No, you don’t need genetic differences for racism.
In fact, in most European languages the words “race” and “racism” are talking more about nationalities than about genetically different population groups.
For example, if you read German articles from the 1920s, they often talk about the “German race”, the “French race” or the “English race”. In most European languages the word “race” fell out of use after WW2 and the American meaning of the word “race” was re-imported later on. But the meaning lives on in the meaning of “racism”.
For example, in German a white person from Germany who hates everyone from France irrespective of their skin color is still a racist, while in the USA that wouldn’t qualify as racism.
That’s because neither the word “race” nor “racism” have a clear definition. “Race” is used entirely to discriminate “them” vs “us”. So “race” determines whatever group people in a country want to discriminate against.
In the USA this was clearly a “we, the while ex-european people” vs “them, the black former slaves” and “them, the asians” and “them, the south americans”.
So what would happen if suddenly everyone had the same skin color? People would just shift to the next best thing to discriminate.
Instead of discriminating against black people, just do what has been done in Europe for millennia: Discriminate against slavic people. (The term “slave” comes from “slavic”, because it was so common to keep slavic people as slaves.)
And if nations, religions, languages and regions of origin would also disappear as things to discriminate against, then it would shift to the next thing: people who went to a different school, have a different education or best of all: other types of poor people.
The issue is that humans are heuristics-based beings. Prejudices the result of learning. I’ve had 5 crappy HP printers, so I conclude all HP printers suck. Some friends have had terrible experiences with Fiat cars, so I avoid Fiat cars. I read in the newspaper that Nestle is destroying the planet, so I eat something else.
The problem is that if this is applied to humans, they get unfairly judged for things that are often completely out of their control. The core mechanism that we humans function on happens to be severely destructive in this context. But that’s also why it’s hard to impossible to get rid of racism and similar forms of discrimination because they are so centrally embedded in how we humans function.
… that is not how race works.
we already ARE the same race. we constructed differences to divide us, elevate ourselves and put down outsiders without having to accomplish anything.
Imagine a world where everyone taller than 6 feet is considered a different social class. that’s race.
I get it and agree mostly. I definitely think socioeconomic classes are more of a defining/dividing line than a heritage you happen to share with someone.
Only <1% of any humans DNA differs, but I think a better point is that everyone is atleast 50th cousins or something (Granted if you share a heritage its much closer)
But also if you told someone like my girlfriend that race isn’t real she’d probably sock you. She’s experienced it and its very real to her.
When we started dating I would actually try to talk about how I don’t understand why she would side with someone solely because their skin was dark like hers and it would be a point of contention. She would literally associate with someone that objectively did something she thinks is reprehensible because of literally only that. She grew up very wealthy and never hurt anyone, guy on the news was someone in and out of prison who literally fired first on the guy that revived him with narcan–but they happen to have the same color of skin.
As a boy other Latinos would literally antagonize me for “acting white” because I would rather read during recess than play football/soccer–because being educated is associated with being white; we were the children of poor families with gangbangers as role models so we must obviously be destined for different things /s
I feel like a lot of racial issues are cultural and self-perpetuating. But my girlfriend in particular was the only black woman in a white conservative town, people would open doors for her friends and close it when it came to her, If I visit her hometown she doesn’t want to be out for long, etc. So I get why it is very important to her.
The rich are the ones that made race into a problem. Racism isn’t organic, it was constructed by colonialism.
Any small difference in personality is gonna be used to justify what is wrong with the world.
We would have war between gen z and millennials within a week.
Hahahahahaha no, look at India.
India
At least top and bottom are about race.
What is race though, the Irish and Italians weren’t white till what the 50s?
Bosnia would like to have a word.
nah… equally looking people, indistinguishble from each other, have managed levels of hate high enough to attemp genocide
Right. Like, can you imagine what society would be like if we let bald people vote? /s
That demon is left handed!!!
that animal has a unibrow!!! to the pitchforks
I wish, but no.
For one, they would blame religion.
Barring that, they would find any other differences among us to blame.
Barring that, rich people will use their power and influence to make sure we find some way to blame each other instead of them.
The main reason why we refuse to blame rich people for our problems is because most of us want to be the rich people causing the problems. Until we can get that idea out of most of our heads, we shouldn’t expect these problems to be solved.
I don’t have much hope, personally.
Look. I live in a small town. The people one town over are dumb as fuck and ugly inbreeds.
They say the same about us.
See the problem? What we need is for the fucking psychologists to step up their game and develop bulletproof tests for sociopaths.
Keep them out of positions of any power and we’re well on our way for a golden age of humanity.
all people have like 99.9% of their DNA in common, that hasn’t stopped them from waging wars in the past.
There’s still Religious bigotry… That’s worked as an alternative for eons
Race was invented by them to divide us. They’ll just invent something else.
They already use gender, sexuality, nationality, anything really. Race is just one of many strings on the harp of bigotry.
Absolutely. Religion, language, country of origin, gender, age, there’s no shortage of useless ways to divide people. Our differences aren’t the issue, the issue is the rich and powerful exploiting our differences to pit us against each other.
Indian hate goes up whenever india related policies go into effect, trump tarrifs india and no one gived a fk since all day see is normalized indian hate for months prior
We are all the same race we are just different colours. Can you imagine any other animals fighting over their looks.
People will argue about something else. You can change the parameters of the simulation but you can’t change the outcome.
