Ask McFartnuggets: “Is Racism a Mental Illness?”

Hitler was pretty crazy,
also fairly racist.

Dear McFartnuggets: 

Whenever you see people who say racist things in public sometimes it seems like there’s something wrong with their brain. There’s really no good reason to say racial slurs to people so when someone does show racism in public isn’t that some sort of Tourette’s type disorder? Could it be related? Usually people who are racist can’t really help being racist much like a mental disorder. And if you know someone who’s really racist usually they’re also kind of weird and have a lot of other issues. You rarely see someone who’s totally well adjusted and mentally balanced yet also despises Puerto Ricans. People don’t really blame someone with Tourette’s for yelling the N-word in public when they know it’s a mental disorder so should people who say racist things be blamed for them if it really is something that’s wrong with their brain? Is it possible that racism is a mental illness? -- Lance from

Dear Lance:

That’s a tricky idea. The thing is you can’t generalize all racists like you can’t generalize people of an ethnicity. Most people would agree that racist people have something wrong with their brains, but if we were to call it a mental illness then they would get a pass for being racist and I don’t think people are ready to allow that. Personally, I think people who say racist things in public should be dismissed as if they do have a mental illness and no one should be offended or pay any mind to them. As long as they’re not getting violent they should be completely dismissed and their words shouldn’t have any effect the same way someone who has Tourette’s screaming curse words can be dismissed. It’s obviously not the same, but you get what I mean. Once you get violent though, mental illness stops being a valid excuse the same way a psycho can be jailed for murder. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if a flying monkey who lives in your brain made you do something, if it was terrible sometimes you have to pay for that shit.

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