We regressed. After the murderous 90s and the shitty 2000s we had some years up until the pandemic in which racist politics didn’t have the same draw it has now.
Just like any country, we did not defeat racism. We let it bubble under the surface and now it’s exploding. There are still millions of people who don’t think that way. But the majority is now totally fine with racialized politics.
Sometimes I wonder whether what we’re seeing is actually a regression, or whether that’s just what’s easier to believe. As you highlight, this has been bubbling under the surface for a while, so one could argue that it never really went away.
I often think about how the UK likes to pretend it doesn’t have a problem with antisemitism. Before WW2, there were plenty of powerful people in Britain who were thinking that Hitler was a sensible chap to be finally addressing “the Jewish problem”.
Sure, some of these people were probably horrified when they learned of the mass extermination programme under Nazi Germany, but they were plenty fine with seizing the property of Jewish people and putting them into ghettos. But nooooo, of course we don’t have a systemic problem with antisemitism — we beat the Nazis! We’re the heroes, don’t you know?
I dont think you can “beat” racism. I think its something that comes from growing up and seeing behavior you think is negative from a certain group of people.
Maybe some humans are not built to get along with everyone. We tend to like people who are similar to ourselves.
I havent seen many discussions about why people are racist. Clearly some of them are, and maybe we would be also if we grew up with their experiences.
I dont think you are born a racist. Its something society does to you growing up. Could be low emotional intelligence but seems like a bit too easy to explain it that way. Many very intelligent people are racists also, clearly.
I think its something that comes from growing up and seeing behavior you think is negative from a certain group of people
Thing is, most people don’t see any behaviour like this. There was a study that showed 90% of Arabs portrayed in Hollywood movies over the past 50 years were terrorists or radical islamists. Media overblows criminality in regions with immigrants and outright makes up nazi propaganda of there being “police-less ghettos” in Sweden or Germany. Crime rates are the lowest that they’ve been in Europe’s history, the reason why people don’t like immigrants is prevalently because of concerted efforts by a group of people with a lot of money to create racial tensions that they can later politically exploit.
We regressed. After the murderous 90s and the shitty 2000s we had some years up until the pandemic in which racist politics didn’t have the same draw it has now.
Just like any country, we did not defeat racism. We let it bubble under the surface and now it’s exploding. There are still millions of people who don’t think that way. But the majority is now totally fine with racialized politics.
Sometimes I wonder whether what we’re seeing is actually a regression, or whether that’s just what’s easier to believe. As you highlight, this has been bubbling under the surface for a while, so one could argue that it never really went away.
I often think about how the UK likes to pretend it doesn’t have a problem with antisemitism. Before WW2, there were plenty of powerful people in Britain who were thinking that Hitler was a sensible chap to be finally addressing “the Jewish problem”.
Sure, some of these people were probably horrified when they learned of the mass extermination programme under Nazi Germany, but they were plenty fine with seizing the property of Jewish people and putting them into ghettos. But nooooo, of course we don’t have a systemic problem with antisemitism — we beat the Nazis! We’re the heroes, don’t you know?
I dont think you can “beat” racism. I think its something that comes from growing up and seeing behavior you think is negative from a certain group of people.
Maybe some humans are not built to get along with everyone. We tend to like people who are similar to ourselves.
I havent seen many discussions about why people are racist. Clearly some of them are, and maybe we would be also if we grew up with their experiences.
I dont think you are born a racist. Its something society does to you growing up. Could be low emotional intelligence but seems like a bit too easy to explain it that way. Many very intelligent people are racists also, clearly.
Thing is, most people don’t see any behaviour like this. There was a study that showed 90% of Arabs portrayed in Hollywood movies over the past 50 years were terrorists or radical islamists. Media overblows criminality in regions with immigrants and outright makes up nazi propaganda of there being “police-less ghettos” in Sweden or Germany. Crime rates are the lowest that they’ve been in Europe’s history, the reason why people don’t like immigrants is prevalently because of concerted efforts by a group of people with a lot of money to create racial tensions that they can later politically exploit.
I remember this myself. All the movies I watched growing up had muslim terrorists. Or Russian. Because my country is mostly watching American movies.
You’ve got to be carefully taught.