Will racism die out with the Baby Boomers?

AGAA4

I agree WW2. When children are educated through school, college and university they will meet many from backgrounds other than their own and as my children and grandchildren have done made friends with them.

Even nursery age children can learn tolerance.

So they don't need post-grad qualifications, then, to learn tolerance?

I hope against hope that every generation is more enlightened.
My father was a racist, I, a baby boomer, am not, my children and grandchildren are not.
Many issues and the appalling treatment of George Floyd more recently has provoked passionate discussion in our family and I am heartened to know that even the youngest of my family have an admirable awareness of the unfairness that is suffered and an eagerness to be part of the change.
I commented that 'we have a long way to go but yes I think things will get better and better with every generation'. The current generation put me in my place with their answer 'change needs to be now'. That's me told and me educated.

I dread to think Callistemon?he would have been hung out to dry for sure.

Callistemon I think lemongrove is agreeing with you that it has nothing to do with post grad qualifications ...I think she was responding to whitewavemark2 s comment further up thread

Yes, I was referring to whitewave's post too, sorry for any confusion.

I was referring to the fact that those who go through the education system will meet many other people from different backgrounds to their own, which is a good thing.

Of course you don't need a degree to learn tolerance! You just need to meet with others who aren't exactly like you.

lemongrove

I dread to think Callistemon?he would have been hung out to dry for sure.

Or she.
Dr Gopal is a woman, the soft and gentle sex.

Oops, sexist remark

I am reading this post with great interest. I thought about all my friends and all those that I am acquaintances with, like my neighbours andI am ashamed to say that nearly all are racists. My next door neighbour surprised me yesterday when we talking by speaking about ethnic people by calling them ,those people, you know who I mean. , he was talking about the spread of the virus for goodness sake and was blaming them for the spread of it. I am not a racist, far from it, and get upset and offended when people run them down and blame them for the ills of this country and most of them doing the blaming are around my age group. I truly hope that it will die out or at least improve.

Racism cannot be tied to a generation, sadly.

Hithere

Racism cannot be tied to a generation, sadly.

Nor to a race, sadly.

Barmeyoldbat Your friends and acquaintances don't seem to be as enlightened as you. I hope you call them out. Change can't happen while we remain silent.

Furret said 'Or is it perhaps true that we become less tolerant as we age?'
Certainly less tolerant of noise, litter, swearing, chewing gum on the pavement and other irritants.
I hope we don't become less tolerant of people who have different skin. I think we become a little wiser, a little more accepting but perhaps we lose the energy to fight for right. That, as always, is where the younger generations come in.

Sorry, one more thing to answer your post. I do believe that I only have one racist friend of my age group, 70, and I do argue with her views although I see less and less of her because of those views. Apart from a few Gransnetters I don't know any others. I did know quite a few who were cronies of my parents.

My two DGS have a Sri Lankan father.
As recently as three weeks ago I had to call out one of my dearest friends over her remarks about 'Asian Immigrants'. My words to her went right over her head. It has caused me to question a fifty year relationship and I am very sad and perplexed about dealing with it.
I think racism both overt and covert will always exist.

How would you know their ages unless every post mentioned actual age...which would be odd.
Furret on FB and on Twitter it’s usually easy to have a guess at someone’s age, either from their photograph or the way they write.

I don’t think racism will die with our generation.

What is changing is knowledge, understanding and attitudes. For example, I hadn’t heard of white privilege until relatively recently, but I have now.

Our generation until now has probably turned a polite, blind eye to racism in family members and acquaintances, but young people are much more likely to call it out.
But don’t ask me to explain why the generation which calls out racism in others is the same generation that started Cancel Culture and no-platfotming.
It sometimes seems that tolerance and accepting that some people have different views to yourself is a one-way street .

Furret I think, like you, that younger people tend to be less racist and more disapproving of and likely to challenge people who behave in a racist way.

However, I fear there may well be a minority of people who continue to behave badly.

Sometimes it is due to people who have some genuine grievances about their own situation misdirecting that resentment and blaming everything on "foreigners".

But that is not always the case - there are very comfortably off people - even aristocratic and (allegedly) well educated people - who still have stereotypical views of race but who tend to use a more covert approach. I expect some will say that such people often have stereotypical views of lots of other groups too - particularly people they consider to be "not quite our class darling" . However, racism is particularly corrosive because it is possible (though admittedly not particularly easy) to change your accent, your mode of dress, your employment status, etc, but it is not possible to change your race/colour.

