Racist/Prejudice

[Karma]

while we ALL have been guilty of harboring prejudice about someone/group due to ignorance or buying into stereotypes etc, not everyone is racist.

Some argue racism/prejudice are the same thing but I think there's a clear difference.

That's not to say that one is more palatable than the other but I do think that a person w/ prejudice against someone /group could LEARN & change their thinking versus a racist, who is usually beyond help or hope of fixing their problem.

What do you think?

 

[Rampage]

I would argue 3 things at work: prejudice, racism and discrimination.

We ALL have prejudices because we all have preferences. Prejudices vary in degree and I think we can learn and evolve them as we grow mentally if we are aware of them. These can be most dangerous in a way because we are unaware of them.

Racism is another animal altogether and racists rarely change IMO. They often learn to evolve their behavior so as to make it palatable to general society but they never fail to go against that which they hate.

Discrimination is a tough one because it takes into account both of the above and causes life to be DAMNED tough for people in the minority. Because it becomes entrenched and when it is pointed out people become extremely defensive. Discrimination is the SYSTEM, not the individuals and as such, is hard to pin down and nearly impossible to eradicate.

 

[Black King]

to build off Rampage's post the primary problem i feel is that racism is a learned behavior that builds from prejudice and its just difficult to un-ingrain ideas. Learning behaviors isn't difficult but unlearn is near impossible and combine this with privilege some people never become aware of the difference of another's circumstances, culture or life that they just can't help but hate them for being different.