The difference between racism and discrimination is simple:
Racism is specifically about race. Racism is specifically the belief that one race is superior to another or others. People who participate in racial discrimination are racist. They participate in racism.
Discrimination is simply unjust treatment. That treatment can be aimed towards ANY group, not just a racial group
And as I said before, the word “treatment” is important. Discrimination is an act. You have to treat someone in an unjust way for being part of a specific group in order to be discriminating against them. You can be racist without discriminating against someone if you think you’re superior to them for your race and don’t act on that thought.
Because that’s what the op was talking about. I’m kinda done with this tbh. It seems like you’re trying to find flaws where there aren’t any. I DIDN’T EVEN SAY YOU WERE WRONG. This has been dragged out when it didn’t need to be. We’re back at square one arguing over my original post. My one point this entire time has been that racism cannot exist without the system behind it and that’s why the definition is important. One cannot exist on completly on its own without the other. We launched off into Irish history at some point, but that was it. I understood your differences in opinion and I asked my own questions. We just disagree on the extent to which the definition can be applied. Take away the systems at play that disadvantage other people and what do you have? Discrimination. That’s why I disagree with your definition. That’s all. Plain and simple.
There are many flaws. You just won’t open your eyes to the fact that RACISM IS NOT ABOUT SYSTEMS. Systematic racism as a term exists for a reason. That’s specifically racism FROM systems. You. Are. Wrong.
As you said, your professor says there are no such thing as synonyms. If that’s the case, there’s no need to specifically talk about systemic or institutional racism if all racism is systemic.
Your definitions of racism and discrimination were WRONG.
You haven’t actually taken in the differences between the two as I’ve defined them. I gave you a dictionary definition that you then tried to argue against. You tried to argue against the DICTIONARY! Wow.
You even tried to argue against including the word “race” in a definition of racism because race is a social construct?! So is money, but we wouldn’t not put the word in the definition of “salary” because it’s a social construct. Just because something is a social construct, it doesn’t mean it’s fake. In fact, the fact that we define it as a society is what MAKES it real.
I can still show you the Harvard article if you want. I can show you the dictionary again, but I realise now I’ve wasted my time with you. You look, but you don’t actually read properly.
So I will say again. RACISM IS NOT JUST ABOUT SYSTEMS. AN INDIVIDUAL CAN BE RACIST. RACISM IS ALSO AN INDIVIDUAL THING AND WHITE PEOPLE CAN EXPERIENCE RACISM.
If racism was only systemic, you wouldn’t be able to call someone a racist, because it’s not individual.
I don’t know what I was expecting from a Irish Potato Famine conspiracy theorist! HAHA
I’ll just leave this here.
Race- a social constructed category composed of people who shared biologically transmitted traits that members of society consider important.
Racism – is the view that certain racial or ethnic groups are biologically inferior and practices involving their domination and exploitation are therefore justified.
Prejudice- An irrational attitude toward a race or group of people base on your biases and their membership to a certain group. Any ridge and irrational generalization about an entire category of people.
Discrimination- A behavior of unequal treatment towards people because of their membership to a particular race or group of people. Unequal treatment of various categories of people.
Three types of prejudice
Prejudice Discriminator- he or she is prejudice against a race or group of people and then translate their feelings into unequal treatment (discriminatory practices).
Prejudice non Discriminator- he or she is prejudice against a race or group of people, but does not translate their feelings into unequal treatment (discriminatory practices).
Non Prejudice Discriminator- he or she treats some people unequal because it is convenient or to their advantage. How can I benefit?
I learned this in my grad school class, racism and oppression. I am US based, btw.
It’s also very interesting how you’ll use Oxford Reference for a definition of Cultural Appropriation (which isn’t evidence of your Racism point, which you actually separated as a different point), but when I give you the definition of racism from the same website, you tell me that it’s wrong.
This is perfect! Completely accurate! Race isn’t specific to systems! Thank you very much!
Funny. I could say the same thing about you. If you actually read my post about the definitions of things and how systems of inequality work, then you wouldn’t be saying what you are saying. Instead of collecting your thoughts and making one response you post five and I’m expected to refute each one. I frankly don’t care about what you think of me. You don’t even know my name. But not once could you tell me what happens to racism once you remove the system that sponsors it. If I were to use your definition, then all sorts of situations could be considered racism when in reality racism wouln’t exist if there was no one to enforce it. There would be all types of predjudice because human beings can’t seem to get along, but there wouuln’t be entire ideas about swaths of people based on something as arbitrary as skin color. Something that can be shared with people across cultures. I’m done here. This was over hours ago, but I wanted to make sure I clarfified pieces of my post before I signed off.
It doesn’t matter how systems of inequality work. That’s irrelevant. I’m not saying that they don’t exist. I’m saying that Racism is NOT just a systemic thing. We have personal racist actions and systemic ones. Systemic racism is a term for a reason – it’s used to describe the kinds of systems you’re talking about. But systemic racism is not the only type of racism. Anyone can be racist and anyone can experience racism on a personal level regardless of what the systemic racism of their country is.
A white person in a predominantly black area can experience racism for being white… even if it’s in the US where old discriminatory laws and practices put black people in the ghetto.
In that case, there are two examples working at the same time. There’s the overt, personal racism of the people around the white person. Then there are the systems put in place to actively oppress the black people for their race. Both are examples of the manifestation of racism. They’re just aimed at different people.
They’re both the acts of racist people. However, one of them affects the whole of society whilst the other affects a single person. Just racism on different scales. One of them has NOTHING to do with a system put in place to oppress people. I mean, there’s racial discrimination against foreigners in Japan, as I’ve stated before. The government is slowly opening its borders to the outside world and coming to terms with immigration… yet the people still display racism. Why? Because sometimes it’s not the system that’s racist. In fact, it’s frequently the individuals.
Some of my Indian family express racist views towards white people sometimes… even though they’re in a country that actively favours white people.
I can tell you right now that another racist system would come into power. Possibly racist to a different people, like in South Africa. Racism is something that’s learned, not just enforced. But that was never my point. My point was always the definition of racism, not its causes and effects.
And all sorts of things ARE considered racism. You’re the one denying that. Not me. It would exist if no one was enforcing it because racism is a BELIEF. Racial prejudice is the action. People could still BE racist, even if they weren’t allowed to DO racist things. I mean, that’s what’s happening with the white supremacists all over the world right now. Even when there are systems in place actively forcing them to NOT be racist, they still are. People are arguing for ‘free speech’ in the right-wing circles right now because they hate the fact that they are actively barred from behaving in a racist manner.
Yes, there would be. And prejudice that relates to race will still be called racism then. Just like it is now.
Yes, yes there would be. They’re ideas, not systems after all. Ideas survive. How else would communism have survived in the US after the Red Scare when anyone known to be a communist was purged? How else would Nazism have survived after most known Nazis were executed? Because ideas persist. As you said, there would always be prejudice because people don’t get along. Some of that prejudice will always be about skin colour unless we educate people.
I hope you’ll eventually look back and see that you were having an argument with me that I wasn’t having. I hope you go back and realise I kept quoting you so that I could respond to individual parts of your argument, whilst you just assumed what I was saying without actually reading it properly and then made a completely irrelevant argument. I hope you realise that not all racism has to be systemic for systematic racism to be a thing.
I hope eventually you learn.
Bump!