Job Discussion Forums

cameron.mayo · Joined: 13 Mar 2006 Posts: 81

What does racism mean to you...Without taking the piss, no fvcking 5000 word discertations here pls. Short and sweet what is it, what is at the core of it. Again don't take the piss with flowery crap. What does racism mean to you?

cameron.mayo · Joined: 13 Mar 2006 Posts: 81

sweeping it under the carpet is never going to solve it. Its still a hot button issue most of us want to know more about to dillute its power...A good vigorous debate is a way of over coming it. And from what I gather most of us (I mean on the planet) are in favor of knocking it on the head. My guess is most of the punters wouldn't know what's at the core of it.

sidjameson · Joined: 11 Jan 2004 Posts: 629 Location: osaka

What university did you go to Cameron? Wow if only my sociology professors had written their questions in that same no nonsense style. Could have done my degree in weeks not years. Smile

rai · Joined: 19 Jun 2005 Posts: 119 Location: Osaka

abufletcher · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:11 am Post subject:

I don't imagine we'll get very far with "racism" without some agreement on "race." For example, are the Japanese a race? Are Jews? Are Palestinians? Are Americans? How many races are there (assuming you accept any definition of race at all)? Are there three? Four? Five? Ten? 100? 1000? 10,000?

Each year I ask my students these questions and get a pretty predicatable set of answers. But my favorite incongruity of beliefs is this:

Me: How many races are there?
Student: Three, black, white, yellow.
Me: Are the Japanese a race?
Student: Yes.
Me: So how many races ARE there?
Student: Three.

BTW, according my students (in our department of Langauge and Culture) "red" people are from the Pacific islands like Tahiti. I point out that in US culture "red people" are the Native Americans while in Arab culture "the Reds" ("al-aHmar") are Anglos/Europeans. Oh, and Arabs also have a category "green people" (= black moslems from Africa).

The American Anthropological Association has a nice position paper on "race":

http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm

Then we could move on to discuss whether or not anything anyone does that you feel doesn't particularly favor your chosen cultural identity group constitutes "racism."

I'll just add that, personally, I find both "race" and "racism" to be loaded terms which are themselves part of the problem and a hinderance to a solution. But now we're getting into the area of thoughtful discussion, i.e. "flowery cr*p."

BurnChurch · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 34

"What does racism mean to you?"

You want me to be brief?

The answer is: Japanese Police.

that`s the definition of racism to me here in japan.

Anyway this discussion will be there forever because ANY definition of racism is vague in any percentage.
is like defining "freedom"

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

racism to me means Gaijin cards and being put on endless three year contracts and being made forcibly redundant every few years until I retire.

abufletcher · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 12:33 pm Post subject:

And is racism the same as "being prejudiced?" Is any action that formulates any group or culture as "other" racism? (That would be the neo-Marxist interpretation -- we talking epistemic orientations here not politics.) Is any view that fails to take into simulanous account all other viewpoints a racist viewpoint? In other words, is being ethnocentric the same as being racist? Am I a racist (anti-white) if I generally prefer brown skinned women (which I do)?

Paul's "on the ground" definition sounds good though.

angrysoba · Joined: 20 Jan 2006 Posts: 446 Location: Kansai, Japan

Zzonkmiles · Joined: 05 Apr 2003 Posts: 309

I define racism as the belief that race matters.

Hoser · Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 694 Location: Toronto, Canada

abufletcher · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:23 pm Post subject:

abufletcher · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:42 pm Post subject:

abufletcher · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:47 pm Post subject:

And (so many questions!)...does the hate/fear/loathing that many (most?) Japanese people feel towards "buraku-jin" amount to racism?

BTW, for those of you not in Japan, or not aware of such things because Japanese people don't like to talk about it, "buraku" does not refer to "black" but rather to a certain caste of Japanese merchants prior to the Edo era (during the Edo era?) whose descendants are now treated as no long being truly Japanese.

cameron.mayo · Joined: 13 Mar 2006 Posts: 81

What a load of fcuking bollacks- the lot of you. I've never heard so much trollop in all my life. Except:

Zzonkmiles wrote:
I define racism as the belief that race matters

Rai: You're right I did sound like a w^nker, but in future refer to me as Grasshopper not 'Oh great one'
I'm gonna have to fail you however for hiding and not having a good old fashioned stab at the said question.