Were you afraid of the dark as a kid? Obviously you were afraid because you were a racist. Now go relearn all the words surrounding systems too complex for me to figure out you racist bastards.

I wasn't. I was afraid of what could be hiding in the darkness instead.

@netikras this
Darkness by itself is pretty comfortable.

@netikras This is definitely the root of our darkness==bad and lightness==good. You can see things coming in the light but the darkness is unknown. Black is the darkest colour and white is the lightest colour.

It is just weird that a biologically rooted response has become so politicized.

@netikras That's strangely relatable now that you mention it.

@Ranchu because that's what we're afraid of..

People are afraid of the unknown.
- See a yet unknown spider in your room? You're afraid: is it poisonous? [Naah, just a lost itsy-bitsy]
- Your chest hurts: is it my heart? is it stopping? [turns out it's just your intercostal muscles]
- A stranger is wandering in your back yeard carrying a thick stick: is he gonna hurt me?? [a hiker is going after his dog who chased away a squirrel]
- I heard some noise under my bed - is it the monster? [it's just some bug climbing on a plastic bag with your old shoes in it]

- that woman was ill and now she's not. Is she a witch? let's burn her! [she just drank some tea with some leaves and roots from the forest]

- I can't see anything in the night - will anything in there hurt me? a pit? wet floor? a wall? a rake? a stranger? a monster? [probably all of them, except maybe the last one. But tell that to your imagination, right?]

@Ranchu Darkness is a special case -- in the darkness you lose your most reliable sense - your sight. Without sight you don't KNOW what's there right in front of you. What's behind you. Above... Is there anyone standing? Is there a deadly viper nearby that's going to kill me?

Imagination can bring more exotic threats on the table: monsters, Krueger, assassins, etc. But without your sight, you have no reliable way to now those threats are not there. You try to use your hearing, but as soon you hear any [ANY] noise the fear grows as it "confirms" there's someone/something there to hurt you!!

So we are not afraid of darkness. We're afraid of what could be hiding in it ;) I believe most of us have this fear, especially after horror movies :) . And it's all-natural.

I'm still afraid of the dark, we have a bit of a gypsy problem in my city. Often I hear news of them beating someone that had to be taken to the hospital, and as a kid this gypsy piece of shit was threatening me with brass knuckles just for fun.

I'm not racist, but I swear to god, everyone that behaves like an animal deserves to be treated like an animal and put down. And as it turns out, most people acting like animals are gypsies around here.

@Hazarth There is a difference between generalization and stereotyping. Generalization is how we understand grouped information. Stereotyping is forming an opinion based on classification. There is a subtle and important distinction between the two. Generalizations are useful unless they become stereotypes and it is easy to cross the line accidentally.

Myers Briggs personality test is a good example which isn’t racial which is used with both generalization and stereotype.

“You are an ENTJ so you may not enjoy this solitary role.” That is a generalization.

“You are an ENTJ so you shouldn’t talk to the customer.” That is a stereotype.

@Hazarth So you don’t have a “Gypsy problem in your city. You have a “public behaviour problem.” Many of the people contributing to the problem are Gypsies. When looking for a solution to the problem you may ask why Gypsies are more likely than others to be involved. Maybe they have unstable past, economic insecurity, increased priority on engaging in face to face contact. That is useful for contrasting to your own culture and determining how to make common ground and bring the best of their culture and yours into unity.

@irene

You can't help them, they don't want help. They are exploiting the system because its easy... if we make it hard to exploits its marked as racism... They were given a finger and took the whole hand and they raise their children to do the same.

Its both a socioeconomic and education issue, but they want none of it, they don't want to enter the education system despite it being free here, and they don't want to work to increase their economic stability because frankly, they get money for free already.

We're stuck in this mess because we tried to help integrate them in the first place, but some cultures just don't mix, that's all there is to it

@irene I mean, I know what you're saying. Its not a global gypsy problem, but a local problem that involves them predominantly... And I would be a lot more accepting of that opinion if I didn't have the same information from also Romania, Poland and Czech Republic... Even gypsies hate gypsies and that says something too

I really suspect this is a cultural clash problem rather than isolated instances. Sure, I have gypsy friends and not all of them are behaving like shit, but statistically speaking, a lot of them are, and that's how you get stereotyped, when I need to literally be more cautious when they are around, because you don't know what to expect...

Dunno, It's not as simple as us not trying hard enough to understand them, this is on them

@Hazarth Honestly I know nothing about Gypsies. However you may have a policing problem as well if public behaviour isn’t being controlled. It doesn’t just fall on one group to fix things. If you are in a democracy they can become vocal and involved in politics if they need to be.

My ancestors didn’t educate the kids. The Canadian government made school a requirement and enforced it. That part of Canadian history is unpopular with the left wing now but it sure got the job done. If my ancestors weren’t scooped up and stuck in boarding schools away from their families I likely wouldn’t be literate today.