Everything is Racist

[fuzzygobo]

My dad used to be one of those people with such blind hatred. He would drop the N-bomb on black people right to their face and not think twice about it. This always bothered me about him.

Way back when I was five, I heard him use that word a lot, but I had no idea what it meant. So I asked Mom:

"Mommy, what's a ******?"
"WHERE DID YOU GET THAT WORD FROM??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Daddy!"
That night they had the mother of all domestic spats. But I wasn't any closer to knowing what an N-bomb was.

Growing up, I had Sesame Street so ingrained in me, seeing people of all races colors and creeds living together, if not in perfect harmony, at least reasonably so. So I was led to believe the real world would/should be like that.

When I was old enough to understand what an N-bomb was, after I already had several close black friends in school, I was mortified at my dad's bigotry. Even though they say "the apple does not fall far from the tree", there were three things I vowed I would never follow in my dad's footsteps:

1. I was never going to become an alcoholic like him.
2. When I get married, I'm never going to hit my wife (sometimes I'm afraid of her hitting ME!).
3. I'm not going to be a racist if I have anything to say about it.

Wanna end racism? It starts with me. And you. And you. And you over there. And whoever else reads this post. Opening up your heart and realizing we're more the same than we can ever be different.

Is it hard not being a racist? It doesn't have to be.

 

[Drtooth]

Actually it was fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate. But the fact that it's so interchangeable proves how utterly vapid the line really is, lol.

Vapid, but true. True as heck. Besides, anything that comes out of Frank Oz's mouth can't be all bad.

But seriously... the KKK came out of having to pick their own cotton...or worse, pay someone to work. Hitler hated Jews because he was unable to get over the fact that art school wouldn't accept him. It's all about being angry at something else entirely, and focusing on a group of people instead of focusing about one's own shortcomings.

If you have to hate yourself, hate yourself. I mean you shouldn't, but at least it's better than generally hating an entire group of people.

As far as racism is concerned, I tend to actually laugh at unintentional racism, or rather Unfortunate Implications. There was this hilariously bad Sears commercial where an African American family walked into a store with a white salesman, and the father of the family asked "Is this the Black Friday Sale?" Not intentional, but pretty dang stupid to let that go out.

 

[CensoredAlso]

If you have to hate yourself, hate yourself. I mean you shouldn't, but at least it's better than generally hating an entire group of people.

I think if you do hate yourself that much, you aren't really capable of treating other people any better. When we concentrate on working on ourselves and nurturing ourselves, our behavior towards others can improve. It sounds unintentionally selfish but I think it's just an extension of the "first take the plank out of your own eye" theory.

 

[snichols1973]

 

[Scooterforever]

There are two people I work with who are racist, though one is more tolerable than the other. My one co-worker, Bruce, admits to being a full-blooded redneck, and understands that his views may be a little skewed. He doesn't go around using racial slurs or avoiding people of different race, and he's aware of his own racism and understands not everyone shares his views. More of a light racist really, and a nice guy overall. Steve, on the other hand, though not prejudiced towards all races, is a hardline anti-Semite, and I've heard him use k*k* on a number of occasions. Needless to say, his Antisemitism disturbs me. As many have observed, everyone can be a little racist at times, but taken too far it's simply intolerable. It's a shame to see people my age who are hardline racist; it was typical in my grandparents' day (not that that makes it okay, as even back then many knew in their hearts it was wrong), and started to die down with my parents' generation (my father holds none of the racist views of his parents), and you'd think it would have died with my generation (Millenials, Generation Y, whatever you want to call it), but unfortunately that is not always the case.

 

[Dr TeethFan]

What about that sitcom 2 Broke Girls,they are not racist,they have a Korean ,an African American,a Ukrainian,A Polish,and recently they added a Spanish gay man

 

[Drtooth]

What about that sitcom 2 Broke Girls,they are not racist,they have a Korean ,an African American,a Ukrainian,A Polish,and recently they added a Spanish gay man

The show specializes in racial ironic humor. I wouldn't exactly say it's racist, but I wouldn't say it wasn't either. That's a very special "we're all in on the joke" stuff.

 

[Dominicboo1]

Actually, I just remembered something that I was somewhat on the receiving end of this once.

I did a vlog about egg nog a couple of years ago (it's private now, so yeah), and made a remark about some people apparently liking to mix alcohol in egg nog to make it, "Taste better", by saying there's only two kinds of people I know of who would do that: alcoholics who are looking to get buzzed, and Canadians. A Canadian guy actually repremended me for saying that, saying that he found my comment about Canadians doing that to be unnecessary... but you know what? MrsPepper, and another Canadian friend of mine told me that Canadians traditionally do mix alcohol (particularly rum) in their egg nog, which is why I made the comment in the first place, because I figured if Canadians told me Canadians do that, how could it be offensive? But then again, that's almost kind of like the time I saw this white lady go on a talk show and talk about how if the N-word is so offensive, then why would black people call (still) each other that?

And why is it when you end it in "a" it means friend or homey or whatever nonsense?