What is your experience with racism?

This thread was inspired by Bob Olhsson's comments on the "N" word thread elsewhere on this forum. http://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread...=3016#post3016

A lot of what people think about race starts when we are very young. Many of us hold on to what we were taught without really thinking too deep about why, or if what we are taught was wrong. Some of us formed our opinions following a traumatizing experience. Some of us change our views after some life-altering experience. How about you? What age did you notice or experience racism, and if you changed your views, how, and why? What is your background?

Without the platitudes and moralizing, how did you get to where you are today on this issue? Well, it's not really an issue, because race is something that is part of our world and every day life.

Bob's post was on point. I was not taught to hate any race or ethic group growing up, but I was taught that other people were.

I probably became acutely aware of racism a couple of years after the murder of Emmit Till and being an inquisitive child, my mother told me part of the story about our family leaving Mississippi. Later on in life my mother and I would revisit those issues.

I will not go into any significant detail here but I have encountered racism in every facet and juncture of my life. From playgrounds, grocery stores, schools, clubs, military, professional boardrooms and the like. Racism has followed my life like a ghost who you can barely see sometimes, but you know he hasn't went anywhere.

My familiarity with it has not made me bitter or a hate monger for I was "taught" to believe that I could overcome any obstacle that was placed in my path and that it had nothing to do with my athletic ability but moreover the power of my mind. In most cases I have succeeded , in others my response failed miserably. I'll live with that...............


Whenever some one asks this question I remember a friend of the family who served in Korea, he would laugh and say," Oh Racism, thats the word that white men use because they hate, negros, Chinese, Indians, Japanese, Koreans and everyone else" I asked him why was that ? Son I aint exactly sure but they probably hate themselves......

While I can't say that I was adversely affected by racism, nor has anyone ever burned a cross anywhere where I've ever lived, I can say that it's the subtle hints of it that truly annoy me.

For example, when someone not of color smiles at you when you enter an elevator, yet, you can feel their icy stare boring a hole in your head. And if you turn quickly enough, you can often catch them in the act, before they quickly divert their gaze upward, therefore concealing their action. Or when two people, one of color & the other not, dressed the exact same way, carrying the same kind of backpack, yet the eyes of the clerk always seems to follow the black shopper. And if not that, they often seem to find a reason to drift toward the aisle that the person of color is perusing.

I've found that very often, it doesn't matter if both customers are wearing dressy clothes, wearing ties. If anyone believes that this is overstatement, then I'd like to take a stroll with you through the various neighborhoods of N.Y.C. & let's put it to the test. Or how about when you walk into an elevator & a woman who's not of color instinctively cluthes her purse a bit closer upon your entry? Or how about the guy whom you go to school with who automatically assumes that because you're black, you're interested in helping him sell drugs because he believes that you're from "the hood" & would have no poblem selling that poison to your people because you're that much in love with the possibility of making some fast money?

Does this mean that these are life-altering traumatic experiences that will devastate anyone? NO. But it still doesn't stop it from being annoying as hell.

Juice....
.....this brings up a question I've been meaning to ask for a long time, but in as much as you're a thoughtful person, I don't know if you're the person I should ask. But I'll swallow both my pride and my foot and ask anyway.....

How do you feel towards Hispanics?

If you want racial conflict in the Pacific Northwest, or the West in general, you look at the Hispanic population, who seem to get it from all sides without regard to race, creed, color or national origin. Black/Hispanic tensions have tended to run very high at times in Seattle, not only involving recent imagrees [[is that a word?), but with Hispanics who have lived in the area a long time. This tension is on top of the friction between Hispanics and Whites that has been an ongoing problem for years.

I have to give La Rasa some credit for learning the lessons of the Civil Rights Movement in the 60's and putting them [[at least to some extent) in practice, but it bothers me a great deal to see the racism directed at anyone, and the ongoing tensions between the Black and Hispanic communities absolutely baffles me.

Doug:

The thing is that I can get along with just about everyone. I've never gotten along with outright knucleheads, but I can get along with young kids & we don't have the kind of dialog that you hear most people my age who speak about young kids whom are disrespectful to them. I can prettty much get along with any REASONABLE person & that's regardless of age, nationality or any of that other nosnsense that divides people. And doing what I do, I have to get along with all types of people, even knuckleheads. I must admit that doing what I'm doing now has gone a long way in making me much more of a people person than I was when I was younger. I just hate nonsense & never tolerated it well. I guess that I'm still learning & am far more outgoing than I was even 10 years ago.

