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Were you ever prejudiced?

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Kraftwerk

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Some folk might be uncomfortable with talking about this, but it's in the past, so I feel that it will be good to talk about and educational for others.

I also don't want to sound all high and mighty since I have changed my ways. I still have flaws. Mainly made this so we can have some positive talk about how we change based on educating ourselves.

Anyway...


I used to be antisemitic. I would go around with my friends and we would wait outside a synagogue and wait for the prayers to end. Once they came out we would walk slowly behind them and slowly whisper "jew jew.... Jew... Jew.. “ this is when I was in the middle east.

This is me when I was 13-14. I'm not even sure if I can say I was antisemitic, I honestly didn't even know what I was doing or why I was doing it. Everyone around me was involved , so I guess I did it as a way to fit in. Not trying to excuse what I did, it was and is very wrong.

I also remember that how we used to insult each other by calling each other a jew. It was the worst insult we had. If someone called me a jew, I would get very angry.

Years past, and I went to Europe. I remember when I was around 17 I saw Schindlers List. I absolutely loved the movie. Then it hit me what a terrible person I used to be just a few years ago.

I don't even remember how the transition happened. I guess I just grew up, and realized what a fucking idiot I was.

To the day, whenever I meet someone who is Jewish my stomach sinks. I constantly want to apologize to them for being a terrible person.

But yeah, I am glad that I changed for the better.

Feel free to share if you are comfortable.
 
yup, I had a lot of prejudices when I was a teen, towards a lot of things: religious people, Americans, fast food, leftists. I'm glad to say I grew up and 3/4 of this has gone away
 
Yup. Racist (thanks to family and friends, mostly jokes) and homophobic (thanks to what I was taught during first communion and confirmation classes, which also taught me to be a hardcore pro-lifer).
 
not really. i have some biases like everyone else, but i am pretty open to a lot of shit. i joke about anything, but i don't actually believe the jokes are actually true

i think it helps a lot that i grew up in a very diverse neighborhood. i have never seen a black family on my parents' current street(and it is a pretty long street). i probably would be different if i grew up in an environment like that
 
nope

Kraftwerk said:
I used to be antisemitic. I would go around with my friends and we would wait outside a synagogue and wait for the prayers to end. Once they came out we would walk slowly behind them and slowly whisper "jew jew.... Jew... Jew.. “ this is when I was in the middle east.
Click to expand...

276bee03aff23bead1a42b07325a8f75.368x270x59.gif
 
I was prejudiced against Black people about 25 years ago when I was a teenager.

I didn't grow up around any black people, lived in mostly a white prejudiced small town. My only images were of the ones I saw on TV, but funny enough, my favorite entertainers growing up - Michael Jackson, and The Cosby Show, were wait...huh wow, they were black people.

So how did I have this disconnect? I think it was the community I grew up in, and when I did have my first experience around black people it was very negative. I would go to the mall in the nearest big city with my high school girlfriend - she was Brazilian and was hot and looked half black-half white. And large groups of black guys would always hit on her, right to my face when I was walking the mall with her. She did nothing to bring this attention on herself, and it always made her uncomfortable to the point where she stopped going to the mall. It used to really upset me because there wasn't much I could do about it. I learned way back then I'm not into try to be a hero shit especially when its large groups of other people vs. me. It was never large groups of white guys that hit on her...always the black guys.

Fast forward a few years and I went off to college and I ended up rooming with a black guy and he and three other black guys living on my floor ended up becoming my best friends. Some of the best friends I ever had. Still friends with them 25 years later. I started to understand the cultural differences between us and thats really all it is...skin color doesn't have anything to do it with it. It basically comes down to the circumstances and experiences how one person was raised, versus the circumstances of how someone else is raised differently.

What I learned was that instead of getting angry or frustrated with the differences, or showing prejudice towards them, instead of letting anger and hate fuel you, find the commonality and embrace the love that comes from that. We all share the human experience no matter the skin color. I loved video games. I loved the NBA, Michael Jordan, and those late 80s early 90s Chicago Bulls. And OMG can you believe this....so did the black guys I was hanging around with. Unbelievable...you mean to tell me..we actually have something in common?????? Get the fuck out of here. No way. You mean, we can actually sit and have a conversation about common interests instead of hiding in our own little cultural groups and acting like little prejudiced fuckwits??

Yep its all quite possible. Step outside your own little world and find the commonality because its there.
 
Not really.

I grew up poor on welfare as a white kid being the minority. Sure at home my grandma was classic old people racist but it was funny more then anything.
Dated a girl with a gay uncle who was cool and my mom had quite a few lesbian friends so I never saw it as odd.

