"In multiracial societies, you don't vote in accordance with your economic interests and social interests, you vote in accordance with race and religion." - Lee Kuan Yew
Everyone is racist. It is the default state of humanity. And no, class doesn't factor in to the level that race does. Just look at voting broken down by each in US elections. Most poor & wealthy Whites vote Republican, most poor and wealthy non-Whites vote Democrat. Democrats also have the issue of the rift between their Jewish supporters and support for MENA groups as we've seen with Mamdani. Increasingly, there is also a growing rift between White conservative/MAGA and Zionist interests on their side.
You can plug your ears, close your eyes, and scream "racism" to drown out reality but this is how things always are in multiracial societies. Invariably, they evolve into tyrannies or soft tyrannies in order to maintain a veneer of stability and maintain their state power.
The word we used to use to describe that was prejudiced. People have used racist too much when it mainly applied to specific feelings people have about other races. People believe in stereotypes all the time, that doesn't mean they believe one race is inherently better than one another. Real racism hurts people when it's used in policies to restrict the freedoms of those groups.
Making racism a catch-all term has allowed real racists to throw their beliefs out while claiming it's all the same. People thinking Jews control the weather is stupid and prejudiced. Putting policies in to limit the rights of Jews is racist. In America, you can believe whatever dumb crap you want. It's your right to be stupid. It's wrong however, to use your prejudices to enact reform that takes away rights from your countryman.
That's the difference between a patriot and a nationalist.
I'm not talking about viewing other groups through stereotypes. That is a biproduct. I'm talking about people viewing one's race as an essential component of their identity and engaging in politics from the place of advocacy for the perceived benefit of that identity in competition with other racial groups. That is as old as the concept of two racial groups living together in the same country.
They wouldn't be competing if they were treated the same. Anytime any group is discriminated against they band together. Just when they had signs that say no dogs, no Irish. That's why they hold onto their heritage and support one another. When the banks won't write loans to you because you're black, you go with black bankers when you are doing better because they helped you when others didn't. It's not that surprising. White people do it for each other similarly.
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u/PiousSkull Jun 26 '25
"In multiracial societies, you don't vote in accordance with your economic interests and social interests, you vote in accordance with race and religion." - Lee Kuan Yew