Is the Youth in America less Racist than their parents?

[fascisthunter]

It's a question I can answer myself by what I have experienced regionally, but what about the youth throughout the 50 states? Anybody know of a study that may shed some light on this? It appears that the Boomer generation is much more racist than the younger generations where I live. I know their kids tend to learn bigotry through their parents, so it is passed down from one generation to the other, but I'm wondering if this dynamic is waning... at least I would like to think so. Where I live and the kids I grew up with were much less racist. Is this true throughout the country?

[Burma Jones]

1. I think so.....

With some awful pockets of resistance though.....your White Power types.....all over the good old USA........

[ProgressiveProfessor]

32. I less overt white racism these days and more from other groups

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Clearly.

[BlooInBloo]

3. Perfect.

[imdjh]

8. So endogamous groups are necessarily racist?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

22. Are people who are opposed to interracial marriage racist?

Yeah.

Next question.

[imdjh]

30. You're catching a lot of fish in that net.

There are many smaller subraces which are concerned that they are disappearing through interracial marriage. There are many ethnic Hawaiians who probably don't consider themselves to be racist in the "I hate those people" sense of the word, who are quite concerned that the Hawaiian ethnicity is under genetic/cultural attack from Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Caucasian, Negro, etc.. marriages. We have people who are worried about languages disappearing because of interracial marriages over the last three hundred years. And we have people who want to draw back into a recognizable tribe and culture who have no particular animosity towards other races/cultures, but who wish to preserve theirs.

[TexasObserver]

17. That comports with my observations.

I would have said about mid 90s was when interracial relationships began to receive majority acceptance.

My kids are in their 20s, and when they were growing up, no one ever referred to their friends by race/ethnicity. They were largely unaware of it. You'd never know what the race of any kid was until they showed up at the house, because in my kids' groups of friends, no one ever used race as a descripter.

I definitely believe the younger folks are less racist, on average, than our generation.

[fascisthunter]

25. cool

While I was growing up in Boston mind you, there were racist kids in my crowd... Most of these kids had equally bigoted parents. I mainly stayed away from that part of the crowd because those kids generally picked on any and everybody they could, whether it be race, sex, religion or whatever(typical bullies). But today I see youth mixing with other races more so, even in the suburbs, which when I was a kid, was mainly white.

I also want to believe this as much as I think I see it.

[imdjh]

42. That's the fruit. The tree was planted in the 1950's.

I don't measure racial acceptance or bigotry by how many people are in mixed marriages, unless of course some jackass is South-bashing. But I can see the attitudes towards mixed marriages being considered in the overall assessment.

Of course, I have touched on yet another aspect of this discussion. How people react to mixed marriages and how they feel about mixed couplings are often two different things.

The "greatest generation" were actually the ones who laid the groundwork. They broke the miscegenation laws and some of the housing codes simply by ignoring them in bringing home war-brides from East Asia and the Pacific. The notable different dynamic there, of course, is that white males were marrying women outside their race, which was what the law specifically prohibited, but which is fundamentally different from a nonwhite male marrying a white female in the context of the times and taboo.

[scheming daemons]

34. Yes... and moreso as each year passes

The racists are dying out....


....as will the homophobes a few decades after that.

[tridim]

4. Yes, but I still hear the N-word too much from teenagers

I don't think they're using the word in a derogatory way, but it sounds bad to me.

[TexasObserver]

23. it's a totally different word to them than it was to our generation

It's devoid of the racial component, used as a descriptor such as "my pal, my bro."

[Taverner]

5. Not an easy answer...

Would they be more likely to intermarry, date people of other races, yes - definitely yes

Would they be more willing to try new things? yes - also definitely yes

Would they be more willing to hire on merit than race? yes - also definitely yes

HOWEVER, there also seems to be the attitude that racist jokes and stereotypes are OK because "My friend told me this one - and he's black!"

[Uncle Joe]

6. I believe generally speaking each generation is slightly less racist than the previous, but I don't

believe that trend is locked in concrete.

I believe cataclysmic events to a society triggering macro fear and hatred can magnify long dormant divisions sending nations on a backward path and away from enlightenment.

