Have you ever experienced racism?

[Chris Wallace]

By this I mean, have you ever been truly, openly discriminated against? Not just some stupid stereotype joke about white people not being able to dance or blacks not being able to ski. Not just perceived discrimination-but blatant & true.
Here's some examples I've encountered in my time.
While in the Marines, I was told there were no separate races, but rather that we were all "green".
Gradually I encountered some who would subscribe to this belief, but then add that some of us were "light green" and some of us were "dark green". :facepalm
Inevitably I came across some clown who would address me as "Dark green" as if that were my name. He did it repeatedly even after my name was sewn onto my uniform.
There was also a minor disagreement with a squad leader in Boot Camp, who stuck his finger in my face & said in a DEEP Southern accent, "Don't you talk back to me, boy!"
I wanted his spleen.
But none of these pissed me off as much as this sergeant I met in NC who was always making little snide racist remarks, calling me "Leroy" & preaching the wisdom of David Duke. One morning we were getting ready to do our daily PT run, & at that point only a handful of us had come out of the barracks. Somebody made some joke about canceling the run & going out for coffee, which everybody got a good laugh out of. People kept chiming in until eventually the sergeant made his contribution:
"Yeah, I can see us all kickin' back in the restaurant, sippin' our coffee-with Wallace servin'."
It's hard to describe the phenomenon which immediately followed.
Now some would claim that I promptly said "Wrong century, mother****er!" But I don't choose to believe that this is true. Because certain procedures are involved-certain mechanisms, if you will, must be utilized in order for speech to take place. The thought has to form in the brain. The thought has to translate into words. A conscious decision must be made to communicate these words. The brain must then send electrical signals to the tongue, jaw & vocal chords. But none of these things happened at that moment. What did happen was, I opened my mouth in shock and the words, "Wrong century, mother****er" just materialized in my mouth & lept into the air. It was the most amazing thing.
But as you may have picked up on by now, the only incidents I've experienced in my adult life that are in any way proveable, have all been verbal.

 

[Mutagen]

No, I haven't. I truly think people who judge on skin colour alone are lower minded imbeciles. Now, there may be a country were people are from that appear rude, I try to ignore it, because it might be normal to do it for them. Some people though are just plain ignorant.

 

[Chris Wallace]

Unfortunately, being a lower-minded imbecile doesn't prevent you from being able to inflict you way of thinking on the whole of society.

 

[Manic]

My very first experience with racism was when I was in 3rd grade. This little racist s*** told me to "go back to Africa" and my friend to "go back to China." Yeah, we got his ass suspended. Years later, we ended up in the same History class during our sophomore year. Still racist, it turned out.

There was this other kid back in the 5th grade who was convinced I was an idiot. He was an honor role kid, so I'm not sure if it was general elitism or a misconception that black people aren't very bright. I ended up in a work group with him a few times, and he was ridiculously condescending. To this day, I flip out when someone implies that I'm stupid.

Children can be so cruel.

 

[SLVRSR4]

Racism is hilarious. If you need to push someone's buttons it works great.

The concept that one is better than another is also hysterical.

I'm Hispanic and I've heard enough things, and find some of the things funny. My favorite was a gym coach saying I thought all *******s knew how to swim. While I was in the pool I laughed very hard when his wife died.

 

[Manic]

I'm going to ignore the part where you laughed at a man's dead wife...


I never understood the "black people can't swim" stereotype. I take to the water like a duck. My dad's the same way. I wasn't even aware of that stereotype until I reached adulthood.

 

[The Original Bamfer]

Racism is hilarious. If you need to push someone's buttons it works great.

The concept that one is better than another is also hysterical.

I'm Hispanic and I've heard enough things, and find some of the things funny. My favorite was a gym coach saying I thought all *******s knew how to swim. While I was in the pool I laughed very hard when his wife died.

This post is evidence as to why threads like these just will not work.

 

[November Rain]

I hear stuff llike people wouldn't want to marry or go out with a black person

I've heard ****** shouted at my mother before, she smiled and said thank you.

I also tend to hear racial comments about other racists, they generally start off with 'I'm not racist but...'

I also hear stuff alot about what people's parents and grandparents used to say.

It's not me I mind for these days, Chinese/Asian, Middle Eastern or Indo/asian people are getting it hard these days.

Half the world now just 'forgets' africa is a continent full of billions, it all gets clumped up, it's quite funny.

