Thread: What combination creates the most discriminated person?

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

I got a little nervous when I saw how long your post was. I was thinking, "Here we go again."

Hehehe. I figured you might.

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

I can understand when a black person realistically thinks to himself, "There is a chance this white person is a racist and has a bad opinion of me because I am black." He is right. There is that chance. I just don't think it makes sense to go ahead and conclude a person is a racist without good evidence. We agree on that.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

You said you were not sure how much of the racist sentiment remains, so I will tell you how I see it. The KKK mentality is not very common with white Americans any more. Only the stupidest inbreds who think wrestling is real talk about hating a person just for being black. However, the subtle negativity you talked about is pretty widespread, but fortunately it is generally the sort of probationary mentality I was just talking about with the black guy who thinks white people around him might be racist. I don't think it is common any more for the negativity to be unconditional. It is about what ifs. Once everything seems cool with the person, the racial tension generally ends. White people who just automatically have a bad opinion of a person for being black and continue to even after they see that the person is totally okay are on the way out.

I hope you're right. It does, though, have to contend with the indoctrination that some of the uneducated racists are bestowing upon their children. It is a struggle, but I hope that, ultimately, you're right and it becomes fizzled out.

Actually, I'd just like to relate an encounter that I had recently, that I'll never forget. I was hanging out with my best friend a few months ago. Even though neither of us really listened to country music, he had just broken up with a girl that loved it, and he was feeling kind of nostalgic, so I went with him to hang out in a bit of a honky-tonk bar. We went in and shot some darts, met a couple of (drunk) people, and basically had a pretty good time. There was one rather large white guy (of course, as I was the only black guy in the building) that was sitting at the bar. Looked like a "good-ol'-boy" - maybe mid-fifties, with a long ZZ Top type beard and whatnot.

After about an hour, I went up to the bar to get a drink, and I ended up standing right besides this guy, while waiting. He turned to me and said "you know what...I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I'm usually a very prejudiced guy....very prejudiced...against...well...black people..." I could tell that he was trying to be respectful even while saying what he said. He was like (and this isn't verbatim...) "at first, when I saw you come in, I was watching you, thinking you were going to be a certain way, only because I see so many black guys act a certain way...but you just came in and started having fun with everyone else, as if you were just one of us. You weren't acting arrogant, you weren't being disrespectful or anything. You acted like you were just right at home here, and having a good time..."

He told me (without paraphrasing too much) that he "learned something" just by observing me, even though his initial feelings were racially biased. I sat down next to him and began talking to him about how you can't judge people by appearance, and told him how much it meant to me that he actually overstepped his racial bias and came to me respectfully and told me how he felt. He ended up buying me a drink.

All the while, my best friend was standing behind us. He couldn't really hear what we were talking about, but he caught the jist that it was a racially-motivated conversation, and actually became nervous because it was his idea to come to this place and he thought that the guy was giving me shit about being black. When we left, I told him that that was one of the most inspiring experiences that I've had, to have someone that was admittedly a hardcore racist come to me and tell me that just be observing me he began to re-think his values, which led into actual conversation about it.

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

People who are like that these days pretty much don't admit it. They know how ridiculous and ignorant they will sound. Saying the word "nigger" at a cocktail party full of white people now would be like pissing on the curtains. I see interracial couples all the time now, and they don't have to worry about getting attacked over it any more. When my parents were in school, interracial couples were pretty much guaranteed to be attacked in public.

That is all a pretty recent development. Just twenty years ago, prejudice was much more acceptable. Twenty years before that, it was unacceptable not to be unconditionally prejudiced, at least where I live. Of course I live in the state that is the setting of all of the true story KKK movies, so this region's history is really extreme. But things have changed a great deal and seem to still be getting better. I think the racism is much closer to nonexistent in other parts of the country. I have cousins who live in Seattle, and I don't think the subtle weariness we talked about is very common there. If anybody does have it, they wouldn't dare show the signs of it because racism on any level is all out taboo there. I think it is that way in a lot of other places too.

Yeah, I hope so. I definitely see racism around me, but I acknowledge that it is much more subtle than it used to be, and I'm grateful for it. I just hope that the falling trend continues, despite the numerous "pin-pricks" that continue to remind people of their biases.