Ban Racism! Show your unequivocal support!

Thunderpussy

On the demonstrations in America , there is the well known old quote
" Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable ! "
John F Kennedy.

fire_and_ice

Education is key, ignorance and lack of awareness are route causes.

timmer

0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 wrote: »

I usually don't like getting into these kinds of discussions here, as they seldom develop well, but I wanted to add my realist perspective on this.

I hate racism, and the way I was raised makes me a passionate opponent of anyone who slings negativity towards members of any community classified as a minority simply because they were born differently. With this being said, I do not think, however, that it would help us whatsoever to "ban" racism. It's simply a ludicrous idea, to be quite frank, and in many ways, it could develop into an Orwellian nightmare of epic and unforeseen proportions.

If I overhear people using the term faggot to describe a gay person or one of the myriad of slang terms for describing a specific group based on their skin color or ethnicity, of course I don't like it and lament its existence in the world. I would not, however, be so brash as to make it so that those persons couldn't say those things, as it trumps our natural human rights to free expression. We are already such a negatively PC culture, to the point that you can't have any so-called controversial, against-the-grain opinions on anything anymore without receiving massive backlash on a global scale that force you into making a public apology for what you did or said like you'd murdered someone and needed to repent. What would banning racism solve, as if it could even have any life whatsoever off the paper and into actual reality? When someone uses the n word, will a special unit of police be on site to take the person into custody and keep them locked up until they're bailed out? Will fines be dished out starting at $300 and increasing in cost in relation to the perceived level of racism a person is expressing? How do we determine what opinion is racist and what one is simply misguided? Will regular people be called on by police departments to make civil arrests any time they hear or witness a racist word or act being performed?

This all recalls to my mind Stalin's secret police, with much the same goal: let's find people whose views stand counter to ours, and snuff them out as quickly and efficiently as we can. People bemoan modern surveillance and our collective lack of privacy with the major push of intelligence agencies working on behalf of governments to dig into our digital lives and records all in the name of protection and safety on a hunt for terrorists, but how is this all any different? Do we think things will actually get better when we're now making it illegal to have an opinion? Come on, now.

As I've said before, I don't agree with racism and it's inarguably tragic that it exists, but by calling for such a restrictive set of protocols to muzzle people's mouths and beliefs, we are only ushering in more PC movements that call for peace and unity while separating and burning those who don't follow our beliefs in the exact same breath. The PC movement is like every other movement. One side thinks one thing, the other side another, and neither side likes or enjoy the existence of the others, no matter how much each express their views of freedom and liberty, blah, blah, blah.

By discounting racists and calling for massive action against them on such a bizarre and misguided fashion as in the form of bans and arrests, we really have lost focus on how to sensibly deal with the problem. The first thing people need to realize is that racism is spat by people who are just that-people. Their views may be disgusting or repulsive to you and run counter to all that you hold dear and salient in your life, but your views also cause that same reaction in them. You both have unique perspectives, and neither is objectivity wrong or more worthy of retort when looking at things impartially.

People view racism as evil and malicious, labeling it as that through any number of negative adjectives, but we must realize that beneath hate speak there is a human being who began this life as an unprejudiced child. They didn't start out this way, their beliefs were developed into what they are over time and through life experiences we didn't witness. We don't know what the narratives of some people are that caused them to feel what they do, though a lot of it is birthed in children following the lead of their parents and how they act, as well as replicating in speech and action the things they saw at a young age and perceived as correct and normal behavior simply because everyone they knew was doing it. We don't know the story of a black man rallying for "pig" policemen to be fired, or a white man crying for specific immigrants to leave the country. By making them out to be real life Lucifers, we sabotage our own mission entirely and damage our reputations and all we wish to fight for and against.

By vilifying all those who carry views that could be seen as racist and giving a face to the term, we lose the focus that beneath all that speech is a human being who feels that way for a very specific reason, reasons that are a summation of all the life circumstances and events they've faced in their time on this planet. Events we couldn't begin to sense or understand. These individuals don't view themselves as evil or vile or malicious, because humans don't ever really comprehend their individual selfs as being evil; we are much more likely to view what we think or do as natural and good, because how can we not be good? It's hard to see ourselves as flawed or in need of improvement, and so we shouldn't be so quick to aggressively point out the flaws of others in such a strong fashion.

The key to dealing with racism is all down to discussion. Talk of bans and strict retaliations for what are in its most basic form expressions of opinion are as insensitive and short-sighted as they are inane and counter-productive. Fighting hate with hate never works. All we can do as a community of people who desire to see a more understanding populace develop around us is to be fair, level-headed and aware of what we're facing, while never letting it turn us ugly. When we see racism or any other form of hate show its face to us, the best we can do is address that person in a non aggressive fashion and try to show them our perspective, showing them that their views may be offensive to some, and how their words or actions affect others. Some may change their tune and see what their words spoken or actions taken in the heat of a vehement moment caused in another person who felt hurt by them, and over time, they may see things as you see them and understand those different from them better. Others, you will never change, and we have to understand that and accept it, as well as that the wrong way to challenge racism is by trying to fix it or change it in everyone world wide.

As with the war on drugs, poverty and starvation, it is not possible to eradicate racism. A new one is born every day, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. All we can do is look around us each day, in our own local spheres and try to bring our perspective and action into the lives of those whose actions and words are serving to divide us as a people to try to show them a better, more positive road to follow. As with hunger and poverty, we can't get rid of every sign of it, but we can do our damnedest to lessen its impact on our world every chance we get.

The world is a boxing ring, and our opponent is a representation of all we hope to fix in it. They'll keep punching at us, harder and harder, and what we have to do is block as much of the hits as we can in the knowledge that the rounds of the fight nor the punches will never end, and that we've always got to be on guard and aware of what we're going against. Doing anything less serves to break us apart and jeopardize our delicate ecosystem of differing cultures and lives worldwide, and doing too much, such as banning racism, will do the same thing in the long run and only serve to express our aggressive intolerance for a group we don't admire for their own lack of tolerance, and that soils us both.

It all comes down to understanding each other for what we feel, no matter how much we may disagree on either side of the divide. Once we understand how and why racism exists, only then can we begin to try and change it, but always in a fair and sensible manner, as going too far in our opposition is destined to make us no different from the very things we're fighting against.

Just my two cents on this, all. :)>-

A quality two cents there @0brady
Someday you might publish too. I'll buy or at least read for free on web.

On to other matters, how did @wiz Belgian beer Odyssey finish? This could be epic.
btw I ended up taking a sixer of French suds to the Euro gathering.
Thought it best fit considering who was playing.
The Portuguese don't seem to make beer.

After @wiz checks in with his important update, I think I kinda relate to @murdoch 's earlier posting

Gustav_Graves

fire_and_ice wrote: »

Education is key, ignorance and lack of awareness are route causes.

You read my previous post? I was giving an example from my personal experience. It could have easily been avoided with better education.