[fascisthunter]

11. great point

[Lilyeye]

Exactly.

[Lilyeye]

19. Exactly.

[imdjh]

7. I think it's a gimbal mounted double helix

I thing that people who are "wide eyed" and accepting of others at 15-20 years old tend to become less so by the age of 50, and that people who are distrustful and callous at 15-20 tend to become more accepting by the age of 50.

[fascisthunter]

10. that's what I hope and see

I'm gonna see if I can find a study.

[aikoaiko]

9. In general, yes.

But racism remains a problem.

[Cid_B]

12. I don't know.. is they?

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Racism isn't one thing

It's many different forms of practice.

[ginger14]

14. I thought it was pretty much a thing of the past until last fall and the YouTube stuff

If you go on there and plug in "Palin's Mob," you will see the ugly truth of it all. Not just one state, too, and not just toothless types with chewing tobacky and cut-off flannel shirts and trucker's hats, either. I saw some very urbane people in line saying stuff like 'Obama's a one-man terrorist cell.':scared: Thinking that I couldn't believe that there were people living in Amurica who thought like this, I remembered watching "Jesus Camp." :rofl:

[fascisthunter]

28. true...a very vocal hateful group

those folks usually go out of their way to present their bigotry. I know there is plenty of bigotry out there, and situations present themselves as opportunity for these fools, but is that just a vocal minority finding their 5 minutes of fame?

Jesus Camp? Oh, don't get me started...

[imdjh]

36. Go to any You Tube video on any kind of political issue and it gets ugly quickly.

Nothing quite so heart warming as a skinhead and an illegal alien both calling each other homophobic and racist terms of endearment.

[Mariana]

40. Most of Palin's Mob were middle-aged or older.

There were exceptions, sure. I don't think many at all could be called "youth".

And I bet three fourths or more of those poor kids in "Jesus Camp" bolt from the church by the time they're 20.

[PatSeg]

15. Overall, I'd say yes

The young people I've known, late teens and early twenties, don't seem to see race at all in their lives and they can discuss race more easily if it does come up. I've heard them refer to race, the same way one would refer to a person's hair color or height, whereas older people often are uncomfortable and self-conscious if the subject arises.

We certainly have come a long way.

[old mark]

16. NO!!! I think in individual cases it may be, but if you are looking for

"progress" toward a better world, I think you are fooling yourself.

There are many young people who are equally racist as their parents - it's not generational, but situational.


mark

[Lilyeye]

18. Its hard to say abd it depends.

At one point I would have said yes without hesitations. I am 22 and I've heard guys in my age group some pretty disgusting racist things. Its been worse since the election. Then with the ones who are less racist than their parents, they're in denial or unaware about the racism that still occurs in this country. So if a minority complains about racism they just brush it off and say they're playing the race card. This is in my experience though.

[fascisthunter]

26. I think as somebody else on this thread stated...

it is situational too.

[Dr_Willie_Feelgood]

20. To a degree I think they are less blatenly racist. However...

It seems that what many white kids are seeing and emulating is the negative "Gangsta" culture. They believe what they see in a BET video IS African-American life. Which, alas, is replacing racism with mysogyny.

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

Art - the most powerful force in the universe! :-) :-(

[Lilyeye]

21. This is also true. Some of these kids think all black people are like those

they see on TV and music videos. That is another thing....the younger generation also does a lot of stereotyping. Esp if they are in areas where they don't deal with black people often. I remember my cousin came to visit and I had one of my black friends over. We were looking at videos and my black friend said she hated rap and bling that the rappers wear. My cousin then said "I thought all black people liked rap and bling." I could have died right there on the spot lol. My friend and I explained to her it was just a stereotype.

[Dr_Willie_Feelgood]

24. My friend's son (a white teenage "G")

Was in the car with us and started playing some Three Six Mafia. I told him it was giving me a headache, not only from the violently antisocial lyrics but because of the annoying staccato beat.

-HE- accused me of racism because I didn't like THAT particular track.

