“Pain comes from neither the hand nor the heart. It comes from the mouth.”

Racism.

Not a pleasant thing to come in contact with, even worse if you are the butt of the discrimination. While we have not all been discriminated due to our skin colour, we have all been discriminated in some form or another. Perhaps very little, if we’ve been lucky, but discriminated nonetheless. Perhaps fairly, perhaps without sufficient reason. But it has happened. Don’t forget positive discrimination is still discrimination, the only difference is that instead of the aim of harming someone or limiting someone’s rights, it aims to benefit an another group of people.

So yes, discrimination exists, it is quite necessary to avoid equality, and as far as I can tell, very many people think equality equals socialism and socialism equals terror. Not precisely how it works, but for the sake of my point, this misunderstanding can be ignored.

Racism is one of those types of discrimination where the harm is directed according to arbitrary characteristics of human beings similar to sexism, but more negative due to increased arbitrarity. And here we come to the reason this topic popped into my noggin’ in the first place:

FYI, later on the Drazi stopped wearing the sashes. Also a great method of decreasing the population.

But the point remains, racism targets an arbitrary characteristic – skin colour (untanned skin, no less). Nobody can choose a race to be born as, though appearances can change after a few treatments, just look at Michael Jackson. Sure, his aim was not to look like a ghoulish white woman, he had no choice, it was all part of his cure. But change is possible despite the discomfort. Discriminating purely on the principle of arbitrary difference is the same as bugging people for wearing red, or for having hair. Not exactly rational, practical, or even neutral – it causes more harm than gain.

Discrimination per se is quite okay, as long as it is founded on something significant. So quit bugging people because they happen to have a lighter or darker skin colour than yours and enjoy some really good music. And as suitable Jackson would be here, fat chance for that, I have something better to share.