify their colonial projects on a spurious scientific basis.

Of course, racial discrimination had been in place within these projects since much earlier. To know the extent to which this has existed in times for which we have a dearth of historical records is hard to ascertain, but the discrimination and even ethnic cleansing of entire population groups by other dominant groups is likely to have existed since prehistoric times.

Notwithstanding all of the above, rather than going into the origins of racism, the main thrust of my remark was that this is a big problem that exists in societies the world over, and that consequently labelling South America specifically as racist and with the sweeping generalisation it entails has undertones of a perceived cultural superiority that I think we ought to be mindful of.

Of course, racial discrimination had been in place within these projects since much earlier. To know the extent to which this has existed in times for which we have a dearth of historical records is hard to ascertain, but the discrimination and even ethnic cleansing of entire population groups by other dominant groups is likely to have existed since prehistoric times.
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Those groups were discriminates and cleansed because they were another group, not because of theiir skin colour.

I have never come across any historical recording of discrimination by skin colour before the 15th or 16th century Europe. I have never met anyone who has.

IMO, before race was invented, discrimination was based on culture, not skin colour. You'd have non-homogeneous groups discriminating against other non-homogeneous groups. For example you had Roman generals who weren't white and there's no record of them suffering racism. Your people were your people because of the bond you shared, not because of skin colour.

Notwithstanding all of the above, rather than going into the origins of racism, the main thrust of my remark was that this is a big problem that exists in societies the world over
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Can't disagree with that.

I don't know, Mamba, if you think about how the concept of othering and how humans generally go and have gone about it, we generally go by readily identifiable traits.

There's a huge variety to choose from. From gender through to physical disabilities, from hair colour to language or accent, place of origin (the term 'barbarian', fyg, stemming from the Greek word for foreign) to religious belief. It can be physical just as much as it can be cultural, and of course socioeconomic.

Bearing in mind that marginalisation takes place through these identifiable traits, it seems only reasonable to think that skin colour would have come into it too. Why wouldn't it?

It's by no means an endorsement, a justification, or a shrug of the shoulders. That's not what I mean at all.

comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 6 minutes ago

I don't know, Mamba, if you think about how the concept of othering and how humans generally go and have gone about it, we generally go by readily identifiable traits.
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Yeah, like language and traditions. Personally never seen a recorded instance of racism before circa the industrial revolution, knowledge wealth scramble for and partition of colonies, slavery and colonialism and the transfer of all the colonies' knowledge, science, wealth and resources to Europe.

Right - as I said, language, tradition, religion, gender, hair colour ... readily identifiable traits.

It seems pretty clear that racism could never have been as widespread and systematic as during the Imperialist-Colonialist era (nor could it have been), but in the end humans have used virtually every possible way of exercising their power over weaker groups or those regarded as enemies.

When I asked you if you meant the word or the act, it's because the naming of these phenomena has changed over time. Terms like genocide or ethnic cleansing are both relatively new, but the practices they define have been around since time immemorial.

Are genocide and ethnic cleansing instances of racism? I would certainly think so, in the sense that they are most commonly perpetrated along lines of ethnicity, and that racism is often defined as discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity.

If you to take the above argument as being valid, then you have a long list of pre-colonial instances. Some are listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_cleansing_campaigns and many others will most certainly have been lost to the historical record.

https://youtu.be/uNPWbaQepu4?feature=shared

This is a song from the Broadway Show, Avenue Q.

The song explains how the world and people are as opposed to the way some people say that they are or how it should be.

It is a humourous song, with an important message. It should be used educationally.

Enjoy