What Causes People To Be Racist

What is the real reason people are racist?

Tyson Cochrane gave a very good answer, and some other things I think cause racism are jealousy, fear, and selfishness. People are greedy and selfish. They like to feel special and to be praised. When they see other people that look different from them, they are scared that the other person will either hurt them or that they will get more attention than them and will become more special. They’re afraid that their special spot will be taken over and people won't like them as much. They crave attention. So when someone threatening this position appears, instead of trying to share or accepting it, they act like they're better than this different person. They spread the lie that this different person is weaker, not as good as the rest of the other people. And because people are naturally curious, they’ll believe what others tell them about what they don't know. This leads to unequal treatment and unfair society, where the “different” person can never prove whether they're just as good or not. The people who believe the lies spread them to their friends, family, and their offspring. Eventually you have a whole new generation of people believing they’re better than the “"different” people, just because that is what they were taught growing up and heard from society.I'm no anthropologist or human behavior specialist, but this is just my understanding so far.

Why are people racist?

Some people have such low self worth they actually need to look down in others to make them feel better about themselves.Take a family of rural hayseeds. They have no running water, a dirty home, very little food and even less income due to being welfare recipients.Now, they're at the very bottom of the totem pole. However, when they see a family of Black Americans with both parents being college graduates and six figure incomes, what do they think?They think they are better than the well to do Black family because they're White. Never mind that their poor, lack ambition and can't afford decent clothes or a car.The Black people are beneath them simply because they're Black.These are the people who voted for racism and bigotry to run rampant in America.“Oh people are getting deported? So what?! They don't belong here anyway!” They forget their ancestors were once immigrants as well.Poor immigrants.It's a very sick mentality. And shameful.These people actually believe they are superior due to the color of their skin. They're usually miserable and unhappy toward every aspect of their lives.Instead of facing their issues and finding proper solutions, they'd rather focus on something they feel is easier and makes them happy: racism.They choose to be racist because:1. It's all they know.2. It relieves them of the responsibility of facing reality: they wind up in bad situations because of their choices. No one else's.3. They are such low, pathetic individuals they literally cannot face reality. Therefore, minorities are used as scapegoats.The hatred they exhibit is actually a reflection of self hating, narcissistic psychopathy.They may believe they are good, decent people. Yet, due to their mistakes made throughout history and during the last election, everyone else is suffering.They choose to be racist because they believe hatred will make them powerful. It won't. It never does.All it does is rob everyone of peace of mind, joy and safety. It robs everyone. Including them.Sadly, their minds are too clouded with poison to realize it. Consequently, they are always the last to know.Tragic.

Are colorblind people racist?

I'm going to assume that by colorblindness, you're referring to the common tactic of pretending the world is racially neutral.Often times, you'll hear people say well-intentioned things like “I don't see color!” or “We’re all one race— the human race!” These “colorblind” statements seem great at first, but there's a problem with them: they falsely presume the world is devoid of structures of racism.Being colorblind is essentially a way to sweep all of the disparities and examples of institutionalized racism under the rug, as if it's not there. Sure, you can say that you don't see color, but the fact remains that a lot of people hold subtle racial stereotypes that contribute to much larger disparities. Ignoring a problem is not going to do anything to fix it. We do not live in a post-racial world. Mass incarceration and policing disproportionately targets black and brown men, there are large disparities in school systems, communities, and poverty levels, and white men hold the vast majority of of power in society.These problems aren't going to go away by claiming we should view the world as if everyone is on an equal playing field, when some clearly are not. In order to address disparities, we need to do something about it. Here’s a nice graphic to illustrate my point:This is not to say, however, that people who engage in colorblind rhetoric and practices are racist themselves. The question of if someone is racist involves intent, which is hard to determine, and some people are colorblind purely because that's what they were taught. Instead of focusing on the person using the colorblind rhetoric, it's better to focus on the ideologies their rhetoric upholds. In this case, while I wouldn't say that a colorblind person is racist, I would say that they're supporting ideas that maintain racist structures.

Is melanin the cause of all racism?

Not at all. In addition to the other great answers below (pointing out racist beliefs other than skin color), I would add this unusual fact: Blind People Can Still Identify Race (And Be Racist)Thus, racism has nothing to do with skin color (which depends on your melanin pigments), since blind people (who have no concept of colors) can still both identify races and be prejudiced against them. It's entirely a social phenomenon: even if all humans were physically identical, we'd still find some way to differentiate amongst ourselves and, potentially, judge each other unfairly for these differences.