thinking its wrong that racisum is considered far worse than other forms of discrimination

[SuzzieScotland]

Racism seams to be considered far far worse than any other ism. I don't see it as any worse than any other form of discrimination.

Ageism seams perfectly acceptable to many people.

If a guy said something boring like "women cant drive" that would be far more acceptable than "asians can't drive"

Grr on my phone, bad typo in title

You are right its socially more acceptable to be ageist or homophonic or sexist than racist. Certain relgions are allowed to get away with discrimination because of what it says in their holy books.

I think the difference is that racism led to the holocost. The death of six million jews is another to shock anyone.

Racism seams to be considered far far worse than any other ism. I don't see it as any worse than any other form of discrimination

Well, it tends to manifest in much more ugly ways, and has the potential to cause very serious social unrest. That's probably why it is treated seriously. If you are implying it is treated too^ seriously, I disagree.

I don't know anyone beaten up for being old, I know lots of people who have suffered very serious assaults because they come from a minority ethnic group. I could give any number of examples of how racism has affected people I know more than any other ism (except sexism, because of sexual violence against women and girls). And people from minority ethnic groups tend to face all the other 'isms' to a greater degree as well. Double and triple whammies.

I don't think it is a competition.

But all forms of ignorance and hatred of a group of people leads can lead to violence on a personal and mass scale.

Homosexuals and people with disabilities suffered and died in the concentration camps, 'gay bashing' and violent crimes against the disabled, old and female are commonplace.

The culture of attitude to minority groups and vulnerable people is the damaging thing, and the individual and society as a whole suffers, no matter who the victim.

Ethnic minorities rarely have to put up with racism from their own family. Women on the other hand have to deal with sexism from their families all the time. It stopped being socially acceptable to use black people as slaves hundreds of years ago but it's still perfectly acceptable to use women as slaves, particularly if it is men in her own family that are enslaving her.

Ethnic minorities also get respite from persecution within their own communities/country of origin. While Pakistani people are often the target of racial hatred in this country, they are not the target of racial hatred in Pakistan. Women don't even have that, we are discriminated against in our own homes by our own families. We can't go on holiday to Womanstan to get away from it. We're a lot luckier in the UK than women are in other countries, but the UK is still far from an egalitarian utopia.

What a load of utter shit. Unless you have experienced racism as a member of a minority group you are in no position to judge what is more endemic.

Also most discrimination is on multiple levels - women usually experience ageism and sexism - and non-white women even more so.

It stopped being socially acceptable to use black people as slaves hundreds of years ago but it's still perfectly acceptable to use women as slaves

Are you fucking kidding me?

Racism led to the Atlantic slave trade, which killed untold millions at the hands of people who thought they were enlightened and civilised.

And the negative effects of racism, unlike ageism, sexism and homophobia, are handed down from generation to generation - it's victims suffer the economic and social disadvantage of their parents and grandparents as well as the direct discrimination they pick up in their own right.

I think it probably is more serious. It's so widespread, affects so many people and has caused so much misery, violence and death. Much more than any other ism I think.

I would agree that non white women are the most oppressed people in the world and I cannot understand why western governments continue to have dealings with places that treat women as property ( actually I do know, it's because women generally are not considered important enough that a govt will go to war over our treatment).

In the west I would say that sexism and racism are of equal importance, given how many women are murdered by men they are related to or have been in a relationship with.

bunny I'd say sexism is passed down through generations too.

YANBU OP. Of course racism is treated more seriously in this country than sexism. As a woman, you can be subjected to the most vile, sexual remarks in everyday settings, in public (whatever) ( see as an example the thread about the young girl in the shop on here and the "ginger" comments), and unless you are in and out of the police station on a weekly basis, it is left unchecked. Even then, the police probably wouldn't take it seriously as a threatened assault. Yet if similar remarks were made with a racist bent, it would be treated seriously as a racially aggravated crime.

That's leaving aside more serious sexually motivated crimes.

I think people who do not believe this do not fully understand what indirect discrimination is, and assume that all discrimination has to be direct (ie very obvious).

Belgium has recently criminalised verbal sexual abuse and I really wish the UK would follow suit.

while 'ism' is always horrible, racist comments are more often made out of real hatred for a different race whereas if someone says 'women can't drive' (which is a common and obviously stupid misconception) it doesn't necessarily mean they actually despise women.

You can't compare racism with other types of discrimination AT ALL!.

Stephen Lawrence being a case in point.

