This is a question on racism in general which I think exists in people all over the world regardless to some degree. The reason I think this is because I think racism in itself is insane or represents properties of such a title in regards to being a mental illness. I do not think a person could be recorded minute for minute for a year on the face of the planet and not commit a racial act If viewed by all, even while the person could be in fact unknowing of such behavior. This I think is the crucial point. I think racial thought exists because of course people make it so, but the kicker is I don’t think people understand the why or ability to control it. From a population level such as a culture down to individual levels. I think this blindness really of understanding perfectly facilitates the concept of racial thought being at least a mental illness if not a borderline case of insanity on a scale capable of rivaling global warming.

Questions for debate.

1)Do you agree that racial thought could indeed be insanity, why or why not.

Bonus Question.

If you could believe it to be a mental illness, how would you diagnose such and why?

1)Do you agree that racial thought could indeed be insanity, why or why not.

Thats ridiculous.

How do you define "racial" thought? If I am more intelligent then you, obviously i am above you, you are inferior, would this not make me "insane"? Thats just what you asked, a bit silly non?

Bonus Question.

If you could believe it to be a mental illness, how would you diagnose such and why?
[/quote]

I wouldn´t.


OK, lets have a look at Africa, the poorest contintent in the world, and then look at all other continents. IF you look at the afro-american societies, you will see poverty and violence once again.

Do you think this is just a coincidence, or Negros are equal to, lets say Whites? Thats just silly.


This is not Racism, this is facts, how it looks. Have a look at Africa, compared to, oh, lets say North America, and you will actually see similar traits were actual negros are. Thats not a coincidence, comeone. It deserves its own topic for proper debate, but i dont know if its "to sensitive" to be brought up.


I do not look down upon Negros, Asian or Yellow Marsians. But i do look at facts. And in the same way i wouldn´t pretend my dog can do the same as i do, i know that Africa, were our ancestors negros come from, are inferior to all other continents, and it the only explanation is the people living there, which in this case would be negros. Dont even dare to mention "racism" some moot troll insult here, we handle debate in fact, above topic is stupid, thankyou.

-JE

Okay- I understand the question isn't well worded- but damn dude- your entire rest of your post is pretty bad.

1) Doesn't take into account the RECENT movement towards independence from European explotation and oppression. HUNDREDS OF YEARS of exploitation and oppression.

2) Doesn't take into account arbitrary borders drawn across ethnic and geographical borders that breed conflict.

3) Doesn't take into account that those poised to take power when the European powers moved out were those that were corrupt in the first place, by design for the colonial powers, they used corruption of the locals to keep the locals in check- establishing colonial kleptocracy while wiping out other possible checks and balances that might normally exist between tribes and ethnicities had they never suffered under colonial occupation. In other words- the Euros used them to "divide and conquer".

For you NOT to look into the logical and obvious reasons that Africa is still a continent of third world nations- you simply need to look to the much more "civilized" white societies that created this mess- that is a pretty racist thing dude.

Same with central and south America. South America's problems, well they are directly the fault of the US today. WE executted and murdered popularly elected leaders, and threw whole countries into massive tailspins that killed hundreds of thousands. From Central America to Terra Del Fuego- we are the direct reason poverty exists in many of those countries. Hugo Chavez wouldn't have a boogeyman without us!

But to call that the fault of the "negroes" - well, damn, you have to overlook a pretty big chunk of white influence on Africa to come up with that diatribe!

It is not an act of mental illness to be either bigoted or racist. It is an act of nature, its inherent in all mankind as all natural creatures want to be with and among others of like kind. Thus, we have the many different races and cultures around the world, each group gravitating toward their own. It indeed is a noble quest to seek total awareness and inhibit those racial tendencies that are a part of all our makeup, but the exception world be one that is "totally" free from all racial and bigoted thoughts of action not vice versa. Any one that makes claims to not having a racist bone in his or her body is simply lying to themselves in the name of political correctness, as we all from time to time let a racist or bigoted action spring forth. As I said the attempt to overcome this indeed is one of nobility but it is hard to go against that which is an inherently natural tendency. Does that make us bad people? Of course not, what would make us bad, is acting on those thoughts regardless to the knowledge and understanding that we have at our disposal today, perhaps one day that which is inherent will be bread out of us, but until that day, relax....just because you have a racial thought or make an small infraction of political incorrectness does not mean that you are mentally ill, it simply means that you have been overexposed to the modern media complex that makes one believe that if they are not "perfect", they are "unworthy". And people wonder why drug sales have skyrocketed. RD

