Thoughts on the clear racial prejudice on this forum

[jokerswild]

American Airlines is obviously the most prejudiced. Prejudice and racism are similar, but two different things. For his edification, "White Americans" don't exist. It is a racist construct. Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, German-Americans, Polish-Americans, Anglo-Saxon Americans, etc. all have their own social groups, clubs, political movements, and holidays. "Whites" don't need to have a separate KKK day.

People like MMMMMMMM are naive to believe that discrimination no longer exists.

Alger seems to claim everybody that doesn't agree with him hates Arabs. He has some legitimate points. The Palestinians have some legitimate complaints. It isn't news that Jews and Arabs have hated each other, and that members of both groups have held racially discriminatory views.

Cyrus made a poor choice of words describing South African views. It is open to conjecture wether those views are his, or were only used to describe South African views.

Peace has a chance when people that hold prejudicial views learn to compromise.

[Cyrus]

Let me be the first to respond -- and take umbrage!

You said that I have "made a poor choice of words describing South African views." I never did post anything about the "views" of South Africans. I did point out that in the old (and racist) South Africa, the system of so-called "free areas" (aka bandustans) reserved for Blacks, is an accurate description of what the Israeli government has in mind for the Palestinians. This was demonstrated in the Oslo Accords. And this is the best case for Palestinians -- what the Israeli leadership has in store for the Palestinians is much worse (and completely different from the American roadmap's objectives).

That was the only reference I ever made, to my recollection, about South Africa.

As to Chris Alger "claiming [that] everybody that doesn't agree with him hates Arabs", this is a most speculative conjecture. I will merely point out that Alger's beef has consistently been with the policies of the Israeli leadership. I recall a number of instances where he has praised the courageous displays of dissent by Israelis, as I also recall his flat dismissal of the undemocratic nature of most Arab regimes.

If you are looking for racism in this forum, you don't need to make elaborate research. Just check the language. It's always a dead give-away (eg "little snots").

[Gamblor]

It is widely known that the Arabs are plotting together to control the world.

OPEC is the first example of this. Their goal is to control all the world's money by limiting the oil that all people desperately need to heat their homes and all businesses need to make money so that they may provide jobs for the working class.

The second is the terrorist element - Arab terrorism is a means to scare normal people away from policies that hurt Arab causes. This terrorism bullies governments to make concessions to Arabs rendering them all the more powerful. As the Koran's stated goal says: the world must be ruled by Muslim (Shari'a) law.

We must rise up against the Arab oppressors!

Now that you've read this, read a single Arab government-run newspaper, in Arabic. This (http://www.memri.org) is a good translating service. Find out what they have to say about Jews, not just Israelis. Frankly, if 15 million of us are controlling the world, then I think we've done okay. If you believe 5 million in Israel can string the United States government along like a puppet, that's laughable. And if you believe another 5 million in the States control the governing body of 250 million, then I'm callin' the boys in white coats.

As far as the rest of your musings about Israeli leadership intentions, I hope you can pay attention to the plate all the way out there in left.

[nicky g]

"It is widely known that the Arabs are plotting together to control the world. "

Is this a joke (turning Matahir's "Jews control the world" on its head)? Sometimes it's hard to tell given your propensity to say about people what you in other contexts claim to be denouncing.

[Gamblor]

Yes.

And it's Mahathir.

I don't say things about Arabs.

I say things about Arabs who
a) I have interacted with
b) Can be generalized not by race, colour, etc. etc. but by attitudes toward me and my country(ies).

[nicky g]

"Yes"

OK.

"And it's Mahathir. "

Thanks.

[ChipWrecked]

And if you believe another 5 million in the States control the governing body of 250 million, then I'm callin' the boys in white coats.

Jews control the money. Money controls politicians. Politicians control the world. Ergo, Jews control the world.

[ChipWrecked]

Kidding. Relax. /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[Chris Alger]

"Alger seems to claim everybody that doesn't agree with him hates Arabs."

That's close enough to being fair that I'll respond. First, it isn't true: I'm sure a lot of people that don't have a racist bone in their body disagree with me about a lot. This doesn't apply, however, to several on this forum that can't seem to rise above a fundamentally racist worldview.

I'm referring to those people that presume, and sometimes outright assert, that Israelis (or Jews) have basic rights -- such as the right to national self-determination, to live safely and influence their destiny without aggressive interference from without -- that stem not from any universal conception of group or national rights but from notions of cultural, national or religious superiority vis-a-vis Palestinian Arabs, to whom they refuse to acknowledge the same rights, at least without substantial one-sided qualification. Often coupled to this apportionment is the ignorant tendency to project on large groups ugly attributes that are applicable, if at all, only to a minority or even a handful, in a way that the speaker would often object as unfair if applied to his or her group (e.g., "Americans are racists").

These attitudes are just as obviously racist as those that underpinned and made possible apartheid, Jim Crow and western anti-Semitism. They are racist because they negatively stereotype people and arbitrarily apportion basic, universal rights according to the national groups that people are born into. Furthermore, these attitudes have played a huge part in Israeli and U.S. policy regarding the Palestinians, and the mainstream media discussions of those policies, for decades, and still do. (For a good survey of these attitudes on U.S. policy, see Kathleen Christison's "Perceptions of Palestine.")

Indeed, it's so obviously racist that the threads often degenerate into debates over someone's crude attempt to disguise what they know to be racist by fabricating or exaggerating history in order to manufacture some sort of rationalization for it.

This doesn't necessarily mean that everyone who invokes or relies on racist presumptions "hates" Arabs or anyone. But ignorant or even good-faith adherence to racist doctrines without animoisty is still racism.