Racism.

[Felix]

Yesterday I took my daughter to see her psychiatrist. In the office there was a family waiting, and they were playing Candyland. The mother was white, the father was black, and their children were mixed. The kids were fighting over who got to use the yellow game piece (out of yellow, blue, red, and green).

I came home giggling and related the anecdote to my roommate. He was raised in a village in Hawaii, and is officially white but doesn't really look it. He had no idea what I was laughing about. He wasn't familiar with the term "high yellow."

The older I get the more I realize how overtly racist my upbringing was. I didn't notice until well into adulthood that "->-bleeped-<- knocker" is not what most people say when referring to a sap or billy club. The words never meant anything to me. I didn't think about what they referred to. Jesus.

I was raised by an engineer and a hippie, both Southern Baptists but also both educated potsmokers, and I still took such bigotry for granted, and I had friends whose parents were Klan members. I never questioned it.

I did think that if I could escape and move up North then everything would be okay, that everybody would be kind and intelligent and wise. I wasn't completely wrong, but damn. It's 2012, and I still feel like straight white males are the only people who can live freely in our society.

[justmeinoz]

It's a nasty idea that should be dead and buried. 
Especially when you consider that we are apparently all descended from about 600 Homo sapiens who survived a severe Ice Age about 200,000 years ago.  Ironically they managed to get by living on the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa.  So, not only are we all family, we are Africans too.  I like irony.

Karen.

[Carolina1983]

Whats up with this white bashing?


How about black racists for example? here in Sweden its not uncommon for non-whites to beat up whites just because we are.. Thats right white! And at least in our society whites are seen like the only group that can be racists. One example are a few youngsters that almost killed an old man just because he had another colour on his skin, the blacks that did this got a warning and one of them went into jail for less than a year.

But when a white man acted in self defence when a black man attacked him he got into jail and had to pay the man who was the aggressor. Fair? this is just one example of many. And the newspapers and media just loves to repord about the evil racist whites but never say a word about the black ones. It seems unfair to me.





Instead of this strange will to lump us all together as simply human.. Why not accept that we are different? whats wrong with that?


Our origins are not near clear. Proof points to the fact that we come from different regions. And I see no problem with that, more diversity on this earth seems more interesting than the opposite.

[~RoadToTrista~]

How is someone "officially white"?

[Brooke777]

I really think it is horrible to judge someone by the color of their skin.  Where I grew up, for the most part, no one cared what your ethnic heritage was.  Skin color, along with hair color, eye color, and other physical characteristics were only used to describe how someone looked.  For me, the first time I experienced racism I almost got sent to the hospital.  I had just gotten into the military.  I saw a group of guys talking and having fun.  I decided to go and join in the conversation.  When I tried, they all turned to me and then started beating me.  While beating me, they explained that a white person was not allowed to talk to a group of black people without permission.  They did not have any clue who I was, I was just white.  So, they beat me.  All of them were immediately discharged from the military.  But, it was a scary situation for me.  Since then, I have been vary scared to go up to a group of people who have different skin color than my own. 

My second experience with racism was in the southern U.S.  I was in a small business when these men came in.  They were all white, and kind of scary looking.  They started to harass the shop owner because it was a shop that sold Native American stuff. Then they turned to me.  I am 1/4 Native American, but I only look like it when I am tan.  Anyway, they looked at e and started to calm me names.  Then, they followed me outside and tried to get physical.  Unfortunately for them, I had had quite a bit of training.  They did not fair to well.  As I was walking away (they were on the ground at this point) they threatened me by saying the clan would find me (they never did).

O.K., I know that was a bit long winded.  But I thought it would help to explain how horrible I think it is to be racist or bigoted.  We are all people.  We all look different and come from different backgrounds.  What makes one persons background "better" than someone else's?  It is plain ignorance and stupidity (in my opinion).

[Carolina1983]

I dislike alot of white people too.


But I judge people because of their behavior and nothing else.


Unfortunately though there seem to be a deep hatred towards whites from atleast a few other groups in my own country which isnt fun at all. There are places you cant even go as a white because you will be severely beaten at best.

So no the world are not a free place even if you are a straight white male.

[Edge]

A former friend of mine once told me (while drunk) that he was "raised to kill white people." I don't care what colour of skin one has. If someone tries to kill me and/or my son, I will try to kill them right back.
Personally, I really like the diversity. It's one of the things I really miss about my hometown. I miss seeing all the different cultures being celebrated. (Not that I've met anyone racist here. It's just that there isn't much diversity.)

[Carolina1983]

Brooke777. Well said .

[Shang]

Whats up with this white bashing?


How about black racists for example? here in Sweden its not uncommon for non-whites to beat up whites just because we are.. Thats right white! And at least in our society whites are seen like the only group that can be racists. One example are a few youngsters that almost killed an old man just because he had another colour on his skin, the blacks that did this got a warning and one of them went into jail for less than a year.

