Tags
Community cohesion, Discrimination., Eliminating Racism., Inequility, Prejudice., Reverse racism., The paradox of racism.
(Eighteen-minute read)
After more than three centuries of deliberate, systematic race-based exclusion, the political system that had intentionally disenfranchised black people continues to do so, yet in less overt ways. Simply by allowing political systems to work as they are designed – to grant advantages to white people and to put people of color at various disadvantages is no longer acceptable.
However, Racism never goes away, it just adapts. This is why reverse racism is an erroneous concept.
There is no such thing as a race-neutral policy, every policy is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.
Race intertwines with sex and class in a sticky web of exploitation and oppression but nobody is born racist.
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The problem with this question is that immigration cannot be discussed properly because anyone who wants to raise the subject is labeled bigoted or racist — even if they’re talking about white Poles/ Romains, Irish, or second-generation English.
When seeking to get a picture of the inequality and social injustice’s it is starkly evident that major ethnic and racial inequalities are still the problem in many countries.
To have any meaningful discussion about racism, discrimination, or prejudice one must first understand the difference between them even though they are all intertwined.
Prejudice refers to irrational or unjustifiable negative emotions or evaluations toward persons from other social groups. Prejudice comes from the words ‘to judge before. It is forming an unfavorable opinion or feeling about a person or a group of people, without a full examination of the situation. In theory, it is possible for somebody to be prejudiced without anybody else knowing about it. You can’t help but be prejudiced.
Discrimination refers to inappropriate treatment of people because of their actual or perceived group membership and may include both overt and covert behaviors, including microaggressions, or indirect or subtle behaviors (e.g., comments) that reflect negative attitudes or beliefs about a non-majority group. Discrimination is racism made real. It should never be tolerated.
Racism refers to prejudice or discrimination against individuals or groups based on beliefs about one’s own racial superiority or the belief that race reflects inherent differences in attributes and capabilities.
Racism is the basis for social stratification and differential treatment that advantage the dominant group. It can take many forms, including explicit racial prejudice and discrimination by individuals and institutions as well as structural or environmental racism in policies or practices that foster discrimination and mutually reinforcing social inequalities (e.g., attendance policies that favor a majority group).
Racism can also take the form of unconscious beliefs, stereotypes, and attitudes toward racial groups in the form of implicit bias.
Other forms of racism are modern symbolic racism in which individuals deny the continued existence of racial inequality while contributing to discrimination and aversive racism through ingroup favoritism for the dominant racial group.
Prejudice and discrimination harm all people but racism is more than just personal biases it is systemic and white people can’t experience racism because they aren’t systemically oppressed.
When it comes to the idea of reverse racism, people are talking about prejudice, not racism.
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Britain, perhaps ironically through her Empire, has become a multi-ethnic state but unfortunately, like most countries that were founded on the sweat of immigrants, its INSTITUTIONS ARE STILL FULL OF RACISM / DISCRIMINATION. ( True of many countries)
Racism is now such a charged subject in Britain that even outside observers feel they have a right to offer hyperbolic comments about the state of the nation.
The danger with crying racism at every turn is that it conceals real problems.
A belief that innate differences make some groups inherently superior to others is generally taken to be the core idea of racism. Britain to this very day personifies this belief with a class system everyone in the UK fits into whether one likes it or not.
The class system’s residue is here to stay.
The long-term unemployed, homeless, etc. Low-level unskilled or semi-skilled workers, “Chav,” “Champagne socialists” Middle-class white-collar workers, Toffs “old money” which means they have been rich for a long time, Aristocrats “Blue-blooded,” the royal family and those with titles, such as lords or barons, fall into this group.
Explaining the British class system is a hard thing to do even for a Brit. One reason for this is that moving from one class to another is increasingly possible, but the complication is that there are some unwritten rules that mean you can be considered upper class by some people and not by others!
So the class system is alive and kicking in the UK but in today’s society, it doesn’t have the same status as it once did but a substantial minority of the British public subscribe to some form of racist belief an entire kaleidoscope of words exists to refer to foreigners.
