Do you think children of racists should be taken from their parents?

[meow2u3]

AFAIC, teaching your children hate is a form of child abuse.

Your answers, please.

[MadHound]

1. No, I'm sorry, but that would lead to a huge slippery slope

One that we shouldn't even mess with. Rather than taking the children out of such homes, we should practice and teach tolerance in our schools and churches.

But taking children out of such homes for political/social reasons could very well backfire on us, and it shouldn't be done.

[JuniperLea]

4. Truth spoken here...

let's not even go there.

It should be mandatory for schools to teach tolerance of race, color and creed.

[Melodybe]

30. No, I agree with Madhound, as much as I hate racism

Parents have the right to raise their children.

[bleedingheart]

2. Funny but I was raised by and around people that had racist views

so who would have raised me?

My dad, he died when I was young, detested Italians and Asians...cuz he fought against them in WWII.

My mother was more of a closeted racist but has become far more liberal in old age..

My uncle was one of those "the jews are conspiring to take over the world kind of guys"

My other uncle, Army guy, hates african americans...grew up with all sorts of ugly phrases that he would use...

and let I turned out to be a bleedingheart liberal....

[BlueEyedSon]

3. You can't take away everyone's kids.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Then the repukes would be screaming

They'd want to take kids away from "extremist libruls" or people who "don't support the troops".

[pepperlove]

6. Of course not.

[FlemingsGhost]

7. Do you have any idea how many racists reside in the U.S.

And most of them don't even realize it.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

8. Racism is not something

that can be fixed in this fashion. It won't go away just because some of us know it's wrong. That's why we have the Civil Rights Act and so on. To combat what is learned behavior, imho.

[thereismore]

9. NO. n/t

[tamtam]

10. NO

Post two is a great example why. I don't think every child that grows up in an racist environment turns out to be a racist. There is more of a chance they will but that is not always the case.

I'm black so of course I've met my share of racist. Some people I have been able to turn around just by educating them. I was in the Air force with a girl was a closet racist but she would talk to me. She grew up this way but after a year I showed her where she was wrong and why she was wrong. She never used the N word around me but she had some nasty misconceptions about Hispanics and black people.

Bottom line is people can change and some people just don't have it in their hearts to hate; even if they were taught to do so.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. No. People have the right to be assholes.

If they commit a crime, neglect, or otherwise endanger their kids, that's one thing.

But you can't take kids away from their parents just because the parents have their heads up their asses.

[202 456]

12. No unless they are teaching them to harm and/or kill

[Jamastiene]

13. Yes, they should. If their parents are raising them to be terrorists,

especially, they should be taken away permanently. If they are typical racists not teaching about bomb making and other violent acts, then they should lose them until they are taught that racism is not acceptable in a civilized society. Maybe if they start doing this, one day we will finally have a civilized society. Until then, we can claim to be civilized, but we are not there yet.

[annabanana]

21. and who gets to choose?.... n/t

[Jamastiene]

28. Social workers who see the damage racism can do to a child and, yes, it

does happen a lot.

[Bridget Burke]

34. There aren't enough social workers to save the physically abused kids.

Much less those "abused by ideas."

[Jamastiene]

43. You are right, but too bad there aren't enough. Don'tcha think? n/t

[Guaranteed]

14. No. That's effectively a massive breach of the 1st Amendment. nt

[Ladyhawk]

15. No. Of course not.

I am the grandchild of racists and the child of racists who got a little better with age. I'm a little better than my parents. Unfortunately, I have no child to expose to more open ideas. Instead, I'm focusing on getting rid of the prejudiced attitudes I know I still harbor. I am aware of what I was taught. I'm aware that it was wrong. That should be enough.

[harlinchi]

32. Dadgummit, Ladyhawk, that post shined a little light into a gloomy world.

If others are learning as your are then our world, Bush notwithstanding, is gonna improve.

[Fight_n_back]

16. Do you think you aren't racist?

It is a natural primate response and something you cannot exorcise from yourself until you admit the problem first, like being an alchoholic.

None of us have done enough to erase the residual effects of slavery in this country. Its only been 50 years since Board v Brown and only about 35 since apartheid was ended in the South.

[JuniperLea]

22. I beg to differ

Clearly a learned thing. When my kids were exposed to racism in elementary school, they literally laughed out loud and said it was the most ridiculous thing they had ever heard of. My middle kid's first best friend was a little black girl who lived down the street. My sister's first crush was on a black boy in her 1st grade class.

Primate response? Where do you get that?

The only residual effect of slavery is people's unwillingness to move on. We all have to learn to take what is ours and ignore the ignorant. Thinking you're better than someone else because of the color of their skin is about as stupid as it gets.

[Fight_n_back]

29. Where I get "that"

is from research on how social animals act. We have a natural flight response when we encounter people that we don't see as part of our group. As humans we place our largest priority on the visual.

If you don't think that there is a very real residual effect in this nation from slavery then I don't think we have anything to say to each other on the subject.

[William769]

17. Children should only be taken away from parents as a last resort.

& trust me I know about bigoted parents.

[leveymg]

18. I can see how the "wrong" answer to this might rile up some really nasty

SOBs.

The question itself is nothing but a canard. As if DU, liberals, or anyone else would ever actually have or use that power?

I'd treat this one with a long stick.

[Cleita]

19. No. Often kids raised with racist parents see through the hate

and don't follow in their footsteps. My best friend in high school had very racist parents. If she dated some guy who wasn't lily white her father chased them away with a shotgun as a warning never to come around his daughter anymore. Yet, she and her sister both married Hispanics and raised families of little brown children, all who went to college and entered professional fields. Her family eventually learned to accept their grandchildren if not their son-in-laws.