I certainly know quite a few nice - and some not-so-nice -people who I consider to have some quite iffy views regarding race. I don't think they would consider themselves to be racist, and I don't believe they intend to be malicious. However, from the recipient's point of view, it's not nice to be considered in, and perhaps treated in, a certain way just because of your colour, even though it may be a subconscious bias rather than a deliberate act.

I don't think being racist is tied to any age group or generation or any level of formal education. It is a reaction to the "otherness" of the unfamiliar. When cavemen saw strangers approaching, they instinctively took a good grip of their cudgel, or picked up a rock, ready to defend their foraging territory from marauders.

Once they ascertained that they came in peace they could relax a bit, but first they had to get to know the newcomers, and that took time. The more people mix with others of different races to themselves, the less they see them as "other". You can pass laws making racism a crime, but until no-one perceives "other" as "bad" there will always be someone whose reaction is, "'Ere comes a stranger, 'Eave a brick at 'im". It is improving, gradually.

Of course, the way people are perceived is very much affected by previous history. If they have been bloody wars, then the old enemy isn't instantly converted into a friend overnight. If those of another race have been mostly servants, paid or unpaid, or used as slave labour (whatever their colour or nationality ) then it is easier to see them as inferior than as equals, and to treat them badly. Conversely, if they were the conquerors, then resentment against them continues long after their power is over.

Eloethan posted "However, I fear there may well be a minority of people who continue to behave badly. " On ANY kind of antisocial beaviour, there will always be a minority of people who behave badly on principle - viz those who won't wear a mask to protect others from any virus particles they could be coughing over them, light up in non-smoking areas, throw down litter and dump mattresses in beautiful countryside, drive at lethal speeds in built-up areas, drop paving slabs from bridges over motorways onto crs driving underneath them. The list is endless.

Callistemon

Of course it hasn't lemongrove.
That is rather pompous post, assuming that those without post-grad qualifications are racist!

One hopes students will not be indoctrinated by Dr Gopal at Cambridge University who proclaims that "White Lives Don't Matter".

Imagine what would happen if a white lecturer tweeted the obverse.

No conversation then just personal insults.

Shame on you, making wrong assumptions over what I said or intended to say.

I truly believe that education is the best way to heal the open sore of racism.

Dr Gopal's comment that has caused outrage in some quarters has been either deliberately or mistakenly misrepresented.

She did not say "White Lives Don't Matter."

She said "White Lives Don't Matter - As White Lives ".

She told the Guardian that her tweets were opposing the concept of whiteness – the societal structure that presumes the superiority of white people – and not attacking white people.

She explained that she had meant white lives' value should be inherent because they are human lives, not because they are white lives and that their value should be inherent and not linked to ideologies around race, she said. “Whiteness does not qualify someone to have their life matter; the life matters but not the whiteness.”

She added: “You cannot oppose Black Lives Matter with ‘white lives matter’ because they are not comparable. Whiteness is already valued but blackness is not.”

Of course, some people will put forward the view that black people are mistaken in their belief that their lives are not valued every bit as highly as the lives of white people, but I think there is ample evidence to support that feeling.

It was fairly inevitable that her words would be triumphantly pounced upon as being racist towards white people - but her statement should be viewed in its entirety.

That is rather pompous post, assuming that those without post-grad qualifications are racist!

Lemongrove's post doesn't say anything of the sort.

I dream that it will ... I am often ashamed of people of my generation and their bigoted and narrow-minded attitudes- where racism is just under the surface- as so often on here it seems.

I agree that education will improve thinking but it has to be targeted education along with leading by action and example. The racist friend I referred to earlier was someone I met at law school in the early seventies, her LLB did nothing to help her, my father was a very well educated engineer with a love of nature and poetry but was a racist.

eazybee

*That is rather pompous post, assuming that those without post-grad qualifications are racist!*

Lemongrove's post doesn't say anything of the sort.

Neither did mine

Peardrop50

I agree that education will improve thinking but it has to be targeted education along with leading by action and example. The racist friend I referred to earlier was someone I met at law school in the early seventies, her LLB did nothing to help her, my father was a very well educated engineer with a love of nature and poetry but was a racist.

Yes absolutely, it has to start in nursery.