How much bigotry underlies our hatreds?

[Cyrano]

I don't really know the answer to that question. But I do know that far too many whites of European descent hate black people, brown people, yellow people, red people and everyone else from Muslims, to Jews, to Hindus, to Shintos, to every other "Other" that exists in this world. Hell, there's even an insane number of Americans who hate our president because he isn't white enough.

Many in past centuries fled Europe to find a better life in America. They fled because they were being oppressed. And now that they're here, oppressing those from other parts of the world has become a national pastime for far too many.

In my opinion, there are too many Americans who really suck when it comes to tolerance of the "Other." "They" are taking our jobs. "They" are responsible for the moral decline of America. "They" are to blame for all the ills that have befallen us. "They" are responsible for all crime. "They" are ruining our "Christian country." "They" are destroying America.

Sorry, but it's not the "They" that are doing any of this. It's the incredibly stupid among us who are being manipulated by our own corporate/political system. And there's a word for that system. It's "fascism."

We are being screwed every day of our lives. And those who are screwing us are brilliant at making us hate those who are not our enemies. So you've just got to wonder, how stupid are we? And who are our real enemies?

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. The answer to that is that fear underlies both bigotry and hatred.

Humans are by and large tribal, still, in many ways; people tend to fear and dislike those who are not like them. Witness the attitudes in the 18th century towards Palatine Germans (exemplified by Benjamin Franklin) and in the 19th century to the Irish, neither of whom were considered "white" by most of the Anglo-Saxon majority at the time, but whose descendants have more or less integrated and assimilated into American society. The same will be the case in a hundred years' time with the descendants of today's Mexican and Latin American and Indian and African and Chinese immigrants. In the meantime though human nature has not changed very much and people by and large tend to be fearful of social changes, which is really what this is about at root. It's stupid and mindless and ugly but also very human.

[DenverDad]

2. In my opinion, another aspect of blaming the "other"

is to transfer fault of ones failure to "them". All the problems are caused by "them", so "us" is absolved of responsibility.

Most of the time I'm not sure who "them" or "us" is, so I don't know when I'm "them" or "us". It's hard enough being me.

[Cyrano]

3. During the mid-to-late 19th century, many stores had signs in their

windows that read NINA. It meant, no Irish need apply.

Most immigrants to America experienced this sort of bigotry. So why don't we just stop with the bullshit that America is a land of tolerance and acceptance.

And while we're at it, how about we stop singing "This land is your land, this land is my land ..." That's bullshit too. America is owned by a very small handful of people who use us and abuse us. And, as we've seen since Reagan, discard us like so much garbage.

Bigotry, the using up of the lives of the have nots, greed that has no bounds, -- this is the real America.

Many of us, myself included, have fond memories of our youth, what we thought our country was about, what we thought was the respect and love that the rest of the world had for us, and what we thought we were destined to become.

But the mask has been stripped away. The ugliness is now apparent to all but those who live their lives watching Fox "news."

The America we once thought we lived in has ceased to exist. Only fools believe that it still exists.

[leftstreet]

4. A $30 an hour minimum wage might help

[Rebubula]

5. This is the human race

Everyone has biases against other people for a multitude of reasons - they smoke, the vote Repub, they are fat, Korean, black - whatever.

Racism is a world wide problem and has been since the beginning of time.

Trying to pin this on the European\American whites is myopic. I travel quite a bit in the Middle East and South America. The level of racism there (from the locals against the immigrant working class) is more pronounced than in the States. The treatment of the Sri Lankan\Thai\Malay people working in Qatar was completely disgusting. In Japan, the disdain for all peoples NOT Japanese is overt.

No one country can ever claim freedom from abuse\oppression of another, less powerful culture.

This is nothing new. Both the ignorance of other peoples and the idea that only white people are racist.

[Cyrano]

7. Racism and power are a toxic mix

White European Americans hold more power than any other people in the history of the world. And when anyone has that much power, you can only pity those who are the targets of their bigotry. Not to mention that, during bad times, those targets are the scape goats for everything that has gone wrong.

Wake the fuck up, America. The minorities are not your enemies. They are merely those who are being used to misdirect our bitterness and hatred. And if you don't know who it is that's pulling the strings, you are beyond hope.

[KamaAina]

6. "They" ARE taking our jobs.

By "They" I mean, of course, the multinational corporations who are exporting them in search of cheap labor elsewhere.

[damntexdem]

8. They fled oppressive Europe to a land being stolen from its inhabitants.

That theft being accomplished largely by genocide. And with much of the labor to work that land being stolen from Africa to labor as slaves on the stolen land. And who could have their land stolen, who could be killed, who could be forced into slavery? Had to have some guidelines, and those were fixed on skin color -- basically because those with the power to perpetrate those crimes happened to have white skin. Some reform has been accomplished over the years; some cannot be redressed -- e.g., the Americas are not going to be turned back over to the descendants of those displaced or killed. In fact, many of those killed have no current descendants. But no matter how much has been reformed, we still live with the legacy of the racist, exploitative system that underlay the founding of that America to which so many fled for a better life.

[hfojvt]

9. you may wanna look at your own last few lines

"those who are screwing us are brilliant at making us hate those who are not our enemies"

You just expressed a lot of hatred for a lot of the white working class. You think "They" are incredibly stupid. You think "they" are bing manipulated by the corporate/political system. You think "they" are oppressing others. You think that "they" are turning this country into a fascist state.

Yet, your own rant serves to divide "us" from "them". This is not a good sales pitch for getting their help. If "they" are also being screwed by the rich and powerful, then "they" should be our allies in fighting the rich and powerful.

Yet the rich and powerful are telling "them". "You are real Americans and the country you love is being destroyed by liberal elites who hate you and hate America and think they are better than you . They wanna take the efforts of your hard work away with taxes and give it to lazy people and illegal immigrants."

and then you tell "them". "You are incredibly stupid, racist oppressors and you are destroying this country."

Makes it pretty easy then, for them to hate us, since we apparently hate, and have contempt, for them. Makes it very easy for the rich and powerful to say "see, I told you they think they are better than you."

[Cyrano]

10. Okay, hojvt. Let's just give them big hugs and make believe everything

is just dandy.

[hfojvt]

12. maybe we could teach them to sing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlR0KElxxVg

Maybe we could just forget our differences long enough to fight together against the rich and powerful. Instead of spending so much time talking about how racist they are, we could spend more time telling them "we are all getting screwed by the rich and powerful". Which would you rather do? Fight them, or get them on our side?

[Eddie Haskell]

11. We must reconcile the houses of Isaac and Ishmael

or suffer the wrath of God.