It is not racism.

[cosmik debris]

When a person fails to develop mentally, it is called mental retardation.

When a person fails to develop socially, it is called racism.

It's not racism.

It's social retardation.

You have permission to change the frame.

[Inland]

1. "Fail" makes it sound like they tried but couldn't.

They aren't handicapped. They don't have to be stupid or racist. They are ignorant, small people because they enjoy it and are content to remain that way.

Fox isn't the media version of special olympics, any more than Nazi Germany was a special needs nation.

[NYCGirl]

2. No, it's racism.

"Social retardation" sounds like something that cannot be helped. "Awww, that poor guy is so socially retarded."

Racism can be changed, and it's a much uglier thing than retardation.

[Ron Green]

3. It's just one manifestation of Fear.

It's the same underlying emotion that makes people chase money, or eat quarts of ice cream, or watch TV non-stop, or get into one bad relationship after another, or be addicted to drugs.

Racism is a socially-acceptable (in some places) way to respond inappropriately to fear: fear of the Other, of someone with a difference. It's just been organized and built into the culture; otherwise it's like any other cowardly failure to deal with a natural fear.

[Sean138666]

4. Why has racism never been called a "mental illness"?

When a guy washes his hands a few more times than most people--something that harms no one, including himself--they call him obsessive-compulsive or some other thing, and then pump the poor guy full of drugs until he's miraculously "cured".

Meanwhile, some yanker runs around calling for the deaths of entire races because "god" told him it was a good idea. Sounds like an insane man, right? Nope. Fucking nothing ever happens to these people!

[tk2kewl]

5. Lobotomy seems in order

[Ron Green]

6. Because his group gives him permission to be a racist.

The handwashing is out of line in his group, though. If you had a whole society that washed their hands excessively, they wouldn't try to "cure" him of that.

'Course it makes you think about the obsessive-compulsive things many Americans do, that appall people in other parts of the world, and wonder about the sanity of those things.

[Qibing Zero]

7. You bring up a very good point.

There are a lot of serious mental illnesses out there, of course, and I wouldn't want to downplay their existance. As for diagnosis though, unless we're talking about something non-religious (or a less accepted supernatural idea), no one dares call people's insane babbling and zealous fervor a mental illness.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. It's a social or a societal illness.

[pitohui]

8. i don't think it's social retardation

i thought social retardation was the old name for asperger's or high-functioning autism

such persons are not necessarily racist, there's no correlation between the two, you could be asperger's and totally clueless abt the illogic of hating someone based on race, or you could be asperger's and still be a racist