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"

I feel I should point out that many posters on this thread are behaving as if someone can only be oppressed by a single 'ism', as if there's some system of distributing them around the population. Which is of course nonsense - maybe you should ask an elderly non-white woman what she thinks, OP?

Or is a British girl of Somali descent who has been genitally mutilated more oppressed by the misogynist attitude to female sexuality that sees cutting off a child's clitoris and sewing up most of her vagina as just what you do, or by the official (racist?) indifference that has only recently mounted the first prosecutions against this horrible crime?

Slavery has existed throughout recorded history, it doesn't need racism to exist.

(Incidentallly, how many people know that slave-traders raided the south-west of England, that there were white English slaves with Arab masters in North Africa just a few hundred years ago? I don't think Arab racism toward white people contributed in any way to this slave trade. Although possibly religious hatred, in the form of general contempt for infidels, did.)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_slave_trade

The Barbary slave trade refers to the slave markets that flourished on the Barbary Coast, or modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and western Libya, between the 16th and 19th centuries. These markets prospered while the states were nominally under Ottoman rule, but in reality were mostly autonomous. Although the slave markets were filled by peoples from many places, they were distinct from other slave markets because they also sold European slaves, acquired through pirate raids on shipping or coastal towns and villages. About 20,000 British and Irish captives were held in North Africa from the beginning of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th, and roughly 700 Americans were held captive in this region as slaves between 1785 and 1815.[1] The markets declined after the loss of the First and Second Barbary Wars and ultimately ended in the 1830s when the entire area came under French rule.

Nobody is saying that slavery hasn't occurred in other nations but saying the use of slaves by white colonial nations wasn't about racism is about as valid as saying the Holocaust wasn't about anti-semitism because they exterminated homosexuals and the learning disabled (and others) as well.

I think all forms of discrimination should be treated equally seriously.

I don't know why people talk about slavery as historical. There are 27 million slaves now, some as a consequence of racism, some of sexism and some of neither.

You can have extreme racism without slavery and slavery without racism. They went hand on hand in trans atlantic slaving, but there are other kinds of racism just as serious.

Fraidycat, the Arab perception of white slave women is one of the two principles upon which the idea of separate races was created (the other being the physical abilities of black people). There are lots of studies of this. When the races were created, the Caucasian skull used to show the 'beauty' of whites was that of a young female who had lived in sexual slavery and died of STIs.

slavery exists because one group of people have power of another

no one can argue that white European (vast majority christian) have been the most powerful in history and this power has made our history what it is today and still has an impact on many and yes men held the power but women were certainly considered more superior than men from different ethnic backgrounds

Of course there are going to be other groups that have and still have abused people but it has never been anywhere near the same scale

as for which ism is worse how and why does it have to be measured. a white heterosexual woman will be judged for bing a woman a black heterosexual woman will be judged for being a woman and for being black

so still in our society being white (British white Christian background) you are in a position where judgement and ism's have less impact

never - yes, I agree with that. I also think that's far from the only example of slavery that is racist. Trafficked women in slavery in the UK (sexual slavery and otherwise), for example.

I don't think we can single out any one form of discrimination as being superior to another, and I think there is a real danger in today's 'everything is too PC' attitude for some discrimination to become acceptable, with the notion people should just get on with it. Homophobia in particular is a real issue, I know a lot of people - children, young people AND adults - who will think nothing of using 'gay' as an insult, something which may appear harmless, but is actually subconsciously relegating a group of people to a lower status, something to be avoided and used as an insult. Similarly, racism appears ingrained in some people, and I have seen this particularly in older people, though obviously not all. They genuinely believe white British is a superior status, and see nothing wrong with this!

Just check out the thread about what's going on in the Ukraine RIGHT NOW as Jews are being given leaflets to register or leave the country . absolutely chilling.

compare that to "women drivers are crap" - sorry, nowhere near

a white heterosexual woman will be judged for bing a woman a black heterosexual woman will be judged for being a woman and for being black
That depends on who is judging.
A white woman can be judged for being white, just like a black woman can be for being black.

Zing, that isn't really a useful comparison, is it? We would want to look about how prejudice develops into extreme human rights abuses on the basic of race, srx or sexual orientation, all of ehich structurally exist, and we need to prevent.

white woman will not have so many judgements made because of her colour, she is not going to be judged in the same way which is more often than not negative

Zing you aren't making any kind of fair comparison. Misogyny isn't a matter of individual dismissive male comments, it is the ground underpinning FGM, sex trafficking, the mass abortion of female foetuses in certain cultures, the exclusion of women from education, government, the pay gap, etc.

It's not a matter of jibes about women drivers.

Again that depends on who is doing the judging. It's not only white people who hold racist views.

wHat about women's human rights in Saudi - the country where women arent allowed to drive?

It seems dumb to say are women in Saudi treated worse than Jews in Ukraine because what every right minded person wants is human rights for both groups. We dont have to choose one group.

It's not a competition.

That other "isms" are not treated as seriously as racism in some areas is apparent - football especially.

OTOH you have papers like the Mail spewing racist vitriol across their pages most days of the week.

I think we have along way to go with all the "isms" TBH.

zing, that's a daft comparison. Especially on a thread where someone's referred to FGM, surely?

I think the 'competition' element comes of the sort of particularly unpleasant twits (Cameron?) who want to be Really Passionately Dedicated to ending prejudice, but who get all arsey when someone points out it's actually, y'know, quite a big issue with lots of different aspects.

Lack of human rights for women, gay people and ethnic minorities generally goes hand in hand. Russia has been removing rights of women, gay people and ethnic minority groups other than Jewish people for years. It is hardly surprising with such a record that their government is also anti-Semitic in the Ukraine.

LRD

not read the whole thread, only replied to OP and I have no idea what FGM is.

anyway, I think that being a racist is worse than being ageist for example.
but if I'm wrong I'm wrong.

Racism has affected non white people for years.

The effects of it still exist today.

Black people feel these effects every day of their lives. In one way or another they will be reminded that they are 'not one of us' by an ignorant work colleague/shop assistant/passer by.

I have black family members through marriage and I have heard their tales of going to
Kent/Cornwall/Devon parts of the UK and being given hatred looks and hearing nasty comments.

I can go virtually anywhere in the UK and even most countries without being made to feel I do not belong/I am less than. They cannot say the same at all.

www.mumsnet.com/campaigns/female-genital-mutilation

FGM Zing.

Thanks almond

I didn't know what it stood for (so many acronyms nowadays.....)

zing - perhaps you should read the whole thread, then?!

Not sure why you're having a go at me.

I wasn't having a go, just answered you. sorry if it came out wrong!