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"

Oh, phew!

No harm done.

And YY, FGM means 'female genital mutilation'. It is really horrible. Britain is in the middle of the first prosecutions for it over here, too.

offers hug

See, now I have no idea whether I'm meant to express horror at anything so unMumsnetty or hug back.

Let's get back to the serious stuff, but I'm glad I didn't offend you with my post earlier!

hug back.
that's the only way!

glad we didn't get into a fight!

Ageism is perhaps a bit different because the only way for anyone to be immune to it is to not get old. Of course it's commonly associated with sexism ... in many areas it's worse to be a grey woman than a grey man.

When I talked about women being enslaved by their families I wasn't talking always having to do the dishes. I was talking about women who are seen as the property of their fathers until such a time as the father sells them on to another man at which point she becomes his property. How is forced marriage and everything that comes with it anything but slavery?

It is one of the major types of slavery in the world today.

On the topic of slavery, having a slave only became illegal in the UK in 2010.

Seriously 2010!

(Although trading slaves was made illegal in the 50's)

Disability inspires alot of similiar behaviour to the worst of racism, and is allowed to continue as they are less able to have the physical stamina and ability to campaign and advocate for themselves. So not much changes.

The sub human, disgust and alienation, the rejection by society and the otherness forced upon disabled people all has parallels to racism. Right down to the torture and death (historically mainly, I hope, though abuse is rife and mainly unchecked)

Anyone who thinks slavery is now defunct is deluded. And it's legality is irrelevant, it's still widespread.

The majority of slaves in this day and age are women and children.

Disclaimer: I don't think any 'ism' is worse, or more acceptable, than another.

I don't think one -ism can 'trump' another.

They are all equally unacceptable and we should be trying to eradicate it from our society.

pumpkinette

Point of information. Slavery has been illegal at common law for centuries, and keeping a slave will have given rise to various criminal offences in that time. All that the 2009 act has done of create a specific anti-slavery offence.

I know it sounds wrong thinking about jokes, when the thread has moved on to FGM and slavery, but...

I cannot think of anyone in my social circles who would find an anti-demerit joke acceptable. I can think of individuals who would find (other) racist jokes acceptable. More would allow a sexist joke and more still 'ginger' jokes.

Whilst all 'isms' are obviously misguided, I do agree that there is probably a bias in society that one type is less socially acceptable than another. This will presumably vary over time depending on the scale or severity of incidents (genocide being an obvious example) and the passion and communication skills of anti *ism campaigners.

Anti-demerit = Anti-Semitic (typo)

I don't know how many times I have seen the 'all men are pricks' line, or 'are there any decent men out there'. That to me is just as offensive as someone saying all women can't drive.

But I do agree with OP. Being born male or female is something that a human being has no control over, just as much as being born black, gay, Indian or whatever nationality. I think racism and sexism are both just as bad as each other.

However, feel discrimination based on religious belief is fair game. A person has a choice to follow a religion, and I am of the belief that a religious person is an unintelligent one because of their choices. I'm not saying this is right, but it is what I think. And because it's a person's choice to follow a religion, I have a right to think that.