Racism

[TheFallenAngel6236]

My new school has such racist teachers, one was talking to the class and this really Irish kid asked a question to which she replied with "Ugh, I can't stand teaching Irish kids, they're so annoying and stupid." I have a large Irish background and was extremely offended by her. I reported it to the office and she was fired.

[magicgirl1986]

I don't understand Racism, we are same species at heart.

[TikindiDragon]

I've never heard a Jewish person joke about the holocust and not get bashed for it. O.o

One of my Jewish friends has been known to make Holocaust jokes that even *I* (with my black sense of humour) think are in bad taste.

[Da_Troll]

I don't understand racism. I mean there aren't any racists in my school cause all in my school are white. But there's a bit or racism when it's about gypsies

[potterwolf]

I just watched some Youtube videos that seriously scared me. This guy was proposing that we should create "reservations" for black people that imitate the jungle environment that they're "best accustomed to" and throw all of the black criminals in there to live.

 

Oh. My. God. What. A. Freak. How do people like that even exist? If that's not racist, I don't know what is.

[The Evil Doer]

I just watched some Youtube videos that seriously scared me. This guy was proposing that we should create "reservations" for black people that imitate the jungle environment that they're "best accustomed to" and throw all of the black criminals in there to live.

 

Oh. My. God. What. A. Freak. How do people like that even exist? If that's not racist, I don't know what is.

I kind of agree with his idea, with a slight modification, an island and on that island all the people who share his views, of all colors and all religions.. then throw a whole bunch of weapons into the mix and let them be all they can be...

[JaziandCo]

Dad's black, mom's white, and I live in Amish country. Oh boy. Most of it is more subtle; we get everything from strange looks when my siblings and I explain to people that no, we're not adopted, we're biracial to people being amazed that my father doesn't "talk black".

 

Hate that phrase >.> My father grew up in ghetto Philly back in the 50s and 60s. He did everything ghetto kids do except for getting in trouble with the law and joining gangs. He CAN talk like that, but instead he chooses to talk like an intelligent person. My siblings and I also CAN talk like that and often have to for our relatives who still live in those areas, but when we're back in Lancaster, it stops. And it urks me that I "can't be black" because I don't "talk black", as says the majority of people who think I'm hispanic.

 

=\ I'm beginning to feel like my family is the only one in our city who raised the kids to be "colorblind". I always drew my family as one color because I couldn't see the difference as a kid. If I had only a few crayons, my family's skin was the same color as the paper. Or maybe they were blue, or orange, or brown, or hot pink =P When people inquired about my heritage due to my skin color (which is peanut-butter brown, with a red tinge), I would always respond something to the degree of "mom's very pale. dad's very tan." Occasionally if someone has a skin color that REALLY throws me off, I won't even recognize it as skin. I saw a woman with this VERY red-brown skin that was either dyed or something amazingly rare, and at first I thought she had tights over her legs. I think if I witnessed a crime and the cops asked what race the person was, I'd probably just stare dumbly because I don't even register that. Took me forever to realize a family friend that I've known since birth was black

[Obscure_Trash]

I don't understand racism. I mean there aren't any racists in my school cause all in my school are white. But there's a bit or racism when it's about gypsies

Er, usually places that are all or almost all one race are at least as racist as other places, if not more.

 

My high school had three black kids one year (the most we'd ever had). We got to a chapter in the book where racism was really relevant. The teacher asked the class how they thought our school was. Most the kids answered something along the lines of 'well, we're mostly white, so it's hard to tell, but I think we do pretty good'.

 

They were all shocked when I let them know that from day one that the three black kids (they all started that year) had started they had all been called the n-word multiple times just about every day and been talked down to for not being white and such. One of the kids was pulled out of the school about halfway through by her parents and transferred because of the issues. I believe another left after the full year because of the issues.

 

Same thing with the college I go to now. We're highly white. Racism just came up in poly sci after watching some video and the teacher started a discussion on it. Half the class was split. Half had never seen an instance of racism on campus. Of the other half, they had all seen it. In that, half of them saw racism against those of Asian descent but thought there was none against blacks.

 

Unfortunately, just because you don't see it or have the chance to see it doesn't mean it's not around. 3=

Edited November 9, 2011 by SockPuppet Strangler

[Princess Artemis]

Where I grew up was very mixed. I don't remember being uncomfortable about being the only white person in some situations except once.

[philpot123]

My grandfather on my mother's side grew up in Mississippi... He's in his 70s... needless to say, he's juuuuuust a little racist...

