What is racism?
Well the wiktionary says it's a belief that a race is superior to another. Actually there are about 10 definitions listed here.
I was just thinking about this after I watched the movie Crash. OK, so if someone sees an African-American on the street and they become fearful, does that mean that they are racist? When Ryan Philippe's character mistakenly thought that his black passenger in the car was about to shoot him, was that also racist? I don't know.
I know that blacks are less likely than whites who are less likely than asians to get osteoporosis. So that implies that they have more calcium in their bones (ie: thicker bones). That's a fact as far as I know. I believe that scientists have said things about differences in intelligence between races. And they were largely discredited and accused of being racists. As far as I can tell, the only difference between these types of theories is the political implications! I haven't personally looked at the data so I don't know if they were truly flawed scientifically or not.... Just something to think about.
There is also the distinction between ethnicity and race. One is biological and the other is cultural. Anyway, we all know that racism still exists in modern society. In some of us adults, it will be difficult to get rid of, but let's try to avoid passing it on to the next generation !!
2 comments:
I'm always intrigued by athletes that overcome heavy racial stereotypes. To wit:
1) Jason Sehorn, to the best of my knowledge the only white cornerback in the NFL for the past 10+ years.
2) That Chinese dude who won the 110 metre hurdles in the Athens Olympics.
3) Tiger Woods & Vijay Singh, who excel at what is still a pretty racially exclusive game.
I think that black athletes have certain advantages over others which helps particularly for fast-twitch type activities like basketball and NFL cornerback. I wonder if this makes me racist?? Anyway, I agree that Sehorn was an unusual case, as are those 2 Asian dudes. Hopefully that hurdler was not chemically enhanced. Tiger was groomed for golf from birth, so that doesn't surprise that much. I don't think that blacks have any physical disadvantages in golf (they have less opportunities, but Tiger's dad obviously took care of that).
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