Folks, I feel bad for even using the word.
I understand it's a touchy subject.

I'd like to give my viewpoint however - Racism is stupid. Simple.

The thing is that it's been happening in an excessive amount in my area lately.
The dumb-ass Facebook push for the Rebel Flag has incited stupidity on a level I've never thought I'd see.

What I'm looking for here is simple .. Is Racism rampant around where you live?

Consider this a "study" run by just myself, for myself.
I know this seems random but I feel like I cannot deal with the local people without knowing for sure what's happening around the globe.
As a member of this "Nexus" I figured more of you would be open to speaking the truth than people in other locations.

I'm sorry for bringing this up.

- VoidTJ

I live in Sydney, Australia. I'm a brown man from Asia. I've never been harassed because of my race. In fact, all of the people I've talked to in my life are pretty friendly. That doesn't mean that there are racists here.

But I have seen it. Racism is not local to one place. If a bunch of different people live in the same place, they're bound to get testy over something. Unfortunately, people are superficial enough to use the race card.

Thank you for your reply.

Mostly I'm just trying to see how much worse our area is compared to other spots on our wonderful little planet.

I'm already losing friends over telling people that I do not agree with them so figured if I can put things into perspective for local folks maybe there won't be so much lash-back.

I know this is going to sound like a "hippy" statement but I simply cannot understand why people are so hateful and why they pick at the dumbest things to have a reason to be hateful. We have so many problems and many of "us" do what we can to create more but then complain about life being hard/cruel... I just don't understand it.

What's so wrong about a "hippy" statement? You have recognised hate is bad. It's a matter of telling your fellow people about what you think. And the key to recognising hate is bad is to not feel hate yourself. You don't agree with racists, I don't either. But you must open their eyes.

Please give this a read and let us know what you thought.

http://www.theatlantic.c...he-klu-klux-klan/388733/

And listen to his actual words: http://loveandradio.org/2014/02/the-silver-dollar/

I've read the article in the first link, it's actually touching ..

The "hippy" statement, I don't really mind.
Instead I know that 90% of people I know would mind it.

I feel like I'm living around a bunch of want-to-be murderers. That might sound extreme but I swear the people around here are just well, Messed up. "Messed" so I don't have to spam this forum with profanity because I'm not 100% sure of The Travelers rules.

This morning I told many people that I did not want anything to do with them if they're so ignorant so I'm a little worried about how some will reply but not to brag but I'm quite capable of defending myself. It just amazes me that people can be so ignorant.

To cut them off entirely is counter-productive to what you are trying to achieve. You must do what Daryl Davis did, talk to them, befriend them. Know why they think the way they do. Once you do that, you can implicitly question their thoughts. You don't even need to be blatant about it, they'll start questioning themselves. You just need to speak to them in a way that is understandable and that will incite thought. Get them to rationally think about other issues, like humanity as a whole. Talk about other cultures and the beauties/atrocities they have. Hopefully, they will begin to see themselves and everyone else as just humans. It's all a matter of putting it into perspective for them. Rome wasn't built in a day, and racists don't change their views in a day either. Patience and persistence is key.

Racists think in an "us or them" mentality. To change that, they must think of just "us", no them.

I wish it were that simple. People are violent though and that's the exact reason I made this post. I hoped that if I could get stats from other places on the globe I would have some conversation material. I'd bet you anything though that over the next few days I'll simply lose friends, get hit/beat up and well it just won't be that straight-forward. I'll figure it out though.

When you get into discussions with these racists, do you become combative when they do? Or do you maintain a calm composure throughout? That is key to a civil debate. Otherwise, it creates war. Two sides who disagree with each other, and are willing to resort to violence, be in verbal or physical. Let them be aggressive. Stand your ground. You know what is right. All you should feel for these racists is pity, not anger.

i live in an area that epitomises middle class england and although i do not see or hear about very much violent racism i do see alot of non violent racism.

the use of racist language is pretty common among alot of people i know/see and im not friends with/aquanted with your typical BMP/national front type person, to me it seem pretty endemic. It seems to me that alot of people who use this language wouldnt in the presence of a person who wasnt white but seem to think its ok to use it other wise.

i think it may be less to do with them being extremely racist and more to do with them being extremely stupid in this area of life, it seems that they use racial slurs against people because someones race, along with there sex, is the most immediately apparent feature and is an easy go to. i think that they see it in a similar way they see using someones weight, height or facial feature as a slur and dont understand the history or extent of white supremecy and therefore cannot see why it isnt the same.

its not good, and with the current situation of increasingly easy global travel and media manipulation of said travel and its effects, i dont see it getting any better.

I live in a place similar to yours, VoidTJ, but not actually in Dixie so the whole Rebel Flag thing is not that big an issue. Still, it's Redneckville USA. The racism here is more subtle, but lots of old school attitudes persist, and the farther you get outside the city the more old school it gets.

If you really think you could be attacked for your views then just don't discuss them. You can't argue or reason with, or shame that level of ignorance. It's understood here that to publicly proclaim you are Atheist is so unpopular it could conceivably cost you your job and you could lose friends so it's not advisable.

Good news is all that's changing. The decrease in racist attitudes between now and 30 or 40 years ago is amazing. Most people here know to keep their mouths' shut regarding racist attitudes and I guess that's progress.

This about sums it up for the area I live in as well.
Lots of racist remarks & jokes among different racial groups but nobody would dare speak that way directly to someone of the race they are speaking so negatively of.

I hear it not only from whites but also to a large degree from the African American & middle eastern population here as well.

It seems to me that it is coming mostly from those who are uneducated & closed minded.
For the most part, those who seem to have a higher intellegence level seem not to involve themselves in this type of activity & have Bette things to discuss.

I live in a nice US college town so there is little to no apparent racism. Personally I just judge people on a case-by-case basis, and that tends to work out pretty well for me. Judging whole groups of people I have never met does not do much good in my opinion.

The neighborhood next to the one I grew up in was middle to lower-middle class and there was racial tension there. I'm in the north yet some people openly displayed confederate flags. There was a black kid who lived next to my friend in the neighborhood and he said he was questioned and asked for his ID a couple times by police while taking out his own garbage. Nothing violent to my knowledge, but weird little things like this. I like to remind people that the Civil War was only 150 years ago; this is only a couple generations if you think about it.

There are some stereotypes based in truth, but these are generally comedic rather than hurtful. My parents went to a Chinese market in NYC once and complained about all of the smelly food and weird raw ducks hanging up. I find that pretty funny (images of them pinching their big white noses come to mind), but it doesn't make me hate Chinese people. It just is what it is. There are also statistics that sometimes show that certain races do certain things more than other races, but usually that is not great justification for avoiding those types of people altogether.