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[n051de]

For some reason I assume the aliens will be somewhat selective and will favor a color(race) more than another, exacerbating the problem. Maybe I'm just a cynical POC.

 

[MoodyFog]

Depends on how the Aliens look

 

[Royal_Phalanx]

Depends on how the Aliens look

If they were hot humanoid female blue aliens then we'd probably have sex with them.

 

[IchigoSharingan]

An external threat would be a good uniting force.

That would just reinforce racism.

 

[Aureon]

Yes.
Nothing unites like a new enemy.

Unless said enemy is a conqueror employing divide&conquer.

 

[IchigoSharingan]

Yes.
Nothing unites like a new enemy.

Unless said enemy is a conqueror employing divide&conquer.

What effect would a new enemy have on a mind that has negative associations with another entity?

It would not wash away other negative associations.

9/11 didn't see non-Muslims being treated better. In fact it made things worse.

 

[oxrock]

I'm not sure our current racists would hate them as much honestly. It hasn't been ingrained in them since birth from their granpappy to hate outer space aliens, just the illegal ones.

 

[John Rabbit]

It'd just give the racists another target.

 

[SeanC]

Nope

Human beings were a mistake.

 

[McLovin]

Racists would just hate aliens, hard core religious would claim it's a hoax because it's not in the book. When they find out it's not they will either claim they came from the devil or that that Jesus interacted with them or something. Kind of like they did with dinosaurs. Flat earthers will claim the aliens are actually lizard people that aren't really aliens.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Nah. Haters gonna hate.

 

[Eumi]

It would obliterate it.

 

[Astral Dog]

I think it would. It would be a shocking moment of "togetherness" for humanity and give people fighting for equity a new foothold in the fight against racism. On the other hand, I think that there would be a fairly big pocket of racists that remained, because a rotten apple is a rotten apple no matter what happens in the world around it. A lot of them would just shift their racism to aliens instead. I do, however, think that even some of these hate-fueled bigots would stop or at least lessen their persecution of minorities in favor of persecuting or vilifying aliens instead.

It would open a whole new can of worms. I think a lot would also depend on how advanced or peaceful the aliens were.

What do you think?

Racism is too ingrained to dissapear buddy,though that would be a good distraction.and depends if the Aliens are hostile or not
But yeah,Racism is a HUMAN problem not going to magically dissapear because a new neighboor is in town

 

[Fancolors]

What was that fantasy novel that said "why would white and black fight each other when they're too busy ganging up on green [orcs]?"

Basically would be like that eventually.

The full quote is this

Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because -- what with trolls and dwarfs and so on -- speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green.

It's from Witches Abroad from the Discworld books

 

[Knuckle Sandwich]

Nah. Racists will just have additional targets to hate.

 

[norm9]

I assume it's like whenever one civilization meets another civilization; one will try to make the other slaves.

 

[exmachina64]

Humans would probably focus more on racism against the aliens and ban sentient snail immigrants or something.

"These snailien ABOMINATIONS are DESTROYING OUR CULTURE AND TAKING OUR JOBS!"

If you see that thing and aren't overcome with a xenophobic rage, there's something wrong with you.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

Maybe if they zap earth with an anti racism beam cannon.

An ARBC as I like to call it.

 

[Jombie]

We would just become more divided. If humanity hasn't already found a reason to rally and stand with each other, we never will.

 

[shiftplusone]

Humans would probably focus more on racism against the aliens and ban sentient snail immigrants or something.

"These snailien ABOMINATIONS are DESTROYING OUR CULTURE AND TAKING OUR JOBS!"

"'Woke' college girls be like, Omg I just love to touch your shell"

 

[Moose Biscuits]

Current racism would be put into a new context with space racism, but not eliminated. Tribalism is a relative thing.

Black/white racism would still be a thing, but less important than human/alien racism.

 

[Zaphrynn]

I really don't think so, because racism is way more than conscious thoughts of white superiority. It's not going to erase minorities being followed around a store, or being less likely to get a job, or more likely to get harsher sentences, etc etc. You think people will suddenly stop thinking certain Asians are inherently good at STEM just because space aliens exist? This is if aliens are peaceful and life continues as normal.

In the event of an alien attack, I still feel the same. Inherent bias does not just vanish because something new to be biased against or scared of appears. Kind of hard to stop performing an action or a thought that you're not even aware is happening or is wrong.

 

[Mahonay]

Trump is president of Earth?

Donald Trump, president of the world.

He's definitely the most powerful person on the planet as the sitting POTUS and god damn it that sucks to say.

Didn't mean to lump the rest of the planet in with our dumb asses.

 

[Nepenthe]

If aliens proved a threat, we'd unite just long enough to try and save ourselves and, assuming we succeeded, we'd go back to our old ways.

If they weren't, I don't see how their presence would be relevant to a racist in the first place.