If you are a foreigner (black or not) arriving into the country with a label of Refugee, Asylum seeker, Immigrant. Alien, Undocumented, Outsider, it envokes to me, anti-immigrant rhetoric, setting up us and them sort of divide immediately on arrival.
Social class is clearly no longer neatly defined by occupation. So while Britain is looking out for the old bigotry, new ones creep in. ‘Culturalism ’ What the current class system changes into next very much depends on what we do, or don’t do.
The problems, now, in short, are not about race: they are fundamentally social and economic, better seen in terms of social class and economic inequality than in racial terms.
Perhaps if the overall wealth of the nation was used to introduce a basic income rather than a living wage or leveling up the divides between us and them could narrow and we might in the future be valued more by what we contribute to society, not by how much we take out.
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So where are we?
Of course, the battle for survival will take the presidency.
Nations across the world face a vast array of issues and problems, from defense to societal issues and climate change. All of which could be argued to be just as pressing of an issue as the others, so with so much to juggle, what should their focus be?
We are facing the real possibility that the climate crisis could steal the chance at a better tomorrow from people all over the world.
Immigration has already become a pressing issue across Europe in recent years, as people flee from conflict and unrest in other parts of the globe, add climate change and war in Ukraine and it won’t be who or what color is coming but how many.
Band-aid solutions must be replaced with a focus on tackling the root causes of systemic racism along with the structural causes of racial inequality within education, employment, and self-responsibility.
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In England’s case, the departure from the EU was fuelled by posters like the above that resulted in the middle class fearing losing their privilege voting to leave. We can only institute change when people understand the conversation around racism and prejudice. When white people realize their prejudice holds power that keeps minorities oppressed, they can then work to change the system we live in.
It is now raising its ugly head in Sport, in Policing, in Politics, in every fabric of its economy – Leveling up.
This can be intentional, or not.
Of course, atrocities were committed by whites in the name of the British Empire, but is that all its white forbears contributed? Did they bequeath no benefits to the world, including to black people?
There is no simple answer to either of these questions.
Even the charge of colonial guilt is hopelessly one-sided.
The British spread their might but did not share their knowledge.
In England’s case, the abiding poison of white privilege is the rectitude of racism that still remains in its class structure that is the problem. Of course, there are systemic and institutional factors in play here and they must always be kept in sight.
Britain remains a racist country and there is only one remedy for racism that some claim to be an even more lethal virus than Covid: whites must admit guilt, offer an apology, and make amends. But there are other things that affect blacks and whites alike: things such as luck or an individual’s own behavior and sense of responsibility and so on.
Are we at risk of getting things dangerously out of proportion?
‘Pound Shop Enoch Powell’ is an unsettling reality.
Legislation has long been on the statute book outlawing racial discrimination for which blacks themselves have no responsibility. Racism is terrible, but I would like racists to feel comfortable expressing their prejudice so we can identify them and be forewarned.
Unfortunately, Britain has much to show for 150 years of global dominance- Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, Bermuda. The Empire has gone back to being a small island nation taking the knee in more ways than one. The reality of Britain’s post-Brexit standing, alone in Europe is beginning to become clear.
They talk tough but look pathetic.
All human comments are appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.
Basically, we’re entering the era of machines controlling everything.
If we want to create new different societies with human dignity for all we need to do something about it.
The difficulty of predicting the future is not just a cliche, it’s a basic fact of our existence. Part of the hypothesis of Singularity is that this difficulty is just going to get worse and worse. Yes, creating AGI ( Artificial General Intelligence) is a big and difficult goal, but according to known science, it is almost surely an achievable one.
However, there are sound though not absolutely confident arguments that it may well be achievable within our lifetimes.
If artificial general intelligence is on the not too distant horizon, surely we should be ensuring that it is not owned by anyone corporation and that at its core it respects our core values.
