What drives racism in the USA?

Perhaps guilt, but I suspect it is at least partly a left-over from the fear the ex-slave-owners must have felt at the prospect of all those they had oppressed rising up and taking revenge. They could rationalise it by branding them all as a lesser breed, or even "subhuman", but they had been the physical power engines of the plantations, and once they were freed, that power could be used against their masters if they were allowed to have political clout.

Guilt by the oppressor often leads to more oppression. Under that there is fear, and behind that fear there is shame. The Americans have a long history of that - initially the indigenous (American) Indians were almost destroyed by the immigrant 'whites'. Bullies continue to bully through fear of having done to them what they have done to others. A viscous circle.

It takes many generations for changing attitudes and cultural identities to evolve - but they do have Mr. Obama as President! Maybe, just maybe he is the beginning of a change.

I think it is driven by pure ignorance, by which I mean a low standard of education in the people who harbour it. There are plenty of non-racist white americans.

Bags, of course there are -but that doesn't alter the statistics on black deprivation. There were obviously sufficient sensible people to elect Obama so perhaps there is hope.

The vile comments which followed a press article on how Obama said in his autobiography some years ago that as a child in Indonesia he had once been given (shock horror) dog to eat were revealing about the level of personal hatred some people in the USA still feel toward him as a part-black president.

Religion is another thing that tends to encourage racism — certain sects anyway. Back in the 1990s when my Mormon friends were trying to convert me to Mormonism (yes, I know, quite funny), they were able to deal with all my remarks about the nonsense of Joseph Smith's myths, non-tea and coffee drinking, blah, blah, blah. What stumped them and made them give up was not my lack of faith (they reckoned they could cure that!) but, when I said "I can't belong to the Mormon church. You don't allow black priests." They were embarassed into silence because it was true. I think that may have changed by now, but that was only twenty years ago. Your 'average' American has a lot of catching up to do as regards how they think about equality, or even if they think about it at all.

I still have the odd parallel universe moments where I stop and wonder "did they really elect a black man?" I never thought I would see the day.
We are a funny old species aren't we. I read somewhere the other day the comment that if you put other primate species in a large group of strangers they would massacre each other. We are extremely social and not very territorial, willing to tolerate and be kind to strangers in a unique way. Yet we also do have a wariness of strangers and of people who do things differently - e.g. immigrants from another culture. We are both sociable and shy.
There must have been some huge evolutionary advantages for our ancestors in becoming more social - exchange of genes and knowledge etc. But at the same time people we don't know pose a risk, they might attack us, consume or take over our food sources, run off with our children or infect us with a disease. So people who are different are both attractive to us and frightening at the same time. So perhaps racism is a reflection of one side of our biological nature - it is the cautious primate in us, wanting to protect our resources and our children. ANd when we are not racist it is the more altruistic and social side of our nature coming to the fore.

That's my take on the issue, too Jess. We are intelligent enough and have sufficient resources to keep us alive in western countries, so this instinct to be hostile to strangers does not need to evolve any further. We have created an environment that is dependent on us being sociable now.

Which, when and jess, is why educating people properly would make a difference.

I agree with the comments on here - guilt by oppressors turning to fear and hatred, a history of dehumanising black Americans, and outright ignorance arising from poor education.

I hate the way many US drama programs on TV (though not all) make sure that the love interests of the characters are of the same race. I think they do this without even realising they are doing it.

reality is a bit different though, joan. I know three families in the US which would be assumed to be all white. At least two of them have dark-skinned members deliberately, i.e. there have been/are relationships between people with different skin colours (let's not talk about race in this context; it's irrelevant). I know you can't extrapolate from such a small sample, but still.....

one does

a bit

I should say that those are all the families I know in the States!

I think that fear of the different is deeply ingrained in both humans and other animals. Notice how crows, for example, will attack and kill an albino crow. Note, too, recent reports of verbal abuse and actual violence towards disabled people. Jewish history is riddled with instances of terrible discrimination and oppression. While this fear may be a perfectly understandable, natural response, human beings have had millennia of social evolution and so-called civilisation to set against their visceral instincts.

Yes reality in the states is much more multi ethnic than the films in families and in many areas. If you watched the movies (especially up to about 10 years ago) you would swear California was a white enclave. When I went there it was apparent that it was very mixed with african-american, latino and asian people in large numbers. My Californian friend has a half asian step son (i think Japanese/Hawaian mother), her daughter has a latino adopted daughter and an african-american boyfriend. That's just for starters.
In the movies/TV they can barely bring themselves to have an asian/white pair off. Let us scratch our heads... In Numbers, Charlie (Jewish) had an Indian (hindu probably) partner. um, on Mentalist Cho (korean american) has fallen for a white hooker...
But it is also the case I think that if you live in the mid west it is very white. My DS had a girlfriend who as Korean adoptee and what the only child who was not "white" in her school. In the Louis Theroux programmes about white racists they lived in such areas.

I wonder if the fact that the majority of Americans are descended from immigrants (albeit some unwilling participants who had no choice) has something to do with it. Not quite sure why, but just wondered. For the most part, it is a different kind of racism from that which exists in the UK.

Racism in the USA isn't just against Afro-Carribean peoples, it is the same for Native-Americans and Mexicans. Too often these groups are still seen as 'only fit' for menial tasks.

Mm i think wherever you go you will find it, not far away. Are there any countries/cultures where it does not exist?

Is racism really that different in the US than the UK? Or indeed my home country, Switzerland, or nearby France?

I think there are a lot more people in the US unashamed of their racist views, and unafraid of expressing them. The USA is so big that trying to erradicate such ingrained prejudice has been, and still is, an extremely uphill struggle.

The difference to me is that black Americans have been there almost as long as the white settlers. Resentment in European countries tends to be against newcomers or based on historical conflicts over land ownership. Until fairly recently segregation was legal in many American states. I remember Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech.

Exactly.

I think the fact Afro Americans and other minority groups are over represented in prisons etc is more to do with class than race. Black Americans, Hispanics are more likely to be poor /less well educated than WASP Americans. The reason they are poor is probably due to racism.....

Same in UK too really..

'The reason they are poor is probably due to racism...'

A bit of a sweeping statement, nanaeg. It may be an aspect, in some cases.

I remember clearly all the civil rights stuff, and the horror I felt when King was murdered. And Rosa Parks - so quietly courageous.

I do believe there is a strong link between race and poverty in the USA. You can't get over generations of being held back in every way, and then catch up in a generation or two.