Am I racist

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I agree that its more about recognising patterns and a drive to catagorise things.

At most it could be regarded as stereotyping.

I really cant see how it is racism.

Its good to double check our thinking sometimes though.

Yeah I wanted to double check myself

That's a good way to put it

No, that would be like calling Joe Biden a communist.

Actually I might clarify my own point. I think racism lies on a spectrum. Its kind of naive to think you either are or you are not. I think everyone has done something racist acting on their thoughts (I'm anti-racist but I know I sometimes act in a way that comes from racist thoughts). So for me I would put myself on the extreme end opposite of being fully racist (i.e. like a thoroughly indoctrinated enthusiastic member of the Einsatzgruppen). What I would say is that when I have racist thoughts I am self-aware and take steps to correct my irrational thoughts. In that respect I am anti-racist. You can do the same if you have a phobia for any members of the human race.

To some extent, stereotyping is a mandatory thing in order to just function. Just imagine if every time you encountered a door, tree or person you had to go through a complicated taxonomy to determine what it was that you're dealing with.

When were' talking racism, typically, we're talking about when you've got a broader than necessary set of characteristics and are clinging to them too tightly to see what's going on.

I think its important to make a distinction between stereotyping for self-preservation and stereotyping for the sake of it. For example Babybird said its been a long time since she took public transport. So naturally she is scanning the bus as anyone else would do. She notices a couple drinking on the bus. She notes its unusual as she has never seen Asian couple drinking in public before. Everything she has done has nothing to do with racism. She has also tried to ask whether it was right for her to question why an asian couple would be drinking in public. Her showing self-awareness is not racist. I would do the same and I'm anti-racist.

People ask commonly if its racist to cross the road if a group of black men walk toward them? My answer would be it depends. Do the group actually look dangerous? If its a group of black men on a college campus who all look Steve Urkle then why would you cross the road? If its in broad daylight in a shopping precinct where there are crowds then again why would you cross? but if its at 2am and there is nobody else around then its purely for self-preservation.

But in my experience when people say "I'm not racist for crossing the road" it often means they have ulterior motives.

But if you are on a bus and a black person sits next to you and you get up and sit somewhere else then are you racist? it should be an open and shut case, the answer should be yes. But...what if there are other empty seats? what if you are a young female and its a black male? maybe the decision had nothing to do with race. I think the subject requires a lot of nuance but unfortunately in this day and age discussing it is triggering.

Human brains seem like they're literally designed to stereotype, that's why being reflective on the stereotypes that exist in our heads is beneficial.

Yep its called heuristics, cognitive short cuts we all use every day. We keep going back to them when we need to make a quick decision about something that comes up. But as I said, using a stereotype to make a snap decision is not quite the same as reading the newspaper and reading about a (insert group) committing a crime and saying to yourself everyone from that group is a criminal. the latter is a problem.

https://youtu.be/z-hZr-kLpbw?si=siK9Y639YhR7leSQ

To cheer up Babybird.

LOL! reminds of old Dave Allen