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That just begs the question. Young people today are not less racist because each generation magically improves. If they're less racist, then there had to be a

That just begs the question. Young people today are not less racist because each generation magically improves. If they're less racist, then there had to be a mechanism for it.

tonyarkles 7y ago
This is totally an unsupported hypothesis. I have no data. The mechanism I'm proposing is that the current generation has not been exposed to many of the toxic things that reinforced racist beliefs. Slavery, segregated schools, etc. Kids in school are taught why those things were bad and why racism is bad. While not all of society has abandoned racism, there's been enough of a push that the public institutions educating the next generation are making efforts to reduce it.
- aetherson 7y ago
  But... slavery and segregated schools aren't weather. They didn't just happen. You seem like you're working really hard to avoid the idea that maybe some human convinced some other humans at some point to go from bad behavior to better behavior.
  - tonyarkles 7y ago
    Absolutely some humans convinced some other humans! Enough, in fact, to make change! I'm not at all trying to avoid that idea. But I'm wholly unconvinced that when those things went away, a majority abandoned their racist notions. Rather, the next generation, when raised without the same degree of racism surrounding them, didn't take up those ideas to the same extent. It's not so much that people were convinced "I need to stop being racist" but rather that a subset was convinced "we can't teach this in our public schools" That's all just observational though. Around here it's not so much racism against black folks but rather against aboriginal folk (and to some extent, middle eastern folks). I hear almost none of that crap from my generation or the younger generations, and still hear horrible amounts of it from older generations. Yes, some people in those generations changed, but it sure seems like the "racism rate" is significantly lower than the mean in the younger generations and significantly higher than the mean in the older generations. Edit: it's also quite possible that it hasn't gone away in the younger generations either, it's just not considered something that is acceptable to say in polite company. Edit 2: and thank you very much for making me think more about this!

That just begs the question. Young people today are not less racist because each generation magically improves. If they're less racist, then there had to be a mechanism for it.

tonyarkles 7y ago

This is totally an unsupported hypothesis. I have no data. The mechanism I'm proposing is that the current generation has not been exposed to many of the toxic things that reinforced racist beliefs. Slavery, segregated schools, etc. Kids in school are taught why those things were bad and why racism is bad. While not all of society has abandoned racism, there's been enough of a push that the public institutions educating the next generation are making efforts to reduce it.

aetherson 7y ago
But... slavery and segregated schools aren't weather. They didn't just happen. You seem like you're working really hard to avoid the idea that maybe some human convinced some other humans at some point to go from bad behavior to better behavior.
- tonyarkles 7y ago
  Absolutely some humans convinced some other humans! Enough, in fact, to make change! I'm not at all trying to avoid that idea. But I'm wholly unconvinced that when those things went away, a majority abandoned their racist notions. Rather, the next generation, when raised without the same degree of racism surrounding them, didn't take up those ideas to the same extent. It's not so much that people were convinced "I need to stop being racist" but rather that a subset was convinced "we can't teach this in our public schools" That's all just observational though. Around here it's not so much racism against black folks but rather against aboriginal folk (and to some extent, middle eastern folks). I hear almost none of that crap from my generation or the younger generations, and still hear horrible amounts of it from older generations. Yes, some people in those generations changed, but it sure seems like the "racism rate" is significantly lower than the mean in the younger generations and significantly higher than the mean in the older generations. Edit: it's also quite possible that it hasn't gone away in the younger generations either, it's just not considered something that is acceptable to say in polite company. Edit 2: and thank you very much for making me think more about this!