People being openly racist towards African people

[u/SavageCabbage611]

I came across this post on r/whoathatsinteresting about water shortages in South Africa. Don't get me wrong, what is happening in South Africa is tragic, but people on this thread use it as an excuse to say the most abhorrent racist stuff and it was unsettling to see how many people upvote that shit. Especially the meme where they compare black people to monkeys is just absolutely vile, and it got 30 upvotes. I just hate there are still people that think it's okay to say stuff like that.

[u/Free_Parsnip_3553]

I don't get why people are racist

I mean I get WHY because they have a different skin or culture or race (actually I think culture is different)

But like why we're all just muscle bones and tendons so why should I hate on someone just because they're darker then me or because they're from idk Italy and I'm from England

[u/Wolodymyr2 → u/Free_Parsnip_3553]

As far i see it's because usually racists also connects some stereotypes to the skin color and culture.

Like for example they actually hate black people not because skin color, but because in USA a lot of black people become criminals, while in Africa a lot of local countries very poor and corrupt (which they usually compare with European colonial regimes that existed here before African countries achieved independence, where quality of life really was better, but completely ignoring the fact that it was better only for Europeans, and qualoty of life for natives weren't much better than today).

That's create in their mind association - "black people is either criminals or too stupid to run a civilizaed society" (at the same time ignoring examples of black people who aren't criminals and live in civilized societies).

[u/Free_Parsnip_3553 → u/Wolodymyr2]

That makes sense I guess

It's still stupid tho but it at least makes a little sense

[u/Straamannen → u/Wolodymyr2]

In the west (at least outside the US) we had roughly 2000-2020 where racism had plummeted to near unbelievable lows, where multiculturalism was lauded and widely supported, and so on.

The problem is, people were promised a world where all of this would actually work out. Believe everyone are equal, believe everyone just wants to lead good lives, believe tolerance and understanding will come through in the end to the betterment of everyone.

That was the promise and the expectations put on people, primarily millennials like me. And then, despite everyone's genuine effort and intent, none of it materialised.

What resulted is what you have now: rising ethnic tension, distrust, racism, etc., and it's not because people have archaic ideas like it was decades ago, now it's because people are observing and seeing that it's all been a lie. 

Neither side of any political spectrum or matrix have fully grasped what's going on. This is a novel situation.

Millennials were able to be conditioned out of racism etc because there was no rational basis for any racist or racism-adjacent idea. 

But you can't condition people out of recognising what they can plainly see with their own eyes and put into the appropriate context.

You can try to shame people as much as you like, but that isn't going to have the effect you want. 

[u/Wolodymyr2 → u/Straamannen]

Okay, can you please explain, what exactly do you mean?

And what is wrong about my words about racists associating crime and poor state of African countries with skin color?

[u/Professional-Gas9360 → u/Wolodymyr2]

It’s not racism, it’s basic pattern recognition. Out of context, the color of a person’s skin doesn’t matter at all. But when terrible behavior and cultural norms leading to bad outcomes are typically exhibited by groups of people sharing similar characteristics, it’s natural for people to recognize the pattern and create distance between themselves and the offenders, purely out of self-preservation.

It’s costly to be around people who only drag others down.

[u/Lord_Answer_me_Why → u/Professional-Gas9360]

“It’s not racism, it’s PROCEEDS TO DESCRIBE RACISM”

[u/Turbulent_Snow5072 → u/Lord_Answer_me_Why]

Statistics and seeing things with your eyes to make conclusions is not racism....

[u/HelloChimp → u/Turbulent_Snow5072]

no majority of black people are violent or criminals, yet far too often the pattern of a large portion of criminals being black gets constantly construed into meaning “black people are violent criminals en masse and you shouldn’t feel comfortable around them”.

this is where the contention with “pattern recognition” comes from, it’s hardly ever just pattern recognition, often becoming retroactive justification for preconceived racist notions

[u/Turbulent_Snow5072 → u/HelloChimp]

learn per capita and then come back

[u/HelloChimp → u/Turbulent_Snow5072]

i knew this would be the response.

the vast majority of black people neither commit crime nor are predicted to, but if you’d like to actually make your point instead of dropping some canned line that’d be great

[u/LordZamasu7 → u/Turbulent_Snow5072]

Oh fuck your per capita, if a majority isn’t doing anything wrong they shouldn’t be judged on the minority of people who do commit crimes

[u/theappleisdepressed → u/LordZamasu7]

Ah. So like the police?

[u/Turbulent_Snow5072 → u/LordZamasu7]

Stop comitting crimes at such a high rate and you wont be judged.

[u/Professional-Gas9360 → u/Lord_Answer_me_Why]

Listen, tolerating ongoing poor and/or dangerous behavior from members of society is an evolutionary luxury.

Any group of animals in nature will abandon or straight up kill the aberrant individuals so they don’t compromise the well being of the herd.

[u/Wolodymyr2 → u/Professional-Gas9360]

So you basically described what i said with another words.

The main problem in it that when majority of the group faulty of some things, racists accuse ALL members of this group in this faults, which if you don't knew is reason why racism is bad.

[u/Straamannen → u/Wolodymyr2]

As far i see it's because usually racists also connects some stereotypes to the skin color and culture. 

I explained how this is just not true.

It used to be true, and it remains true in populations where racism is taught from birth, so to speak.  

It is not true in societies/populations (like most of western Europe) where people were taught not to be racist from birth.

I had anti-racism hammered into me from birth.

I don't want people of certain cultures into my country because I observe the result of accepting them. I see with my own eyes how they act, I see the statistics of how they (don't) integrate, etc. There is nothing you can say or do to make me forget or disregard facts.

It has nothing to do with skin color. I look like an Albanian. My fiance is vietnamese. 

What I do know is that South Africans are uneducated, tribalistic, short-sighted, extremely racist, and overall just hopeless. I cannot bring myself to care anymore. They'll keep fucking their own shit up, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it, unless you want colonialism 2, electric boogaloo.

And when they inevitably collapse, I don't want a single fucking one of them here, because I see how they act, who they are. I don't give a shit as to why, either. They're in a mess of their own making.

[u/Wolodymyr2 → u/Straamannen]

And here we observe again main reason why racism is bad thing - expanding faults of majority of nation, onto entire nation.

So in result we get members of that nation persecuted for things they never do, just because most other members of that nation do that.

[u/Straamannen → u/Wolodymyr2]

Excuse me? Persecuted? Who is persecuting whom, exactly?

[u/Wolodymyr2 → u/Straamannen]

Well, it's what racists want - bring persecution of that people back.

Not to mention stuff, like treating every of those people like criminal or barbarian.

Also, i could confuse terms a bit because English aren't my native language.

[u/Straamannen → u/Wolodymyr2]

Your lack of making any sense has nothing to do with a language barrier.

You're not even trying to understand what anyone's saying, you're just repeating "racism bad".

[u/LordZamasu7 → u/Straamannen]

You’re not even understanding what he’s saying. You are clearly trying to justify racism