On Racism

Racism is not about colour, ethnicity or anything like that. I don’t think racists are concerned about colour schemes. Small children are never racist as they simply don’t understand such a concept. Racism is really about the clash of cultures and values specific to those cultures. and only occurs as children grow up and take on board the cultural values of their own society. Some societies are much more liberal than others and their citizens tend to be more open minded. In the West if a person denigrates Islam he or she can be subject to various sanctions on the grounds that he or she is racist. Yet if that same person arrived in a fundamentalist Islamic country and said the same things that person would be lucky to escape with his or her life. It is easy to see that some cultures and societies are much less tolerant than others. So it all boils down to the “Us and Them” mentality. Groups often define themselves by excluding and attacking others who are different. In fact, racism is never about race per se. It is about perceived differences that may or may not involve an actual threat. The perceived threats can be real or imagined. Nobody cares if a person is black or Jewish or anything else. The concern arises when there is a perceived threat to another person’s or group’s well being or way of life. In short, Racism is about many things but not race or ethnicity.