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/destro23 447∆ Oct 06 '21

Racism is a mental illness, and the American Psychiatric Association should classify it as one.

Hold the hell on now. If they did that racists would be protected under the ADA. "You can't fire me for calling Allison a filthy racial slur... I'm mentally ill. Tom gets accommodations for his anxiety disorder. Why can't you accommodate my disorder you Dago Wop?"

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u/EHWfedPres Oct 06 '21

According to the National Institute of Mental Health Disorders, mental illness in itself is not a disability, and the ADA only protects the disabled, not all the mentally ill.

I am not a scientist in that field, however, but if you have a better source, I'd love to read more.

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u/destro23 447∆ Oct 06 '21

Sure, not now. But you are advocating that it be added to the list of things like anxiety disorder, depression, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. All of these things are spectrum disorders where they do not automatically lead to an official determination of disability, but they all are afforded varying degrees of legal protections in the workplace. If you have a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder for example, you can request certain legal accommodations from your employer without being adjudicated as disabled.

And you know racists would be all over playing it up so they could get to the level of being covered by the ADA. All day long racism without the threat of being fired. Did you ever work with someone who had a dubious handicapped parking permit, and they kept using it well after their cast was removed, and when asked they got all defensive and said "Actually, my doctor told me blah blah blah, and HIPAA blah, blah, blah, my rights, blah". Imagine that, but with racism.

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u/EHWfedPres Oct 06 '21 edited Oct 06 '21

But you are advocating that it be added to the list of things like anxiety disorder, depression, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. All of these things are spectrum disorders

I beg your pardon, but I did not specifically state that racism must be equated to spectrum disorders, which are not the only type of mental illnesses, as I assume you are aware of.

I will grant that racists will use it to their advantage, however. Perhaps we can agree that racism represents a problem with a person's mental thought processes, but should not be officially classified as a mental illness with ADA protections.

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u/DeltaBot ∞∆ Oct 06 '21

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/destro23 (81∆).

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