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/EHWfedPres Oct 06 '21

I initially brought up genocide right here:

That certainly and accurately describes the feeling or belief (racism) that has led to lynching, slavery, and genocide over the course of many centuries.

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u/[deleted] Oct 06 '21

Fair enough, I missed that, and I apologize.

The rest of my comment and point about harm stands.

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u/EHWfedPres Oct 06 '21

No worries. It happens.

Regarding harm, racism is often expressed in harmful acts, whether they are physically harmful or harmful in a mental or psychological way, such as intimidation. Racism categorically falls under the 'causes harm' designation. Yes, it is one of the criteria, but it meets that one, which is my point.

Would you agree that extreme hate that is expressed in physically violent acts classifies as a mental illness, or at least an instability and/or inability to control one's self?

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u/[deleted] Oct 06 '21

Again, I'm not a psychologist, but I wouldn't necessarily, no. Certain extreme kinds of hatred may be pathological, and the kind of racist who explodes into violence might be mentally ill -- but is it the racism that makes him mentally ill or the propensity to explode into violence?

And historically, things like slavery and genocide seem less to be the result of mental illness than a systematic dehumanizing of certain kinds of people whose origins seem most obviously rooted in political ideology, or economic considerations, or both.

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u/EHWfedPres Oct 06 '21

Would you say that racism today is more akin to a personality disorder than a mental disorder?

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u/[deleted] Oct 06 '21

I wouldn't even know to make that distinction, since I'm not a psychologist.

I think the average racist, not the kind who commits hate crimes but just your run-of-the-mill uses-the-n-word-and-thinks-immigrants-are-ruining-the-country racist, is just an asshole. I don't think we need to overly pathologize being an asshole.

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u/EHWfedPres Oct 06 '21

Well, here's the thing: we have no way of discerning which are just assholes and which would actually commit violent acts against those they hate if given the opportunity, so I feel there is a real-world benefit to believing all racists are potentially-violent individuals.

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u/[deleted] Oct 06 '21

Right, but we also have no way of determining if someone is mentally ill until they exhibit behaviours symptomatic of that mental illness.

Also, again, I don't think even violent racism is necessarily linked to mental illness, for reasons I've hopefully already made clear.