Why so much racism?

I hesitate to even get involved in this mess because usually ..at least in the past when it really gets going good the mods jump in and close the thread...but I have noticed after I came back this time they are allowing more freedom of discussion.

Anyhow...to properly discusss racism we first need to define it...that way it can be seen where people are coming from when they mention racism...and I can gurantee you that most have their own understanding of the term and it varies greatly....
The exact definition of racism is controversial both because there is little scholarly agreement about the meaning of the concept "race", and as I mentioned previously many liberals maybe even most of them claim there is no such thing as race....but then they never hesitate to call their opponents racist....so I ask them if you do not believe race exists..how can anyone be racist. heh heh

But we shall see how this goes...as one poster said it can be a lot of fun if the mods don't get their panties in a wad and shut it down.

 

You make some good points...the Obama Presidency reminds me so much of the old fable of 'The Emperor Has No Clothes'.....he essentially has failed in just about any area you look at...but everyone plays along like they did in the fable.

Regarding who voted for him....I did a study of this and it was the White Working Class that was the deciding factor in his election victory--this is not generally known because the media spun it to make it appear the minorities were the biggest factor in their ongoing effort to disenfranchise white voters and make them believe they are wasting their time voting because the demographics simply determine that from now on the minorities will control the Presidential Election and everyone else might as well give up.

And most republicans are so confused being leaderless and clueless they go along with the media spin...even fox news was confused about why the republicans lost.

The simple truth is the Republicans lost because they did not offer anything to the White Working Class...the republican big wigs like karl rove do not understand who they should be appealing to and how to appeal to them.

The White Working Class is the only group that has sufficient numbers to elect a Republican President...the republican can forget for all time ever, ever getting enough minority votes to make any difference...the democrats have done a fantastic job of convincing the minorities the republican party is nothing but a bunch of racist fat cats that want to enslave the minorities.

Yet it appears the republicans are going to swing to the left and try out liberal the liberals...in a vain effort to attract minority voters...they will probablly even put up a minority candidate...none of which will help them.

 

The President also received about 75% of the Hispanic vote as well as I recall.

Here is what I see though. I believe that these demographic statistics reflected a response to Republican policies that are anti-Black, anti-Hispanic, and to a lesser degree anti-Women. It isn't that Democratic policies are so great but instead that Republican policies are so bad. Republicans have built a reputation of racial and gender prejudice and these voters responded to that in 2012. People won't vote for someone that opposes them based upon the party's agenda.

By analogy why would a small business owner vote Republican when Republicans don't see a problem with the fact that a small business owner pays a much higher tax rate than a corporation on the identical net income? Many do but there is no logic behind their vote as Republicans really don't support small business in their tax policies.

When it comes to minorities that are statistically subjected to much higher poverty rates why would they support a Republican that wants to literally take food off their table by cutting spending for welfare as opposed to addressing the problem which is the poverty they live in because of racial discrimination? Republicans support spending close to one trillion dollars a year on the US military to spread "pax-Americana" around the world but want to cut welfare spending that goes to the poorest of the poor in America. Do we really think that minorities which are the poorest of the poor would support that?

 

The Mexican Vote Was Not The Decisive Factor In Obama's Victory

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/gop-would-have-lost-election-even-with-hispanic-vote/

 

I suppose there is a little give and take here. Republican's distanced themselves from minorities by totally ignoring them. Some significant members of their group have even been recorded to have said rather abrasive things about them. There are also the informal slights of policy that do not overtly state not so much an exclusion, but a preference of races other than the black and the poor.

But not only this, the Republican's have distanced themselves from, as you said, the white working class by championing big business and finance, even in a period where economic upheaval can be laid at their feet. They distanced workers, they distanced women, and they distanced minorities. It seemed like the Republican party was waving a giant "f**k you" flag to the whole of greater America. I didn't even notice the scale of it except in hindsight, and the "strategy" is staggering. Oh, and don't forget America's foreign policy, including Israel, which remains, by poll, the world's least liked nation.

And you're right, Blacks are a dependable block for the Democratic party in any election, but they are still a small black overall. White people...some of them...put Obama in office.

I wouldn't say it's a vain effort. People have short memories, and, there are plenty of ways Republican's can influence the future of public opinion. Also, with all the encroaching economic troubles- or the perception of it- they can adopt a stance that charms people to their ranks. I originally thought that people were beginning to see that there is no real distinction between the parties, but maybe not. Either way, the future will tell.

 

What I would point out is that there is a fundamental difference between "racism" which tends to be an overt act by a person and racial prejudice which is a much more subtle factor. For example, a racist won't hire a minority person intentionally. On the other hand someone with racial prejudice might have two employment applicants that virtually have the identical background, experience and knowledge for the position but the racial prejudice would convince the employer that one was superior to the other. The person didn't think that their decision was based upon "race" but in fact it was but they were unaware of it. They actually believe that they hired the most qualified person when both were equally qualified. Racial prejudice results in unintentional racial discrimination that the racially prejudiced person isn't even aware of.

