How has racism effected you?

[KnightLite]

My sociology teacher has asked me to get 20 different perspectives this weekend on how Racism has effected YOU.

 

The posts should be focused on how they see, feel, experience, or encounter race and/or ethnicity in their lives each week. They can draw from their personal experiences or from reading about or watching experiences in the news or general media. Their entries should be focused on describing these moments and providing some commentary/analysis informed by class discussions and readings.

 

You will need to collect 8 different entries from 8 different people. Each entry should be at least 2-pages double space typed in 12 pt font. Once you have collected each entry, you will write a 3-4 page document requiring you to look over every entry you receive and notice the dominant patterns.

 

I'm interested in getting your different perspectives. You don't need to write 2 full pages, but if you could share your stories with me, I would be very interested.

[Grim_]

Racism has not really affected me aside from an attitude in my school that seems to label most everyone racist. On a completely unrelated note HOLY [cabbage] YOU LIVE 15-30 MILES FROM ME (I live in davis)

[Rainy_Day]

I can honestly say it has never affected me personally. I live in a city which is 97% white, and am white myself. Throughout my lifetime I've lived in Germany, and 3 areas across England, all of which I never experienced racism. Although my grandfather and uncles often make racial slurs which I feel is inappropriate, but they do not believe the crap they are spewing out.

 

I believe it has been reported that there have been racially motivated attacks in my city aimed at black people a few times, but I've never given hatred to others due to ethnicity, nor received hatred due to my own ethnicity.

[Amaranth_GTO]

Do you mean racism specifically, as in discrimination and hate, or just race in general? there's a pretty big difference there.

[Skully]

I've got a good amount of cheap laughs at other people's expense, that's about it.

[OldJoe]

Don't know if i should answer, since the above post about PC is basically what i've experienced.

I've never met anyone that's been racist to me or towards someone else. I guess some crazy marxists would label you racist for having a joke or two with some friends at the pub.... But it's all harmless and not meaningfull.

But i hate that the political correct people label you as a racist just because you're proud of being who you are (not a patriot or nationalist by any means, but proud of the history), for holding certain values, for mentioning that the current immigration politics in my country is not so perfect.... Etc etc.

[KnightLite]

Do you mean racism specifically, as in discrimination and hate, or just race in general? there's a pretty big difference there.

 

Any form of Prejudice would work.

[SeanyTheSailor]

I mainly hear racial jokes. I live in what is barely considered a city, probably around 20-30000 people. I'm not kidding when I say there can't be 10 black kids in my school maybe 5 asians. Though perhaps you might not consider it racial several of the students have "Confederate" paraphernalia. I usually stay away from the racial crowd, but some of them are loudmouths. On the other end of the spectrum a few years ago a black kid went to my school who wasn't too fond of whites. This is about where my experience ends but I will include a little theory about it. I think that same or maybe many blacks are raised to think that white's dislike them or we want to keep them down, others have bad experiences and so this leads to these blacks generally acting "nasty" towards whites, and so then naturally whites act "nasty" toward them, thus feeding the fire. Now this may seem like I am blaming the blacks for starting it but this isn't the case at all. every fire needs fuel, and i think natural human irrationality and generalization just does the rest.

[Lenticular_J]

About 50% of my school is Mexican, and then 15% or so black, with the rest white. Well, there might be 2% asians, but whatever.

 

About half the mexican kids are thugs and little [cabbage]s, and probably more of a portion of the black kids. The other portion, usually good folks. Can't group people except vaguely. Vague stereotypes hold very true here, though, and can save your [wagon].

 

It's easy to consider people racist when you're living in a suburban home and know three or four minorities who act exactly the same as you. My school's diverse in a bad way.

[Abc1230]

Racism has caused me to kill myself six times.

[fastortoise]

Racism has probably helped me a lot in life. But that's only because I was born white, which is extremely unfair for anyone who wasn't.

