Gormur wrote:But what's the actual motive? I'm not saying motive as in the reason, but the motive as in the basis for racism, like its foundationlinguoboy wrote:Gormur wrote:I'm not a racist. That makes sense to me. Racism needs a motive in order to be active. To me, that means it doesn't exist; by itself
The motive is clear: to achieve and maintain power. What clearer motive could you wish for?
That's too bad, because "reason" is what "motive" actually means in this context. Maybe if you used words in the same way as the rest of us, these discussions would be a little more productive.
I feel like I've explained all this before: the motive is control. Dividing a population along racial lines makes it possible for one group to dominate the others and monopolise opportunities and resources.
Look at the history of the USA: What effect did defining a "White" race have? It allowed members of that particular group to completely dominate politics, keeping all opportunities for themselves. They appropriated land from the "Red" race and labour from members of the "Black" race. They reaped all the benefits of controlling these resources, making them far richer than they would have been from their efforts alone.
Gormur wrote:How does racism affect others who aren't racist? How does one get outsiders to support racism even if they aren't racist?
First of all, if you support racism, you're "racist". Again, that's literally what the word means. It doesn't matter what your underlying reasons are.
Second, I've just explained this: Everyone classed as "White" benefits in a system that's built to allow Whites to dominate political power and resources. Are you asking why non-Whites would go along with this? They're not given a choice. Slavery was maintained through continual terrorisation and violence. Indigenous people were deprived of land through wars, forced removal, starvation, and disease. Asians were kept out by exclusionary laws. All of these groups faced severe restrictions on their independent economic and political activity. When they did manage to accumulate some wealth and political power in spite of these restrictions, it was taken from them again by force.
And this still happens. Prison labour is slavery by a different name. Native Americans are still fighting for control of the lands guaranteed to them by treaty. Non-whites face restrictions on their participation in society that white people don't.