Edited November 9, 2011 by philpot123

[Kazeko]

I kind of agree with his idea, with a slight modification, an island and on that island all the people who share his views, of all colors and all religions.. then throw a whole bunch of weapons into the mix and let them be all they can be... <_<

That's a horrible idea.

 

Hating such people doesn't do any good. Hatred just makes the problem worse. The only solution is to try to make them understand; you can't just shove them into a metaphorical closet. For one thing, it's never going to happen; for another, no matter how angry we might feel, retaliating in kind is not going to help.

 

All the energy we waste on hatred could be used to try to solve the problem. I'm not saying anger doesn't have its place, just that it's no good being angry at people.

 

Took me forever to realize a family friend that I've known since birth was black

 

Funny story there...

 

I used to be completely race-blind, the way you describe. "...S/he's black?" Then I realized that's what I was, and bam! Centipede's Dilemma. The instant I identified myself as race-blind, I stopped being able to be race-blind.

 

I have no idea how to switch myself back, either, which is sad because I liked my previous mode of being.

[DragonRider5624]

It's sad to say we don't have much diversity where we live. Most of us are of European descent. The few people that ARE the minority, I'm glad to say, are not picked on in anyway.

[Keriel]

i couldn't believe it when my boyfriend came down that mum and dad were socked he was black and went on about how i should have warned them. like WTF

 

me: why does it matter that he's black??

mum: it doesn't but you should have told us!

me: why?

mum: so we were ready!

me: ready for what?

mum: the fact that he's black

me: WHY DOES IT MATTER!!! (insert extreme frustration and walking of)

 

that was going absolutely no where.

[Packgoater]

only due to the fact that many people are far to sensitive.

 

there of course is a line where joking just becomes insensitive, but people are being slammed for simple jokes that mean nothing.

 

it isn't raceism, but an example that happened in the last two years. over east of australia they had real bad floods after a hurricane. naturally on facebook joke pages started to crop up. people slammed the makers and supporters of the page. eventually a group of people effected by the floods managed to visit these pages and told the people doing the slamming to shut it. they didn't care about the pages in fact many of them loved it.

there were some exceptions of pages picking on the young boy who died saving his younger brother. but that is clearly insensitive, not offensive as such, just insensitive.

 

it is a choice to take offense.  when the girl in town was maliciously picking on me i kept walking. it wasn't until she started becoming physical did i get the police involved (scared the bajeebas out of her when an officer arrived on her doorstep)

I'm not saying I'm hard to offend. but i was teased all my school life often physically. people are going to make comments that you don't always like. it doesn't matter who you are, fact of life. the more restricted we get, the easier it becomes to offend people and so the spiral begins.

 

i may be white, but i am still victim of racism. the population of my town is 50/50 aboriginal to white. i have two aboriginal mates Diddy and Adrian, both boys have often come to my rescue when other aboriginals in the town decide they don't like me for whatever reason. in the older community there's charlie the artist the amount of flack he used to cop and he would just laugh and repeat it later to his mates as friendly jokes. People need to get over jokes and start walking together.

if a black person can make a joke a white person should be able to make the same joke. that is equality. something this little ol is slowly learning (hurrah) it just needs to become more widespread

 

Bullying and racial aggression are completely different. And there are times when things are said that are racist, and even when not directed towards my race, I take offense to them, kinda for the people. Maybe they're just words. Maybe. Maybe they're not someone throttling you or trying to punch you or 'getting physical.' But words have convinced people to commit suicide, have changed history, have broken people's spirits. Sometimes people aren't always super confident and maybe they're insecure. Maybe they're one of the only black or Asian kids. Point being, even the little jokes are too much. Because when 'innocent' little jokes add up they make a big stupid problem that could've been easily avoided.

 

Honestly, the outright hostile way people near me look at Hispanics is pitiful. ANYONE who looks SLIGHTLY Hispanic is a 'border jumper.' Calling someone a border jumper is NOT okay. It's wrong, and people get a lot of crap for it. Some things are hard for people to just let slide. I don't let those kinds of things slide. Seriously, if I wasn't trying for a good college, I would beat some of the racist idiots up in my school for the things they say. One person wanted to completely 'nuke' Africa. I did tell by teachers and hopefully they'll do something about it, because that's going too far when the want to 'use test bombing in Africa on all the black people.'

 

I've been called uptight, high-strung, and just plain obnoxious. But I don't care. I don't tolerate racism. At all. I don't care if they're little jokes, and because most of us are white, none of them are ever directed towards me. But I get pissed about them. I get angry, I talk back to those idiots and tell them to shove off. And I don't care what they call me, they're still cowardly little idiotic losers.

