Is Racism Always Bad?

Clearly, some people think that racism, roughly defined as arbitrary ethnic discrimination, is acceptable, while others think of it as the scourge. I arrive at this question because racism seems more prevalent, or perhaps it is just more confidently peeking from the shadows. Is this because it is ‘not that bad’, or even essential (God forbid).

Every day we make acceptable choices based on race; who to date, whom to marry, or associate - and this all seems okay. We cheer for our favorite sports team, and disparage their/our opponents, and this is okay. So why is race off-limits? Some people surely wonder, quietly, what was so special about the slavery of the Atlantic Slave Trade, or the genocide of the Holocaust, that racism, a naturally occurring phenomenon, should be banished, absolutely. Besides, both Africans and Jews discriminate based on race, just like everybody else, do they not? As long as everybody has their equal rights, why such fusses about what people think, say, or, within limits, do?

Is judging someone solely on the content of his or her character realistic? Is this even possible? Is how we look ever an accurate indicator of who we are, or what we are up to? Are tattoos and sagging pants only fashion statements, and never warnings? Perhaps humanity has reached a plateau where social advancement is simply beyond our current reach, as constrained by the instinctive urge to compete and dominate each other.

On the other hand, the urge to compete also inherently defines and motivates our advancement. If we surrender it, will we trade some temporary Utopian pipe dream for ultimate stagnation, and our demise? So, the real question, in all of this, is whether racism is a bitter dimension of progress, that we should figure out how to accept (and manage), or the thing forever blocking a better road ahead.

James C. Collier

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