What it comes down to is simple...I like anyone who is going to do right by others. I like anyone who wants to try to make a way in this often crazy world with a minimum of strife. I like anyone who just wants to live without a whole bunch of silly nonsense because we're all down here trying to make it & I don't like to see anyone profit off of the misery of another.

I honestly don't understand why there should be any tensions between Blacks & Hispanics, as we've been on the same side of the fence for decades. I can only say that when I was growing up, it appeared to me as though we got along pretty well. It was as though if we were able to make strides, that that would make it possible for them to make strides as well. With that said, there was always the realization that there were differences between us.

A few ideas about this come to mind as possibilities...

1. We're pitted against one another for pretty much the same little piece of the pie & the survival instinct kicks in.

2. Nationalism. Most Hispanics come from a land that they can claim. They have their own language, their own culture & I've found that quite a few whom while are American citizens, often identify themselves in terms of their native homeland, before claiming America.

All whom I've met or know express a great pride in their homeland & I wonder if that feeling that they have a home other than America is behind some of the friction which sometimes occurs. For the American Black, this IS our home & I wonder if there's some fallout from that. That feeling of pride of being able to go back home from time-to-time. Others may be able to do that, but as American Blacks, what home can we claim to be our own other than here? It's as though our roots have been ripped out of the ground. A Polish person can visit their native home, an Italian, German, Swede & others can do likewise. Where can an American Black go & truly feel that they're home? What land can we visit & see grandparents, aunts, uncles or family that we know?

We've been cheated out of that part of our experience & when there's so much racial strife here at home, it's simply not a good feeling because THIS is OUR home.

But many people fail to realize that.

There are other possibilities...

Today, as the economy tightens & times get tougher, it appears as though those differences are becoming more glaring. I also believe that there is a bit of a macho thing involved with the fellas. And in many places, many, but nowhere near all of the young men are involved with gangs. When you mix that with a little testesterone, drugs, overpopulation, the quest for money, a growing dropout rate, jobs that are disappearing by the day, a violent society & kids with too much time on their hands & nothing to do, you have a recipe for disaster.

Doug, other than my first response, I can only speculate as to the reason why this exists. I honestly don't have an answer for your question.

Racism is almost instinctive in a society and pretty much endemic. It's complex because education can eradicate it but the most educated often are racist.

In Canada, racism at it's peak was ripping native children from their parents at age 5 to go get them educated in the Canadian/British/White school system; the alcoholism and fetal alcohol syndrome that resulted still plagues Canadian society.

My Canadian relatives who lived in Dallas in the 1990's were horrified by how African Americans were treated and how they got all the crap jobs; my wife visited and felt exactly the same. And apparently the 60's changed all that ~ well for some.

My son married a Sikh girl; everything is great now but they were in hiding for 4 years, she was virtually disowned for being disloyal to the Motherland ~ they got marred at a Sikh Temple a couple of years ago and now we all clearly understand the "subtleties of racism".

Racism exists because I talk different, look different, act different, walk different.

Acceptance of everyone, however different, is very hard. Many people think they know acceptance and practice it but when faced with somebody different, don't even understand their racism.

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I learned about racism very early. My grandparents brought family members from Europe [[Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Lithuania) who were Holocaust victims to live with us in Canada, because they lost their homes [[sold to Christians when they were deported to the slave/work and death camps). I grew up from 1946 through 1957 with them in our home, and my grandparents' and my uncles' and aunts' homes [[all in the same neighbourhood). People would come over, and 2-3 would be with us for 1-2 years, until they got jobs, learned English, and saved enough money to go out on their own. Then, we'd bring someone else over. My aunts and uncles in Chicago did the same thing. I also spent time with uncles aunts and cousins in The Netherlands in summers [[and some winter vacations), several of whom were concentration camp survivors or had been hidden in Christian families' cellars or farm barns. I learned from those people that the many [[if not most) Christians hated them and killed them and even their innocent little children, because they believed that our Jewish ancestors "killed their God" [[Jesus Christ).

