C'est moi again,

I just put it down to ignorance. I've never personally felt the brunt or backlash of racism or have I the need to use it coz I don't see people as being vastly different or as something to either like or dislike, they are just something we have to put up with. The easiest thing to use as a reason for not succeeding in a job interview for instance or for being criticized for whatever reasons or for seeing favouritism in a teacher is racism. We take advantage of the whole 'freedom of speech' rubbish (I don't believe it exists anywhere). I think it can exist in our subconscious but it's not a lethal racism, more like a feeling of discomfort with those who are obviously not of your own kind or as close as one can get to it. As for Paris, Sydney and other multicultural cities...firstly men will be men and boys will be boys so I don't doubt that they don't enjoy fighting somewhat and use the culture divide as a catalyst to develop conflicts. The North Africans in France or Leon live in poorly (in comparison to the cities as a whole) and very urban areas and are used for labouring or in other words they do the jobs that original French people didn't wanna do. In addition the ruling of no religious symbolism at schools indicates that they might not be prepared to put up with it in employment either. So I do sympathise but violence doesn't get anyone anywhere, it merely takes away from any progressions that may have been made. Our instinct of blaming the usa for the wars when we also know that it’s a particular group of people that ordered the wars to be carried out to the puppet army has no positive implications. All that said Arabs do tend to be a very tightly knit community regardless their origins. The irony really is when u see Arabs roaming the streets of London and entering into shops...all the 'white' retailers flock to ask 'do u need any help?' with that stereotypical view that they are all rich whilst ignoring those who seem more of their own.
We do need to have a particular kind of patience in order to realize that in actual fact our attackers don't understand us. It's becoming harder to tell where people come from too unless they have a strong accent. The tendency to insult ones own is becoming too common too...just a week ago I heard what I’d assume to be an Indian refer to a guy who he had been talking to on his mobile as a 'paki'. To an Indian Paki is an insult to Pakistanis and to a White person 'paki' is an insult to anyone who looks or sounds like either of the nationalities so the whole concept of racism in itself has become confusing. But i did hear that the NN' word amongst blacks became popular during slavery so as to show the white masters that it does not effect them. There’s a saying about learning the white mans language to insult them with it. But if u look at the situation as a whole and how African is being 'kept' helpless and therefore poor, hungry, diseased etc then I do believe that the actual picture of racism is sinking out of peoples minds.

My post is longer then your article and I dunno if any of it makes sense…too late and too focused on my mars delight. Anyway this is a hugeeeeeeeeee topic that goes from here to Pluto.

*'N' word
*Africa

we bas ana 7aroo7 adrabha noum, ma3a alf salama.

Sam
I actually agree with all that you said. I personally, neither than my family, have encountered any racism. I hear about stories in the media, and you always wonder if it is exaggerated or not. There is a certain section of the media which is a bit racist.
Do not get me started on us blaming others for our problems from the USA to Israel, from TV to Haifa. I was reading this article on the Alarabiya about a rape in an Arab country ( will not mention names), and the funniest thing is that some of the hideous comments laid the blame on TV, videoclips, Haifa, Nancy and Ruby!!!!. Apparently men did not rape before the television era. Another topic which can be analysed, but not now I suppose lol.
It is true that boys will be boys, and their parents in a way are responsible. They do try and lie to themselves and others( they probably do believe it)about the misery and discrimination their poor children face. I personally believe Arab men do not know when it is time to step back, and that violence is never the answer, well not all the time. I am not saying to give up on your rights, never ever do that. I always go for every inch I feel I am entitled too, however most of the time, you have different options.
I agree that ignorance and fear do factor in the racism issue.
Well you are probably awake now, but it is goodnight from me.

I meant neither my family.

Violence is the answer to end racism whether it's physical or verbal. Dialogue can do it as long as people understand that we were all born free and equal and diffrences like color, race, gender and religion shouldn't damage us to the point where we kill and harm others over political and social issues. It's the 21st Century and racism should be abolished for the sake of mankind.

hey sam.. omg u write ALOT!!!! u should be like a president or something!!! where r u from anyways?

babe...Oh yes I do like to talk a lot when I get half the chance, ones mouth is very active don't u know and that's why I’ve just finished relishing the delights of a kinder bueno chocolate bar. Mind u my fingers do seem to make a lot more sense then my mouth. Nevertheless if u thinks the above is a lot then u should check out the never-ending drivel I posted in the plastic surgery forum.
I’m what they call a British Egyptian apparently, obviously I’m a superhero from another planet, I can't disclose further details regarding my identity I’m afraid else I’ll be forced to kidnap every participant of this forum. Where r u from?

P.s. On a serious note there are certain issues where I become reincarnated into a Duracell battery such as geographical, national, religious, psychological matters and so forth...I’m not exactly your average star academy poster.

*think

much respect 2 star academy posters

the idea and fear of racism has gone really out of hand i think. ive noticed that when im describing aperson and i refer to them as black or white ppl look at me like ive said the f word. to me its just a description an ackknowledgement of how someone looks. i was never really aware of it even though i lived in usa as a kid. being egyptian i am neither black nor white, and have never bothered to think about someones color. i think in the arab world it is mostly discrimination against religion and country.

the idea and fear of racism has gone really out of hand i think. ive noticed that when im describing a person and i refer to them as black or white ppl look at me like ive said the f word. to me its just a description an ackknowledgement of how someone looks. i was never really aware of it even though i lived in usa as a kid. being egyptian i am neither black nor white, and have never bothered to think about someones color. i think in the arab world it is mostly discrimination against religion and country.

