Author: Roland Lohr gen Stahl
Yes and no. The question is, how can I know which answer is
correct. This story will be about racism, a strong school of thought in our
society, and growing.
We can start the story by saying,
" Not because
I'm a racist but .....it starts that way about many
refugee hostile
statements . "
More rarely, if at all, we hear someone tell us that "
I " am a racist, probably no one is pretending not to know or try to bring
listeners in another direction. Characterizing racism is that, " it
does not see itself! " However, we can easily see it in the eyes
of others . A racist is a person who want´s to deny someone´s rights, or treat
someone patronize only because he belongs to a certain ethnic group, a race
with a certain skin colour. A racist sees himself not in that context, he
refers instead to factual reasons that speaks in his favour. Instead he puts
out argument as, a person with a different colour should not be employd, not
because he is black, negro, turk or arab, no because all coloured people are
dishonest. He goes on telling that tehse kind of people should not be allowed
to vote, they lack politiciacal maturity and certainly people from Somalia
should be relegated simply because they are nothing else than criminals.
Refugees coming into a country should not receive any social assistance in the
view of an racist. These people are nothing else than parasites, they cannot do
anything right, no by the view of an real racist these people should be treated
worse that the rest of a countrys population. In his mind residents are treated
worse than refugees, and that is the reason why he wants to put an end to it.
Therefore a true racist, and not just a politician who
fishes in the water, a racists very tru true motivation is an expression of
racism. He takes it for granted that humans can be devided into races, classes
based on objective basis, and not just by a convention. For him, ”one man´s
qualities are based in some form of an affinity” for one race. A racist make simple
conclusions of an individual´s behavior, and the breed´s characteristics. In
his mind, he believes in that if a Russion or a Jew behaves outwardly honest
this does not alter that he, after all still is a Russian or a Jew , still not
has to be trusted. For him it constitute genetic difference or if he is a
modern racist, cultural difference between them.
If we only look a few decades ago, we believed that there
were hereditary differences between ”Workers” and ”Aristocrats” who justifies
their roles in the society. Todays racist belive more in the difference of the
human culture. For example if we look in the culture of Finnish or the
Scandinavian culture, we consider them more reliable than with the Russian,
they are braver than Italians, less noisy than Germans, more mature than
Africans and more modest than the loud Americans…..etc. The genetic racism has
been in our society for a long time, it has never disappeared during the
developemnt of our society and shows now a new era as a start in the U.S after
a new book has been launched by J.Herrnstein and Charles Murray with the title,
”The Bell Curve.” They wanted to show us that black people still are
intellectually inferiour to whites, with some exceptions. This is a vision
which exists and has done so in many decades in the U.S, in some states more
prevalent than in others.
A question, important for us could be. If we assume thet we
have a majority of young people who believe in that racism is of a patriotic
nature, how will we interpret the words ”racism” and ”patriotic.”
Racism starts with a perception – we think that most
Americans are stupid and do nothing else than having a big smile. This can be
seen as an expression of our own culture´s perspective, we do not see that as
an expression of the americans openness and kindness, it is more coming out as
the expression who is loud or modest. What I mean with that is that there
should be no question of criticizing cultural traits as it can be easily
misunderstood. If we take an example with the Spanish, we normally say that the
Spaniards are cruel because they like the fights with Bulls, but what we mean
is that the Spaniard´s having a cruel view about animals different from our own
culture. The conclusion could easy been misinterpreted if we are not clear. Instead we could call their vision for
ruthless but then we also have to accept that there are traits of ruthlessness
with us, otherwise we could be considered as racists. We can also mix all our
experiences in this context by saying if a Finnish person sheats on you, then
he is considered to be dishonest, if a Greek is cheating on you it is more
common to say it is because he is a Greek.
The most insidious for of racism we can be finding in the
American suburbs there people unconsciously consider in peoples colour. A shop
assistant keeps allways a watchful eye on their ”white” and ”black” customers.
Many of these situations would be a certain issue of racism which denies any
racial prejudice. The fact that we ascribe to different peoples properties may
for us seem innocuous, ” Negroes are carefree, having good rythm in them”, ”Jews
are intelligent but ruthless,” ”Chinese people are industrious,” etc. But
benevolent stereotypes can easily serve as an alibi for the malevolent, a
collective admiration can become a breeding ground for contempt. A hostility
can be seen as a form of respect , for example , you will see this in many
men's way of relating to women, " we interrupt more than letting them
finish speaking or listening to what they have to say ." Racism gives them
a meaning - the only all " negroes " have in common that they are
subject to the same kind of prejudice.
Would racism ever go away , then we would no longer
understand the term. Something, I believe we will not see in a very near or
long future, instead ”racism has to be
seen as a man's greatest threat to humanity - for any reason "