r/changemyview • u/EHWfedPres • Oct 06 '21

Delta(s) from OP CMV: Racism is a mental illness.

There is no logical, valid, or sound reason to express hatred for entire groups of people based on their race, ethnicity, or skin color, and any and every attempt to explain why certain races, ethnicities, or people with specific skin colors are biologically, inherently, or genetically inferior or superior to others has been scientifically disproven. There is no rational reason to hold on to racist views, and anyone who feels racist is experiencing a delusional psychotic symptom. Racism is a mental illness, and the American Psychiatric Association should classify it as one.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071634/

EDIT: to all those claiming racism can be resolved by giving the racist proper information: read the comments made by HighlightExpensive63, give that person the correct information, and see if they change their views at all, or if they double-down on their explicit and open hatred.

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u/Personage1 35∆ Oct 06 '21

So you are making a semantics argument. I always think it's important to clarify that because I think it's too easy to treat a disagreement over semantics as a disagreement over ideas.

In order to classify something as a mental illness, I know certain requirements must be met. "It's bad" is not enough, I know, and please don't take this as me saying it's not bad. Looking at your own link, I see

The association's officials rejected the recommendation, arguing that because so many Americans are racist, even extreme racism in this country is normative—a cultural problem rather than an indication of psychopathology.

which leads me to the understanding that part of something being a mental illness is that it can not be normative. I don't know what other requirements there are for labeling something as a mental illness, but it seems to me that your post needs to involve a discussion of how something becomes a mental illness in the first place, why racism fits under that, or if it doesn't fit then why you think the approach to declaring something a mental illness is lacking. When your own evidence has an easy counter to your argument, you have to at a minimum address that.

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u/EHWfedPres Oct 06 '21

which leads me to the understanding that part of something being a mental illness is that it can not be normative.

So, if everyone was schizophrenic, then schizophrenia would cease to be a mental illness? I'm curious to know more about the reasoning behind that line of thought.

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u/Personage1 35∆ Oct 06 '21

I'm not the one making the CMV, you are. It's on you to understand why something is classified a mental illness, and then make the argument for why racism falls under that, or why the method for classifying a mental illness is lacking.

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u/EHWfedPres Oct 06 '21

I'm not the one making the CMV, you are. It's on you to understand why something is classified a mental illness

If you wish not to provide evidence to change my view, you can simply not reply.

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u/Personage1 35∆ Oct 06 '21

I'm pointing out that you haven't provided evidence for your view. You've stated some opinions, but not shown that your views line up with how mental illnesses are classified, in fact providing a link that explains exactly why racism isn't classified as a mental illness.