It Takes a Village to Raise a Racist

[katty]

more: http://www.alternet.org/media/145596/it_takes_a_village_to_raise_a_racist

It Takes a Village to Raise a Racist

Researches have found that kids don't necessarily get their prejudice from their parents -- it is the community that fosters tolerance or prejudice.
February 9, 2010

Shortly after white supremacist James von Brunn's fatal shooting attack this spring at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., his 32-year-old son issued a statement to ABC News in which he denounced his father's ideology and described the devastating impact it had had on his family.

"My father's beliefs have been a constant source of verbal and mental abuse my family has had to suffer with for many years," he said. "His views consumed him, and in doing so, not only destroyed his life, but destroyed our family and ruined our lives as well."

[timeforpeace]

1. NY's Gov. Patterson says everyone who's trying to get him to resign is a racist.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

2. I would tend to disagree.

I think on a basic instintual level, people are drawn to similarities, things like themselves, and objects they have experienced before. Simply put, deep down people value familiarity and similarity to such an extent that objects with easily discerable differences likely face exclusion. Such behavior is seen in many species.

I believe it takes a higher order of thinking to recognize and value differences for the diversity they offer.
Society, the aggregate of indivuals, has nothing to do with it. If society is comprised of low-thinkers, then those beliefs are what it will project. If a society is comprised of evolved thinkers, then it will project values promoting acceptance.

[katty]

3. point well taken, I tend to fall in the middle of your view and

my POV is that the parent(s) views/influence and behavior do matter, affect the child, as well as the wider community, immediate surrounding environment and beyond.