Yes but who knows history exactly and to what concentration? I think this question is important in regard to my topic. I mean how many people are racist because they know why exactly in regards to history? I mean I know common laws around sex in regards to human interaction at the workplace for instance is typically highly upon to subjectivity. So I guess the diagnose question was to see how many people could adequately define thus diagnose racism. So far I have heard a few replies which I think only support my point.

Firstly "insanity" can have a basis in the human genome. Currently no information exists I think connecting racial thought to a direct biological mechanism empirically. IN fact reality could have it as a mix of nature in nurture growing like people do. I mean how many variations exist to acts of human love, or anger? How about a big one like fear?

See its been easy to subscribe a position on the topic, but I hardly can see it yet as the definition thus diagnoses of racial thought even. Yet humanity collectively still bears it all over the world, which to me can mean it truly must be out of our hands currently to control. Its somewhat akin to hearing no timetable for withdraw exists while the commander if chief or his allies claim the insurgency is in its last throws for instance, makes no damn sense.

So one easy word I think racial thought could take on in regards to label truly is ignorance. I do not see how you can debate such being not only does racial thought seem out of control, variance in individual definition of such shows this along with its subjective roots. The nature vs. nurture aspect of such a concept like racial thought also seems to be lacking, which I would feel to be the only method of understanding human behavior from individual to population level.

To face it racism I think is defined in language to a point which states to its presence in reality far more then most think about.

Hmm, well, racism as mental illness. As I think on this- I am at work in an insane asylum. Literally, right now, writing from the state mental health facility. I am currently working with the chronically mentally ill, the un-placable types that defy the wisdom of NOt institutionalizing poeple.

I have seen racism as a mental illness- it is usually a fixed delusion with some paranoia and wierd ideations that you don't find in a racist pamphlet by the KKK.

for instance, one Korean patient, about 15 years ago, believed that all black poeple were aliens, and white poeple were really black poeple in white poeple skin disguises.

Now, I did a competency and culpability evaluation for the court on a skinhead that was borderline functioning developmentally disabled illiterate. "A freakin' skinhead retard" would be the politically incorrect way to say it.

He had Swasticka's on his head, and all over his body, with tattooed racial slurs and symbols all over him.

Funny thing is- he is a 1/4 Alaskan native.

He was a mentally ill person with racist a fixed delusional complex.

But is racism a mental illness in and of itself?

No, I don't believe so- it appears to be prety much an enviromental deal to me- I don't think one is naturally born racist, I think it is a learned behavior.

I have searched pub-med on this- and this is the best one I found:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?D...Pubmed_RVDocSum

basically- race and ethnicity themselves are artificle contructs of human beings.

Here is the summary:

For centuries, the colonial governments used a combination of race and ethnic characteristics to subjugate and control people of color, and scientists of the day provided evidence of the "natural order of things" to support national policies of domination, segregation and control. There have been many examples of events in the past 70 years to suggest that achievements by ethnic peoples are not genetically determined and that race and ethnicity are merely terms to describe external features, language, culture, social mores and folklore. BiDil was the first drug in this country approved by the FDA for use in a single "race" after a clinical trial that enrolled only members of that race. Thus arose the question of the efficacy of doing race-based research in humans. In order for this kind of research to have any scientific basis, each individually defined or self-declared race would have to have a 100% pure gene pool, and the data show that the gene pool among whites, blacks and Hispanics in America is very heterogeneous. This makes for far greater similarities among U.S. citizens than any perceived differences, and genomic science has failed to support the concept of racial categories in medicine. Scientists involved with the first mapping of the human genome have noted that there is no basis in the genetic code for race. That being the case, there appears to be no justification for race-based research among human beings.

So- the whole idea if it is a mental illness falls on it's face if you are talking about genetic "tags" that make us racist- it appears to be 100% learned behavior at this point.

