Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. Discrimination can happen between race, nation, colour of skin, religion, culture, wealth and sex. Basicly any factor where a person can the idea they are above others. There are different types of discrimination, like:
- Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination.
- Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the belief that a characteristic inherent in one's sex necessarily adversely affects one's ability even though that characteristic does not necessarily have that effect.
Discrimination is used by governments and religions to excuse systemic and systematic oppression and human rights abuses. Discrimination is learned and not natural. Mostly racism is formed in someone, because of the xenophobia made by the media or what someone has experienced.
In the 19th century, many scientists subscribed to the simple belief that human populations are divided into separate races. This was often used to justify the belief that some races were inferior to others, and that differential treatment was consequently justified. But today we live in the year of 2012 and racism is still strongly present, even in this forum.
How do racists rationalize their behaviour?
1. There is no such thing as discrimination, i am just giving my opinion and using my right to freedom of speech!
They are right about the second part. They are giving an opinion and they are using their right to freedom of speech, but their speech and opinion is discriminating.
2. I am not attacking you, but what you stand for
We here it a lot in this forum too: I don't hate the followers of that religion, i just hate the religion.
They say they are not out for the man, but criticize or hate a certain philosophy or idealogy of someone else. Then it is okay, because you don't attack the person right on. Basicly, they are also saying you are fu-king stupid, because:
A religion or philosophy is your way of life, it is everything you belief in, the reason of your existence and what leads your life. So if they attack your way of life, they attack your life and they attack you.
It is like indirectly saying they hate you.
It is directly saying they hate your way of life, you and that you are stupid
3. Why are you getting upset by that word, it has a normal meaning?
In discrimination people use lots of derogatory words. Those words could have had a normal meaning. But because that word came with a bad message and a bad tone, it became derogatory. Simple words are used to dehumanize and will offend the target. People who use derogatory terms know it harms the other, but justify it by calling them a douche too and asking them why they are so upset, it is just a normal word?
example 1:
The N-word is one of those words. Niger used to mean god in egypt. But then the Romans used Niger to refer to black people, because the Nubians were black. After the downfall of the roman empire, the word niger kept its meaning, namely the indication something is black. At the time of slavery in America, the n-word became very offensive. It harmed the black society, because they were looked upon as something minor by the white society. Even the christians, kept their black brothers in seperate ''less'' holy houses. The KKK still wants this today. You can still see the bad tone of the word in some of the jokes the racists make, like: “Q: What do you call a N*gga on a bike? A: A thief.”
example 2:
An example from this forum, where chutzpah is clearly being racist. You see this malaysian woman calling me Indon everywhere.
There are lots of tensions between Malaysia and Indonesia, so some hate eachother. Indonesians like to refer to themselves as Indo, while Malaysians kept saying Indon. While indon is seen as the correct abbrevation for Indonesia for some countries (as you can see in some dictionaries), the continuous use by Malaysians together with an offensive tone made Indon derogatory for the Indonesians(which you can also see in some other dictionaries.
Here is an article which tells you the Malaysian government calls to its people not to use the word Indon anymore and where its use became forbidden by media. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/02...-headlines.html
A topic in the Malaysian forum, where Malay and Indo forummers debate. Both sides accept it is derogatory. http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?...=indon&st=0
Because Chutzpah is Malay, she should be aware of the fact that Indonesians are offended by it. Still she keeps using it. She uses articles where the word indon is used in Malaysian newspapers, but ignored those articles were from before the ban and that Indonesians were spoken off like they were slaves.
4. they do it, so i can do it too
One of the most childish defenses there is. They use derogatory terms, so we can do it too! Notice that the discriminator sees ''they'' as the whole group, while in fact it was just a small portion of the group which did a certain thing.
For example:
Some Indonesians started to refer to Malaysia as in Malingsia, which means thief country. The word Cina became offensive to Indonesian Chinese, because just like the word Indon, it was used with bad context. So the word also became taboo. Nowadays tiongkok or tionghoa is used to refer to the Chinese community. Even though slowly Cina becomes more acceptable again among its youth, because of the uprise of China. Chutzpah again made a topic about this on the Indonesian forum, to show Indonesians can discriminate too, so she can justify her discriminating behaviour. Not that in this topic (http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=265091&st=0), she claims the Indonesians deny that the word Cina isnt offensive there, but none of the Indonesians ever said such a thing.
5. we cant be racist, because you and my nation origin from the same race
Then it could be technically true that you are not a racist, but you still discriminate, by nation or culture.
6. isolationism, protectionism
A isolated or protectionist country has a xenophobic government. It wants to protect itself against stronger and wealthier countries, who have an unfair advantage. So outsiders have to deal with extra costs or rules, to make it more balanced. Is this really discrimination? some say it is, some say it isn't.
Hypocrite and ignorant.
People who discriminate are mostly very hypocrite and ignorant. They discriminate others, but they will yell racist at you when you say something offensive, be it racist or not. People who discriminate, base their facts on a small part of that whole group. They saw one person blow themselves up, so everyone of that group must be a dangerous terrorist. One person or one article out of the newspaper is a false representation of a group and statistically unjust. For example:
Chutzpah is a Christian and christians learn to love their neighbour, be tolerant and not to lie. Yet she calls other names, defies the rules of her own lord, despises other religions, lies and is hypocrite non-stop. Can i then say that all Christians are hypocritical evil lieing and ignorant humans? No, i can't. Well i can, like i just did, but that will be a false representation of the Christians. Not all of them are like that, in fact, most aren't and luckily still practice their preachings.
Deindividuation, bullies and instigators.
Deindividuation is a concept in social psychology that is generally thought of as the loosening of self-awareness in groups and on the internet, although this is a matter of contention. This is because they feel more anonymous. This is why mobs of people or internet bullies easily make hurtful and evil decisions, because they feel more anonymous. This is worrying, because it shows humans are evil in nature.
Instigators have no problems to be evil or stir up problems, without being anonymous. Aslong they feel protected, may it be by bodyguards or by anonymousity. They show one or more signs from above, to rationalize their behaviour, but they are out to create hatred. They can be aware of it or be stupidly ignorant about it. But they are damaging the world as it is, with more hatred.