This fact is reflected by our unemployment statistics where an African-American only has about 1/3rd of the likelihood of being hired when competing against a white applicant with the same knowledge, background, and experience.

The percentage of "racists" is much smaller than the percentage of those with racial prejudice in America today. Probably less than 10% of white Americans are openly racists while over half of Americans express explicit racial prejudice and there is a fundamental difference between the two. Obviously racism is worse based upon degree but racial prejudice is worse based upon the number of people adversely affected. It's like comparing the heat of a match (racism) which is very hot with the heat in a room (racial prejuduce). There is far more heat in a room than the heat in a single match.

 

The Republican party is essentially fecked because one factor, the Christian right, who have become so dominant that they will always have a casting vote over who is their presidential candidate and they always make sure that that candidate is unacceptable to the US as a whole. The Republican candidate is always too socially conservative and is chosen for his 'down home and folksy' characteristics rather than for his brains. We often get this problem in the Uk that when a political party is out of office its extremes take it over and make it unelectable.

I really don;t like Obama. My politics make me a natural member of the democrats (in the democrat freedom alliance area) but I dislike progressivism and the Chicago political machine but Obama was preferable to the idiots that the republicans put up -McCain was fine but to run Palin as Vice was just absurd.

 

Obama failed because he is a lightweight. He has no experience of national politics. Presidents are normally experienced Governors OR senior Senators with considerable experience. Obama was none of these. He was an entirely token figure made to think he was the messiah. He (*)(*)(*)(*)ed up his first term by stuffing lunatics from Chicago into important positions. He claimed he was going to be a unifier and was an incredibly devisive pedagogue

 

Racism is inherent and a valuable element in the continuing evolutionary process.

Google "racism in infants" for fascinating recent studies.

 

Whites voted for Obama too.....heh heh Whilst did win a total of more working class white votes....yet...Obama got enough of them to insure his victory.

The only way for the Republicans to ever win the White House Again is to get a huge majority of the white working class vote...so far they do not seem to understand this...but there is a battle going on for control of that party...however i think the moderate/liberal republicans will continue to dominate the republican party which will mean another disaster for them.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/10/1159759/-Percent-of-White-vote-won-by-Obama-2012-by

 

In fact the Republicans reached out to Americans seeking input on the issues they need to address to become "relevant" once agian with the American People. I don't know if they're still taking input but they did have an email address where people could write to them:

goproject@gop.com

I did write to them and addressed "racial prejudice" as being the primary issue they needed to address based upon last years AP poll that found 79% of Republicans expressed explicit racial prejudice. While there is no contradictory evidence or confirmation of this percentage of Republicans with racial prejudice is still reflects a serious problem for Republicans that they must address.

I'm sure that others offered different input but that isn't the real issue. The issue is whether the Republican Party will actually act upon the concerns that people expressed in their emails? If they don't then they will remain irrelevant in the future because they cannot ignore the concerns of the American People and be relevant. Catering to "Angry White Men" which was their long standing political focus has already failed because there aren't enough angry white men left to win an election. As was noted even the average white American no longer supports the Republican agenda and that was the ultimate reason the Republicans lost the presidential election as well as the popular vote in both the House and Senate races (although political district gerrymandering did allow Republicans to maintian control of the House).

 

Moderate/liberal Republicans are virtually non-existant as the Republican Party is overwhelmingly controlled by social conservatives today and they are anything but moderate/liberals. They are extremists that seek to impose "Christian" Theocratic laws upon Americans. It was only because the "social conservatives" offered such extremist presidential candidates that virtually no average Republican could stand that Mitt Romney won the 2012 presidential nomination. Of course Mitt Romney was a racist and religious bigot but he wasn't nearly as bad as candidates like Perry and Bachmann that were way out there in Right Field lacking any creditable positions.

 

I agree. Both parties have serious problems with racial prejudice and it doesn't really matter that Republicans reflect this more than Democrats because racial prejudice, regardless of political ideologies, remains the problem. If we want to neutralize the "politics" I believe all we need mention is that 32% of Democrates expressed explicit racial prejudice in the AP commissioned study last year. Regardless of Republican racial prejudice any political party where 32% of the members have racial prejudice has a serious problem of racism within the party.

 

I find that move as disingenuous if the Democrats were to do the same thing. Why? Because they already do that. Aside from the army of polls and social feelers they employ to find out public opinion, (they are almost always aware of what most of the public and it's sub-groups think, generally) neither side really ever accommodates them. The majority of such public recommendations are either re-iterations of obvious campaign talking points, or concerns too individual in nature to be implemented against those of other major sub-groups. They know that, but it's the gesture, itself, that they are hoping shows the Republican's willingness to change.

 

I personally believe, and there is much support for this position, that recent presidential elections have been based upon voting for the lesser of two evils by most voters. Even during the last campaign many Republicas were advocating a "vote" against Obama. This was particularly true for someone like myself that's a Liberatarian that voted for Gary Johnson that I believed in as a candidate as Republicans consistantly stated that my vote was a defacto vote for Obama.