 

[November Rain]

I'm going to ignore the part where you laughed at a man's dead wife...


I never understood the "black people can't swim" stereotype. I take to the water like a duck. My dad's the same way. I wasn't even aware of that stereotype until I reached adulthood.

I don't even think it's about the lack of ability to swim.

I think it is just the emphasis.

No one does sport for the sake of it anymore, it's abut the money and the prestige. There's no real money in swimming so i think it just gets bypassed. You'll probably find with the right incentive, most people could excel in most sports. I mean all those basketballers have good stamina and long reaches, they could be breaking loads of swimmming records but the just don't have the heart.

let's not even get into the availability and time constraints there are to learn swimming as apposed to something else, it's not much of a team orientated activity and is highly time consuming as well to get to a professional level.

diferent strokes for different folks.

 

[AndThePickles]

Indeed I have, mainly from being one of the few white girls growing up in majority black schools and from dating outside of my race.

It's funny that someone mentioned not to talk about the stupid stereotype of "white people can't dance," because I'll never forget the crap I got from people for participating in a hip-hop workshop my senior year of high school. On the senior's "Grad Night Party" hosted by the school, there was a hallway with flyers posted that each had a person's picture on it, so you could write nice comments to people to say farewell. I threw mine out, because people started arguing on mine with things like, "Stop dancing, cuz you can't" and "Keep on dancin girl!" It was utterly ridiculous, and cruel spirited.

Unfortunately, the most racism I've received in my life is from black women. I'm glad that it didn't make me "bitter" or anything, as some of the best friends in my life have been black girls

Most of my family isn't racist, but I do have an extremely racist uncle who isn't blood-related. He's the definition of trailer trash, and has also abused my aunt in years past, as well as the fact that he's an alcoholic and has emphysema yet still smokes My freshman year of college, at Christmas, he found out I was dating a black guy and started ranting and yelling and threatening to shoot him with a shotgun on the front lawn. He got kicked out of the house, but it certainly ruined that holiday. I already disliked the man, but after that I've refused to be within 10 miles of him. Haven't seen/talked to him, since.

One of my grandmothers is also prejudiced, and it has put a strain on our relationship in some ways. I'll never forget how excited she was my senior year of high school when a white boy expressed interest in me. She bugged me constantly about asking him to take me to prom and such, and didn't even listen to me when I told her he'd had sex with half the girls in school and that's all he wanted out of me. It definitely deeply hurt my feelings that she only acted that way (and treated him SO nice when he came to the house a couple times) because he was white.

 

[Kelly]

Myself no.....but for my 13th birthday...(YEARS AGO) I wanted to invite a black friend of mine to the party, my mom said no. So I said, cancel the party. Long story, short......I had my party, and my friend was there. I absolutely had no clue at the time why my mother would say no.....it wasn't until later in life I figured out why.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I hear stuff llike people wouldn't want to marry or go out with a black person

I caught some grief from my family-make that BOTH our families-when I briefly dated a white girl. Nevermind the numerous dirty looks from strangers & my platoon-mates calling me a sellout.

 

[Shemtov]

Just a couple days ago a high school kid came up to me and said "I'm a ****ing muslim and The ****ing Koran says i need to kill every ****ing Jew, K***"
And once I was walking in a mall and some kid said "****in' Jews" under his breath. like Wallace, I couldnt help responding. I Screamed " Thats a HATE CRIME AND I"LL GET YOU PUT IN A FEDRaL PRISON, Like Gitmo"

****

When i was a Teenager I beleived all people with Blond hair and blue eyes were neo-Nazis. and i had a few freinds who thought all blacks had AIDs.

 

[Chris Wallace]

Myself no.....but for my 13th birthday...(YEARS AGO) I wanted to invite a black friend of mine to the party, my mom said no. So I said, cancel the party. Long story, short......I had my party, and my friend was there. I absolutely had no clue at the time why my mother would say no.....it wasn't until later in life I figured out why.