[Amaranth_GTO]

Well the city I live in is pretty ghetto. There are some nice parts, but there are some bad parts. Gangs, drugs, violence, drive-by shootings... the whole 9 yards. Every day if you go out for a drive you'll see so many stereotypes being filled: the black person in the old lincoln or cadillac with big chrome rims, loud rap music with the base up, wearing a hat sideways an extremely large white T-shirt, and jeans around his knees. So to me that stereotype isn't just a stereotype, it's a reality. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of people who aren't like that, but I'd say a fair amount of people fit a fair amount of racial stereotypes.

As a white male, there hasn't been much racism against me personally. With the exception of having to be politically correct. I mean, I've chuckled at some jokes and stereotypes, but I believe all people are equal.

[Guest Mrmegakirby]

It's made me have disrespect for people (the racists, not people of different races). That's a perspective you could go from.

[KnightLite]

A PM that was sent to me. He asked to remain anonymous. This is a perfect example of what I'm looking for so I can write about it.

 

Being a Canadian living in the USA isn't the hardest thing ever, but a LOT of Americans are complete [bleep]s about it. Most of you have absolutely no idea what Canada is like, which I am SO GRATEFUL FOR. I moved to Boston with a completely open and respectful mind 2 years ago, and since then my level of respect for Americans has diminished significantly. I'm almost hesitant to tell people where I'm from because I know they'll be talking negatively about it behind my back, if not to my face.

 

For example, I went to watch the Bruins play the Maple Leafs at the TD Garden in Boston (LOL Canadian goes to hockey game -- This was the first game I've ever been to and I was bored before the 2nd period started). On the subway ride home, I ran into a couple of guys from Montreal (Canada) who were extremely friendly. I sold a free hat to this stupid girl on the train and they passed it to her/handed me her money for it because it was too crowded to move anywhere. After these guys got off of the train, the group of kids that I sold my hat to started [cabbage] talking them, and telling them to go back to Canada. It was absolutely unnecessary because these guys were as polite and respectful as possible.

 

Going to school in the USA has made me realize that most (used loosely) Americans are elitist, (WAY TOO) patriotic (in other words, anti-anything not American for absolutely no reason), and obnoxious. I find this funny because they're too busy gossiping about how great they are to realize that a lot of [cabbage] in their country EPICLY fails in comparison to others.

 

I know a lot of Americans reading this will probably get defensive and start arguing with me, but I'm used to it, so go for it I guess. I love when you guys ask stereotypical questions like if I live in an igloo because then I get to ask if you live in McDonalds. Why? Because if you take the population of Canada and multiply it by 3, that's how many obese people are in the USA. Nevermind fat, or overweight, but FULL ON OBESE.

 

I realize I may have come off as being a bit harsh/racist towards you guys, but I wasn't like this until I experienced living there for two years. I also have a lot of American relatives. SO NEHHHH.

[The Dark Lord]

Any form of Prejudice would work.

 

No it wouldn't. We're talking about RACISM here. ;)

 

---------------------------

 

To answer your question, no, I have never experienced racism against me (that I know of). I live in a white society, and I am a white man.

 

The only "problem" in relation to racism that I have experienced would be the rampant political-correctness that runs through society where anyone can easily be labeled a racist. I have never harbored feelings of racial superiority, but I have been labeled a racist for criticizing black American "culture" because I believe that it is degenerative and displays lack of self-respect for themselves.

[KnightLite]

Any form of Prejudice would work.

 

No it wouldn't. We're talking about RACISM here. ;)

 

---------------------------

 

To answer your question, no, I have never experienced racism against me (that I know of). I live in a white society, and I am a white man.

 

The only "problem" in relation to racism that I have experienced would be the rampant political-correctness that runs through society where anyone can easily be labeled a racist. I have never harbored feelings of racial superiority, but I have been labeled a racist for criticizing black American "culture" because I believe that it is degenerative and displays lack of self-respect for themselves.

 

 

Still, I'd be curious to learn about a homosexual that has been discriminated on, and how he felt about everything.

[Guest Mrmegakirby]

[hide=quote]

A PM that was sent to me. He asked to remain anonymous. This is a perfect example of what I'm looking for so I can write about it.