Edited November 10, 2011 by Packgoater

[Keriel]

another thing i have found. maybe it's just local to Australia. but why are the whites the first ones to scream racism while the race in question is laughing??

 

I am white. lily white there is not a spot of colour in my heritage. why do he blacks have the right to talk down on me, but i can't talk equal with them? why does the government pay aboriginals to go to school but no other race?? Aboriginals make the decision to refuse school, why the hell should they be paid to go? when most still don't go anyway! why do the Muslim men get to call me every name under the sun because i don't wear a head scarf, why do they get to push me around. why am i not allowed to defend myself?

 

racial aggression is not joking. and if people can't learn to take jokes as jokes then they must be prepared to be miserable. quoting myself "there of course is a line where joking just becomes insensitive, but people are being slammed for simple jokes that mean nothing." no where have i said people should be allowed to talk about bombing a certain race. hat is insensitive and aggressive and honestly you can be charged for conspiracy to commit mass murder or terrorism, many won't be but the threat tends to shut people up.

 

joking about bombing places, that is going too far, i did say there is a line but many things that people scream racism for are literally nothing. I know words can push people to suicide, been there and i still head back there at times. i know what it's like to be sensitive.

 

ideally none of this will ever be a problem, people will just get over it. but in reality it will always be a problem and people need to learn to live with it.

I hate the world, I hate human society with a burning passion. as far as i am concerned it's a pile of festering rubbish... but i have to live with it, and the things i hate aren't meant to be just jokes, the things i hate are there to be damaging. they are there to keep the poor people poor, and give the rich all the power. oppression stinks and i am one of the oppressed. do i get to complain? nope, just have to live with it.

[Princess Artemis]

and if people can't learn to take jokes as jokes then they must be prepared to be miserable.

I know this is one line here, but it seems like a good one to hang my point on.

 

Quite often those "jokes" are not actually jokes. It's more like, "I want to say what I want to say, and if someone takes offense, then all of a sudden I will say it was a joke so as to place the onus on them to be a better person and leave me unscathed. Never mind the fact that I'm the one offending everyone in sight, they need a better sense of humor! I am holy and blameless in this! It was just a joke!"

 

I see this kind of attitude when my nephew intentionally irritates my other nephew and then to justify it to himself he tells the victim that he was just joking, gawd, and he needs to learn to take a joke. No, no he wasn't just joking, he's excusing himself from being a brat to someone else by blaming them for getting upset about something that he did with the intent to upset them! How dare they!

 

So, yeah, that attitude doesn't fly with me, and that's why it doesn't.

[JaziandCo]

Funny story there...

 

I used to be completely race-blind, the way you describe. "...S/he's black?" Then I realized that's what I was, and bam! Centipede's Dilemma. The instant I identified myself as race-blind, I stopped being able to be race-blind.

 

I have no idea how to switch myself back, either, which is sad because I liked my previous mode of being.

Said family friend is about my skin color, with green eyes and a short short short afro. He fell into the category of "I dunno I dun care" in terms of race. Sometimes if it's blaringly obvious (SUPER dark or SUPER light skin) I can tell immediately but otherwise everyone falls into the "I dunno" until I hear them talk about themselves/with an accent.

[dragon_mando]

Point being, even the little jokes are too much. Because when 'innocent' little jokes add up they make a big stupid problem that could've been easily avoided.

Devil's advocate here, but having been the butt end of most of the jokes in my hometown, as long as the race in question is laughing, everyone else needs to pipe down. I've been called all sorts of horrible things for having mixed Scots-Irish, Norwegian, and German heritage because I grew up in a nearly pure German town and I was the mutt. I've also been teased for my sexuality and literally been run out of town for my religious views (more like lack thereof). Jokes are just that, jokes. And if you (general you) can't laugh at yourself, you can't laugh at anyone.

I don't care if they're little jokes, and because most of us are white, none of them are ever directed towards me.

I'm white and I was the butt end of the jokes even in an all-Arian town. Now I live in a city that's predominantly Hispanic. Still the butt of everyone's jokes. It doesn't bug me unless they show genuine aggression. Heck, if you heard the horrible things my friends and I all call each other in good fun...

 

and if people can't learn to take jokes as jokes then they must be prepared to be miserable. quoting myself "there of course is a line where joking just becomes insensitive, but people are being slammed for simple jokes that mean nothing."

Pretty much this.