If we think in months we focus on immediate problems such as the present-day wars, the Covid crisis, the Donald Trumps, the economy, if we think in decades, climate, growing inequality, the loss of jobs to automation are all presenting dangers. But if we look at life in total, science is converging on data processing and AI that is developing itself with algorithms.
When intelligence is approached in an incremental manner, with strict reliance on interfacing to the real world through perception and action, reliance on representation disappears.
It won’t be long before we will not be unable to distinguish the real world from the virtual world.
Since there is only one real world and there can be infinite virtual worlds the probability that you will inhabit this sole world is zero.
So it won’t matter whether computers will be conscious or not.
Is starting to feel like it’s every man for himself, Is possible that right now, a global crisis is upon us, Without even knowing… And the virus may not be the biggest threat, but the crisis that follows, Everyday goods that keep us alive will be gone, I’m talking, food, freshwater, medicine, clothes, fuel…
Intelligence is decoupling from consciousness and soon rather than later it will be consigned to Google, Facebook, Twitter, Smartphones, and the like to make decisions that are not possible to reverse.
You might think that the above is stupid but it won’t be long before we will be witnessing the most unequal societies in history.
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We humans will soon be living with robots that process data without any subjective experiences or consciousness or moral opprobrium.
As we watch robots, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence machines, and the like slowly (and sometimes rapidly) permeate our world, it’s not hard to imagine them going from permeating to taking over.
Algorithms are increasingly determining our collective future.
It will only matter what they think about you.
We are already halfway towards a world where algorithms run everything.
This is why many of the issues raised in this post will require close monitoring, to ensure that the oversight of machine learning-driven algorithms continues to strike an appropriate and safe balance between recognizing the benefits (for healthcare and other public services, for example, and for innovation in the private sector) and the risks (for privacy and consent, data security and any unacceptable impacts on individuals).
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WHAT CAN GOVERNMENTS DO?
Please regulate AI, this is too dangerous.
Given the international nature of digital innovation, governments, should establish audits of algorithms, introducing certification of algorithms, and charging ethics boards with oversight of algorithmic decisions.
Why?
They are bringing big changes in their wake.
From better medical diagnoses to driverless cars, and within central governments where there are opportunities to make public services more effective and achieve long-term cost savings.
However, the Government should produce, publish, and maintain a list of where algorithms with significant impacts are being used within the Central Government, along with projects underway or planned for public service algorithms, to aid not just private sector involvement but also transparency.
Governments should not just simply accept what the developers of algorithms offer in return for data access.
To this end, Governments should be at the forefront of the creation of a “statutory building code”, which describes mandatory safety and quality requirements for digital platforms.
Social networks should be required by law to release details of their algorithms and core functions to trusted researchers, in order for the technology to be vetted.
This Law should enable the enforcement of,
If we are not careful they will have no notion of self, existing only in the present unaware of the past or future, and therefore will be unable to consciously plan for future eventualities.
Unconscious algorithms in our brains rather than conscious images in a mind.
If you are using a smartphone, it indirectly means that you are enjoying the AI knowingly or unknowingly. It cannot be modified unknowingly or can’t get disfigured or breakdown in a hostile environment.
We should not be regulating technology but Artificial Intelligence.
It is so complicated in behavior we need to be regulated it at the data level.
In lots of regulated domains, there is this notion of post-market surveillance, which is where the developer bears the responsibility of how the technology developed by them is going to be used.
As William Shakespeare wrote in – As you Like it.
” All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players, they have their exits and entrances. ”
Sadly with AI, Machine Learning Algorithms no one knows or for that matter will ever know when they enter or exit.
Probably like AI learning is actually an ongoing process that takes place throughout all of life. It’s the process of moving information from out there — to here. Unfortunately with the brain, has its own set of rules by which it learns best, unlike AI, the information doesn’t always stick. Together, we have a lot to learn.
Humanity is in contact with humanity.
All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the cloud bin.
All of them are presenting overwhelming challenges ahead.
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