Comment by forty

Comment by forty 4 days ago

19 replies

Beware of generalizing behaviors and qualities based off people races and origins. This is what is called racism and is frowned upon or illegal in many places.

If it helps you, I have one counter example handy: I have had an excellent Indian manager.

xtracto 4 days ago

Ooh and I've worked with several Indian people who are great as well. I was just mentioning the stereotype of how mexican people in tech see them.

I even had a great indian engineer who emigrated from India (his parents are still there) who actually complained about Indian work culture.

It's like myself when I complain about mexican culture (for work, ethics, corruption or mediocrity)... I know that not everyone is like that, but shit where I'm from (southeast Mexico, Campeche) you'll be lucky to find someone that breaks the stereotype.

And I've several friends still there.. I just don't like the education and vslues society imparts us there

  • forty 2 days ago

    Re-reading your comment, it's indeed clear that you were reporting other people point of view, sorry for the accusing tone.

tomrod 4 days ago

Close, that's the definition of stereotyping based on race and can lend to bigoted acts and decisions.

Racism emcompasses a bit of a different scope, including policy, institutional structures, and norms, of which stereotypes is directly related to norms and can be indirectly influential on the others.

  • forty 4 days ago

    Interesting. The word "racisme" in French has also yet another meaning: the word "race" (identical spelling in French) cannot be used for human beings in French (works for cows and dogs) as "racime" is defined by the belief that there are several human "races" (which is scientifically wrong). The word race as used in English is translated by something like "ethnical group" for example.

    However, the comment I originally reacted to would be definitely qualified as being "raciste" by most French speakers (and be illegal in France)

    • dasudasu 4 days ago

      The word definitely is completely idiomatic with regard to humans in French. Look up any dictionary definition. And there’s no law making it illegal in France. Besides, even if it had such a law, the French state doesn’t have a monopoly on the French language. It’s an official language in 29 countries.

      • forty 2 days ago

        Well, try to use the world "race" for human in France at least yes (sorry I'm talking about what I know of, I don't know for other French speaking countries), and you will see the reactions (maybe not as outraged than if you used the N word in the US, but something like that).

        As for the legal part, calling all people of a given origin "bad managers" is definitely illegal here in France (once again, speaking only about what I know of)

    • booleandilemma 4 days ago

      English and America make the distinction between race and ethnic group.

      • forty 2 days ago

        Well I definitely have seen race used for humans in English, where ethnic group would have been correct as their is only one human race, which is why I believe the distinction is more blurry in English

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  • sn9 4 days ago

    That's just "structural racism" which is a subset of "racism".

    If we were to believe that structural racism was the only kind of racism, we'd be forced to conclude that people can't be racist because people aren't structures.

    But it's precisely the opposite as structures are composed of people and racist people are often the reason we have structural racism.

trallnag 4 days ago

[flagged]

  • ipaddr 4 days ago

    Some scholars think it's making judgement based on race. Others scholars think only those in power opinions matters and those without power can make judgements based on race and that wouldn't be considered racism. Others think it's a natural and norm thing based on tribalism.

    But in your example a person of color would have a higher status in America compared to an Indian national. So the person of color is being racist.

    In the future the only acceptable version will be the first because keeping track of who had power in what context is going to be impossible to track and can get easily shifted. That's the definition the law uses currently.

  • wan23 4 days ago

    This is one of those cases where a word can have multiple meanings. And anyway, prejudice based on national origin is, in fact, frowned upon no matter what you call it.

  • samatman 4 days ago

    That definition sounds very convenient for someone who wants to be racist to a group they've decided has institutional power. I can see why such a person would want to twist the plain meaning of an understood term in such a nakedly manipulative way.

    • trallnag 4 days ago

      It's a thing. There's a whole Wikipedia article about it, with quite some references. Enjoy the rabbit hole

  • bigstrat2003 4 days ago

    > To many scholars in the US racism requires institutional power to codify it.

    Yes, that's because many scholars in the US are intellectually dishonest and wish to redefine "racism" in ways that benefit their arguments.

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