 

[sturgboski]

Aliens are never coming. They see this shit here and will say "I don't want any part of this" and will leave. Or, hopefully​, they would take the republicans back to their home on the sun.

 

[Moose Biscuits]

Aliens are never coming. They see this shit here and will say "I don't want any part of this" and will leave. Or, hopefully​, they would take the republicans back to their home on the sun.

Or they're even bigger racists than we are.

 

[Elegant Weapon]

I don't see how Aliens popping up is supposed to end systematic racism.

Cops aren't going to suddenly stop disproportionately ticketing & jailing POC because we make contact with Wookies

 

[John Kowalski]

Not at all, you think people would suddenly make efforts to eliminate systemic racism? Like, nope dude, nope. In fact i'm thinking attention would move towards alien diplomacy to such an extent and for so long that humanitarian interests would quickly go out of fashion.

 

[Lmo911]

They'll eat us all while we're too busy fighting each other for their favor.

 

[nckillthegrimace]

Aliens are going to come here, make bank selling low-level tech to governments, and then just be annoying tourists with shitloads of money. This will have no impact on racism or anything really, but you'll occasionally hear about things like your neighbor receiving millions of dollars for a gumbo recipe or aliens stalking garage sales for old Bart Simpson merchandise.

 

[NewGame]

Imagine that scene from Contact except they turn into some racist stereotype.

 

[Angelus Errare]

I like to think one day some super advanced civilization will appear before us and they're black.

My laugh would drown out all audio ever created by man.

 

[zeemumu]

Most of the racism would transfer to space racism.

I like to think one day some super advanced civilization will appear before us and they're black.

My laugh would drown out all audio ever created by man.

Space Wakanda

 

[OG Shaka Zulu]

Existential alien threat wouldn't cure racism.

I like to think one day some super advanced civilization will appear before us and they're black.

My laugh would drown out all audio ever created by man.

Lmao.

Reminds me of that pic posted here about snitching if the aliens ask about humanity.

 

[IrishNinja]

i don't know how it would've worked, but it's still a shame the Watchmen movie changed up the ending from the book

 

[F0rneus]

Racists are stupid. Their stupidity can't be cured by alien presence.

 

[Septimus Prime]

All it would do is give us space racists.

Spracists.

 

[HaloRose]

Men will fuck anything with two legs lol

 

[EdibleKnife]

Men will fuck anything with two legs lol

Or more or less.

 

[Parch]

An alien first contact isn't going to erase history.
Perhaps if the first contact was thousands of years ago then it might have made a difference. There was racism back then too, but at least we would have had multiple generations to adapt ideologies.

 

[btrboyev]

No. It would breed a new fear and more racism. Humans are horrible.

 

[HeartlessNobody213]

When I was younger I thought maybe. Being an adult I highly doubt it.

 

[Ryaaan14]

What if we meet the aliens and they are way more racist than humans

 

[Tagyhag]

I doubt it unless the aliens are aggressive

Yep, that's the only way I can see humanity banding together.

Though of course there would be those who would betray our kind. Man, humankind is fucked up lol.

 

[Switch Back 9]

Yep, that's the only way I can see humanity banding together.

Though of course there would be those who would betray our kind. Man, humankind is fucked up lol.

That's like the whole premise of A Three Body Problem and it drives me nuts. What is wrong with you guys!?

 

[Shredderi]

If the aliens pose apocalyptic enough a threat to us as a species, as in they want to exterminate us then yes I do believe that humanity would rally under one big umbrella to fight back. Nothing short of that will do it though.

 

[Parch]

Though of course there would be those who would betray our kind. Man, humankind is fucked up lol.

TV has taught us that during the zombie apocalypse the zombies are not the biggest enemy.

 

[ShironRedshift]

If the aliens pose apocalyptic enough a threat to us as a species, as in they want to exterminate us then yes I do believe that humanity would rally under one big umbrella to fight back. Nothing short of that will do it though.

Even then, once the threat is gone, we'd go right back to being terrible to each other. I mean, we "unified" against the Nazis in WW2. But then black Americans and black veterans went right back to being treated like garbage as soon as the war was over. Don't see why something like this would be any different.

If anything, they'd continue to rationalize it by just assuming the groups they already hate are in cahoots with the aliens and feeding them information, and then never admitting that they were wrong (y'know, again bringing up WW2, internment camp style, just like how we locked up Japanese-Americans for assuming they were feeding info to Japan simply because of their heritage. Also see: stuff like the Hollywood Ten under McCarthyism/Red Scare, again assuming people are traitors though that time based on political ideology rather than nationality).

Unfortunately, the worst of us seem quite good at developing ways to continue to hate each other, no matter the situation, so I just can't see how even a scenario like that would be enough, to be honest. =/

 

[Strangelove77]

Did you just finish watching Independence Day or something?

 

[KonradLaw]

Only if the alien race is agressive and entire humanity is forced to work together or get annihilated