When I was growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, we had a lot of Ukrainians in our area [[we called them "Ukes"). They used to pick on us Jews [[jump us in big numbers [[outnumbering by quite a bit) and beat us up. They brought that tradition of "Pogroms" from their old country to the New World. I used to see Nazi signs [[swastikas) on city walls saying bad things about Jews. [[I saw that in Chicago, too). I also met a lot of English Canadians that hated The "Frenchies", and Inuits. But, the racism was much, much worse in USA. We used to spend some of the summer in Chicago and winter vacations not spent in The Netherlands. We stayed with family in Chicago [[South Chicago), which was mostly Caucasian in the early 1950s, but started getting "mixed" [[African -American/Caucasian in the mid-late '50s, and was fairly well mixed by 1959, when we moved there. I had been introduced to The Black Community there from the beginning of the 1950s, because two of my uncles had stores in the middle the all-Black South Side. I spent much of my time working in my uncles' stores there and making friends there. I worked in my fathers store on The South Side starting as soon as we moved there in 1959.

In my family, we were taught to respect all other people and live by "The Golden Rule" [[basically encompassing all 10 commandments). We were taught to stick up for the underdog [[as our people knew for 4,000 years, what it felt like to be in that position).

There was a LOT of racism in Chicago in the '50s. There were Hillbilly gangs, Black gangs, Puerto Rican gangs and Polish gangs. The WASPS hated The Blacks, The Poles, The Jews, The Irish[[being Catholics), The Puerto Ricans. The Polaks took over The Ukes' job of Jew-baiting in my new city. There were neighbourhoods you didn't go into [[off the main streets), if you wanted to stay healthy. I never had any problem in The Black community. That's where most of my friends were. But I got a lot of bullying and flack from The Poles.

There's still a lot of racism in USA, as compared to Canada or Scandinavia, or The Netherlands, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was 50-60 years ago. There's still quite a way to go to have everyone equal under the law, [[in terms of enforcement and private firms following the spirit of the law), and in regard to how the people treat each other. It's steadily improving, but at a slow pace.

In The Netherlands, there is subtle racism against the former colonials who moved there [[mainly after WWII) and the migrant workers. There are a lot of Indonesians mainly from Java)[[many came just after WWII), Moluccans [[also from Indonesia), Surinamers [[From Dutch Guiana), Caribbeans [[from Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, etc.), African refugees, and a lot of Moroccan and Turkish workers. There are a small number of White racists who hate all foreigners, and some who just hate all "non-White" foreigners. But, the bulk of the Dutch population more or less accepts The Indonesians, who now speak good Dutch, and are integrated into society. But, they resent The Moluccans, Surinamers and Muslims who don't bother to learn the language and old-country customs, and don't take on the customs of their adopted land.

What age did you notice or experience racism, and if you changed your views, how, and why?
With 5 years i experienced racism first, it hurted me, but i couldn’t understand back then.
I just saw that all this racism wasn’t good for the people. And i never wanted to have anything to do with it, or people that aren’t able to live in peace with others or themselfs. So I never really changed my point of view and my feeling towards other people. I always loved other people from the beginning. Later in my life i learned more about life and racism, then i had the certainty, that it was not in me to hate someone else because of his origin.

What is your background?
Male, 43, german-light skinned. Growing up with all kind of different nationalities. Mother of my daugther is dark skinned, my best friends are dark skinned, both american and african origins. My neighbours are dark skinned.

Without the platitudes and moralizing, how did you get to where you are today on this issue?
You ask me to describe a state of mind with only language as tool. It would be better to be in the same room with you, so you might feel me behind my words. In our world today a lot of people intentionally interpret language wrong. But i try and trust you to understand without being partisan.
The differences between people can only fade away when we learn who we truly are. Racial reconciliation is not part of any political agenda, never was, and never will be. It is you and only you that can find peace with others. Endless debates about racism filled with anger and low tolerance towards others is what the world is doing since thousands of years. But anger, or low tolerance for other peoples language and mind skills are no good tools for a fruitful debate. Most racism comes from uneducated people, and that means, uneducated in the sense of who they are and what they are. There are 2 sorts of people in this world, people who follow other people or thoughts of other people and people who search for what is inside of them. In the ‘’Word thread, i asked if you feel equal inside, and why the outburst of fury from others does hurt you in the first place? But i didn’t get no answer from nobody. That shows that some aren’t looking for a final solution for themselfs, but rather just make a verbal snapshot of the current and past situation. They ‘repeat’ in their own wording the hate that they get from other people. They use the same words and terms that they hate so much. Stop using language that hurt you or others, is the first step for a better life and future. Stop the anger, and learn to tolerate. Learn to tolerate that not all people will love you, and that some people hate you and all that you represent. You can walk away from any trouble that comes your way, you just have to arise and start walking. It is Love that allows people to see other people as equal no matter their origin. It was Love that brought me to where i am on this issue today.

