I'm a Racist

I'm a racist. I can't help it. But I don't like it. And I fight it.

Fighting it isn't always easy, sweeping generalizations seems sort of automatic, sometimes it would be easier to just surrender to them. But they're ugly and stupid, and that helps me to fight.

So I walk to work every morning, you can tell what homes belong to blacks in this area. They're the homes that are poorly kept, the eye sores. Of course they're all rentals, sometimes that doesn't seem significant, but of course it is. And it's a small world, not representative. I know that.

So I remind myself of other walks. I remind myself of walks through neighborhoods in Chicago, black neighborhoods, neighborhoods where most people worked, neighborhoods with edged and watered lawns. Walks in Kentucky, 'white neighborhoods," livestock, pigs even, living in the same dilapidated homes as the people. White people waiting for us to tear their home down so Habitat for Humanity could build them a new one. A New one that wouldn't be used any differently.

Whatever it's about, it's not about color.

I'm old school. If you irritate me, make me mad, I'm going after your race/nationality, whatever is most apparent to me. Italian? I'm going to go after that. Irish? I got loads on you people. Black? Oh yeah, I've got pre loaded insults and stereotypes galore.

But here is the problem, I don't want that confrontation to occur near my house. I've got neighbors, half black/half white kids as neighbors. One of them is about 15. He's got a job at the local baseball park. He's always polite. Sometimes cuts my front yard for no reason at all. Walks his dog every day. How embarrassing for me if he finds out that I even have that sort of # rolling around in my head.

It's a bad night. Beer bottles are flying, there are three decks to patrol and we always start out low. The # we'll see. But the only white guy on a five man team is me. I'll be counting on 4 black guys to have my back, and I couldn't ask for better. I love those guys, even to this day I love them. How embarrassing that the thoughts that enter my mind these days would be if they could hear them . . .

I get it, it's easy, even compelling. I'm wired for tribal. And when it makes sense . . . I go for it. But when it doesn't, when its ugly . . .

For me, it's Irma, it's Red, it's Ruby, its Jack, its the boy next door. It's Mikey, it's Philpot, it's Adrian, that I remind myself of.

It's people that moderate my racism, it's people that make me ashamed enough of it to squash it.

Who do you think about? Who helps you squash the ugly?

I have never had the problem.

As you have pointed out, shabby yards, shabby houses has nothing to do with race.

People are people first!

The color of their skin matters not, it is just silly to think it does.

The majority of Aboriginal people I see are drunks. They are also the most racist group in my country and yet, I have met many wonderful people that are just kind hearted and wonderful human beings that are also Aboriginal.

Just because the majority that I see are drunk does not imply that the majority of Aboriginals are drunk. In fact, it is not so.

We are all humans, be kind and gracious to all.

It is not so hard!

P

a reply to: imwilliam

Who do you think about? Who helps you squash the ugly?

Son, nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, acquaintances and anyone else who comes into my life bearing their true selves as genuine individuals. Seeing only race is ignorance at its very core.

However, it's always a shame to see someone live up to the stereotype. In my short years on this planet, I've learned that some folks bind themselves to them. Some even bind themselves to stereotypes that don't pertain to them but are their perception of that stereotype.

Now some food for thought, who among us humans are a pure race?

a reply to: pheonix358


Yeah, great you're a #ing Saint. But who are you going to bring to mind when the evidence you're faced with seems to indicate otherwise?


This isn't a thread for make believe saints.

a reply to: imwilliam


Meh, be like me, when someone calls me a racist, I say, "How is that possible? I hate everybody!".... Try it sometime and watch the look on their face when they digest your words!



Don't let the PC culture get in your head!

a reply to: JinMI

Seeing only race is ignorance at its very core.

Yeah but it's almost automatic, isn't it? I mean we are tribal, and we love simple. Race is THE answer isn't it?


Look, I've had to backtrack in the past, maybe this will end up being another one, but isn't racism natural on a low level? I aim for high, however badly I may fail to reach it, so I don't like those racist tendencies I notice in myself. But isn't racism sort of default?