Also absobloodylutely NO comparison with slavery and women having to do the majority of the house work!!.

No comparison. Women who are abused by their partners has nothing to do with sexism - it's because their partners are controlling wankers.

Domestic abuse of any kind is taken seriously by police just as hate crime is (racism/homophobia for example) both of these have the same 'priority' ruling as each other.

Ethnic minorities have been subject to mindless abuse for a lot of years. Stamping this out should be a priority.It dodoesn't mean other things are not priorities too. People need to stop jumping on the 'everything is too PC' bandwagon and remember that it isn't like you read about in the papers.

Sexism is sbout more than housework and comments about driving - it's about how the establishment deal with sex crimes and dv, it's about not getting jobs because you might take ml and are therefore more 'risky' than a male employee. Its about how women earn less money over the ccourse of their working life and about how absent fathers are not made to pay the true costs of raising their kids, meaning it is all dumped on the single mother who is more likely to have a min wage job or be demonised for getting benefits, while her ex gets to keep all his money. Its about forced marriages and prostitution.

All those things make it equal in importance to racism.

I thought that most the people sold into the African slave trade were originally captives of fellow black Africans in land wars; so plenty of black Africans were quite complicit in that trade, too. Never mind the (overwhelming) Arab middleman dealers. I don't think it's legit to say the actual trade was spurred mostly by racism, that was just a convenient rationale for the eventual slave owners, who were also hugely economically dependent; they needed extremely cheap labour. Economics was a huge factor in perpetuating the institution in the New World, not just racist attitudes. Early colonists tried hard to enslave Native Americans instead but they didn't prove as tough as Africans & were much better at escaping.

I'm not keen on a hierarchy of nasties, though. All the protected groups are protected for good reasons.

Slavery was entirely based on the idea that 'black ' people were 'less' than white in every aspect. Less intelligent, less civilised, less emotional, more likely to be violent and even thought to feel less physical pain.

A race of people were stripped of EVERYTHING. Kept in chains, wore collars like dogs. Beaten, whipped, degraded, hog-tied, lynched. Women routinely raped because they simply weren't considered as like other humans. They were POSSESSIONS to be treated worse than animals and were actually hunted with dogs if they escaped. Their children taken from them and SOLD for a few dollars because they surely didn't have enough sense or enough emotion to care about their offspring like white people.

Their very names taken away and replaced by their owners name or simply referred to as 'boy' (which was still happily used in the US well past the abolition of slavery and well into this century). For gods sake, even up until very recently in the US ' black' people were sterilised and experimented

Their language, culture, religious beliefs. EVERYTHING taken.

Sorry - posted too soon! Should read in second to last paragraph 'experimented on by Drs without consent' Google 'Tuskegee experiment' which didn't end till 1972!!!

There was a lot of African and Arab complicity in the African end of the slave trade certainly, but the US and the British couldn't have carried it out on such an industrial scale at that point in history without the philosophical backup of racism.

If you look at history women were also property of their father's or husbands with no right to say no to sex. Whrn they married their property automatically belonged to their husband. It wasn't illegal for men to beat their wives.

In the 70s and 80s it was still common for the police not to get involved in 'domestics'. Women needed a male co signatory to get a mortgage or loan and routinely lost their jobs upon marriage.

Slavery was abolished in the US in 1865, one hundred and fifty years ago next year, within my great grandfather's lifetime.

Should have added that there are still places in the world where this is the norm.

I don't believe racism is considered worse than anything else. Just not seen this.

That said, I think a huge amount of prejudice is hidden from the privileged groups in society, both racist and sexist. I don't see how women being abused by their partners can have 'nothing to do with sexism' - have you seen the stats on women killed by their male partners compared to men killed by their female partners?! There is a very obvious gendered bias, which to my mind is precisely what sexism is.

Slavery is still in practice in parts of the world, isn't it?

Ethnic minorities are more likely to be from a lower socioeconomic status (with associated poorer health) experience discriminatory violence, be excluded from school, be stopped by Police, receive a custodial sentence, be given a diagnosis of psychosis, be sectioned under the MH act, be sent to secure units. And more.

Less likely to access higher education, have high earnings, even be adopted as children. And more.

I'm not saying that some or many of the above are not experienced by other minority groups at times but ethnic minorities are the only group for which ALL the above apply.

Any form of discrimination is awful and shouldn't occur but ethnic minority groups consistently experience many, many more forms of discrimination either directly or indirectly.