Will racism die out with the Baby Boomers?

They can't help it. They've been educated to think that their feelings are more important that facts. So, any divergence on belief causes them distress, which makes them angry.
And highly educated young people really do believe that they are always right.

Oh yes, you're right about that.
But try holding a different point of view from many of them. Dissent is definitely verboten.

Bit of a sweeping statement flopen I disagree and know of many young people who care for others and are trying to make things better in their own way.

Well, as I've said before, I don't think young people are more enlightened. I think we have raised an intolerant youth who are incapable of seeing anybody's point of view but their own.

Peardrop50

Lucca I have a feeling that what EllanVannin is alluding to is 'black lives matter', 'take down the statues', 'change college names', 'change street names'. While most of us understand that things must change and quickly as there is much offence and hurt happening, there is also a danger of creating resentment in our haste to destroy our history, as awful as some of it is.
I can't help but feel that this aspect of change should come about by consensus following discussion and education.

Thank you but then she says “nobody would bother” ?? Nobody would bother about racism ??
Anyway EV has not returned to expand on her statement.

FoghornLeghorn

Furret

You don’t get it at all Foghorn ..I’m not ascribing racism to one group.

Just reflecting that the majority of racists I come across seem to be of my own generation. The young folks I know seem much more open-minded, tolerant, multicultural (I’m struggling to find the exact word)

I do get it and yes, you are. You said the above. And brought Baby Boomers into it.

I’m not sure if you are deliberately choosing to misunderstand or whether you genuinely have not understood. But let’s leave it there. I’m simply pleased that most of the posters understood my point that the world, or at least our part of it, is perhaps entering a more enlightened phase.

Old attitudes to people from different cultures are changing, especially among the young. Or at least I’d like to think so. Much of this is because they have been brought up in a society that allows them to have friends, family and colleagues from different cultures and backgrounds.

I’d qualify that by agreeing that there are still those young people who have not had the benefits of either education or multiculturalism and are of the ‘Tommy Robinson’ mentality.

But looking at BLM protests I can see that there are more white people supporting the cause, especially young whites and young white women.

That has to give us hope for the future.

You have to be a committed optimist to believe that younger people are going to be more tolerant to racism, it works in both directions as well. There is a good deal of animosity between youngsters of different races.

I think a lot of people would say that only white people can be racist because only white people have power.
Yes, I know it's nonsense, but that is a fairly common response to what you've said.

I presume that,as usual, you are referring to racists are being white people? It would be interesting to know in what sort of environment you all live. Believe me, there is a great deal of racial animosity towards white people from certain immigrants.
In some large cities and towns, there are ghettoes where white people are not welcome.
Governments have been warned of the situation but ignore it, as scare-mongering.
The current BLM movement is creating more racial tension, which is probably their intention.
Don't bury your head in the sand.

Your post makes no sense at all Spangler

My post was tongue-in-cheek
Which you obviously did not understand.

No, you cannot generalise at all, Sparklefizz

A friend's son-in-law, a North African Arab, highly educated in the UK to post-grad level, is the most racist person I have ever met, highly critical of a variety of different races and cultures, and is also highly anti-Semitic. He is aged 50ish.

How can anyone generalise?

Callistemon

The world will be a wonderful place when the "baby boomers" have gone to their eternal rest.

Caring, sharing, tolerant, eternal with just enough rain everywhere to water the crops, peace and love, spiritualism, flower power will prevail.

Just like the world was for millennia before the "baby boomers" were born.

Try telling that to the millions who had to raise their right arm and shout: "Sieg Heil."

I think there is, sadly, a fundamental human problem with people who are somehow 'different' from the prevailing group. So there will continue to be racism, bullying of the child who's a bit different at school in a whole host of potentially different ways, similarly in the workplace. We seem to want to find and fit in with people like ourselves and to be suspicious of people who are different. We may wrap it up in correct language but the awareness will still be there. It always has been and I reckon always will be. It's human.

I thought racism meant treating others differently or in a bad way. Now it seems you can't use certain words and sometimes the words that were ok last week are now seen as racist.I saw a post on another site calling someone out for using the word Asian when referring to an Asian person in a friendly way.
My dil is Asian and she sees racism everywhere but calls it out. The hospital wrote to her gp calling her 'this Chinese woman (she is not chinese).She complained and got an apology. Also when trying to get a refund for her flight she was ignored but her husband got his money by return.