Ollie, your 5 cents is as important as anyone elses.

Everyone has their views and their experiences and the range will be wide and some people will not relate at all to the experiences of others.

Rob, I'm just curious how it was growing up in The Vancouver Area, at the time you grew up. I'm guessing that the racism was milder than just after WWII in my neck o' the woods [[Winnipeg). I have visited friends and relatives in Vancouver many times, and it seems like a great city[[one of my favourites). But, I never stayed long enough to find out how it is day-to-day over years. I know there is a big Chinese community there. Is their any prejudice [[so-to-speak) against them there? What about Native Peoples? Did you experience any racism as a youth? Whereabouts do you reside within the Greater Vancouver Area? When did you grow up? How different are things now?

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Ollie, I know from my many visits with you, that you are a person who accepts each person as an individual, and judges him based on his actions, rather than his ethnic or cultural background. From my experience of living in The Netherlands, having family members murdered by the Nazis and most others living through the concentration camp horrors, and knowing that most of the Dutch population has parents or grandparents who suffered through the "Winter of Starvation" in 1944-45 [[when The German Army removed most of the food in that country), I know there is a tremendous amount of hatred for "all things German" among The Dutch People. I know many Dutch people who dislike all Germans, even today, despite the fact that most of today's German people had nothing to do with The Nazi atrocities.

Most of my family members [[Jews) won't even buy German products, or travel through Germany, despite the fact that West Germany was Israel's best trade partner [[and unified Germany still is very friendly to Israel), and that the current Germans are "innocent" of Nazi crimes. I, Myself have a German business partner, who is also my best friend, and have many, many other German friends [[even some who were adults during Hitler's regime).

I am curious to know if you, yourself, as a German living in The Netherlands, have experienced any racism, or uncomfortable situations related to those issues. I, myself have witnessed it, and heard a lot of snide comments when the speakers thought no Germans could hear.

Rob thank you, and yes i did experience dutch peoples racism. I once went into a store [[dutch country side) and wanted to buy something, due to my german accent the older guy behind the counter realised i wasn't dutch and he started to say things like: I won't serve any germans in my shop, then he called me nazi and some other nasty things. This came completely out of the blue with no warning signs ahead. I was kind of shocked because i didn't expect this kind of treatment from the man. I walked away from his shop and never went back to that city. Same happend to me with younger people here in The Netherlands.They must have getting the anger and hate from their parents i guess. One dutch co worker called me a nazi out of the blue, actually a younger guy with no WW2 experience at all but full of hatred for others. I always wondered why some dutch people do that, the dutch history itself is full of blood, war, slavery and the notion that they are supreme beings. I have to say that not all dutch folks are like that, but many still have this attitude. I think they are uneducated and bored with life, that is why they have time to hate others.

Rob i hope to see you on your next visit to Amsterdam.

Vancouver is probably the San Francisco of Canada I guess; yes, it is very much more liberal than much of Canada. I grew up outside of Vancouver in the Interior and it was probably more similar to Calgary and Winnipeg than it was to Vancouver.

When I was very little, the RCMP used to let the Natives fight outside the Hotel in Burns Lake ~ they didn't even intervene, partly because there weren't enough of them and partly because it was just the "drunk natives" and that was the polite term. Natives were only getting used to alcohol in those days and suffering the initial effects of the residential schools.

The late 50's and early 60's were the days of immigration from Europe and BC saw a lot of Dutch, Italian, German, and Japanese immigration. I'm not sure why more Japanese would come to Canada because they had suffered through the internment camps of the Second World War. And we had an American Radar Base near where we lived. So the Americans thought they were better than most of the rest of us; the Canadians had to "suffer" Germans as their new neighbours - guys they had been shooting at a few years before; and lord knows, the Germans suffered for that; and everybody was a Wap or a Chink or a Jap and Kraut. We had one African American living in the area, Cal Washington, who was an awesome ball player and everybody loved Cal ~ he worked at the Radar Base but never went home when they turned the base over to the Canadians. Hmmm, wonder why now. The strange thing was I don't recall ever hearing anybody rag on Cal but they sure ragged on the Germans and Italians.

So, Robb, racism was prevalent.

