Racism

[i_luff_honey]

can somebody please tell my why racism started? so far ive only got where and what racism is, thanks.x

[andy hughes]

racism has existed since mankind has existed. Early caveman tribes would capture and enslave other tribes, leading to the notion that the other tribe were 'inferior', which soon developed into the notion that strangers can be 'inferior' simply because they are different. Move forward several hundred thousand years, and it still goes on, all over the world. Witness the Hutus and the Tutsis, at war in Rwanda. The tribes hate each other with such depth that any boy children of the opposing tribe found by the other will suffer a foot being hacked off, to prevent the boy fighting as an adult. Girl children were routinlely raped to 'sow the seed' of the enemy. In the UK, negro people were viewed with suspicion, partly the notion that they are shiftless, stupid, and sexually voracious - a hangover of attitude from the days of slavery. Today, the approach that Muslime and 'Assylum Seekers' present a negative aspect ensures that an people of Asian origin can be viewed with suspicion and even hatrd by certain people in the UK. Fear and distrust of people different to ourselves is as old as history - civilisation has yet to ensure its eradication - a concept that can only be delayed by the actions and rhetoric of Bush and Blair.

[Kinetic]

I read a good childrens book on racism once, I was about two types of creature that were essentially the same just different colours so they segregated themselves... then in their smaller, weaker tribes they were eaten by beasts as separated they could not defend themselves. Reality may be a little more complicated but the fundamental fact that only modesty and a will to believe in a Gaian philosophy will result in the continued sustainence of the human race is undeniable.

[Westminster]

'Racism' probably isn't a very useful concept, as it implies the existence of 'race'. But the feeling of 'different from others' is probably linked to marriage practices which go back for thousands of years. For example, for centuries the Jews have married other Jews. This practice of in-marriage (or 'endogamy' as anthropologists call it) is a way of proclaiming the distinctiveness of a group, in contrast to a marriage exchange (the anthropologists call 'exogamy') in which my sibling marries someone from your group, and your sibling marries someone from my group. In the case of Jewry, this endogamy has been bound up with an ideology which holds them to be God's chosen people.

[El D]

really some people do try and avoid the issue. Racism exists because people look different and have different customs and practices. In addition, when we discovered africa the population was very inferior technologically which allowed us to superimpose our view on things. Racism is not taught, it is the very human nature to pick on things and people who are different, partly I would suggest as a defence mechanism for ones own people/social group.

[Westminster]

The question of who benefits from 'racism' is certainly an interesting one. It could hardly be a class of capitalists, since class-conscious capitalists will seek to reduce their labour costs by an atomised labour force irrespective of perceived differences. Thus in a modern globalising economy manufcturing is being moved to low-wage economies because the cost of moving capital is lower than the cost of moving labour. In our own society racism has been institutionalised by the labour movement, in which skilled (usually male) workers have seen their privileges threatened by cheaper labour.

[El D]

enlighten us allen - who is it?