My white American family was very racist too, and anti-Catholic as well, especially the ones from Texas, but my cousins didn't accept their views either. Some of them too intermarried with other ethnicities and all married Catholics and one was gay, which to them was worse than being of another race. At my father's funeral presided over by a Baptist minister, everyone crossed themselves after the ceremony and some held rosaries, thoroughly confusing the minister. We had to explain to him that the youngest generation were a bunch of papists.

The problem is that such laws would be Draconian and what's to stop the state from taking your children away from you for being liberal? That is a very slippery slope you would walk on.

[JuniperLea]

27. Yep!

Most kids are smart enough to see how ugly hate and bigotry are and promise themselves not to be like their racist parents.

[Fescue4u]

20. Are you going to raise them?

[noahmijo]

23. NO

I was raised in part by a racist parent. Not of the "kill all darkies" variety but of the in the closet you knew it type.

Here I am on DU fighting for justice for ALL peoples regardless of race or creed.

[onenote]

24. Are you devising the test?

On what basis will you decide. If someone tells a racist joke? Is that enough? Two jokes? Joins one of those goofy organizations that promotes "equality" for whites? Will only apply to racists who dislike African Americans or will it apply to Asian Americans. If you use the "n" word does that trigger the take away? What if you're African American and use the "n" word.

What army is going to enforce this idea.

Can we go back to discussing reality?

onenote

[ulysses]

25. no.

I understand the impulse, but no.

[SeattleGirl]

26. Nope. That's a bit too much interference for me.

Plus, my dad and his family used the "n" word all the time, and when one of my sisters brought home an African American girl from her kindergarten class, my dad told my mom to get her out of the house. (Happy to say dad did change some before he died). I grew up around that, but was never able to figure out why this group of people were considered less than people of my color were. I remember cringing at the "n" word when I was barely 5.

We may not like the things that these folks are teaching their children, but we cannot interfere like that. Best we can do is, once they start getting out and becoming more independent, try to teach them a better way, in whatever way we are able.

[pitohui]

31. jesus where we would put them all EOM

.

[richmwill]

33. A reluctant no

In a weird way, my father's racist views made me the person that I am today. I was able to see firsthand how wrong it was, and how much I hated it when he would use the words he did to describe people.

[Bridget Burke]

35. What does StopThePendulum think about the answers?

Another Hit & Run?

It's tough to have racist parents, but many raised that way have figured things out for themselves.

Reducing racism in society at large is a noble goal.

[undergroundpanther]

36. Children need rights

Parents do not own kids.Kids should have the right to say no to parental indoctrination..and be who they are and bnelive what they choose to and not be forced to believe or think the same as thier parents..,and if a parent indoctinates a kid into a religion racism by force(dragging a kid to church that does not want to go,or some other beliefism conditioning the parent is no better than a cult leader. IMHO.

[txaslftist]

37. No. WTF?

Do you think cars should be taken away from bad drivers?

Homes from people who don't mow the lawn?

Who decides who is/isn't a racist?

What about homophobes? I called a Republican a pansy and was lambasted on these boards for being a homophobe...who knew?

Some of the people enraged at my use of that word would have gladly punished me by taking away my kids.

What a bad idea.

[izzybeans]

38. I think children should be taught in school

that it might be necessary to challenge their parents in these situations. (perhaps when they are old enough). You might find a parent might change as well. When they are old enough the kids will know if they want to hang around because of this or not. Sometimes kids go off to college and become disgusted with their parents and don't look back. I'd encourage more of that in this case. We shouldn't enter into an authoritarian delimma.

There won't be much you can do about the hysterical homeschooling crowd hiding from humanist ideals, but they are just the radical fringe. There are so many others who are merely racist b/c of they live in very small homogeneous worlds. They'll trust their kids enough to be able to realize they've got some work to do. I suppose PFLAG is made up of many just such parents.

[KamaAina]

39. No. The children are our best hope

to turn their racist parents back into human beings.

[LibertyLover]

40. Removing children

As much as I dislike racism in any form, I would not support taking children of racists away. As a Wiccan, I've read too many stories from my co-religionists where their children were removed because of religion or they were threatened with removal unless they "gave their hearts to Jesus". Sorry - I may not agree with what you teach your children, but you probably wouldn't like what I teach my little girl either. So let's not go there.

[TexanDem]

41. Absolutely NOT! Too many "do-gooders" now with warped righteousness

[sweet_cobun]

42. No

As much as I dislike racism, people have a right to be racist and to teach it to their children.

[calico1]

44. No. And in addition to the reasons already

stated here let me give you another. You commonly hear the term "Hispanic" or "Asian." But did you know that there is racism within groups? Like light skinned, blonde Hispanics being prejudiced against darker skinned ones? Or one group of Asians being prejudiced against another? I am Hispanic myself so I know what I'm talking about. My dad and his brothers are racist against darker skinned Hispanics. He is light skinned. My mom has the typical "Latino" look--olive skin, dark hair. My grandmother used to refer to her as the "Black one" and didn't think she was good enough for my dad. Not until she was a very old woman did she finally treat my mom decently. What I am trying to point out is that its not just white against Black, Hispanic against Asian, etc. Bigotry exists within each group. That's how bad the problem is. And I agree with others that how your parents act does not necessarily affect how you think. My dad's view's didn't affect me. They embarrassed me! And then there is the question of who decides and what constitues racism? I have had coworkers refer to me as a "little enchilada" affectionately or because they think its cute. I don't find it amusing but the people who did it didn't think they were offending me. So how do you decide on something like that?

[SmokingJacket]

45. Oh, boy.

Then people who let their kids eat too much junk food should also be taken away. Or too much food in general.

Or people who criticize their children too much, or don't let them have enough free time.

People must be allowed to be bad parents. The line has to be drawn at physical danger.

[The Magistrate]

46. Locking

Flame-bait.