I can only be partially with you Sam. I can tell when it becomes racism (this wonderful family of Middle Eastern decent comes to a local mall and everyone stares while backing away). Other times it becomes the basis of confusion (excuse me but what do you wear that head scarf) which ends up helping by eleviating difference based hatred or worsen it by certain people (like asking Little John why he only says three words in his songs). I assumed that a cop of European decent was being a huge bigot when he stopped me and my friend from voting for presidential elections in 04' (my friend is Black, Native Amrican, White mix and I am a Palestinian, Native American, White mix) by thertenly showing his pistol and yelling at us to go back home. You can tell the signs when your denied for a job because of racial/ethinc background or because you kept swearing and being very intimidation towards women. Racism (like that of during the "revolts" during the 50's-70's) is hugly a case by case thing. As one of Arab decent, I don't support the general thought of the "tight nit group" because my mother relocated to New Hampshire instead of staying in Seattle, WA. So you never hear of my stories of the high school "hunting down" students of Arab decent to find out if another bomb scare was going to happen (just barly after 9/11) and the one of the skin head telling his english clas to take all "A Rabs out of school by their hair and shoot them with a 10 gauge point plank". While racism is that of ignorence, other times it becomes choice and the knowledge you read at the local library ends up more dangerous than a hand gun. Then again that is just me.

Hello people,after reading all of your comments, which were very interesting, I think mainly all of you have agreed that one of the reasons that leads to racism is ignorance.But there many of you might alreay know, that since racism has been around(in whatever form) for so long that it has evolved into different subtypes!! For example, Ignorant racists, and Intellectual racists!! I can give you a really good example(my example) to help you'll differentiate between these 2 kinds.

I consider this incident to be racist, but you guys can definetly correct me if I am wrong.

Just to give you guys a background, I am of east Indian origin, and I have stayed and worked here(United States) for a lot of years now. There was an elderly white lady who was working in the same project as me. Here's what happened.
One day, my friend(a white guy) and me just walked across to her desk for some work related issue and after the discussion was over, we drifted to different topics(mainly because of me coz I like to talk a lot and socialize more). I saw a list of new year resolutions for 2007 on a piece of paper stuck on her workstation. The list was pretty long, like keeping healthy, reducing stress etc, and there was one last one which also caught my eye which said "blow up all our enemies with bombs!", she was going down the list, explaining what each resoltion was all about, when she finally reached the last one(about the bombing out enemies stuff), I swear to God, here's what she said looking at me - " and I dont mean to offend or scare "you" by this last one". I politely replied with a funny tone " why would it offend me? hehe", then I posed a question to her, "where do you think I am originally from?(smirking) " , she replied saying, " From the middle east??". The strange thing here is that she knows that I am East Indian, but she somehow thinks India is located in the middle east, among most of the so called "terrorist nations", and that we have the same culture, speak the same language, which is not true. I think that incident was racist, but that poor lady is clearly quite ignorant coz she has probably lived her life in the same town through out her life and does not have first hand knowledge or experience about places outside her town let alone outide the US.
Intellectual racism on the other hand is used with complete knowledge of the victim. For example, if a guy called me a "paki", and he knows I am of Indian origin(and I would not like being called a paki), he just wants to hurt me(for whatever reasons) by thinking I would be offended or something, now thats intellectual racism.
I think there is not permanent or sudden solution to erase or stop racism. But here's what I think which need to be done to reduce it.
1. Reduce the ignorance- this can be done by reading books, doing some research, and especially TRAVELLING!!, to different places and countries to know thier cultures and stuff.
2. Stop making assumptions based on first impressions like looks or accents about people, a person is much more than his outer appearance, get to know the person first.
3. Dont make stereotyped assumptions about people, treat everyone as an individual, not as a part of a community(which we assume that has a bunch of stereotypes associated with them)
4. Accept that everybody is different, the world was meant to have different kinds of people, so why is it so tough for us to accept these differences? Just imagine a world with the same people, doing the same stuff, it would suck!!
5. Be open minded, we should not start hating all the people of a particular race just because some dumass(of that race) passed some racist comments about you, we have to treat everyone as individual and not a part of a community.

Guys,
Excuse my typo's and a few skipped words in the comment posted above, "the 's' button on my keyboard just came off when I was typing haha, so you might find ome missing s's...:-)

I've never been racially abused on the streets or anywhere that i go, as a mixed blooded aussie i actually consider myself to be more aussie than either asian nor english, Because my mum is filipino and my dad is english. but i have encountered racism on yahoo chat, they were only 3 of them having ago at me cos of my asian background, but i did tell them that i'm not exactly fully 100% asian cos i'm only 50% asian and the other 50% is english and english is my native tongue, now if You put the 2 together that makes me 100% aussie, so anyways i was deeply upset by them but then again i said to myself don't get upset its only the internet i'm in australia and they're in europe, so i learnt to ignore comments like that and just look down on them cos i know they're weak minded and dont possess any dignity within themselves

Racists are just a form of bullies. It has nothing to do with the slant of your eye, the texture of your hair, your surname, or skin color. It is about antisocial bullies , who are just looking for reasons to scapegoat and intimidate others. We make racism too much of a big deal. Excuse me for not being politically correct here, but somebody has to tell the real truth here. God bless Ann Coulter.

BUBBA B..