I'm not trying to stereotype or be racist

[Green_Lantern]

But from my own experience as a white person I'd say over 75% of white people have at least a degree of racism or many just don't say anything in protest when racist comments are made. One way I am convinced of this are the comfort racists have in making bigoted comments to other white people. They probably wouldn't be so blatant if they knew those others rejected their bigotry.

I admit I've been guilty of hearing racist jokes or racist comments and not saying anything myself. Actually it's more when the jokes are made...I almost always respond when the person is serious. But sometimes I figure it's not even worth my time.

I'm really often unsure of how you can even debate racism since changing racist attitudes really requires personal introspection...it requires changing someone's basic personhood which can't be done through a simple debate.

[Captain Hilts]

1. We're heighists, sizeists, sexists and racists. It's natural to take mental shortcuts. We always

vote for taller candidates for president. Or those with deeper voices.

Those who are overweight are THE most discriminated in the workplace and in hiring.

[Jennicut]

4. Don't forget ageists, especially against women.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Yes! Smart folks realize they're taking shortcuts and don't act on these immediate impulses. nt

[SB37]

23. Well, the overweight thing is at least a little more logical...

[Warpy]

2. I spent half my childhood in the Jim Crow south

so it would be a miracle if I didn't have some degree of racism. After all, it was fed to me with my lessons in arithmetic.

When I meet a black person for the first time, I see the black first, that's my racism. Then I see the person. To my credit, those two things are nearly simultaneous, but thanks to early conditioning, not quite.

I've also noticed a very odd thing about stone bigots, they nearly always do have black friends, people who come to their homes and whose kids play with their kids. They're fine with black people they know. They just hate all the black people they don't know and hang out with other bigots so they can convince themselves it's just common sense.

The clue to the fact that we're still largely a racist country was the furore over Rev. Wright's sermon on the subject. He held a pretty accurate mirror up to white America and we didn't like what we saw in it.

So we blamed the mirror.

[Green_Lantern]

3. I don't think it is isolated to the Jim Crow South...

I grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis in the 80s and 90s. This is a major white flight area.

[Kalyke]

5. I grew up in South, too. In Tennessee.

And, I'm not particularly racist.

"That guy" is always "That guy," not, "That black guy" or "That Mexican guy" unless that's the ONLY thing I can find to distinguish someone from a crowd.

Once I was asked if I would be more likely to cross the road if I was walking toward a group of black me or a group of white men. I said, "I'd cross the road if I was headed toward, either, because it's simply safer for a woman to do so." It's not a prejudgment - it's caution.

:shrug:

[Warpy]

19. You're right

When I rode the subway home at midnight in Boston, I didn't mind being the only white person on the train.

I did mind being the only woman.

[Captain Hilts]

21. BINGO. nt

[Walk away]

6. I think people change and grow all of the time.

It seems to me that change comes pretty quickly when it comes from your environment and from inner growth. Even old folks evolve when they have an open heart and mind and are exposed to the truth.

[Rebubula]

8. Racism

Racism is a world wide problem and has been for all of recorded history.

Making just a white or black issue is being myopic. The Indians don't like the Pakistanians. The Irish hate the British. The Chinese look down on Koreans. The Japanese look down on anyone that is not Japanese.

The bottom line: Humans are territorial in all aspects of life.

I am not saying that we cannot grow out of it (though I doubt it), I am just saying that to simply talk of racism as a 'white against black' issue is to ignore the world at large.

[Captain Hilts]

11. The US is a country where auto dealers still think women are unable to drive a stick shift.

Amazing, but true.

There've been a couple of threads on this lately.

[pipi_k]

13. And Danica Patrick can probably kick their asses

:7

[Captain Hilts]

15. She's actually a pretty good driver. The press kind of ignores that. nt

[pipi_k]

17. Yes, they do. Whenever she's in a race, I always root for her to win...

above and beyond any of my "favorite" male drivers

[pipi_k]

9. One problem with judging the "isms"...

is that they can be rather vague, depending on who's saying or hearing jokes, whatever.

Some people, for whatever reason, tend to see "racism" just about everywhere they look. Like the Fundy nutballs who see SEX and FILTH in relatively innocuous places (like Walt Disney cartoons...anyone remember the big brouhahas over those?).

Some people are more easily offended than others.


