I AM A RACIST(NOT)?!

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 "