We've been offered such horrible candidates that it has become a vote based upon opposition of the worst candidate as opposed to voting for the best candidate as the Republicans and Democrats haven't been nominating any good candidates. Even my father, a life-long Republican, couldn't find it in himself to vote for either McCain in 2008 or Romney in 2012 because both were so bad. Instead he just didn't vote for president but instead voted for congressional seats and local issues. Most Republicans that voted for Romney in 2012 had to "hold their nose" when voting because he smelled so bad.

 

Possibly true or they could also be seeking reinforcement for the failed policies that they've been sticking to in the past. Something many fail to understand is that we only improve if we learn from our mistakes. All of the patting on the back in the world doesn't make a person (or political party) better but instead constructive criticism, if taken to heart and acted upon, can lead to improvements. The fact is that if the Republican Party doesn't change it's going to become completely irrelevant. Remember that the only federal influence the Republican Party has today is their control of the House that they achieved through gerrymandering of congressional districts (yes, Democrats do this as well but obviously aren't as good at it). If House representation was reflective of the popular vote, which is what is was supposed to represent, then the Republicans wouldn't have any real influence in Congress today. Yes, they might block actions of the Senate but they couldn't pass any legislation.

Maybe Republicans will listen to the feedback and change or maybe they won't but if they don't then they lose in the long run.

 

Correct. Right wingers love to project their racist hate unto everyone else. Look at all their hatred for minorities, gays, immigrants, Muslims, etc. Sheer hate. This despite their claims of being Christians when their leader Jesus Christ said to love everyone, including their worse enemies.

 

I don't endorse beating on the Republican's anymore then the Democracts. To me, they are equals who simply take a different approach to the same ends. Democrats have just become skilled at manipulating public opinion and finding public affinity on a lot of things. That's their gig and they've been getting A's in terms of getting votes. It's my opinion, so I don't want to be overbearing, but whether it was Obama or Romney sitting in the White House, there would have been no appreciable change in government.

 

In the long run the Republicans are going to have to dramatically shift their position centrewards or have another party rise out in the centre to take its place in Maritime USA

 

My theory is, those blacks whose focus is singularly concentrated on their race do so primarily because it provides them a blanket excuse for a wide variety personal failings. It's just a sidestep from the more difficult task of being personally responsible for ones behavior. Besides, what else do they have to provide them some semblance of identity? IMO, those whites whose focus of life is similarly concentrated upon their race do so because they are simpletons. Just my opinion...

 

It doesn't bring out racism, the racism was there. The problem of solving racism is exactly that -- it's socially unacceptable to be SEEN as racist. But people are still racist, they just come up with more and more complex ways to hide that they are racist. Then you go to an anonymous forum or a place where no one knows you, you'll be a racist in public. In most other times, it's just more socially acceptable to find ways to say "see look how totally NOT RACIST I am!" So we do that.

 

The problem with this theory is that it attempts to blame the victim as opposed to the perpetrator. It's like the person that blames the rape victim for being raped by claiming she was sexually permissive.

The victims of racial discrimination and oppression cannot stop the discrimination and oppression they are being subjected to. Creating a theory that's sole intent is to blame the victim who's inalienable Rights are being violated is nothing but an attempt to try and rationalize the racism and racial prejudice. We cannot rationalize racism and racial prejudice.

 

And people should buy that evil notion you just suggested? (I don't think so.)

 

I think what you and many others are confusing here, is what exactly constitutes racism or a racist. Many, including myself have a fear that our WHITE identity along with our American identity and our American traditions are being trampled upon by this revisionist history, by this influx of multiculturalism, and to this unrealistic and often dangerous game by non-WHITES and liberals alike to paint a picture of the WHITE man as being this oppressor of minorities and or of this unnatural emotion to feel guilty for past sins commited by WHITE men.

So when proud WHITE men like myself offer our strategies to help the black man cope with and actually live in a peaceful environment segregated from we WHITES...then we get a maelstrom of racist invective thrown back in our faces. Guilty white liberals don't have the backbone to address or even to recognize these racial problems from the facts, ergo, they're seen as being these harmless advocates for social justice. Same goes with our welfare/entitlement problems concerning minorities; liberals are seen as being the peoples' choice in handling these problems simply by throwing more and more money onto the mess/cesspool of societal rot.

We Conservatives and proud WHITE people are not afraid to roll up our sleeves to do the hard work where everyone benefits--despite being called racists for doing so. Now if only everyone can call a spade a spade and get on with the business of segregating the peoples into communities where other like-minded and race-compatibility people reside, racism would end for sure.

 

I don't rationalize or condone racial prejudice. Nor do I defend the denial of inalienable rights to anyone - for any reason. However, there is no such thing anymore as a pure demarcation between victim and perpetrator - between oppressor and oppressed. The oppressor has become, to an alarming extent, the very system that supposedly exists to help the oppressed but in the end, merely encourages the defining of an entire race of people as a set of helpless, inferior victims. And the so-called victims end up empowering that very system which seeks to perform that unjust delineation.