But when a white man acted in self defence when a black man attacked him he got into jail and had to pay the man who was the aggressor. Fair? this is just one example of many. And the newspapers and media just loves to repord about the evil racist whites but never say a word about the black ones. It seems unfair to me.

And don't forget the new term "reverse racism" that is used to describe what you just talked about.  I hate that term because racism is racism no matter who is doing it.  "Reverse racism", in my opinion, implies that only white people can be racist when this is evidently not true.

Anyway, my parents are fantastically not racist even when they pop out jokes about different races.  They don't discriminate when it comes to jokes -- everyone can be in one.  My other family, on the other hand, can be.  I generally don't see "race" as existing since we are all of the same species.  Skin-tone is just skin-tone.  I also don't use words that can be perceived as racist because I find the words silly, and I really don't want to offend someone.  I will admit I will not say "African-American" or "Asian-American" unless someone has dual citizenship, but this is because I can't go running around saying I'm "European-American" just because I'm descended from Europeans.  I'm a citizen of the United States and not some other country.

But....My upbringing was relatively devoid of racism and I honestly didn't know anyone who was racist until I moved to the south where I was discriminated against because I'm white.  And then I saw people discriminating against others for what they were.  It boggled my mind and still does.

[Edge]

And don't forget the new term "reverse racism" that is used to describe what you just talked about.  I hate that term because racism is racism no matter who is doing it.

This bugs me too.

I will admit I will not say "African-American" or "Asian-American" unless someone has dual citizenship, but this is because I can't go running around saying I'm "European-American" just because I'm descended from Europeans.

Wouldn't it be European-North American? After all, Europe, Africa, and Asia are all continents. Then again, if we included the countries of our ancestors in what we call ourselves, it could get pretty confusing. I mean, for one thing, that would make me English/Norwegian/German/Irish/probably some other stuff-Canadian. My son's would be even longer. Then there's the question of how far back would we go. I mean, what about all the people descended from Normans? Would they say Viking/Frankish/Gallo-Roman/English-wherever they are now?
Anyway, the point of that ramble was to point out that one continent does not equal one culture.

[Jayr]

Whats up with this white bashing?

And don't forget the new term "reverse racism" that is used to describe what you just talked about.  I hate that term because racism is racism no matter who is doing it.

I find it annoying that when white people are being picked on for being white, it's not racism(at least in most places.)

For 3 years I went to this school where maybe 7 of us were white. The rest was black and Hispanic.
I was picked on, threaten, pushed around...and no one did a thing because apparently it's not bullying.
And when I tried to defend myself I was racist, so I couldn't do anything but take all the bullying.
No one cared I was part of the lgbt community, they were fine with that part of me;
I was bullied for being white. Not even for being trans.

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

Not understanding breeds hate.  Hate breeds bigotry.  Bigotry breeds racism.

Understanding breeds love.  Love breeds freethinking.  Freethinking breeds acceptance.

There is but one race.  The Human Race.  The rest are just colors of the rainbow.



Break the cycle of hate, but understanding.

[Hikari]

How is someone "officially white"?

I can't really speak as to the OP's meaning but, where I went to school, the government for classification or equal opportunity or whatever would track race. The thing is messed up, but due to the limited classifications most who were not of african or asian decent was officially catorgized as white (caucasian or whatever)... Here is where it got really strange though, basically if students had any black blood in them the teacher would mark them down as black even if they were 3/4 white, people who were arab where listed as white, if you were asain and tanned beyond a certain point you would be listed as pacific islander. Also most hispanics were called white with a few of them being put into "non-white Hispanic" which seemed more to deal with skin tone than actual ancestory.

So at least in the public school system in south Carolina race was something made official or not by the government, and it is silly too, almost none of the arabic or Persian heritage people considered themselves "white" but the government certainly did.

These catagories again appeared when i went to get married, the county in Virginia refused to do anything till we filled out a form that said our race, nationality, and even religion on it. Granted that was self filled out, but i don't see how the government should be able to officially see race as a category, in any area where laws relating to ethnic background aren't subject to equal opportunity.

[Felix]

How is someone "officially white"?

I mean he doesn't self-identify as being other than white.

I didn't really mean to start anything that would hurt feelings. I told the stuff that made whites look bad because I am white and I can only have my own revelations about stupid stuff I hadn't noticed in my own upbringing. I grew up around blacks and I certainly noticed racism against me, but that's not going to be a middle-of-the-night revelation when I'm alone and navelgazing.

[Brooke777]

I personally took no offense to it.  I was just sharing how others can be racist as well.  I know in the U.S., at least, that the white people have a long history of being racist, and committing horrible crimes.

[Beth Andrea]

Deleted by me. Peace, all.

[Beth Andrea]

Deleted by me. Peace all.

[justmeinoz]

As I said a nasty idea that is out of date.  But what family all get along.