From my son and his wife, the Sikh Canadian, I have learned all the subtleties of racism. I think it is endemic and instinctive in all of us. I dislike identifying her as a Sikh Canadian and only do it here because of the discussion. Her name is Rita; she is a Canadian Citizen born here; her skin is kind of like Barack Obama's. None of that is relevant other than her name is Rita and she is a decent human being.

People are people; I ignore their color and their ethnic background but it is a lot more interesting to me if they come from places other than BC. As people from SD know, if I am intolerant, racism will come close to the top of the list. I truly believe many people don't really understand it or all that it is.

I recently heard a radio interview on CBC with Toni Morrison.

She said her father hated all white people, just flat out ~ because they were white. And her Mother spent a lot of time wringing her hands, rolling her eyes and sighing while making excuses for her husband.

Toni's father reminded me of Archie Bunker.

Do any of you know people like that?

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Originally Posted by jobeterob

People are people; I ignore their color and their ethnic background ...

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Actually, that's not the right thing to do. It is actually insulting to ignore someone's identity. Recognize someone's color or ethnicity, but don't use it, or judge with it. See the difference?


BTW, this thread is telling. Most people are very uncomfortable talking about race, even on this forum. This is what's wrong with this world. People don't want to talk about it because they don't want conflict or confrontation, but that very avoidance perpetuates the problem.

I'm sure a few people have passed emails and PMs on this forum agreeing to either avoid the issue or to put me on ignore. But what does that solve?

I recall about a decade ago, Queen Latifah did an experiment of having a Black person live with a White person, and have discussions about the experience. She even hosted a forum on the issue. It was quite successful and peaceful until she ended her show, and the message board had to go too. It was very productive, and there was very little hostility. People actually made the attempt to understand the other person. We really need that today!

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I lived in a "communal house" that had 6 African Americans and myself. We got along fine. They accepted me, and treated me as just another person, because I had done the same towards them. If people are opened to dealing with people as individuals, for just who they are, and treating them by "The Golden Rule", there shouldn't be any problems that can't be handled. The same for other cultures. My housemate in USA is Chinese. We get along fine. I'm learning Chinese and she is learning English. I live with Dutch people in The Netherlands, German people in Germany [[despite the fact that The Nazis murdered half of my family), Danish people in Denmark. I have lived short periods with Native Americans and Native Canadians, Sudanese, Israaelis, Jordanians, Egyptians, Moroccans, Tunisians, Syrians, Ethiopians, Iraquis, Canadians and even Americans in their countries, and had no problems.

After building strong friendships with my Arab friends, I told them that I was Jewish, and 1/3 of my family lives in Israel. Had I done that when I first met them, we probably wouldn't have become good friends. But once we knew that each other were fully human and shared humanness, heritage didn't matter. It's difficult to toss away a friend who you trust and have good feelings for, just because some people who share a heritage with him or her, are doing things you don't like. If the person in question were doing the same thing, it would be different. But each person we meet should be treated according to his or her own actions.

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Originally Posted by soulster

BTW, this thread is telling. Most people are very uncomfortable talking about race, even on this forum. This is what's wrong with this world. People don't want to talk about it because they don't want conflict or confrontation, but that very avoidance perpetuates the problem.

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I think you are correct with this idea. We had some heated threads about racism on The Old SDF. The subject is just too close to home, it seems.

This is a very good thread. I can learn from it.

Toni Morrison found out after her father died, that he was racist because [[of course) of the experiences he had in his life. Whereas her Mother, who tolerated but was embarrassed by her father, had heard of lynchings, her Father had experienced it. And he was forever changed by it and not able to get beyond it.

Soulster, I do agree that to recognize ethnicity is rewarding, can be exciting and it is enriching to learn about it. But the line between "recognizing" and "distinguishing" on the basis of that ethnicity is so small; and you've both been saying, it is such a sensitive topic.

The problem will never go away until there is meaningful dialouge about it, and people try to understand each other. No one wants to do that.

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Originally Posted by soulster

The problem will never go away until there is meaningful dialouge about it, and people try to understand each other. No one wants to do that.

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Soulster i don't understand you. You started the thread with good questions and probably good intentions, and now you end the thread with the statement that the problem will never go away.
It seems to me that you are not able to understand others and that you doubt that we/others have a meaningful dialouge about it. Please first define "meaningful" and secondly please don't make the statement that no one wants to have a meaningful dialouge about it.
I don't try to understand i DO understand, & that's big difference my friend.
Do you understand me ?
Peace!

