I am puzzled by "abstract racism".

[howard112211]

Have you ever encountered one of those people who tend to express very bigoted views towards a specific group of people as a whole, but this somehow does not apply at all to the relationships with specific individuals of that group that this person has?

My dad is kind of a person like that. He is an old southerner, and from time to time will make a very broad brush stereotypical statement about African Americans. Sometimes he will get pissed off about something he saw on TV, and then make such statements, and he is also known to have a politically incorrect humor. The thing is: You would never know it if you saw him talking to a black person. He has actually done a lot of charitable work for the poor, including a lot of black people, and he DOES actually have black friends (and will tell them that he "doesn't agree with their gangster rap" to their face) and he is always friendly to people who don't actively piss him off. But he is also the kind of guy who will start a sentence with "I'm not a prejudiced, but..." and then let off some broad generelization.

I find that there are many of such people: People who carry some abstract idea of an "imaginary other" with them, that somehow magically stops applying to all individuals they actually have dealt with.

[wryter2000]

1. OMG, yes

Quite common.

A lady in my old apartment building looked over at some new African American tenants and whispered to me, "Looks like the NBA is moving in." At least one of the men was tall, ergo basketball player. Later she told me she'd met the nicest new people in the building. Turned out they were a white/AA couple, the man black. She apparently didn't see the contradiction.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. My dad was like that - "Black people are lazy and dangerous".

"Really? How about the ones you work with and served in the military with?"

"Oh, they're great. I'm just saying, in general, they're not worth a wooden nickel"

"Okay, dad - so basically, apart from the black people you've actually met, they're entirely different than your experience of them?"

:shrug:

[Nye Bevan]

3. This phenomenon even existed in Nazi Germany

Even unrepentant Nazis who hated the Jews as a whole did not necessarily apply this hated to Jews they knew personally. Of course this ended when the Jews were isolated in ghettos and concentration camps.

[ashleyforachange]

4. My...

grandmother is like that. Even though my mother married a white man and had my brother. My grandmother makes general saying about white people all the damn time but then when I mention my dad(really step-dad), brother, and other grandmother(white grandmother) she says they don't count. She also says things like White people will not hire you and will think you belong with a black militant group since I decided not to relax my hair anymore and grow it out in its kinky curly texture. Someone told me its a generation thing but I question that because my white grandmother is the complete opposite. She says never judge a group by an individual and never judge an individual by a group.

[Warpy]

5. Most bigots I know are like that

even the white power types. They're perfectly tolerant of black and brown folks they know as neighbors or coworkers. They just hate all the black and brown folks they've never met. They also tend to associate mostly with each other to convince themselves that's perfectly logical.

[valerief]

6. Some people parrot what the media pounds into them, no matter what their personal experience is.

It's a case of "who are you gonna believe - the teevee or your own eyes?" They trust the teevee.

[Bucky]

7. I can't top that. My debate partner in high school was an actual Nazi. But his best friend...

was this black kid that was in his math class. Another friend asked him about this and he actually said that Nathan being a subhuman didn't make him not cool. Nathan later got a clue and quit talking to the freak (so did I). But for the short while, it was amusing.