Race isn't really important to anyone but americans? There is racism everywhere, obviously, but race itself isn't important.
this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2025
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Kind of depends on how you define "race" (it's pretty much scientifically meaningless, so define it however the hell you like)
But we have several currently ongoing attempts at genocide happening around the world, that to me tells me that a hell of a lot of people out there care a whole lot about race.
American racism is particularly odd to me due to how broadly we categorize race, trying to lump people into a black/white/Hispanic/Asian/etc. category based on not much more than skin color. And we're also unusuallly open about the fact that racism is a thing here. A lot of the world kind of keeps it more on the down-low.
But if you go with narrower definitions of race, you'll see the same kind of things happening around the world as in America. I've seen people from the UK talk about Polish immigrants in much the same way people here talk about Mexicans, and that's not even going into the cluster fuck of how much of Europe treats Romani people. A whole lot of people in Asian countries have issues with other people from other Asian countries, or even different ethnic groups within their own countries (like Uyghurs in china.) Parts of Africa are patchworks of different ethnic groups that are often at each other's throats, and of course South Africa is still a long way from having its shit fully sorted out. A lot of white Australians have pretty significant biases against Aboriginal people.
I could go on.
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Nah. I've read online Europeans bashing every other sort of European, and they're mostly white. Often in jest, often in "Fuck the Gypsies!" Or the Greeks, or the Muslims, or what have you.
The US is quickly closing on on 50% white, 50% everyone else. Meanwhile, in Europe. So yeah, maybe we talk race too much, or use it as a shorthand too casually, but that doesn't automatically mean hate or exclusion. We just have big groups of races, ethnicities, whatever.
Not going to hear about America's racism when Europe is solid white. In other words, why would they complain about black people, or any other major ethnicity, when they don't have any?
As to other countries, I gather Japan is as racist as human culture gets. Australians are racist with the aborigines. Africans are racist against other African tribal groups. China is destroying the Uyghurs. I know jack about South America, but I got most of the rest of us in there! Not parroting the meme, but Canadians seem pretty nice. Oh, we go insane on each other in Antarctica. :)
Any of that make sense? Feels a bit rambly.
(can't edit my posts)
Damn. Forgot India. Caste system, all I need to say. Not so sure about Pakistan, Afghanistan, that whole area. South East Asia? No clue, but they seem pretty homogeneous in the smaller nation states, though I gather they're none of them fans of the Japanese. And I'm sure that sentiment is reciprocated. :)
Canada isn't any better than many colonial nations in regards to native populations.
Look up Canada residential schools if you want to know more about how badly Canada treated people in recent history
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A see a few people here saying “they” when we should be using “we.” Just by using “they” you’re exhibiting the mindset of “they, not me” and “us vs them.” Racism is just one facet of it.
Nah they would just invent new races. What's the point of race? What does it mean exactly? Notice that the races in the US at least roughly align with economic classes.
That's not an accident. Obviously without the concept of races, people would still have different skin color and hair, but the implications would be entirely different. Culture, neighborhoods, etc. wouldn't be separated. And most importantly, it would be ever so slightly harder for rich people to make the majority feel like they're in the same group as them as opposed to some "other".
So if there was only one race, the rich would need to invent new ones.
No, you don't need genetic differences for racism.
In fact, in most European languages the words "race" and "racism" are talking more about nationalities than about genetically different population groups.
For example, if you read German articles from the 1920s, they often talk about the "German race", the "French race" or the "English race". In most European languages the word "race" fell out of use after WW2 and the American meaning of the word "race" was re-imported later on. But the meaning lives on in the meaning of "racism".
For example, in German a white person from Germany who hates everyone from France irrespective of their skin color is still a racist, while in the USA that wouldn't qualify as racism.
That's because neither the word "race" nor "racism" have a clear definition. "Race" is used entirely to discriminate "them" vs "us". So "race" determines whatever group people in a country want to discriminate against.
In the USA this was clearly a "we, the while ex-european people" vs "them, the black former slaves" and "them, the asians" and "them, the south americans".
So what would happen if suddenly everyone had the same skin color? People would just shift to the next best thing to discriminate.
Instead of discriminating against black people, just do what has been done in Europe for millennia: Discriminate against slavic people. (The term "slave" comes from "slavic", because it was so common to keep slavic people as slaves.)
And if nations, religions, languages and regions of origin would also disappear as things to discriminate against, then it would shift to the next thing: people who went to a different school, have a different education or best of all: other types of poor people.
The issue is that humans are heuristics-based beings. Prejudices the result of learning. I've had 5 crappy HP printers, so I conclude all HP printers suck. Some friends have had terrible experiences with Fiat cars, so I avoid Fiat cars. I read in the newspaper that Nestle is destroying the planet, so I eat something else.
The problem is that if this is applied to humans, they get unfairly judged for things that are often completely out of their control. The core mechanism that we humans function on happens to be severely destructive in this context. But that's also why it's hard to impossible to get rid of racism and similar forms of discrimination because they are so centrally embedded in how we humans function.
Stupid.
We would have war between gen z and millennials within a week.
See also: The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin.