Would racism have died eventually like slavery?

[Dunning Kruger]

... racism and other prejudices are not inborn. They are learned...

nurture over nature? Probably not.

 

[U.S David]

But Racism never died out, I don't want to sound like I am in chat, but it is still alive today. I live here in the South and it still around.

 

[Lateknight]

But Racism never died out, I don't want to sound like I am in chat, but it is still alive today. I live here in the South and it still around.

I agree furthermore you don't have to live the south too see that racism is still around go to any decent size city in America if you want to see racial segregation..

 

[Dan Reilly The Great]

That's true, but treating a segment of your customer base poorly or outright refusing to serve them isn't good for business. Of course in that context, companies that simply treat minorities the same as anyone else can gain a significant market share among such groups. Businesses that treated African Americans nicely were rewarded with increased business, because they weren't going to deal with the racists if they had a choice not to.

Then you have to consider that as a businessman, someone's race, religion, gender, etc. don't matter, what matters is their work output. Employment discrimination on the basis of anything other than ability is bad business. The issue is really more with wage discrimination, because less people hiring drives down costs. It could work if unions decide to work with everyone to prevent employers from hiring minorities to drive down labor costs. Outside of union circumstances where labor is more skilled, wages will naturally tend more towards equality.

You are missing one big thing. Racism in and of itself is not rational. If someone lets racist views affect their worldview and overall philosophy, then all of their other decisions are at risk of being irrational, including business decisions. If a certain group is believed by a proprietor to be inherently lazy, or dishonest, or being hopelessly stuck in the lower classes, then there is no logical reason to want to treat them equally. This isn't the kind of group that the business owner wants buying their product or service to begin with.

There are also different kinds of racism. For instance, the "not in my back yard" kind of racism. Someone may have no problem with minorities buying the goods or services of their company, or playing on their local sports teams, or being on TV shows or movies, but would throw a fit is said minorities tried to move in next door, or gain admission to a local social club.

 

[funnyhat]

I agree furthermore you don't have to live the south too see that racism is still around go to any decent size city in America if you want to see racial segregation..

Heck, you can find de facto racial segregation in just about any Western country nowadays, be it the U.S., Canada, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand . . . you name it.

 

[Plumber]

Both are still alive.

 

[GarethC]

You are missing one big thing. Racism in and of itself is not rational. If someone lets racist views affect their worldview and overall philosophy, then all of their other decisions are at risk of being irrational, including business decisions. If a certain group is believed by a proprietor to be inherently lazy, or dishonest, or being hopelessly stuck in the lower classes, then there is no logical reason to want to treat them equally. This isn't the kind of group that the business owner wants buying their product or service to begin with.

There are also different kinds of racism. For instance, the "not in my back yard" kind of racism. Someone may have no problem with minorities buying the goods or services of their company, or playing on their local sports teams, or being on TV shows or movies, but would throw a fit is said minorities tried to move in next door, or gain admission to a local social club.

The thing is, racism is sometimes very rational.

If you are in a society with societal racism, bucking that trend, like going against any other societal ethic (communism in 50s America, following the dominant religion, that sort of thing), sets yourself up for ostracism in turn, which is no fun and can lead to at the least a negative economic outcome.

If you are a business leader, and a minority is oppressed,
a) embracing the minority as customers will irritate the oppressive majority who may not want to be your customers as well, and
b) because they are oppressed, they will likely not have the same disposable wealth to spend on your goods and services as the majority will, so you should probably focus on the wealthier population segment as your target customer demographic.

So why stick your head above that particular parapet? Particularly in a public company, where as CEO you have undertaken in your contract to take those actions which are legal and also enhance shareholder value - and dying on the hill of desegregation when the majority of your customer base is in favour of it is not fulfilling the duty to your shareholders that you willingly took on when you accepted the job.

It's just, you know, not very nice. But hey, if being the CEO of a Fortune 500 company was easy, then your salary wouldn't come with all those zeroes on it, would it?

 

[Tallil2long]

IMO no, it wouldn't. It's too useful tool for various politicians to use for their coming/preservation on power.

I disagree. It wouldn't end, but that's because of human nature -- tendency to distrust those different, and tendency toward satisfaction at the depiction of one's own group as uniquely better (tendencies which are NOT confined to any one color, ethnicity, etc, btw).

Politicians just make use of this flaw in human nature. In so doing they exacerbate it, of course, but it'd exist even without politicians.

 

[The Empire of AltHistory]

I don't think that racism will die out. Human beings have always been wired to perceive each other as being different, and there is no indication that anything otherwise will occur. Even though the present generations of younger people (of which I am a part of) are more tolerant of others than their elders, there are still many among those same generations who have racist prejudices or racist habits, which may come out if they are aggravated. Our modern-day fear of Muslims (the association with terrorism which has become the stereotype of them) and the continuing inequality of African-Americans and Hispanics in American society are examples of how racism continues to exist. A lot of antisemitism is still around as well. I doubt that between now and the end of the century, all racial prejudices will disappear. There will be racists in 2100, and there will be racists a thousand years from now.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

Structural racism has, to be honest, largely disappeared in this country(and remnants of it only survive thanks to certain historical circumstances).....personal level racism? Not so much. And sadly, the latter probably will always be around in some respect; racism and other prejudices are not inborn. They are learned. But unfortunately, that's the exact problem, it's because of this one thing that a permanent fix can probably never occur.

But we can at least try to minimize the problem as much as possible, I suppose.

I'd love to live in that DBWI you're posting from!

 

[wietze]

i do not think that racism is in our genes, but what is in our genes is the tendency to be alarmed by strange/new/different things, it is away for our brains to assess and rank threats. most people learn how to use it, but some it goes to extremes causing racism. Will it disappear? unfortunately not, the whole thing is pretty deep in our genes, going a very long time, probably even 100 million years