 

Being a Canadian living in the USA isn't the hardest thing ever, but a LOT of Americans are complete [bleep]s about it. Most of you have absolutely no idea what Canada is like, which I am SO GRATEFUL FOR. I moved to Boston with a completely open and respectful mind 2 years ago, and since then my level of respect for Americans has diminished significantly. I'm almost hesitant to tell people where I'm from because I know they'll be talking negatively about it behind my back, if not to my face.

 

For example, I went to watch the Bruins play the Maple Leafs at the TD Garden in Boston (LOL Canadian goes to hockey game -- This was the first game I've ever been to and I was bored before the 2nd period started). On the subway ride home, I ran into a couple of guys from Montreal (Canada) who were extremely friendly. I sold a free hat to this stupid girl on the train and they passed it to her/handed me her money for it because it was too crowded to move anywhere. After these guys got off of the train, the group of kids that I sold my hat to started [cabbage] talking them, and telling them to go back to Canada. It was absolutely unnecessary because these guys were as polite and respectful as possible.

 

Going to school in the USA has made me realize that most (used loosely) Americans are elitist, (WAY TOO) patriotic (in other words, anti-anything not American for absolutely no reason), and obnoxious. I find this funny because they're too busy gossiping about how great they are to realize that a lot of [cabbage] in their country EPICLY fails in comparison to others.

 

I know a lot of Americans reading this will probably get defensive and start arguing with me, but I'm used to it, so go for it I guess. I love when you guys ask stereotypical questions like if I live in an igloo because then I get to ask if you live in McDonalds. Why? Because if you take the population of Canada and multiply it by 3, that's how many obese people are in the USA. Nevermind fat, or overweight, but FULL ON OBESE.

 

I realize I may have come off as being a bit harsh/racist towards you guys, but I wasn't like this until I experienced living there for two years. I also have a lot of American relatives. SO NEHHHH.

[/hide]

That's actually quite interesting to me. Being Canadian, I didn't realise that

A) People actually believed canadian steryotypes

B) Patriosm is that big in america.

 

Issue A:

For one thing, I don't see a huge difference between amercians and canadians physicaly, as opposed to alot of forms of racism, but by no means all. We also have the same accent, with the exception of the east coast, which does seem to be strong. I've been able to laugh at and with canadian jokes, but I didn't realise there were actually people who took them seriously.

 

B:

It just says something about someone when they follow their country regardless of what. It seems that people have the right to disagree with the governement - but often when they do they are mocked by the public.

 

Just my two cents.

[baalboy5]

I'm the only white male in my class. I don't feel any racism but I feel out of place when I had to write an essay on predjuice relating to the 13-15th ammendments.

 

I felt out of place because I didn't know how to describe black people. Do I say "african americans" or "black" in my essay?.

Same was applied when Obama was runing for president. I felt out of place because if I didn't say I supported Obama, I would be deemed a racist. Even though I did support him, I felt like it was only because of avoiding the relation of a "white guy trying to win over blacks".

 

My dad had a simlar experience, when he stoped to get gas, a black man(or should I say african amercan?) asked him if he was voting for Obama, before he replied, the man said "naw he got a cadliac, you know he votin for McCain".

[fakeitormakeit2]

I am Middle Eastern, ever since 9/11 I have been the end of a lot of prejudices [even though I am Christian]. Anything from sheer terror of me to disgust.

 

I was speaking with someone from a public school about fights or whatever. They said about how all the Arabs stick together. And I was like yep, that's what we do, support one another. As soon as I said that they looked like they had seen a ghost. They were terrified and lost all interest to talk.

 

I use to be harassed at school by this kid who use to constantly make airport jokes and say how inferior "my people" are. He would find me and my Arab friend just to insult us. It was quite a damper on the spirits and I dreaded seeing him. Till one day I had enough and reported him to the guidance counselor. Somehow he had convinced the guidance counselor that I and my other Arab friend bullied him and we were terrifying and that we said he was a dirty Palestinian and that he wanted to blow up Israel (which is funny because that kind of sounds like what he would say to us...). After explaining to my guidance counselor that I never said such things, and how it is blasphemous to yell Allah in mockery and that he was a damper to my spirit. I was threatened with receiving a suspension and half the amount of demerits needed for expulsion if I did not apologize to him for "threatening" and "belittling" him.

