Am I a racist?

Originally posted by EvilSadamClone
I was twelve years old when I first encountered racism. I heard one guy call another a wetback. I looked at the back of the guy and it was completely dry. I said "That's funny, his back doesn't look wet. Nobody spilled anything on him." Some people laughed at this, and explained to me that wetback was a racial slur for Mexicans.

Now let's turn this around. Let's say that the guy was a black man. How would the responses differ?

Of course you know they would be. Remember, it's okay for a black man to be racist towards whites but not whites because of things like slavery and civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Racism is wrong, it's wrong for everybody, not just a select few.

Morality must be equal across the board or it ceases to become morality and instead becomes special privileges and double standards.

But that;s not the reality.

Let's further turn this around. If it had been whites sold into slavery instead of blacks and the civil rights movement was about whites, would it be okay for whites to call each other cracker and not okay for blacks to use that term?

Of course not.

Because it's all about racism and putting people down in any way shape or form.

only white people can be racist. and jewish people are white too. and arab, and all none black people are white, latinos included.black people can´t be racist.have you ever heard of an organised kidnapping of whites by africans to make them slaves?have black men systematically raped white women and sold their own kids into slavery???please.....black people aren´t racist to begin with......i´ve never meat a racist black person.....and i know racist white popel still in this day and age.........don´t give me that racism is wrong......white supremacy was wrong.....slavery was wrong...god that condones slavery from the old testament onwards is wrong.......and white poeple thinking they are the chosen ones to enlighten everyone else is wrong.....and latinos are just white pople with dark curly hair.....what is wrong with the world today, aw i forget EVERYTHING!and thinking we all gotta look like halie berrie to be acceptibly black IS WRONG!

reply to post by Infi8nity

Am I a racist?

Who cares.

Not to sound callous, but if you are or if you are not, it doesn't matter to anyone else. As long as you don't impose laws fueled by your racism on others, then we're cool.

Try not to worry so much.

Originally posted by Infi8nity
Today I was out driving and I came across some black men and I could not help to fell scared and awkward as if I was supposed to act a certain way.

Remember what happened with Jesse Jackson?? He felt much the same way you did.

There is a differ­ence between recognizing violence in many black communities and approving of discrimination against black people. Everyone has evolutionary psychology survival mechanisms .. to recognize a potential threat and to react to it. Jesse Jackson, who isn't anti-black, reacted the same way you did.

the Color of Suspicion

Even civil rights leaders profile. “There is nothing more painful for me at this stage in my life,” Jesse Jackson said several years ago, “than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery—and then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

reply to post by RealSpoke


Actually in America, Whites are the minority.

And racism is often confused for cultural difference. Thats why most have what would be considered racist views when its not really about skin color at all, it has more to do with cultural prejudice....not skin color.

Case in point, I know many black people Im proud to know, i do not hate them because they present themselves as rational people with strong values and they work for a living. they dont sag their pants in a stupid attempt to copy hip hop culture. They are respectable people who do not buy into the stereotype.

Now those that do buy into the hip hop culture (and yes most are black) are about as useless and stupid as it can get. they are the ones who give black people a bad name creating the stereotype that others bundle all into when they think of black people.

This is the problem....and it is not racism...it is culture class predjudice. Huge difference.

There are those of every race that give everyone else a bad name furthering that stereotype we are all familiar with. But its not racism......its just called that so people can get their panties in a twist and feel justified for acting stupid when their feeling get hurt by the truth.

True racism is actually quite rare and mostly died off in the late 70's. Only a handful really fits the actual definition of racist that also happen to be white. When you talk about other races however....entirly different story.

As a red man I ca tell you it is normal to be apprehensive around groups of people you do not understand. I get that a lot. I have been told to leave black people's houses more than once because "I was scaring them" and to this day have no idea what their problems were. So I have no conscious fear of black people. Yet I still lock my door when in the ghetto and a group of blacks are near. It is not racist, it is good sense. That group on the corner at 9 at night is not there to discuss the finer points of fly fishing.

I am a big old softy and am not likely to cause an harm to anyone. Yet they still fear me at times. When I was 21 I got busted whilst tripping on '___'. I was in the holding cell with 11 black men. I was the only "white" guy there. We talked a little about why I was there and before I knew it they were terrified of me and had given me the top bunk and left me alone until I left. The conversation went something like this: "You're tripping on acid? Right now?" "Yeah" "You're not going to freak out and kill us all are you?" "I sure hope not" "You! Get down! Here take the top bunk man" "ok". Still find that weird.

Everyone is scared of everyone else for some reason. For me it is cops. They terrify me beyond reason. I would feel so much safer in the ghetto alone at night than in broad daylight around one cop.