PLAYER57832 wrote:Lootifer wrote:edit: Sorry I should clarify: My definition of racist is applying a negative prejudice against someone based on race.
This is a trap. See, what you consider "positive" prejudice can be just as harmful as obviously negative stereotypes.
Classic examples: They are better basketball players"
They are good at business
They do best in math
etc.
We need to judge people as individuals, and who they choose to be, not some outward label that they cannot control.
Sorry if you are repeating arguments that have already taken place, I just don't think it's worth the effort to read the entire thread (since we all know internet arguments are serious business).
I don't see how those kind of prejudice can be harmful
as long as you remove any ties with associated flipside negative prejudice.(modifying your first example because I know much more about athletics than BB)
- Black people are faster runners.
Now even ignoring the science around fast-twitch fibres, and just looking at the stats, even then you face overwhelming data showing Black people to, on average, run faster than their white counterparts. Now there is more than enough statistical evidence to make this claim with some pretty accurate alpha values.
The law of averages exists for a reason, it's a well proven law (as well as being common sense). Therefore extending the law you could make a reasonable estimate on a population containing mixed races that the black members in the population are more likely to be faster than the white people.
A real life example would be an athletics scouting organisation putting an emphasis on checking out schools where the populations are predominantly Black.
Now is this racist in itself? No. It's rational behaviour. Racism is an irrational trait.
Could it be racist under some circumstances? Yes. If the scouting organisation refused to scout "white" schools because they claim Black people are faster then they are being racist. But they are also acting under false pretences. They are not avoiding predominantly white schools because they believe Black people are faster, they are avoiding them because they believe white people to be slower, which, while it may seem like the same thing, it isn't because one is a positive and one is a negative.
e.g.
- I can be consistent and say Black people run fast, and then accept a white person into my sprint team (I never said white people can't be fast too)
- I am being inconsistant when I say White people run slow, and then accept a white person into my sprint team
Subtle but important difference. And any percieved racism always has its roots in the negative, not the positive.