I've seen women go all hissy-fit over stuff they insist is !!!SEXIST!!! and I'm sitting there wondering what the hell they're talking about, and then it all gets real strange when sometimes those women get even more incensed, insisting that any other women who aren't similarly offended must be either stupid or insane.


People think they know what's appropriate for everyone else, but sometimes it's just not that simple.


And yeah...I see lots of accusations of "racism" here at DU that are laughable, at the very least. Not everything involving race or color is "racism".

[Donnachaidh]

10. got news for ya toots -- EVERYBODY is racist to some extent. And that includes people of color, too

Talk about beating a dead horse. The FACT remains we are ALL racists in this country. EVERYONE. And especially the ones who seem to live to *discuss* just how *racist* a group is -- that group being different from them, obviously.


How about defining ourselves by who we ARE - and not by the color of our skins? Is it even possible?

:shrug:

[seabeyond]

14. i think this is the new cop out to allow. just pin ALL and then no one has to make

an effort.

[Donnachaidh]

20. no - the cop out is to just label one group as racist and then no one else needs to listen to

opposing views.

It's the grand way to marginalize an entire group while seeming to be *cool*. It's as bad, if not worse than the namecalling and snark from the other side.

We're supposed to be *better* than that. Turns out we're not.

[seabeyond]

22. " Turns out we're not." but we could be so why say all.... and leave it at that

i dont think there is anywhere that i am identifying any particular group and saying another isnt. i dont see it as a group thing, but an individual choice.

[Skip Intro]

25. I agree with you.

It seems an apparent fact, although, for some reason, racism seems to be attributed only to whites, and ignored or excused when exhibited by others. I don't know how a world where skin color is irrelevant is supposed to come about when we chose to be less than honest from the start.

[KonaKane]

27. I've got news for YOU. That's bullshit.

It's a popular meme, but completely wrong. I know quite a few people who don't have a racist bone in their bodies. Dismissing the problem with "everybody's a racist" is a shortcut for thinking, and an excuse to continue the behavior.

[seabeyond]

29. thinking, i have decided it allows an awfully low expectation of people.

if we have such low expectation, that is exactly what we will get. seems to be the way for a while now, and appears to be what we are living.

[seabeyond]

12. i do. i do with all isms. it is a pat on the back to do it with certain isms, but some isms

i am vilified. at the least, i am consistent. i am not a hypocrite.

if i dont say something out loud, then i am part of the problem

[Codeine]

16. But those are the ism that you recognize.

We all all guilty of being blind to certain isms.

[seabeyond]

18. are we? again is this another way to justify the blindness?

tell ya what, when there is an ism not recognized let me know. then we will see the difference of whether i start calling names to shut the person up, or whether i listen.

listening to another is really all it takes. it is not tough. and i dont believe the all. a person only has to have intent to understand.

[Captain Hilts]

24. Folks here that made fun of GWBush's height are no better than those making fun

of Michael Dukakis's height.

But it's that pre-reflective heightism that we never get over. From the time we're little kids we are taught to respect those bigger than we are and to defer to them. We never get over that.

[seabeyond]

26. i think what happens is honoring the feeling we get. we all recognize when we are dismissing,

demeaning another human being. most of us recognize, feel when it is being done to ourselves. i think we get a loud call from within when we do it on any given ism. it is whether we ignore the feeling or acknowledge the feeling. if we ignore, then it allows us to do whatever and not suffer self inflicted ill feelings.

if we listen to that feeling, then we dont dehumanize, degrade, dismiss that person.

it really doesn't matter what the ism is. the feel of being in lower vibration is there. it is our choice what direction we go.

to say it is all people, is a cop out i feel

to say some aren't capable recognizing, i cannot believe. i cannot reconcile in my mind that the way i work, fundamentally, is any different from anyone. as a human.

experience, nurture, conditioning, all play in a factor to our behavior, but ultimately..... we are all the same.

[elehhhhna]

28. honey, everybody's racist somehow. I work w/ Mexicans who hate black people,

Ecuadoreans who are insulted if taken for Mex., and have known quite a few black women who wouldn't have anything to do with darker black people.

Oh, and my Dutch rels still loathe the Germans...'tho ther is some historical basis for this, at least in their minds. And they're not crazy about Jews, either. Oh, yeah, or Catholics. They would NEVER admit this, btw.

I think how one is vis a vis racism as an adult has much to do with self-awareness and whether one has a feeling for humanity in general.