Edit: I remembered one thing that might be labeled racist I guess...

As a white dude in a low class/poor minority community the rule was no matter how "in" you thought you were "in" you were never really "safe" with black dudes lol
If it was a fight, friends didnt matter it was a matter of race first. So as a white dude it was easier to bond with Latinos then Blacks. Theres was always a tension between Black dudes and Whites/Latinos when it was all boiled down.
It was common knowledge if you sold drugs you went to Latinos if you were white, black dudes might send you home naked with only a sock to cover your dick lol.

There were just general rules for survival as a white guy being the minority in impoverished communities, not so much racist tho I guess.
 
After 9/11 I was quite prejudiced against Arabs and Muslims. I've since worked through that but I've also recently left my Catholic faith behind and am now somewhere between middle of the road agnostic and militant atheist. I fear I might actually be getting more prejudiced.
 
When I was younger, probably around middle school, I used to believe being gay was wrong; then probably around my sophomore year I started watching The Young Turks and started actually thinking and I realized how dumb I was to think homosexuality is wrong lol
 
When I was 6 years old I squinted my eyes to make fun of an Asian girl. The teacher then explained to me what I did and I learned what racism was.

I think that's the only time. But that wasn't really prejudice. It was me being a dumbass kid.
 
I'm white, upper middle class, and I grew up in Alabama. So yes.

It might sound cliche, but college really opened my eyes to this kind of shit. If my life had taken a slightly different path, I easily could have become MRA/White Pride douchebag.
 
prejudice
1. an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.
2. any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable.
3. unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of a hostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group.
Click to expand...

I still am according to implicit association tests.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
 
After spending grammar/jr high school in racist ass Long Island and dealing with racist kids, I vowed not to make any white friends in high school. That lasted about a few months.
 
I'm a bleeding heart liberal, and I'll still sometimes surprise myself when I realize I hold prejudices against certain groups of people (the rich, people with southern accents, people who dress certain ways, etc.). What's important is that you remain always hyper vigilant that your brain is always trying to give you the lazy way out in judging others, and that you have to always make an intentional effort to be fair. Oftentimes we can't help our initial prejudices, but we can help not letting those prejudices make us make stupid, unethical decisions.
 
There are two things I hate in this world!

Prejudice and Paki's


Old joke that still makes me laugh. I've heard it a few different ways but this was my first.
 
When I was in elementary school,if anyone was fat we.used to call.them a "fag"...which I totally thought ment they were overweight until some time.during middle school ._.

Also being Asian.,my parents were racist. telling me my black neighbor/one of my childhood best friends family were going to rob us/kill us
 
Yep, I grew up in an Eastern European family, and they have stereotypes for any ethnic or racial group you can think of. It took some doing, but I shook myself out of that mental death trap.
 
About the only thing I can say is that I'm somewhat prejudiced against homeless people.

I used to not be; this is something that developed in my adult life. Some somewhat bad experiences; and living in a neighborhood with petty crime from homeless people that kind of drove me nuts did it. edit: To be clear I'm not outwardly rude or angry ever towards anyone; I just steer clear of homeless people and stopped giving them money directly or talking to them.
 
Back when I used to live in the Dominican Republic I used to be racist towards Haitians, which share part of the island for us. I saw them as invading my homeland and making it worse by sleeping in the streets, littering etc.
Mainly because it's what the other kids did, years later when I moved to the US and learned more about the notion of racism, I actually felt like shit.
 
Yes, I used to think trans people were terrible and didn't deserve to exist. My self loathing while trying to accept myself was terrible. I've known since I was a child, in fact I even tried to commit suicide when I was 10 because of it, but I didn't accept myself until I was 19. I have to thank the wonderful TransGaf community for being the ones that got me to accept myself.
 
Growing up in a small town in the midwest while attending Catholic schools, I got little exposure to homosexuals and people who weren't white. Luckily, Wisconsin is also very liberal, so despite all the teachings I heard, many people didn't have a personal agenda against the common prejudices like homosexuals, just one that says "my faith doesn't condone that, but live your own life anyway". I visited Houston often and lived there for stretches of time, giving me exposure to diversity. On top of that, my mom is a very open minded person, so I've always strived to not judge people based on one aspect of them.

The one prejudice I acknowledge I have irrationally and am still trying to completely overcome is people who do any sort of drug besides alcohol. While that doesn't mean I ever intend on doing it, I don't want to 180° my attitude towards someone who does. I know in my head that stuff like marijuana isn't morally wrong, but it feels sleazy.
 
intentionally? not that i can recall.

have i done it? i'm certain i have multiple times. i grew up in the south and have lived among many prejudice people. i consciously make a lot of effort not to, but that probably also ends up in the behavior i'm trying to avoid.
 
