Another way that is a different method, but that I've seen happen irl, is humor.
Telling jokes, telling stories. The guy I knew (and some of the friends in our group) who developed a racist bent against the natives up here didn't even realize it was happening. At first it was just funny stories, but then it started taking a decidedly negative and nasty turn. Instead of being funny stories about drunk people who happened to be natives, it turned into funny stories about those stupid worthless drunken natives who can't do anything right. After the jokes, it would be commiseration about the fact that there are any natives in the city at all, because, you know, all of them are worthless.
In reality, I think it happened because none of them knew this group of people as people. It was all observed or stuff they had to deal with. Naturally, it progressed towards making assumptions based off a limited amount of data. Who knows, I might have gotten up in it if my work didn't have me sub in to one of the local conferences, and I heard some pretty raw stories about how the cycle of abuse steals any chances from people while they're kids. But that's just the thing, it's so easy to make assumptions about people and their funny antics, to being disgusted with them for those funny antics, to feeling like you're better than them, to believing stereotypes. Because if they're all from the same or similar places, have accents that sound funny, look the same, and tend to act the same -- that's what you see, that's what you get.
And that's some of the worst kind of racism, to me, and something really interesting and rewarding to write. The insidious kind. The kind that you don't even realize is changing your way of thinking because oh yeah, man, I know exactly what you mean. That's a great story. Man, what a bunch of fuck-ups. Too bad they don't just go back where they came from, since they can't learn to be like us.
edit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbud8rLejLM
great examples of everyday racism couched in humor that can be used towards character behavior to imply a greater inner bias.
Telling jokes, telling stories. The guy I knew (and some of the friends in our group) who developed a racist bent against the natives up here didn't even realize it was happening. At first it was just funny stories, but then it started taking a decidedly negative and nasty turn. Instead of being funny stories about drunk people who happened to be natives, it turned into funny stories about those stupid worthless drunken natives who can't do anything right. After the jokes, it would be commiseration about the fact that there are any natives in the city at all, because, you know, all of them are worthless.
In reality, I think it happened because none of them knew this group of people as people. It was all observed or stuff they had to deal with. Naturally, it progressed towards making assumptions based off a limited amount of data. Who knows, I might have gotten up in it if my work didn't have me sub in to one of the local conferences, and I heard some pretty raw stories about how the cycle of abuse steals any chances from people while they're kids. But that's just the thing, it's so easy to make assumptions about people and their funny antics, to being disgusted with them for those funny antics, to feeling like you're better than them, to believing stereotypes. Because if they're all from the same or similar places, have accents that sound funny, look the same, and tend to act the same -- that's what you see, that's what you get.
And that's some of the worst kind of racism, to me, and something really interesting and rewarding to write. The insidious kind. The kind that you don't even realize is changing your way of thinking because oh yeah, man, I know exactly what you mean. That's a great story. Man, what a bunch of fuck-ups. Too bad they don't just go back where they came from, since they can't learn to be like us.
edit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbud8rLejLM
great examples of everyday racism couched in humor that can be used towards character behavior to imply a greater inner bias.
