On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 13:33:53 GMT, David wrote:
On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:58:39 GMT, (Peter Newman)
wrote:
Well, for example, I am not a racist.
Everyone is. It's natural to have an affinity for your own race.
I would like to know your own definition of "affinity", but in its
original sense, "afinity for your own race" is certainly not the same
as racism. Racism is hatred for other races.
That's why it's hard for white people to tell black people apart.
And hard for black people tell apart white people. But this has again
absolutely nothing to do with racism; this is a well known and often
described phenomenon which deals with the way our brain cognition
processes work: Initially, we perceive only the most fundamental
distinguishing features of objects (and people's faces). Gradually,
when we are closely exposed to more such similar objects (or people's
faces), when the fundamental distinguishing details are no longer
sufficient, then we automatically add finer and finer details. As if
our brain first tries to minimize the necessary amount of descriptive
information attached to visual cues, only the bare minimum needed to
enable us to distinguish one set of features from the other, then adds
more and more as required for sufficient recognition.
For example, when I first saw an Asian, many years ago, I could not
determine if I was looking at a Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai or
Korean, etc. - to me all Asians were looking the same. Now I can
determine this very easily, in fact easier than (for example) a
Vietnamese who never left his country. And as I have made more friends
amongst Asians, and some of my best friends are in fact Asian, I have
of course no problems at all distinguishing their faces.
Otherwise, it's a popular perception.
What exactly?
That Europeans are crazy and dangerous.
Which European countries have you been to? I don't find them in any
way more crazy and dangerous than most other peoples. Certainly very
much less so than radical Islamic immigrants in their midst.
If we stop buying their bananas, they will suffer even more.
And we are not "carting them away". We are buying them. The point is
that their corrupt governments steal the proceeds from their own
people - and then put them in our banks because they can't even trust
their own.
Therefore, we are complicit with their opressors. Like the Al Sauds.
Damned if we do (help), damned if we don't. In Afghanistand and Iraq,
we certainly did. We can't do it all, and we can't do it all at once.
Peter Newman