I bet you are the type of racist who doesn't like lazy selfish slovenly white people as well
It's not a colour thing, nor rascist

a reply to: seeker1963

Don't let the PC culture get in your head!

I hear you Seeker. But that's not the sort of Racism I'm talking about. I'm talking about the sort that offends guys like you and me.

I am of Irish stock with a mulligan of other European bloodlines. Thirty five years ago I had a vasectomy, back when they were a rather new option for men. It was a big thing, vasectomies. For how many years had my blood passed from generation to generation, on and on through the centuries my ancestors ensured the continuation of the bloodline through sperm. And here I was, voluntarily ending that tradition. How many generations, how many hundreds of thousands of years. And here I was, laying on the table, about to end that line. Momentous.

And as I laid there on the table contemplating the whole cosmicness of it I looked up and saw that I was about to have my lineage ended, my balls cut of as it were by three women and a black man.

I just had to chuckle.

a reply to: imwilliam

I just return what I receive.

Respect gets you respect and vice versa.

a reply to: Raggedyman

I bet you are the type of racist who doesn't like lazy selfish slovenly white people as well
It's not a colour thing, nor rascist

Yeah, I know what you're saying, but I'm talking about the racist thoughts that enter one's mind that are embarrassing, or should be.

I'm asking for who you bring to mind when you have a thought you consider to be racist, racist in an ugly way, to combat it. OR I'm asking how you combat those thoughts.


Or, I guess "I never have those sorts of thoughts" is a legitimate answer as well. Though, hard for me to imagine.

originally posted by: imwilliam
a reply to: pheonix358


Yeah, great you're a #ing Saint. But who are you going to bring to mind when the evidence you're faced with seems to indicate otherwise?


This isn't a thread for make believe saints.

Well, you are obviously not a saint with that type of reply.

I was raised in an orphanage for a large part of my childhood. All races were there except Asian.

At school later in my childhood I met every conceivable racial grouping. They were all just children like myself.

I was not taught to be racist and so, I never learned how to go about it.

I don't like drunks hassling me in the street. They are drunks and drunks come in all colors.

You have the problem .. and I don't want it!

P

originally posted by: imwilliam
a reply to: JinMI

Seeing only race is ignorance at its very core.

Yeah but it's almost automatic, isn't it? I mean we are tribal, and we love simple. Race is THE answer isn't it?


Look, I've had to backtrack in the past, maybe this will end up being another one, but isn't racism natural on a low level? I aim for high, however badly I may fail to reach it, so I don't like those racist tendencies I notice in myself. But isn't racism sort of default?

Yes, it is automatic. However you can choose to stop your thought process there or delve deeper. There's no reason to rush to judgement based on that alone. I get it though. You notice, or try to identify, and gather all the information you can. I believe this is natural.

I blame the media. They've gone through great strides to demonize anyone who doesn't align with the agenda. Just acknowledging that someone is a race other than white is cause for racism and that is wrong. Unless your applying for a job, loan, identification etc etc....

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

And as I laid there on the table contemplating the whole cosmicness of it I looked up and saw that I was about to have my lineage ended, my balls cut of as it were by three women and a black man.

Well my friend, if you didn't find the three women more cause for concern than the black man, then you don't have your head screwed on straight. You know "they" aren't right?

a reply to: pheonix358

My words in reply to another post:

Look, I've had to backtrack in the past, maybe this will end up being another one . . .

They may apply here as well . . .

And while your upbringing is completely foreign to me, I can see where it might preclude any racist tendencies.

I'd love to irritate you.

You sound like a d bag.

Is it 4chan spillover night or what?

a reply to: JinMI

However you can choose to stop your thought process there or delve deeper

Yes. And some days you might stop it sooner than other days.

a reply to: Mandroid7

You sound like a d bag

Among other things, many much worse, I probably am.

I'd love to irritate you.

Let me know when you are ready to start

a reply to: imwilliam

Is what it is.

a reply to: why4what

Is what it is.

That's probably something that someone with a college degree would find to be brilliant. But I'm a simple man, I go to work, I make little pieces out of big pieces, could you elaborate a bit?