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Erin's avatar

The Japanese believed they were superior to the Koreans, and that belief conveniently justified exploitation. The situation between the British and the Irish was similar, and their exploitation and dehumanization of the Irish lasted 700 years.

People outside these areas would struggle to recognize physical characteristics identifying these groups, but people within group at least believed they could tell each other apart. The British drew caricatures of the irish as short, with their eyes close together—not dissimilar to the Nazi caricature of the Jews as having long feet and big noses.

There is nothing special about using skin color to divide people like this, and I struggle with the idea that America invented racism. Maybe you could make that case with an extremely narrow definition of racism? But even then, people around the world have factored skin color into their hatred. I am not sure I understand the goal people are trying to achieve when they make this charge. I read it in Caste as well.

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Sam Aureli's avatar

Holy fudge! I don't know how you do it, unless you've been graced with the patience of a saint. I find that people who reason like Daniel seem more interested in the theory of racism instead of discussing how to solve it. They've discussed the topic so much that they now inhabit a whole new stratosphere of logic that is foreign to many of us. In an case, keep up the good work.

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