"Racism" is a greatly exaggerated phenomenon

Submitted by Michael S, Mar 21, 2017 at 00:28

Hi, Tovey

I finished dinner, etc. Moving forward...

"Racism was rampant during the Assyrian and Babylonian incursions against Israel; later the Elamites and then Haman, the Agagite, when trying to destroy the diaspora along with Mordechai and Esther."

Again, I wouldn't call this "racism" by any scientific study. Certainly, attempts to wipe out the Jews have been identified with "racism", probably especially by the Jews; but when those same Jews are accused as being "racists", they raise all sorts of esoteric arguments.

Here's my take on the matter, for what it's worth: If one is to call something "racist", it ought to at least involve a difference of races; and the Jews are not a "race" by any scientific criteria. If the Jews, therefore, are not a "race", then Hitler cannot be accused of "racism" in persecuting them. I can't imagine any Jew agreeing to let the Fuhrer off the hook on this or ANY count; so such Jews are caught in the pickle of declaring a Jewish "race" when it comes to Hitler, and denying a Jewish "race" when the UN accuses them of racism. Therefore, I say that there is no such thing as a Jewish "race", and Hitler wasn't technically a racist. In his own eyes, though, which were the eyes of a raving lunatic, he was a racist; because HE thought the Jews were a race.

What shall I say, then? That ugliness is in the eye of the beholder? I guess that's close enough. You went on,

"Racism is implicit in human nature and it has run rife in history, being the proximal cause to just about every long running cause for hatred and divisive adversity in every epoch of the human existence."

I don't agree, by any definition. Cain hated his own brother, and killed him. Certainly, THEY were both of the same race. Ditto for Esau, who comforted himself with the thought of killing his brother Jacob. Likewise the Scribes and Pharisees, who hated their kinsman Jesus. Certainly the Thirty Years War, a major conflict in European history, was fought by German against German; as was the very bloody American Civil War, the Taiping Rebellion, World War I (The Kaiser was the first cousin of the British monarch), The Russian Revolution and others of history's bloodiest conflicts. In World War II, the Japanese killed many more Chinese than Europeans. The American GIs also suffered many more casualties fighting against their European relatives, than fighting the Japanese:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/ref/Casualties/Casualties-1.html

"Racism", is appears is a GREATLY exaggerated phenomenon. Even so, recall that I wasn't arguing that there either was or wasn't "racism" in the Bible; I was simply saying that the Bible never call it a "sin".

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