One could argue that that's still technically you experiencing racism.
Kinda reminds me of this reality show called "Momma's Boys"; it was like "The Batchelor" only w/3 guys trying to choose-all the while their moms were in their ear trying to push them in one direction or another. Now one mom was just insane-the girls got to see a video of a brief interview w/each mother & this one was so outrageous. She CLEARLY stated that her son could not date outside his race & then repeatedly denied being racist. So what does the son do? He makes out with a black girl in a hot tub. His psychotic mom sees it from a helicopter & goes ballistic. Under pressure from his mom, he sends the girl packing only to find out that no woman on Earth will ever be good enough in her eyes. Then there was another who was more subtle but still strongly disapproved of her son taking interest in a black girl. He, too, caved in the end but wound up cutting loose the girl his mom picked.

 

[mrvlknight21]

Can we include reverse racism incidents?

 

[AndThePickles]

Can we include reverse racism incidents?

In my opinion, racism is racism. I've never seen the point of labeling something as "reverse racism." I know that wasn't the point of your question, but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts!

 

[Hobgoblin]

I cant say I have, but my Vietnamese buddy's grandmother is supposedly very racist. She doesnt really acknowledge his white friends when we come over. I really never see her so it doesnt matter.

I've had a lot more experience with sexism than I have had with racism. And I'm a guy.

 

[GunBlade]

None to my recollection.

 

[chamber-music]

I hear stuff llike people wouldn't want to marry or go out with a black person

I've heard ****** shouted at my mother before, she smiled and said thank you.

I also tend to hear racial comments about other racists, they generally start off with 'I'm not racist but...'

I also hear stuff alot about what people's parents and grandparents used to say.

It's not me I mind for these days, Chinese/Asian, Middle Eastern or Indo/asian people are getting it hard these days.

Half the world now just 'forgets' africa is a continent full of billions, it all gets clumped up, it's quite funny.

I'm quite lucky I haven't experienced much racism in my life (well not any people sainy it to my face anyway but most racists are cowards and probabley wouldn't).

That said I've heard or know of alot stuff that like you have posted November Rain. I had a white friend growing up who hated Chinese people for no reason which was odd. I called him up on it often and he could never really justify his dislike of an entire race of people.

I've had a few white guys (mostly chavs) shout racist stuff at me once or twice. One time when I was getting off a train and once a some guys from a house window when I was walking down the street.

My grandfather went through all kinds of stuff. His dead now but back in the 60s he got racial abuse walking down the street, spat at and all kinds of stuff.

Most of the time I get the feeling of racism though more than anyone directly coming out and saying I don't like you because your black. Like you notice people treating you differently or acting a differently while they are around you.

 

[PyroChamber]

I caught some grief from my family-make that BOTH our families-when I briefly dated a white girl. Nevermind the numerous dirty looks from strangers & my platoon-mates calling me a sellout.

I never understood why someone would be upset if a person dates outside their race. Yeah, they're with someone who's not the same race as them, so what?

What does the girl/guy not being black, white, asian, latino, etc. have to do with anything, why is it bothering them so much? They make it seem like if you date outside your race that you'll get some disease or something.

But I've also noticed, as far as blacks go, people will be more against a black guy dating outside his race than a black girl doing it.

 

[Hobgoblin]

I never understood why someone would be upset if a person dates outside their race. Yeah, they're with someone who's not the same race as them, so what?

What does the girl/guy not being black, white, asian, latino, etc. have to do with anything, why is it bothering them so much? They make it seem like if you date outside your race that you'll get some disease or something.

They dont want black/Asian/white/etc grandkids.

 

[PyroChamber]

They dont want black/Asian/white/etc grandkids.

You mean they don't want to play the "One of those things is not like the other" game when it's time to take a family portrait?

 

[The Apocalypse]

Racism is hilarious. If you need to push someone's buttons it works great.

The concept that one is better than another is also hysterical.

I'm Hispanic and I've heard enough things, and find some of the things funny. My favorite was a gym coach saying I thought all *******s knew how to swim. While I was in the pool I laughed very hard when his wife died.

Part of me finds this funny. Part of me doesn't.

 

[AndThePickles]

I never understood why someone would be upset if a person dates outside their race. Yeah, they're with someone who's not the same race as them, so what?

What does the girl/guy not being black, white, asian, latino, etc. have to do with anything, why is it bothering them so much? They make it seem like if you date outside your race that you'll get some disease or something.

But I've also noticed, as far as blacks go, people will be more against a black guy dating outside his race than a black girl doing it.

A lot of people consider it to be a "betrayal" to your "kind." Or they think that it means the person doesn't think their own race is "good enough" to date.

 

[Immortalfire]

What is this...Race Sunday?