Quote:
Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier
Racists in the UK tend to feel they have valid reasons, these are some:
-The swamping of our culture by ethnic minorities (they fail to recognize that this has been done countless times before and is an evolutionary process)
-Foreigners are nicking all our jobs (They usually do the jobs the locals don't want to do as they get more from benefits)
-Illegal foreigners are claiming all our benefits (the UK is one of the hardest of all European countries for illegals to enter into)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MoonlitSunshine
Many Irish were a bunch of thieving drunks :P That attitude has died with the legacy, though - I haven't come across any discrimination against the Irish in the year I've been living in the UK. If anything, I've gained on account of everyone seeming to like the Irish over here. If it were to happen to me then yes, i would feel discriminated against, but does it? When was the last time that happened?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MoonlitSunshine
I understand that there is a very thin line here. I understand how it is a short step from an assumption based on a large body of experience to assumptions based on less and less, until you are being racist. I will note that I am more than happy to be proven wrong, and I am sure Darren Scully would be happy to be proven wrong, but until such a time as I find an exception to the rule, I am going to assume the rule stands.
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That's beside the point, unless you are in fact a thieving drunk nobody has the right to claim otherwise. Why would you judge someone on the actions of someone else? it's just another ugly branch of nationalism that leads to lazy thinking and ignorance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by duga
There's no excuse, but I think he is right in saying stereotypes and assumptions will be around forever. There is seriously no getting rid of them. Humans are naturally categorizing creatures. This extends beyond race...in fact, I just had an argument with someone about my assumptions of engineers and hers on biologists. She said something along the lines of "Biologists are just not technical and really don't know what they are doing most of the time." Then I came back with "Engineers all have OCD". We also both consider each other very non-discriminant types of people. These kinds of assumptions are just unavoidable.
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That's exactly why things like this are being taught in schools (around here anyway) It's a line of reasoning we are trying to get away from, or at least I hope we are.
Quote:
Originally Posted by duga
The difference, however, is actually acting upon these assumptions. Will I refuse to be friends with an engineer because of what most of them think about me? No, but I will probably think that person has OCD until I get to know them better. The same applies to race.
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I'm sure many people would be quite offended by some assumptions, in this case you'd need to be pretty thin skinned, but they'd find it fairly strange nonetheless.