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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Political views become racist when they refuse to recognize the basic rights, needs, and dignity of people based on their race and/or geographic origin.
It's quite simple, really.
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Yes.
Everyone is inherently "racist"/xenophobic at some level, and that's never going to change... I've had to recognize this myself, based on my visceral, unadulterated reactions to working in the Philly ghetto and other places where I have felt uncomfortable (and still went on doing my work, mind you). I understand that humans have those kinds of visceral reactions... it's a built-in defense mechanism (fear had a purpose, back in the day) in our species.
However, to me, the ethics of racism/xenophobia comes down to what you do with your own personal racism, and how much you allow it to dictate your behavior and words towards people who are different from you. Does it stand in the way of human compassion and a recognition of universal human rights? If so, then I might not call you a racist, but I might call you an asshole. Because I don't believe that any one of us is less deserving than another person on this earth, of the opportunity to have a decent, secure, long life.
Whatever other proxies you may use to measure those perceived differences between individual humans (legality, citizenship, language, name, education, class, and yes, even skin color, in every single country in the world, it remains a problem), I will not agree with you. There are no proxies, in my book. We are all human here. Nobody deserves to be treated like shit, or to live in a country full of shit. If I lived in those conditions and had a family to provide for, I'd cross that border as soon as humanly possible, legality be damned.