The Student Room Group

This discussion is now closed.

Check out other Related discussions

You can't say I'm racist because

Poles aren't a race/Muslims aren't a race."

I have seen this frequently online and while I agree that the wording is incorrect, guess what? You can STILL be an xenophobe, you can STILL be a bigot. And that makes you just as big a scumbag as a racist. By the way, there is a positive correlation between xenophobia along with other types of bigotry and racism. So if you are one, it's not unlikely that you're the other as well.
(edited 7 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Original post by WBZ144
Poles aren't a race/Muslims aren't a race.

I have seen this frequently online and while I agree that the wording is incorrect, guess what? You can STILL be an xenophobe, you can STILL be a bigot. And that makes you just as big a scumbag as a racist. By the way, there is a positive correlation between xenophobia along with other types of bigotry and racism. So if you are one, it's not unlikely that you're the other as well.


But if you hate them they you're a bad person, unless there's something they've done which is extremely unfavourable and bad, even then you can't generalise about all Poles or all Muslims
Reply 2
Islam is an ideology... it's like calling someone racist because they hate Tories, on the basis that they are mainly middle class white men. Saying "I dislike people who think a certain way" does not make you a bigot.
Original post by Another
Islam is an ideology... it's like calling someone racist because they hate Tories, on the basis that they are mainly middle class white men. Saying "I dislike people who think a certain way" does not make you a bigot.


Are people indoctrinated from birth to be members of the Tory Party? Didn't think so.

Besides, I wasn't aware that the Tories were a worldwide political party of one and a half billion with various sects and beliefs, my bad.

Terrible analogy.
Reply 4
Original post by WBZ144
Are people indoctrinated from birth to be members of the Tory Party? Didn't think so.

Besides, I wasn't aware that the Tories were a worldwide political party of one and a half billion with various sects and beliefs, my bad.

Terrible analogy.


There's an equivalent Conservative Party in pretty much any area that practices democracy

Being a Muslim is a choice. Being a Pole is not. Criticising someone else's lifestyle choice doesn't make you a bigot. Discriminating against someone on the basis of religion still makes you a scumbag, but it's a different class to racism
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Another
There's an equivalent Conservative Party in pretty much any area that practices democracy

Being a Muslim is a choice. Being a Pole is not. Criticising someone else's lifestyle choice doesn't make you a bigot. Discriminating against someone on the basis of religion still makes you a scumbag, but it's a different class to racism


And do all Conservative Parties everywhere have the same policies?

That's your opinion, we'll agree to disagree. There's also the element of being Muslim being associated with being Brown over here by the ignorant and uneducated. So if somebody proudly proclaimed that he/she hated all Muslims, I would strongly suspect that person of being racist towards South Asians and Arabs.
Reply 6
Original post by WBZ144
And do all Conservative Parties everywhere have the same policies?


And do all Muslims believe the same thing? :lol:

That's your opinion, we'll agree to disagree. There's also the element of being Muslim being associated with being Brown over here by the ignorant and uneducated. So if somebody proudly proclaimed that he/she hated all Muslims, I would strongly suspect that person of being racist towards South Asians and Arabs.

There's a part of me that hopes that most people would realise that South Asians are mainly Hindu/Sikh. I'm probably putting too much faith in humanity again.

"I hate all Muslims" would mean that she would hate the arab ones, the black ones and the white ones all the same. If "I hate muslims" was really code for "I don't really like brown people", then yes that's racist.
Reply 7
Xenophobe and bigot make me cringe so much. Words typically over used from crying p*ss baby social justice warriors.
Original post by Noodle0
Xenophobe and bigot make me cringe so much. Words typically over used from crying p*ss baby social justice warriors.


What would you call someone who hated all Poles or Muslims?

People who get up in arms over these terms usually have reason to be.
Original post by Another
And do all Muslims believe the same thing? :lol:



There's a part of me that hopes that most people would realise that South Asians are mainly Hindu/Sikh. I'm probably putting too much faith in humanity again.

"I hate all Muslims" would mean that she would hate the arab ones, the black ones and the white ones all the same. If "I hate muslims" was really code for "I don't really like brown people", then yes that's racist.


That was my point; it would be completely irrational (not to mention intolerant) to hate everyone from every conservative party everywhere. How do we even determine which party in every country constitutes the Tory equivalent, if it's not in the name?

You do, many bigoted people aren't intelligent enough to tell the difference. That's why it is normally followed up by a phrase such as "we should send them all back". That's also a reason why hate crimes against Sikhs has soared.
Reply 10
Original post by WBZ144
What would you call someone who hated all Poles or Muslims?


A ****?
(edited 7 years ago)
Most people don't even know where Poland is on a map and that Judaism, Islam and Christianity effectively all come from the same place in the world so trying to make them understand those fancy words would be useless... Easier just to call them a racists, if they don't like it then tough, I don't like that we're leaving the EU but apparently I have to accept that and not complain so they should do the same
Reply 12
I've seen people, correctly, state that their dislike of Islam as an ideology does not render them racists; I've never seen someone claim to hate Poles and/or Muslims and then defend themselves as not racist..
Original post by hovado
A ****?


And how do you differentiate them from the average one on the streets who happens to have a few negative personality traits such as being rude but doesn't quite sink to their level? Why the attempt to trivialise their hatred?
Original post by 1 8 13 20 42
I've seen people, correctly, state that their dislike of Islam as an ideology does not render them racists; I've never seen someone claim to hate Poles and/or Muslims and then defend themselves as not racist..


You must live a very sheltered life then.
Reply 15
Original post by WBZ144
You must live a very sheltered life then.


I've seen plenty of people insult Poles and Muslims..they just don't usually seem that concerned with qualifying that they aren't racist
Original post by 1 8 13 20 42
I've seen plenty of people insult Poles and Muslims..they just don't usually seem that concerned with qualifying that they aren't racist


In my experience that can happen when someone challenges them, probably because almost no one wants to be seen as racist.
You can still be racist about a group that isn't a race. It's just a stupid thing to do.
Here we go again, insinuating only white people are somehow racist. Those tolerant, peaceful minorities hey? they all love white people...

If you're happy to do that Mr poster, be happy when people correlate Muslims with terrorism, antisemitism, non-Muslim hate, raping and grooming white women, honour killing and international conquest of non-Muslims.

Ta ta
in regards to muslims, im sort of on the fence as to whether or not islamophobia reaches racism. let me play devil's advocate here When so many people from the middle east are constantly portrayed as violent, barbaric etc etc it becomes a matter of technicality, and not substance, that one is not racist when they say "muslims are x,y,z " because so many muslims of middle eastern or black complexion are being subjected to that language. it's like in america when people essentially substitute the n word for "thug" "sketchy" etc when talking about black people. when you have people using words like swarm and cockroaches to describe a set of people coming from devastated countries, and they all happen to be of a certain race & religion, i find it doubtful that people separate the religion from the skin colour in their denigration of the group. the leave campaign poster of hundreds of migrants moving from one place to another definitely had racism tones to it. if racism was as clear cut as "i dont like [input skin colour]" virtually no one would be racist, but racism is much more complex than that.

Latest