Why Does discrimination have so much power in America

[starving student]

maybe a better way to ask is where is discrimination getting it's power from?

I was watching the rachel maddow show this evening and she was reporting on some folks who were discharged from the military for being gay, this is not something I didn't know about apparently a few people a day have this happen to them and I'm sure alot could be said about that issue in particular but the thing that I really started to wonder about is where simply put 'discrimination' gets its power from, as an entity it's making moves in all kinds of issues across the board but I can't help to think it's 2010 already.... I'm not under nor have I been that people don't discriminate, of course some do, but I'm talking about the power to make moves and shape lives, where is it's power source really?

[Moody]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np6_b-72H3E

[Pitch Black]

The limbic brain. The mammalian response that says "anything different = potentially dangerous". Developed hundreds of thousands of years ago on the savannah to keep us safe from marauding sabretooth tigers etc. Now not needed so much, but still a powerful response.

<edit> @Moody - just the bit that crossed my mind too!

[Moody]

maybe a better way to ask is where is discrimination getting it's power from?

I was watching the rachel maddow show this evening and she was reporting on some folks who were discharged from the military for being gay, this is not something I didn't know about apparently a few people a day have this happen to them and I'm sure alot could be said about that issue in particular but the thing that I really started to wonder about is where simply put 'discrimination' gets its power from, as an entity it's making moves in all kinds of issues across the board but I can't help to think it's 2010 already.... I'm not under nor have I been that people don't discriminate, of course some do, but I'm talking about the power to make moves and shape lives, where is it's power source really?

Make a song about it, draw a picture, take a picture, show them that what we are doing is the only real thing that matters, and if we should discriminate it should be about the people we choose to support in these endeavors, not the stupid War Machine’s.

[Android Bishop]

we're the worlds biggest melting pot of races and cultures. you cant get that without discrimination. so long as there are differences, there will be discrimination.

[leedsquietman]

It's not just an American thing.

I come from a small town in Yorkshire, where anyone different be it gay, guys with more than one earring and makeup, etc. wrong colour/religion, etc. are likely to get their heads kicked in. There were race wars going on with the immigrant muslim population almost every night.

I have 2 cousins in the British Army and 1 in the Navy and the reaction to homosexuals in the British Army is no less enlightened, with those people being singled out and victimized and driven out.

People praise Canada as being the best multicultural society and I will say that it is a lot better than in Britain in terms of much less racism and intolerance, but there still is racism and intolerance here, albeit on a smaller scale - to those suffering on the wrong end of abuse, it's small comfort that we are not as bad as X country.

[starving student]

we're the worlds biggest melting pot of races and cultures. you cant get that without discrimination. so long as there are differences, there will be discrimination.

I understand why you say that but I don't think it makes as much sense as it is easy to believe that it does, there are differences, multitudes of them and I see where you're coming from but we don't treat plants like that, or clouds, or whatever, I don't believe that our differences are that powerful to begin with and I especially don't think they are that strong at least anymore, for instance in times of slavery I don't believe that people believed the act of enslaving other people was right, they knew that murder, rape, etc.. was wrong, they just did it anyway,and the proof is that not everybody did these things, no matter their education whether high or low, only some people did these things, and there were others that did not, if we were so beholden to the fact that the concept of 'differences' was just too much for us to handle as a species then there would be no such thing as evil people and everyone would behave the same. imho

nobody that you see discriminating approves of being discriminated against, at least I haven't met anyone who does so I'm thinking how the fuck in this day and age are discriminators allowed to wield such power, it's not like we can't see them coming from a mile away, and they don't hide what they do very well, what's stopping them from being stripped of power and where does their power come from?

[starving student]

It's not just an American thing.

I come from a small town in Yorkshire, where anyone different be it gay, guys with more than one earring and makeup, etc. wrong colour/religion, etc. are likely to get their heads kicked in. There were race wars going on with the immigrant muslim population almost every night.

I have 2 cousins in the British Army and 1 in the Navy and the reaction to homosexuals in the British Army is no less enlightened, with those people being singled out and victimized and driven out.

People praise Canada as being the best multicultural society and I will say that it is a lot better than in Britain in terms of much less racism and intolerance, but there still is racism and intolerance here, albeit on a smaller scale - to those suffering on the wrong end of abuse, it's small comfort that we are not as bad as X country.

I totally get that, you know there are racist and all but how is it that the power gets wielded that's the thing I'm on about, course hatred lives in the heart right ok but that doesn't mean you're going to let a biggot come in your house and rearrange your kitchen ware, and discrimination is so wrong to everyone I don't get how one can govern by it, it's like at the opening of any session of congress if a senator tried to murder some one everyone would be like 'hey stop your murdering, murder has no place in congressional sessions (no i didn't mean that as a pun either, but discrimination just strolls right in and does whatever it wants, it's astonishing

[Pitch Black]

^^^
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5960015727#

The Power Of Nightmares

[starving student]

^^^
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5960015727#

The Power Of Nightmares

thanks PB, hope I don't get scarred

[starving student]

^^^
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5960015727#

The Power Of Nightmares

great samples galore.....thanks for this gonna have to watch the whole thing for sure



btw I hear you moody.

[UKRuss]

One word:

Christianity.

[beats me]

Eh, discrimination gets all the press. I'm not saying it doesn't exist but the media reports it like you can't step off your porch without getting slapped by it. It also works both ways in that people try to use it as an excuse when it's not even valid. My friend had to go to court on several occasions over employees he fired who were trying to play the discrimination card when in fact they were just shitty employees. He's never lost a case and the scarier thing is these people honestly believe they are being discriminated against and take little to no responsibility as an individual douche bag.

[Android Bishop]

Eh, discrimination gets all the press. I'm not saying it doesn't exist but the media reports it like you can't step off your porch without getting slapped by it. It also works both ways in that people try to use it as an excuse when it's not even valid. My friend had to go to court on several occasions over employees he fired who were trying to play the discrimination card when in fact they were just shitty employees. He's never lost a case and the scarier thing is these people honestly believe they are being discriminated against and take little to no responsibility as an individual douche bag.

same thing happening at my mom's work. some employee was fucking up royally at his job for years and was threatening to lose the company's national security pass to do business with the government, and finally my mom came to power and fired him. next thing you know, several of the other [same race] employees started a revolt and sabotaged the company's computer systems and stole classified emails, and once she fired THEM the company got nailed with a lawsuit stating that they discriminated against the [this race] employees. The sad thing is that the company lawyers pretty much have to settle and pay these piece of shit dipshits millions of dollars because they know the chances of winning this case in court is about zero.

starving: our brains haven't evolved past their basic pattern based survival systems. It sees something that isnt familiar its going to put up red flags. It is attracted to things that are similar to itself. The most obvious category it can discern is race, as that can be spotted in milliseconds and immediately labeled as "different".

[ethios4]

Two words:

Fundamentalist Christianity.

Fixed.