*bangs head on desk repeatedly*Seriously, what is it about older people that they don't see when they're being racist? (or sexist, or homophobic, or transphobic, or xenophobic etc)
*sigh*, ok, I'll try and keep this brief and to the point, otherwise this will turn into a long rambling rant (incidentally, I'm currently having deja vu as I'm writing this... weird lol).
So today my brother and sister-in-law came over for a visit. As is usual, we all ended up talking about the state of the world. Mum is a very opinionated person, often quoting sensationalist tabloid articles (mostly from the infamous "Daily Mail") that are rather dubiously sourced (to put it extremely politely lol).
During conversation, mum came out with the following opinion:
QuoteI'm sorry if this sounds racist, but the problem with all these Pakistani's is, they're just not as intelligent as white people
!!!
Mum had already said a couple of things before this that were very "borderline", but this was clearly over the line. My response:
QuoteYeh mum, that actually is pretty damn racist!
As you might expect, the debate became an argument, with her protesting that "it's not racist if it's the truth", me responding "...problem is, it's not the truth...", her responding "I've been alive longer than you and have more experience", me responding "...but you haven't met even half as many people of colour as I have..." and it was about that point she stormed out of the house and went to Tescos to get... something that we probably didn't need...
When she got back, she sat down and made a snide comment directed at me along the lines of "I hope you don't mind sitting next to a racist...", and she then proceeded to tell me how I had "offended her deeply" and that I had changed recently and become "inhuman"... I mean... what?? Where on earth did *THAT* come from??
Eventually the dust settled down and we had a reasonably decent day, and several times she said things like "I'll help anyone out no matter their skin colour", like she was trying to prove she wasn't racist (and in fairness, she does do what she says on that front...), but I'm still stewing about it and I can tell she is underneath too (she's doing that passive-aggressive "silent" thing that she always does when we've had an argument).
I mean, was I in the wrong here somehow? Should I not have called her out on it? Or is her making me feel guilty just her lashing out for exposing something that she didn't want to hear, and she's afraid that I'm actually right? I know she's not a racist person deep down, but she does express some pretty dodgy opinions regurgitated mostly from the Daily Hate-Mail. I've tried to point this out to her diplomatically numerous times over the past few years since she started reading it, but she always changes the conversation or finds an excuse to exit the room as soon as anyone starts telling her something she doesn't want to hear...
Gaahh! How has she made *ME* feel like the guilty one when *SHE* was the one who said something offensive??