...in Britain there is institutionalised racism everywhere ...and it basically comes down to the fact we are different and in our multicultural society we often speak different languages

...I know kind little old ladies ...who call anyone from the asian sub-continent 'Pakis' ...and who push in, in front of blacks and asians, in queues ...as if it was their right ...they grew up in a different age where blacks and asians were regarded as 'subservient'

...I grew up in this white society ...but became sidelined by friends and family when I married a black lady from Mauritius in the mid-70's ...even my own mother made up dispicable stories against my wife in the hope I would leave her

...in the 70's and 80's neo-fascist organisations were on the rise spreading racist propaganda in Britain ...I and many of my contempoaries joined the Anti-Nazi League to campaign against and actively confront their excesses ...mainly trying to prevent them marching and rallying through my home town

...I have 3 beautiful children ...now all adults...who also suffered racist slights from other children when growing up ...I'd always confont the child or their parents ...while trying tio educate them that racism was born out of ignorance

Sadly ...after 20 years my marriage ended ...but a number of years later I met the new Mrs Grape ...while on a bike ride ...she is white ...what I didn't realise is that she ran the local Multicultural Group ...and this weekend just gone ...we went to the annual multicultural festival ...an event inconceivable just 30 years ago

Grape :)

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Originally Posted by ollie

Soulster i don't understand you. You started the thread with good questions and probably good intentions, and now you end the thread with the statement that the problem will never go away.
It seems to me that you are not able to understand others and that you doubt that we/others have a meaningful dialouge about it. Please first define "meaningful" and secondly please don't make the statement that no one wants to have a meaningful dialouge about it.
I don't try to understand i DO understand, & that's big difference my friend.
Do you understand me ?
Peace!

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First of all, I did not end the thread.

This thread lay dormant for weeks without any responses from anyone but two or three people. That proves to me that most people are just not interested in the discussion, and I can only assume it is out of great discomfort and an unwillingness to deal with the issue. And, yet, here you are attempting to make this about me instead of dealing with the issue.

What I see going on in this country, even today, infuriates me. All this shit about 'socialism" and "muslim" and Obama not being an American, along with recent gaffes by all these conservative mouths, is nothing more than covering up for the fact that these people do not like a Black president of the U.S.. It's that continued avoidance of the real issue, and the fact that so many people are not willing to address it, is what gets me. In other words, people talk around the issue. You have schools in the south that are more than ready to turn back the clock to the 40s, yet no one talks about it. Glenn Beck attempts to soil the remembrance of MLK, Jr., and no one but a few famous people say anything. Republikkkan-tea-baggers want to repeal the 14th Amendment, and Blacks stay silent. I mean, WTF???

And, sooner or later, someone will come along and tell me not to worry about it. Maybe some of you want to go back to the 1920s!

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I'll agree with you that USA is still a very racist country. Britain, and all the European countries still have a lot of racists. The racism in Europe and USA and Canada is less than it was 20-60 years ago.

I suspect that it is in human nature to divide into smaller groups and think of a "we/us" vs. "they/them". So, if all the so-called races [[e.g. people showing similar major VISIBLE characteristics of breeding groups) were to mingle/blend so much that they'd become one skin colour, hair texture, etc., they would divide along some other lines.

Unfortunately, the amount of "racism" will probably vacilate back and forth in the future, based on how much education the basic population gets, and what tragedies occur based on racist hate mongering. I don't see how the gigantic population of humans can ever come together completely to treat everyone justly and fairly, as it is inbuilt in Mankind's instinct to want more [[as a survival measure). People wanting more, to bolster them against times of less [[famine) will always bring about the need to organise and have leaders. Once you have leaders, you have struggles for power and demagoguery. The latter leads to trying to lead the people astray for one's own greedy purposes.

Hitler didn't really hate Jews. He used the traditional hatred of the Jews as a political tool to get the basic German and conquered European peoples behind him. He showed NO hatred or animosity towards Jews his entire young life, until starting his political career in 1920.

If they can't use skin colour as a way to divide people, they'll find something else. It's something Mankind will always have to fight against, and be ready to educate as many people as possible to use their own brains and own past experience to see logic and not listen to the poisoned directives of people trying to manipulate them.

Tamla617,

I'm sorry, but I can't read your post without proper writing structure. It's too much hassle.