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[Sirus]

Please be exaggerating...

No?  She was in the Hitler Youth and had American planes shooting at her while she was working in the fields and everything.

Did you think they all poofed after WWII or something?  Some of them married nice Lutheran ministers >_>

No need to be rude. I just assumed most of them stayed in Germany/Austria/wherever they lived before the war, instead of moving to one of the countries that beat them. Besides, calling someone a Nazi is such a common insult that it can be hard to know if it is being meant literally or not.

I think he's wondering if she's actually followed/believed the Nazi Ideology, not simply just someone who lived during the Nazi regime.

This, basically.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

She's certainly really, really into straight blond hair and blue eyes.  And won't go into grocery stores that seem to have Jewish names on them.

I'm guessing you two don't really get along.

[wierd]

I think it's important to point something out.

Namely, racism is "natural." -- however, that does not make it "rational", or "acceptable."

Basically every species practices racism.
Wolves will kill members from foriegn packs on contact.
Bees will systematically attack another hive that is too close. (Same with ants)
Chimps.. same

Ad nauseum.

The main reason behind this is that the presence of a foriegn group in the environment means reduced availability of resources. This is not a conscious decision, it is purely animistic. The bees don't detect the right pheremones, and BAM, foriegn hive members get swarmed, and wings bitten off. This is further reinforced with ants-- it was recently discovered that 2 colonies of ants on different continents got along just fine when introduced to each other, because they had the same pheremone group id. Got the right IFF? Welcome aboard!

The same is true in humans, but complicated by humans also being thinking beings. The instinctual impulse of "Other! SHUN!" Is biological. People do this automatically, and unconsciously all the time. "Girls only", et al. The problem is that people don't always take the next step, and actually evaluate the impulse.

There is no reason to shun somebody from a different culture or racial heritage, because resources are not scarce. Further, the shunning of such people only diminishes the capabilities of the greater whole. Diversity is an asset, not a weakness. It is thus irrational to indulge the instinct.

Humans developed this behaviorism during the hard periods of our evolution preceeding and durrng the iceage. In evolutionary terms, that was "yesterday".  Our culture has advanced faster than our instinctual and biochemical makeup. Racism is "natural" for us, as it served a valuable function in the past. It no longer does. It needs to be supressed.

Being a racist isn't "evil".  Being a racist is irrational. Being a willfull racist, fully knowing it is irrational is what is evil.

The usual basis for racism against hispanics comes in 2 flavors, for the most part.

1) I don't understand what they are saying, and that makes me feel theatened/disadvantaged. This must be stopped.
2) hispanics are (presumed) here illegally, and work outside the system, and take work at pay rates well below what other people need to survive, and thus poison the economic ecosystem. This must be stopped.

Or at least, that is the 2 most frequently tendered modes of rationalisation of the innately irrational impulse to be racist I have encountered.  "It's not irrational, because X" (choose X above.)

If you remove those sources of rationalisation, only the "willfully evil" types of racism really remain, when people actually are mindful of their behavior. (Most racism is involuntary, from people not being mindful. Spreading awareness is the best way to combat this; not demonization.)

In both of the 2 cases, eventual integration is inevitable. Look at New York, and the Irish immigrant "problem".  Doesn't exist anymore. Many are proud of being of irish decent in fact.

The same will eventually come to happen in places with hispanic immigrant "problems". It will just take time.

Be understanding of people who aren't knowingly being racist, and instead help them to not be by spreading awareness for them. They shouldn't be demonized the way willfully racist people should be-- they are simply doing what is "fully natural". They just need to be aware that the nature needs to be overcome.

[Hanslanda]

Indeed. My best friend and his whole family are racist, but when I stood up and gave logical responses to his racist crap, he eventually gave up on it. His family is a bit too ingrained in it, but he doesn't (around me at least) go about spouting racism. Basically, his argument boiled down to, "We were here first, they're taking our livelihood/culture/whatever."

Well, actually, the Native Americans were here first... So they're just doing what your ancestors did to you. And they're not taking anything from us, they're being absorbed into it. It's not like our culture is just going to vanish because other-color people are here. It just means that now there is someone to share it with.

[Vector]

Sirus--sorry, didn't mean to be rude.  I'm a bit touchy on it.

She's certainly really, really into straight blond hair and blue eyes.  And won't go into grocery stores that seem to have Jewish names on them.

I'm guessing you two don't really get along.

I learned German so we could communicate in her native language--so surprisingly, we actually get along okay .-.  It's a bit of a minefield, though, since she occasionally sticks her finger in my face and demands to know if I wear makeup.  Or if I died my hair brown, since I was a blond toddler.  And she thinks I'm whore.  And that my hair is really big.

But hey

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I learned German so we could communicate in her native language--so surprisingly, we actually get along okay .-.  It's a bit of a minefield, though, since she occasionally sticks her finger in my face and demands to know if I wear makeup.  Or if I died my hair brown, since I was a blond toddler.  And she thinks I'm whore.  And that my hair is really big.

What, she didn't accuse you of being a Jew? I thought you said everybody did that, but the actual Nazi doesn't?

[Vector]

No, because that would make my mom Jewish, and everyone knows my mom is a nice Catholic girl whose family was Jewish a while back

[Sirus]

Apology accepted, Vector. Guess I should have used my head a little before figuratively opening my mouth :/

[AlleeCat]

Namely, racism is "natural."

I fail see how it's natural when, as a child, one of my first friends was of another race. When the two of us found out that racism exists (we had to be told about it) we were shocked to find out that people actually shunned other people for having different skin colors. In fact, most of the class we were in at the time were surprised by that fact. I think racism may have been natural at one point, but if that's the case, I can find some pretty clear evidence the we're evolving out of it.

[kaijyuu]

"Tribalism" naturally emerges in human culture, but not necessarily racism. Race is just one thing we can be tribalist about.

[wierd]

Usually, little kids are "racist" against the other gender. It would be interesting to perform clinical trials to see when the instinct to be racist to outside groups occurs.

Personally, I suspect that very young children are operating with a different evolutionary program to assimilate a cultural identity, which they will then use later. It would be interesting to see when cultural identity takes root, and takes over.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

"Tribalism" naturally emerges in human culture, but not necessarily racism. Race is just one thing we can be tribalist about.

On the bright side, it also means that if you grow up in a multiracial society, it is very difficult to actually be racist.

[Ogdibus]

I'm multiracial, and I have internal racial tension. x3

[BlackFlyme]

Living with a racist is always fun.

Every morning it's like I pull out an imaginary clipboard an go "I wonder what ignorant shit this asshole is gonna say today!"

[AlleeCat]

Usually, little kids are "racist" against the other gender. It would be interesting to perform clinical trials to see when the instinct to be racist to outside groups occurs.

Personally, I suspect that very young children are operating with a different evolutionary program to assimilate a cultural identity, which they will then use later. It would be interesting to see when cultural identity takes root, and takes over.

For one thing, that's called sexism, and for another thing, I got along fine with the opposite gender. In 1st grade I had a male friend and a female friend that I would hang out with all the time. Sure we got the "____ and ____ sitting in a tree" comments once in a while, but for the most part the other kids were pretty tolerant. Also, "cooties" were more of a game of tag than anything else at my school.