From: Dan Clemmensen (Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com)
Date: Thu Nov 19 1998 - 17:11:47 MST
> > >Bernard Hughes wrote
> > >
> > >
> > > Seems to me the significant word is "significant". I would consider someone a
> > > racist who believes the differences in races are sufficient to stereotype
> > > individuals behavior. e.g..
> > >
> > > "You are Asian, you must be good at Maths". "You are black, you must be stupid".
> > >
> > > I think few racial differences are significant in that sense. Only one case
> > > springs to mind where it might be valid to treat individuals differently based on
> > > race. That is in testing for certain heritable genetic diseases. I'm hard pressed
> > > to think of racial differences that are not swamped for the individual by
> > > environmental factors and personal genetic variation.
> > >
The U.S. Army tries very hard to be race-neutral. However, in basic training we
did have one class in which the US Army made an explicit and official distinction:
The class was in how to apply camoflage paint to your face. You choose colors
based on the skin color. It was hilarious listening to the drill sargent using
circumlocutions while attempting to explain the theory. I know that this
isn't really racist, but its a very clear distinction made solely based on
the color of your skin.
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