It's interesting that race is coming up on this forum lately again, as a topic.
I don't want to get into details of my personal life, but recently I ran into some shocking overt racism. I think I forgot just how bigoted people are.
So I'm standing there, hearing the "N" word and blacks this and blacks that, and after a while it becomes suspicious that while I'm listening and having a conversation -- I'm not using that kind of language. So the one fellow asks me, "you don't have any black in your family do you?" Meaning, if I'd said yes, he probably would have apologized, and he was sensing I was uncomfortable with that kind of language and was just wondering why. Lol.
So now I sit and think about it.. and you know, my entire extended family is also bigoted. It's just not *public*. They say it to each other, and to other white people.
Here's my view on it all:
I think it's really just about *culture*. If a white person goes into a minimart that has all black people, and the white person is nervous, it's probably because it's a bit of a ghetto area. That's a culture thing. That's not genes or race.
I can think about Latino neighborhoods -- I can just tell the difference, there are some places I'd feel okay at and some I wouldn't feel safe in. It's about *hoodlums* and *gangbangers*, Latino or black, or as another poster from California said -- they've got Korean gangbangers too, etc.
Secondly, the races do tend to segregate themselves, going both ways. From what I've heard, apparently in jail it is always separated into all the racial cliques. Oddly, church is like this too in general, and Sunday is called America's "most segregated hour."
Personally, I don't give a sh*t. I just don't want to be mugged or robbed or my house broken into, that's all I care about.This may be controversial to say, but, it is true that minorities do most of the violent random crime. So yes, if I go into a certain gas station and it's people of color and they look like the gangbanger type, than yeah I'm nervous about it. Does that make me a racist?
If they dressed a different way, then I wouldn't be nervous. *Nobody deserves to be shot like happened to Trayvon Martin, just walking around with a hoody isn't grounds to get shot*. BUT. It is also true that some of minority culture is wrapped up in criminal culture, and prison culture. The responsibility for racism goes both ways, and minorities would do well to stop identifying with that violent criminal / gangbanger culture and then maybe white folks wouldn't be scared you know?
Ok so now maybe everyone thinks I'm a racist, for saying these things. I've only been almost mugged one time in my life, and it was a black man in a dark parking lot. It is what it is. Then in my foreign travels, a skanky Turkish drug addict actually sprayed me with frickin' mace after I refused to hand over my wallet. (I got away, he didn't get my money and I'm lucky it wasn't a gun, or a knife).
So there you go, we just have experiences in life, and they stick with us whether we like it or not.
But I'm not a racist -- because I'll tell you something else about black folks, *other than the gangbanger thing that makes me nervous*, in personal interactions, I actually find people of color to be nicer. Whites tend to be more uptight and neurotic (me included
).
I know there are white drug addicts too, etc., but for some reason I don't get that "fear factor" from a white guy dressed up in thuggish clothes with a thug swagger. Sometimes you get that little inner warning about someone, for whatever reason you can't pinpoint it's just trouble. This is our gut instincts talking to us, it's about street smarts and keeps you safe.
All I can say is that yes, there are some white folks that set off my trouble alarm, but I have to admit that black folks with the hood culture always set it off. Does that make me a racist? Can you ever really know when your "gut" is wrong and it's "racism?" Where is the line between fear of the violent underclasses in general, versus racial "racism."
Don't people of color probably use their "gut instinct" too? I've heard black folks talk about "hood rats," a lot of black folks probably don't like this ghetto culture either.
What I'm really talking about in this post is classified as racial tensions. "Racism" is actually an explicit act of discrimination against a job or housing or not doing business with someone when all the information you're going on *is just skin color*.
What we're really talking about here are CULTURES. Racism is from the past, signs saying all people of color have to use a separate bathroom, etc. That's all been gone for a long time, but we still have cultural differences in this country.
I think it's just difficult for white folks to discuss race, we are very sensitive to not being "racist" because of all the bad that's happened to black folks in our history.
I can think about other minority groups and know I'm not a racist, and it's just cultural differences. Like -- it really is true that a lot of Mexican immigrants will pack a one bedroom apartment with 8 people. It just is what it is. And if you're a landlord, you can probably ask some questions and figure it out, going on other factors besides their ethnicity.
It's just how it is, there are middle class Latinos and then the migrants are sweet people but you also know there's a chance they're going to pack a whole bunch of people into that apartment. I think people become *racist* because it takes too much thought and insight to sort out the subcultures within a culture and so, a landlord may just see a Latino and say to himself "no I won't rent to a Mexican he'll have 12 people living in here," whereas a more insightful person would go on a lot more information than just that.
Every culture and subculture and immigrant group have genuine cultural differences. I guess I'll conclude that as long as you try to not generalize those cultural quirks to ALL people from that culture, you're not a racist, if you do what King said and look at the individual and content of their character (though everyone's character is crap these days, the top 1% are the worst though at least they won't mug you physically).
Okay I'm rambling. Three topics I've got to stay away from: climate change, Russia, and race.