 

Quite often those "jokes" are not actually jokes. It's more like, "I want to say what I want to say, and if someone takes offense, then all of a sudden I will say it was a joke so as to place the onus on them to be a better person and leave me unscathed. Never mind the fact that I'm the one offending everyone in sight, they need a better sense of humor! I am holy and blameless in this! It was just a joke!"

It really, really depends on what's being said, as well as the person's tone. Even a mild slur like halfsie will offend me if said in an aggressive manner, but I've been called far worse in a light-hearted way and laughed along with.

Edited November 10, 2011 by dragon_mando

[PlutoIsHades]

I hate racism. I'm white but I'm not bullied for it. However, I have friends of lots of different races, and they're great people. Racist jokes drive me nuts and really anger me.

[Princess Artemis]

Said family friend is about my skin color, with green eyes and a short short short afro. He fell into the category of "I dunno I dun care" in terms of race. Sometimes if it's blaringly obvious (SUPER dark or SUPER light skin) I can tell immediately but otherwise everyone falls into the "I dunno" until I hear them talk about themselves/with an accent.

I do this to an extent, though not as much, and not as much as I used to. My aunt is Mexican, half Aztec IIRC, and my six cousins from her are all different flavors of skin color for being of Mexican, Aztec, and German/French/English/Irish/Dutch ancestry. I spent a lot of time with them growing up and I also grew up in a very racially mixed area (African, European, Asian, Central American, Mediterranean), so my idea of what people should look like as others, friends, and family was pretty well 'anything goes'.

 

I don't do this so much anymore, since apparently, despite how I grew up and what I was taught in school regarding judging people on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin, not being immediately aware of someone's ethnicity is considered raaaaaacist for white people.

 

ETA:

It really, really depends on what's being said, as well as the person's tone. Even a mild slur like halfsie will offend me if said in an aggressive manner, but I've been called far worse in a light-hearted way and laughed along with.

 

If you took offense to how they said it, no matter how it was said, would the offender get to get off the hook by saying they were just joking? That's my point. They don't get off the hook for calling you halfsie in an aggressive tone by saying it was just a joke and that you need to lighten up. Yet that is exactly how the excuse is used, as a way to get people off the hook for saying something awful to someone. It was just a joke, the offended need to lighten up so that the offensive people don't have the horrible, horrible burden of thinking about what they say.

Edited November 10, 2011 by Princess Artemis

[Kestra15]

I just spent the last three days taking the whizz out of my New Zealand work-mate - I think between him, me and my friend we've exhausted all the jokes now.

 

However, all three of us are doing it in jest. We all know that no harm is meant, we keep it between the three of us. But gods help us if someone overhears it - disciplinary all around.

[Nectaris]

My opinion on racism is that any discrimination against anyone based on race(regardless of what race they are), is racist. No amount of history or past wrongdoing excuses current racism. Two wrongs don't make a right is a saying for a reason, and I think that should be stuck to.

 

I also tend to think what I call artificial diversity racism. If you desire diversity so much that you have to create it by giving incentives for people of certain races to come in, or denying others based on race, it is racism. To me, it is actually the most insidious form of racism for often diversity is considered a good thing, no matter how it is achieved. Don't get me wrong, diversity is good, but I think it should happen naturally, if it happens, great, if it doesn't, live with it.

[Princess Artemis]

I just spent the last three days taking the whizz out of my New Zealand work-mate - I think between him, me and my friend we've exhausted all the jokes now.

 

However, all three of us are doing it in jest. We all know that no harm is meant, we keep it between the three of us. But gods help us if someone overhears it - disciplinary all around.

Yeah, this kind of thing is different, and it's not an unfair double standard to say so. The level of intimacy involved puts it in a different category.

 

As a general rule though, "it's just a joke" doesn't excuse people from being mindful of their actions any more than "I didn't mean to hit you!" excuses someone from not swinging their arms around in a packed elevator.

Edited November 10, 2011 by Princess Artemis

[PlutoIsHades]

My opinion on racism is that any discrimination against anyone based on race(regardless of what race they are), is racist. No amount of history or past wrongdoing excuses current racism. Two wrongs don't make a right is a saying for a reason, and I think that should be stuck to.

I agree wholeheartedly. And also, a bunch of people of one race doing something bad is definitely no excuse for racism. It's like two kids being bullies and the whole class being blamed for it.

[Kazeko]

My opinion on racism is that any discrimination against anyone based on race(regardless of what race they are), is racist.

 

Any discrimination against anyone based on anything besides personal demonstration of incompetence or unfitness is wrong.