I agree, most are prejudiced, but racist is when you hate someone because of their color and effectively try to stop them from progressing, using a institutional apparatus. like jim crow laws
Let me try to say it better. But it won't be as succinct. Better get some coffee. Homo Sapiens is essentially a tribal species. Despite our advanced civilization, people still tend to be most socially comfortable around people like themselves. It's the primary reason we have developed so many ethnicities from a single human source. Ethnicity is a natural thing including the interactions between different ethnicities. Not just race, but all ethnicities. When I say racism here, I'm talking about the whole range of interaction with another ethnicity ranging from silent mistrust to overt hate-driven discrimination and violence. I think every one of us lines up at some point along that scale. If we are honest, every one of us possesses some degree of distrust and disinterest regarding other ethnicities. A few of us are dangerous racist zealots prone to violence. Most of us fall somewhere in the broad middle. Racism is very much a gray scale, not a black and white polarity, as ironic as that sounds. Ethnicity is such a natural system that low-level friction between them also seems natural and we should not even really feel guilty about it. Some of this stuff is very trivial. On the other end of the scale, some of this stuff is truly inhumane, unjust, and immoral. As in everything, there is a proper balance to be found here, but it not possible at this point to pick a fulcrum along the scale and say beyond here, you are a racist and short of it, you are pure and righteous. No one really agrees where that point is. It isn't even a point, it's a band along the scale. Humanity will never be entirely righteous or entirely culpable, it is futile and unnatural to even imagine such a utopia. But shifting down the fulcrum and lightning the gray scale is practical, possible, sensible, and wise. It offers so much more flexibility than everybody having to judge and be judged on whether or not someone is thought to be a racist. So I say we are all racists and I just prefer to hang out with the light gray racists.
I have never worked for any company so large that I didn't know the owner personally. I've never worked for a company that even had a human resources department although I have worked for business that have done contract work for large companies within the corporate structure. If you are antything like the way you post here in real life you must have to act like a robot at work or else you would be fired in a heartbeat.
Ask anyone who works in the corporate world. Like Twisted said you really have no idea. Companies are so afraid of being sued for harassment or discrimination, it really doesn't matter what the meaning behind what someone says is, if another person is offended, you are wrong. To me jokes are jokes. For anyone that is offended by jokes, what that person doesn't understand is the second you are able to joke about things, those things no longer have power over you. The easiest way to get over being offended is to laugh it off. Some people don't see it that way. Some people are actively searching for a way to be offended.
You're giving too much leeway here. It doesn't have to go so far as using an institutional apparatus. To me, just not giving them the same credence could show that.
This is true, for instance my wife took a call a while back for one of her co-workers and spoke to her customer. She later told her about it and refrence him as the "African" guy. Not meaning he was black, meaning like he was from Africa with the heavy accent and all. Not in a derogatory way, there was no friction only a little communication barrier due to dialect. Well the Co worker happened to be a black chic and she hit the roof because Blondie said "African" Went to HR and all. Nothing happened because there was nothing done wrong, same as if he'd been German or French or whatever. Just people taking shit WAY to literal. But yes, it happens
I think we all know a thug when we see one and it's not by the color of his/her skin......I have an aunt who's a certified white trash thug, is what it is. Now the media is trying to make "thug" a demeaning term, everyone is a damn flower and has to be handled with such care even THUGS! Don't tear up your damn city and noone will call you a thug, doesn't matter what color you are.
The word "thug" has been around for 2 centuries.....look it up....it originated in the Hindu language to signify a rogue or cheat, and later, to mean a professional murderer or robber. Its those who need to keep stirring up racist attitudes in order to remain relevant - backed by the liberal wing of the media - that are trying to make everyone think it suddenly has a new definition.