WW2 I am so sorry, I was responding to someone calling Lemons post pompous and attributed it to you, apologies again, I think I should have said Callistemon.

Many of us grew up in a racially homogenous society, hardly ever encountering people of another race. That did not generally make us racist, but we would have noticed the occasional non-white person we encountered as "different". That was not always different in a bad way - they might have been seen as exotic or interesting, but their very rarity set them apart.

Our children and grandchildren have grown up in a much more varied society, with a different racial mix and a greater likelihood of close encounters with schoolmates, workmates, friends of different races and cultural backgrounds. This is not the uniform experience everywhere in the UK. In many rural areas there are few non-white residents, so a grandchild may still not have a single non-white classmate.

However the media is presenting a different picture from the one we grew up with when the Black and White Minstrel Show was considered acceptable family viewing and Alf Garnet was just funny. Racist attitudes, thank goodness, are certainly no longer condoned.

Whitewavemark2

I like to think that education is one of the keys. If my offspring and their friends are anything to go by, they haven’t a racist bone in their body, they are all educated to post degree level.

Our children were the first generation to benefit from widespread higher education, and with luck this will help towards an acceptance of a pluralistic society. What a lovely thought?.

Sorry, ww but your post tends to indicate that those who are educated to post degree level would not be racist whereas anyone not so well educated could well be racist - that higher and post-graduate education is the key to tolerance.

As many people will not be educated to post-graduate level, even in the future, then a reasonable sequitur may be that there would not appear to be grounds for optimism, unfortunately.

I'm sure that is not what you meant although your post does read like that; it was not an assumption on my part.

Loislovesstewie It is the differences that bring out racism, just as they do sexism, ageism sectarianism and all the other nastyisms. Racism isn't something on its own, it is one manifestation of tribalism, and that isn't confined to white tribes. Colour is an obvious difference, so it is one of the last differences that people develop a tolerance of. There are fashions in which ism is in vogue and which is frowned on. Currently racism is the one that is under fire, and it may be minimised because of that - but I don't think it will completely be annihilated any more than any of the others.

Furret

You don’t get it at all Foghorn ..I’m not ascribing racism to one group.

Just reflecting that the majority of racists I come across seem to be of my own generation. The young folks I know seem much more open-minded, tolerant, multicultural (I’m struggling to find the exact word)

I do get it and yes, you are. You said the above. And brought Baby Boomers into it.

Lucca I have a feeling that what EllanVannin is alluding to is 'black lives matter', 'take down the statues', 'change college names', 'change street names'. While most of us understand that things must change and quickly as there is much offence and hurt happening, there is also a danger of creating resentment in our haste to destroy our history, as awful as some of it is.
I can't help but feel that this aspect of change should come about by consensus following discussion and education.

EllanVannin

If it wasn't forced down everyone's throats all the time nobody would bother.

If what wasn’t forced down everyone’s throats ?.

I am talking about young people I have met through work, ( my customers) , they don't want to mix, they will use appalling language when talking about people from other ethnicities, they won't consider that black/Asian people aren't the ones who are preventing them from having what they want . I wasn't talking about my adult children , but others who are if you like to put it this way 'are at the bottom of the pile' .
FWIW , if we are being honest my youngest was beaten up by a gang of boys who were of Pakistani origin, It happened regularly to him at the school he attended. The school had a very good reputation, but there was a group of boys who picked on him because he has autism. The school did nothing for years .When we complained we were told that the boys in question could not have behaved as they did because they were from an oppressed minority. It only stopped when a teacher witnessed an incident in which my son was beaten . Comments were made to him during the assault that left no-one in any doubt as to what was happening . I can also tell you that my husbands family are Romanies ,. i.e , gypsies and that was part of the reason that he was attacked. after that all hell broke loose because, of course, we were right all along. He was being assaulted and bullied.
Why am I telling you this now ? Because racism is present in all groups , not just white people. It's just not talked about .

What about football fans? Some of them are extremely racist and they're usually younger people.

Yes Peardrop I do call them out, I think part of it is I have travelled and lived abroad in various countries whereas they especially next door neighbour have never been abroad and had the experience of mixing and learning.

Flopen I couldn’t agree more about identity politics & your comments about some young people’s intolerance of different views from their own.

Lois They didn't mix in school and definitely not out of school; each group keeping to their own areas
If we’re talking about personal experience, I can tell you that all my DC have friends from different races and nationalities, some friendships from school & university and some from other activities.