 

I sat next to a moderately dark skinned man on an airplane once. He looked Middle Eastern and it was confirmed when he pulled out something with Arabic writing on it. Not to be rude but I read some of it and it was a prayer to Mary. He saw it had caught my eye and he smiled and handed it to me to read. I thanked him in Arabic with a "shookran sayyid" and passing people saw that I had something written in Arabic and I was muttering I heard "oh my God... I don't feel safe with those crazy Muslims sitting next to each other showing each other their terrorist language".

 

My teacher for Speech was also my debate coach and she knew I like political and educational things. She asked me to give a speech that was really informative and political without being persuasive. So I picked the Israeli-Arab Conflict, illuminating on the Arab side since the Israeli side is covered amply in US media. After my researching and writing of the paper, I had been harassed to the point were I had to change my subject, being called a "Jew hater", etc. My teacher was disappointed in me and I was disappointed in myself. My paper was not anti-Judeo at all, not even anti-Zionist and focused on the political aspect but without people even hearing it I was forced to abandon it.

 

There are certain Eastern Christian religious customs I have which are discriminated against as well. I have been called a stupid towel head for fasting. During one feast day, you hand out roses to people, especially those you have a hard time with to try to make amends with them and someone asked me what I poisoned them with and what plot "my people" were planning. A whole slue of other customs, including bowing, wishing blessings upon people (i.e. God bless your hands for preparing such a delicious meal and may He grant you a long life because of the fruits of your labors) and carrying prayers in Aramaic on me, and when some people see this they attend to [voluntarily and involuntarily] discourage me from my stupid "sand people" things.

 

I'm a Maronite [a type of Christian], extremely anti-terrorism and anti-war and I want to be a consultant for the FBI like someone I know to translate things from Arabic to English. If people hear that, they think I'm joking because I must be automatically a Muslim and pro-terrorism. It is truly sad.

 

I could go on for years, hahaha. Good luck with your paper.

[Kenshinjapan]

About 50% of my school is Mexican, and then 15% or so black, with the rest white. Well, there might be 2% asians, but whatever.

 

About half the mexican kids are thugs and little [cabbage]s, and probably more of a portion of the black kids. The other portion, usually good folks. Can't group people except vaguely. Vague stereotypes hold very true here, though, and can save your [wagon].

 

It's easy to consider people racist when you're living in a suburban home and know three or four minorities who act exactly the same as you. My school's diverse in a bad way.

 

Lol welcome to Texas ;)

[KnightLite]

I am Middle Eastern, ever since 9/11 I have been the end of a lot of prejudices [even though I am Christian]. Anything from sheer terror of me to disgust.

 

I was speaking with someone from a public school about fights or whatever. They said about how all the Arabs stick together. And I was like yep, that's what we do, support one another. As soon as I said that they looked like they had seen a ghost. They were terrified and lost all interest to talk.

 

I use to be harassed at school by this kid who use to constantly make airport jokes and say how inferior "my people" are. He would find me and my Arab friend just to insult us. It was quite a damper on the spirits and I dreaded seeing him. Till one day I had enough and reported him to the guidance counselor. Somehow he had convinced the guidance counselor that I and my other Arab friend bullied him and we were terrifying and that we said he was a dirty Palestinian and that he wanted to blow up Israel (which is funny because that kind of sounds like what he would say to us...). After explaining to my guidance counselor that I never said such things, and how it is blasphemous to yell Allah in mockery and that he was a damper to my spirit. I was threatened with receiving a suspension and half the amount of demerits needed for expulsion if I did not apologize to him for "threatening" and "belittling" him.

 

I sat next to a moderately dark skinned man on an airplane once. He looked Middle Eastern and it was confirmed when he pulled out something with Arabic writing on it. Not to be rude but I read some of it and it was a prayer to Mary. He saw it had caught my eye and he smiled and handed it to me to read. I thanked him in Arabic with a "shookran sayyid" and passing people saw that I had something written in Arabic and I was muttering I heard "oh my God... I don't feel safe with those crazy Muslims sitting next to each other showing each other their terrorist language".