I then proceeded to educate him that A) my music library consists primarily of blues, motown, and funk along with the dinosaur rock, so I listen to far more "black" music than him, and B) wanting to see African American mothers and fathers going to their children's graduations instead of their funerals, that wanting to see them visiting their kids in their safe, comfortable homes instead of their prison's visiting room, was the non-racist attitude.

He didn't seem to get it, but hopefully a kernel of what I said will someday sink in.

[Lilyeye]

39. I can't blame you. I hate Three Six Mafia.

However, there is some good Hip Hop/Rap out there. My brother listens to it all the time. Its just seems that negative Hip Hop/Rap gets the most attention and is in the mainstream. This makes a lot parents hate it all together...they throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[SoCalDem]

27. Yes.. thank goodness..

I wrote this a while back.. I think it's sports:)

SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Tue Feb-12-08 04:33 PM
Original message

Has the torch been passed? I am getting hopeful here..

That said, I am a white 58 year old woman, so maybe I am missing something.

I saw it with my own kids, but I attributed it to the color-blind upbringing we gave them..

My youngest son's first real girlfriend was a young girl with a Black Mother and a Japanese Dad.. In May he is marrying a girl whose Father was born in Mexico and who picked cotton as a young man in the San Joaquin Valley. His future mother in law did not learn English until she was a teenager.


All I see in the "parsing" of politics, is the "groups" and who they support, or who they do not support.

Some people (there's that phrase again :eyes:..) say that white men will not vote for a black man or that Hispanic people will not vote for a black person or that "older women" will only vote for this one or that one.

If what we are seeing is what I think we are seeing, just maybe people have moved beyond that narrow-minded group-think.

There will always be a hardcore bigoted bunch of yahoos scattered here and there who will not see what is happening, but for the most part, I think we may be getting somewhere.

What made it happen?

I hate to think this might be it, but it just MAY be sports.. :rofl:

Think about it..

Kids idolize sports people..no matter what color they are..no matter what language they speak, no matter where they were born..

Young kids play on sports teams with kids of every ethnic group.

Technically, school integration started the ball rolling, but until kids accepted each other as true equals (often as teammates who counted on each other to win games), there was still resistance.

When kids play together and make friends, they hang out together, their parents sit on the sidelines and cheer for each other's kids..

They shop together, they travel together, meet each other's families...and once the "otherness" barriers come down, they date and marry each other.

A natural consequence of this is the fact that MANY white people of my age group have mixed-race grandchildren. It takes a cold hearted person to continue to hate and fear, when they transfer those feelings to THEIR grand children and sons & daughters-in-law.

When people only think ONE way for a long time, it's hard to see a gradual change, but I find it deliciously ironic, that those little kids who had to have the military to help them even get inside of a "white school" were just the bud, of a flower that seems to be in full bloom...

I'm happy to be around to see it..no matter how much "fertilizer" it took to grow that thing :)

[fascisthunter]

29. Thank You SoCal...

Sports definitely broke lots of boundaries... great point. Music has done that as well.

my family is a bit mixed... my teenage nieces are friends with all colors, and sexes. It amazes me to see them so open and so tolerant of each other. I asked both my nieces about this topic, and she said for the most part, race is not really an issue for the kids, as much as it for the parents of these kids.

It reminds me when I had a black friend in kindergarten, Patrick. A another kid called him a racist term, and I got sent to the principals office for... punching that kid in the face. I really didn't understand the racist term he used, but I saw how my new friend started crying and I reacted to that. After that I started to see racism more and more.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

31. Sort of

They are clearly much less involved in the discussion of race and gender in this country. It not so much that they are merit purists, but really don't seem to care.

[Karenina]

33. That depends on where and with whom they've grown up.

The U.S. is a BIG place...

[Odin2005]

35. Yes.

97% of people under 30 are OK with interracial relationships, much, much higher than people over 60, which is 60-something % IIRC.

[slackmaster]

37. No

Younger people are inherently naive, ignorant, and have poorly developed attitudes and opinions.

[1]

38. less overtly? yes they are. less racist? the verdict is still out...

oops. got my yes and no typed wrong...

[Enthusiast]

41. Not sure about racism

but ignorance is increasing on every front at an alarming rate.