Racism

Okay so really really late on my posts. I've had some issues with my account and essentially had to create an entirely new one. As you can tell I'm really great with technology!

So a few weeks ago, 3 precisely, I had my data discussion presentation. The topic for my discussion was 'Racism'. Being such a broad topic I narrowed it down to the basic question, What is considered racist? Still broad however when reviewing this question it did for me narrow the complexities of racism to a much more comprehensible notion. The data I collected is two videos. One is of a woman (Emma West) on a tram in Britain hurling racial remarks and giving a speech on how "her" Britain has essentially gone down to the loo due to the racial diversity. The most disturbing sight in this video is that during the duration of her hateful speech she is holding what seems to be her child.
The second video for discussion was audio archive of Alan Jones' coverage of the Cronulla Riots. Throughout the audio we hear Jones overtly vilifying the ethnicities being attacked on the day of the riots.
I also briefly discussed a website I found called racistjokes.info. The website has published in my opinion, hateful racist statements, not jokes. However to cushion the blow of their aggressive vilification a symbol of a giant happy face is posted in the middle of the title, "Racist Jokes".

So throughout this discussion, questions were asked such as, can this be seen as racism or is it just nationalism? Or ethnocentrism? And is ethnocentrism the extreme of nationalism? What essentially determines our perception of ethnicities different from our own?
What has driven people like Emma West, Alan Jones and the publishers of the site racistjokes.info to view minority groups in this fashion? The most common answer would be yes their upbringing, their family life etc. What I would like to explore is the specifics in these questions, what could or what other major influences triggers racism because if we think of children (ages 4-7) and their approach to racial status, it is benign and naive. What are the specifics that implement racist behaviours?

More to come in the research report!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGIEHhpfkKY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgm2zLO5N5M