 

My teacher for Speech was also my debate coach and she knew I like political and educational things. She asked me to give a speech that was really informative and political without being persuasive. So I picked the Israeli-Arab Conflict, illuminating on the Arab side since the Israeli side is covered amply in US media. After my researching and writing of the paper, I had been harassed to the point were I had to change my subject, being called a "Jew hater", etc. My teacher was disappointed in me and I was disappointed in myself. My paper was not anti-Judeo at all, not even anti-Zionist and focused on the political aspect but without people even hearing it I was forced to abandon it.

 

There are certain Eastern Christian religious customs I have which are discriminated against as well. I have been called a stupid towel head for fasting. During one feast day, you hand out roses to people, especially those you have a hard time with to try to make amends with them and someone asked me what I poisoned them with and what plot "my people" were planning. A whole slue of other customs, including bowing, wishing blessings upon people (i.e. God bless your hands for preparing such a delicious meal and may He grant you a long life because of the fruits of your labors) and carrying prayers in Aramaic on me, and when some people see this they attend to [voluntarily and involuntarily] discourage me from my stupid "sand people" things.

 

I'm a Maronite [a type of Christian], extremely anti-terrorism and anti-war and I want to be a consultant for the FBI like someone I know to translate things from Arabic to English. If people hear that, they think I'm joking because I must be automatically a Muslim and pro-terrorism. It is truly sad.

 

I could go on for years, hahaha. Good luck with your paper.

 

Wow, I'm very sorry for all the racial prejudice you have had to encounter. That's absolutely horrible.

[nerdboyxxx]

I know plenty of people who have been affected by racism in Australia (and it came from our own Government, which is despicable). However racism is an overused and abused term these days, so its hard to give a story that I know of. However, my friends parents have experienced their fair share.

 

One friend of mine (his parents are immigrants) had to wait a full 5 years before they could come to Australia. They were also not allowed to vote, and were payed les than white people working in the same profession as theirs (they worked in a factory). The general populace looked down on them as well, however they banded together in a small group and still live where they started today (in Merrylands). By the way, they are Lebanese. Also, I'm not sure if you can take stories from abroad, if its just in America then I can't help you any further :P.

 

Basically, life was harsh on them. They had enough trouble trying to get a house and raise a family and keep working without all the racism and horrible treatment they were given. But, when the white Australia policy was abolished in the 70's life became a bit easier on them (it still took people of the time to accept the newer people coming into the country).

 

I have some more stories from friends, so if you need any more just hit me up in a PM :).

[Saru Inc]

Any form of Prejudice would work.

 

No it wouldn't. We're talking about RACISM here. ;)

 

---------------------------

 

To answer your question, no, I have never experienced racism against me (that I know of). I live in a white society, and I am a white man.

 

The only "problem" in relation to racism that I have experienced would be the rampant political-correctness that runs through society where anyone can easily be labeled a racist. I have never harbored feelings of racial superiority, but I have been labeled a racist for criticizing black American "culture" because I believe that it is degenerative and displays lack of self-respect for themselves.

 

 

Still, I'd be curious to learn about a homosexual that has been discriminated on, and how he felt about everything.

 

 

In that case:

 

 

The city I live in, Virginia Beach is VERY VERY diverse. I am actually surprised many of my friends who are white have very few friends of different races. I actually only have 1 friend that is white, I have about 20 black friends, 6 Mexican friends, and idk 3.5 Asian friends. (long story LOL). My school is primarily black, and Asian, with Whites being the next, our city However, white is the most common, then filipino, then black, then mexican I believe. (HUGE filipino influence as we're next to the biggest naval station in the country. (I;m pretty sure it's the biggest LOL I heard it on the radio)

 

In my school, racial tensions are actually non existent, everyone co-exists, and its actually really cool. However, it seems like everyone wants someone to be a racist, its hard to explain, but if you show even 1 racist tendency, then you're a racist and everyone hates you. Its a bit odd, for example me and my friend were walking by some wanna be thugs, and she gripped her purse tighter, and they saw it and walked up and started calling her a racist, and then set out to disprove every single stereotype out there. Example: "[bleep], you think cuz we black we're thiefs? [bleep] let me tell you I have never stolen anything, I have straight A's, and respect the police, you [bleep] [wagon] think I'm gonna steal your [cabbage]? man I don't want your [cabbage]!" just stupid stuff like that, everyone tries to prove they're not a stereotype (even though they usually fill the profile of a stereotype quite commonly.)

