Addendum:  I find that it is a major tactic of those who want to run the world to cause people to overly embrace their: culture, race, color, political stance, religion, etc.  Why?  To create divisions.  It's today's version of Divide and Conquer.
 
When people ask if I'm a racist, I answer "Sure!" So they'll point at someone, who's black for example, and say "So you have a problem with them?" to which I'll answer "No, not at all; we're the same race."  They usually tend to look at me weird and say "But you're not black?" and my answer is "Those are just colors.  We're both from the human race.  I'm just not a fan of extraterrestrials."  Yeah, I'm setting them up a bit, but people desperately need to stop looking at the differences and start acknowledging the similarities.
 
I have a wide selection of friends from many cultures, colors, political stances and spiritual preferences.  I do have a bias that I need to work on: I have very little patience for unintelligent people whose entire lives appear to be directed by opinions brainwashed into them (yet they feel the need to badger everyone else with these).
 

Yes. Seriously.
 
If we viewed the human race(s) the same way we view breeds of dogs it wouldn't be "Oh those guys are like Dobies and those other doods are Spaniels, etc).
 
It would be more like every dog is a Lab but some are chocolate, some are golden, some are... etc, etc.
 
SCIENCE!!!

craigb
 
When people ask if I'm a racist, I answer "Sure!" So they'll point at someone, who's black for example, and say "So you have a problem with them?" to which I'll answer "No, not at all; we're the same race."  They usually tend to look at me weird and say "But you're not black?" and my answer is "Those are just colors.  We're both from the human race.  I'm just not a fan of extraterrestrials."  Yeah, I'm setting them up a bit, but people desperately need to stop looking at the differences and start acknowledging the similarities.
 
 

Why do people keep asking you if you're racist?

lulzity1

Voda La Void

 
One of the things I used to love to do on Facebook was re-write a news story swapping races, religions, events, whatever, and see how folks responded.  I learned the obvious...that people decide about something emotionally, and then search intellectually to justify it.  We tend to work backwards.  This Pew study is a cool one.


We do this indeed on a very regular basis.  The technical term is "Confirmation Bias".  Basically, it means we form an opinion then look for information to support that opinion.  If we find an overwhelming number of facts that dispute our opinion we simply dismiss them.

jamesg1213

craigb
 
When people ask if I'm a racist, I answer "Sure!" So they'll point at someone, who's black for example, and say "So you have a problem with them?" to which I'll answer "No, not at all; we're the same race."  They usually tend to look at me weird and say "But you're not black?" and my answer is "Those are just colors.  We're both from the human race.  I'm just not a fan of extraterrestrials."  Yeah, I'm setting them up a bit, but people desperately need to stop looking at the differences and start acknowledging the similarities.
 
 

Why do people keep asking you if you're racist?

My primary client is an immigration attorney's office.  Lots of hot buttons going on there!  If someone were to say something like "I'm going to march in the next Purple Lives Matters protest!" (for example), I might ask if they're going to march in a Green Lives Matters protest should one be created.  Now-a-days, as you can probably guess, lots of people believe if you don't think exactly as they do on a certain subjects, you're a racist, an atheist, a terrorist, a sexist, homophobic or any number of accepted terms to help promote division (as per my other point above).
 
Most don't see the forest, only specific trees.  Those are the ones who might ask.

Beepster
How many people in the US supported the various wars in the middle east over the past nearly 20 years?
 
I mean... you do realize you're at war, right?

Those same people have been at war for thousands of years. It's not like we started anything. The Israeli's barged in and claimed the table. Then, we had to go and make sure we had a seat. The wars would have been raging all the same.

DrLumen

Beepster
How many people in the US supported the various wars in the middle east over the past nearly 20 years?
 
I mean... you do realize you're at war, right?

Those same people have been at war for thousands of years. It's not like we started anything. The Israeli's barged in and claimed the table. Then, we had to go and make sure we had a seat. The wars would have been raging all the same.

Indeed. Total hornets nest.
 
Not sure why we insist on inserting our [REDACTED]s into it.
 
I mean... I know the answer "why" but it's not particularly altruistic... nor beneficial to us western plebes.

Beepster:
How many people in the US supported the various wars in the middle east over the past nearly 20 years?

In my crowd a lot.
We have bombed the Arab world relentlessly for years with very little organized protest. We carpet bombed Libya and estimates are 100,000 to 250,000 deaths (mostly civilians and non-combatants)

I can understand when European and American citizens get upset when their countries are attacked. I wish they directed just a fraction of this outrage at their own countriy's military actions against third-world countries.
 

For the record, I never blame the military (even though there are a few who feel like they're playing a video game on steroids).  I place it squarely on the political leaders with an agenda.  They play chess while the lower levels try to claim every pawn life matters.