I was fully aware of the quotation from the link you posted but it does state it rather elegantly so thank you.

I cannot remember who said it but the phrase is akin to you cant see the environment until you see the organism. Now I do not look at a pitbull and think home life typically. I also don’t hold this idea for the concept of a dingo or what the common house cat came from. Yet these animals have been able to be incorporated into various cultures and successfully reproduce and survive via such means. I also notice that a domesticated dog will have a different worldview then a feral one. Yet the qualities of dog we all know such as being able to bite exists. So in reference to people CR you take the position that its basis is purely learnt, well to the contrary what is it being learnt by and how, to me it would signal the answer to be the human organism. So my question basically is how do you state that its purely a learnt behavior with not basis in anything biological, and what I mean by this is people who commit or hold racial ideas out of fear? How does racial thought attack fear? See I think you are getting hung up on something. Its a biologically organism, the human, which produces human history and things for example. So its that organism in real time operation that produces such effects. Then you thusly have a nurture aspect. In your post you take on the position that such is purely nurture. My response is you don’t run windows on a 2mb computer from the past to cut things short.

I also see that for what its worth mental illness geographically can vary greatly in various definitions as it orientates on a giving culture. So again the questions is how do you define racial thought exactly in such variance down to the individual with even things like use of language. If you cannot do that you cant control it nor does it show you really understand it. IF humanity can persist in time with ignorance of what is nature and nurture from a population level down to an individual in regards to behavior how can you define racial thought. I mean microwave ovens do not exist directly in our genome either, at the same time the Romans did not build microwave ovens. Yet the ability to build a microwave oven is directly proportional to our biological reality as a species.

There are some behaviors, that are listed as "mental illnesses" that are PURELY cultural in context- for instance- Anorexia- purely a western disease.

So in the cultural context, there are "mental illnesses" that can only be there in context of enviroment. Same with most of the personality disorders, they need a bad mom or dad or primary caregiver that is pretty evil or negligent at being parents.

"sociopaths are made, not born" - same with "borderline personality disorders" etc- they take a certain enviroment at a young age- there has been a confirmed link between genetics and personality disorders. BUT, In both childhood and adulthood, the largest influence on antisocial behavior was individual-specific environment.

But things like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are pretty much distributed among all nations and cultures- may not be called the same thing- but realistically- it is.

There may be some component that may pre-dispose you to being a racist- but you really need to learn it to have it.

It is not like, say Schizophrenic behavior, that has the gene for that disease, and as soon as the right stressor comes along BAM you have your first psychotic episode.

For instance- the average age for the firsrt "psychotic break" is around 19 - with as young as 9 or 10, if the kid is pubescent at that time (no such thing as schizophrenia amongst pre-pubescent children) - he/she simply needs stress to activate it- but there is no "set age for a psychotic break for a first time racist"

following me?

Yes but in relation how do you know an orientation on racism such as if even the practice of such be an individual is known the that individual. The be perfectly honest I did not know "boy" used in some contexts such as around African Americans implied racial thought. I did not know this until I was 27 years old. It would be easy to say what the Nazis did is the focal reality of racial thinking, but we cant know exactly why it was accepted by so many. Its easier to just prescribe words like hate and some subjective view combined with some history. The reality to me why I bring this up again is to support my point. If you don’t understand the nature of the beast how will you ever kill it? I see racial thought as cancerous behavior in relation to humans that adds little positive benefit to human existence but for questioning such. I don’t see however its defeat while stark ignorance of the situation exists. I mean not to long in our nations past supposed moral people carried out such practice with no notion of its evil. How could that happen and how does racial thought persist? If you cant understand such how do you create for its extinction on an intraspecies specific level? I don’t think one can.

Thusly how does a nation like America heal racial wounds and issues with goalposts one cant even nail down? How do you know we would not repeat the same mistake in a different name and sill allow for racial thought to persist?

I also do not see how you can separate it currently from both nature or nurture. This reality reflects as a whole as far as I understand of a question that can be asked of any particular organism. I mean why did the reality of affirmative action come to stand as it currently is, anyone really know why?