 

 

On the homosexual level however. I live in Virginia Beach, where Pat Robertson is located, who is perhaps the most outspoken against Homosexual in the nation. My dad works for him (and is pretty high up in the tier there) and that kind of rubs off on the town. A kid in my school (I believe he was a tranny) was very effeminate, and if people asked if he was gay, he just straight up told them. One day, he was beaten so badly, that his arm was broken, a rib cracked, and a concussion, this happened while I was home sick, and he was rushed to the hospital (amazingly, the hospital is literally across the street, with an organ donation building kitty corner from our school.) and when I asked why that happened people all told me"he had it coming. you just don't dress like that, its his own fault." I was disgusted. This poor kid was so nice to everyone, simply because he dressed differently, he could have been killed. For me however, in the hallways everyone who passed me would whisper "filthy [bleep]" or the likes of it, in p.e. or when we would partner up for projects in class, no one would go near me they'd say the following "man I don't want him feeling up on me" which is quite funny, because even though I'm not very butch, I'm not effeminate at all really. But high school was still hell, so glad I'm done with it.

 

However, at home its totally different. Every chance my mom gets she speaks out against gays, saying they're filled with the spirit of the antichrist, caused katrina, split up pangea, created sars, bubonic plague and cancer, shot kennedy, eat babies, and invented satanism. Ok well I may have exaggerated a tad, but she sincerely believes Katrina was caused by the gays, and they're filled with the spirit of the antichrist. When she found out my brothers best friend was gay she stopped letting him go over less and less, now he can never really go over there. I think my little sister is a lesbian, and so I asked my mom what she thought of it(she doesn't know I'm gay) and she slapped me and said "how dare I speak such words in this house, where God is, homosexuality cannot, and I will not have you speak such words over your little sisters life." and I said "well, if she is, will you still love her?" my mom said "Well she isn't, and never will be so why bring it up." >.> Its really depressing living at my house, because everyone is so anti-gay. *sigh* I try to discuss it with them, but I don't want to appear too forward incase they get suspicious.

 

I'm afraid to tell them, they have a rifle under their bed incase a robber comes in (no, they're not rednecks XD) and idk if they'd use it on me, they HATE gays. Kinda ironic.

[pegpenguin]

Wow saruman, thats just horrible,really really horrible...

 

 

About the racism, I live in a pretty small town with maybe 1 black person for every thousandth white person, and a lot more latino's than anything else. Honestly I'm not racist at all, I don't care if your black white, purple or green, I judge a person solely on how they act. And I really don't like what a lot of people call the "black culture", there are so many white people trying to act like that, and they're just loud and obnoxious and for some reason, smell horribly.

 

The way racism has affected me... well I hate being PC, I don't really see how its hateful to say simply say that someone is gay or black. I could say anything about someone in a discriminatory way and just cause certain words have been used in the past this way doesn't mean they have to be. Just cause I don't like the way a person acts, and if they're black, everyone jumps to the conclusion that I'm racist. I can't stand it, seriously >.>

[Saru Inc]

Wow saruman, thats just horrible,really really horrible...

 

 

About the racism, I live in a pretty small town with maybe 1 black person for every thousandth white person, and a lot more latino's than anything else. Honestly I'm not racist at all, I don't care if your black white, purple or green, I judge a person solely on how they act. And I really don't like what a lot of people call the "black culture", there are so many white people trying to act like that, and they're just loud and obnoxious and for some reason, smell horribly.

 

The way racism has affected me... well I hate being PC, I don't really see how its hateful to say simply say that someone is gay or black. I could say anything about someone in a discriminatory way and just cause certain words have been used in the past this way doesn't mean they have to be. Just cause I don't like the way a person acts, and if they're black, everyone jumps to the conclusion that I'm racist. I can't stand it, seriously >.>

 

 

I hear you man, lol.