Nope. I think my atheism helped me never to do it because my first exposure to discrimination was from reading religious history.

So basically, I didn't want to look like a hypocrite.
 
Yup. I grew up in Flint Michigan as a child, middle class white kid in a very mixed race neighborhood. Got along fine with the racial differences(My college life actually was pretty much Turk and J.D.), but the older I got the more I didnt want to hang around poor kids/families. While I was never really bullied in school the kids always causing the problems(fights, disruptions in class, and making classes take longer) white or black were typically given the "trailer trash" moniker because of the perception that the poor kids created the most amount of trouble. Wasn't until around 1st year in college where I grew out of the stigma, mainly because I moved out of the city, and realized the representation of poor people in flint was really bad at giving me the reality of the situation I was in at the time. Felt bad about it for awhile.
 
One of the great advantages of growing up in Whitebread, Indiana and having normal, non-hateful parents is that by the time you even realize there are people different from you, you're probably old enough to realize that it's fine and not to be threatened by it.

"Holy fuck, there are black people?! That's neat I guess."
 
Not to my knowledge/recollection.

But then, I grew up and spent most of my life in a very... varied area (Northampton, Massachusetts, for anyone familiar with the area).

Yeah, not necessarily the most racial diversity (although there was some), but more with regards to people's choices and lifestyles and such.
 
Not sure if this counts, but I'm white and I've noticed that I feel uncomfortable if I'm the only white person in an area. The area where I live has a lot of blacks (particularly Ethiopians) as well as Hispanic immigrants, and it's not uncommon for me to go into a store and feel instinctively insecure if I'm the only white person there. I assume it would be the same for people of any race, just wish I didn't have that knee-jerk reaction.
 
Growing up as an Asian-Canadian in mostly Caucasian-dominated schools, I had a chip on my shoulder regarding Asian girls. That was until I fell madly in love with an Asian girl during my undergrad, but that experience left me messed up for years.

As I grew up, my prejudices against them eroded away and found myself actually preferring Asian women.
 
Everyone has been at some point in their life and everyone still is to a degree. Be it from a cultural perspective to an individual perspective. Aside from the seriousness of this topic, look at how many poster will go ahead and disregard someone by saying that they must have a "neck beard" or they're a "hipster". Point is, prejudices aren't just bond to skin tones, ethnicities or religious beliefs, but also apply to how you might judge someone by the way they dress, talk, smell, etc... without actually knowing them.

This happens every single day. You probably remember the BMW/Jacked up Truck/1989 model station wagon... that cut you off and made a judgement of the driver based on the vehicle type, not just their idiotic actions.

Again, I don't want to down play the seriousness of the common working definition of what prejudice is, but rather it's human nature to judge people off of petty things.
 
Everybody is prejudiced in some way and its laughable that some people think they aren't.

And we always will be until we start understanding what prejudice is instead of just focusing on certain areas of prejudice.

100ppp said:
Everyone has been at some point in their life and everyone still is to a degree. Be it from a cultural perspective to an individual perspective. Aside from the seriousness of this topic, look at how many poster will go ahead and disregard someone by saying that they must have a "neck beard" or they're a "hipster". Point is, prejudices aren't just bond to skin tones, ethnicities or religious beliefs, but also apply to how you might judge someone by the way they dress, talk, smell, etc... without actually knowing them.

This happens every single day. You probably remember the BMW/Jacked up Truck/1989 model station wagon... that cut you off and made a judgement of the driver based on the vehicle type, not just their idiotic actions.

Again, I don't want to down play the seriousness of the common working definition of what prejudice is, but rather it's human nature to judge people off of petty things.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

Just understanding this on a personal level(and I mean properly taking the time to think about it on a regular basis, not just on a surface level) is a huge step towards eradicating(or at least minimizing) prejudiced attitudes in general.

You don't kill a weed by plucking the stem.
 
I grew up in a super religious (Homophobic) household and have a very racist extended family, so until I was about 10-12, I didn't think for myself and just hated everything and everyone my family told me to. When I realized that was all bullshit I called them out on it and we've all grown past it.
 
nope. anyone that is prejudice, racist or just plain ignorant is because they've been done wrong by someone of another ethnic group and use it as an excuse to be the way they are. that's what we call judging a book by its cover syndrome
 
Kraftwerk said:
Some folk might be uncomfortable with talking about this, but it's in the past, so I feel that it will be good to talk about and educational for others.

I also don't want to sound all high and mighty since I have changed my ways. I still have flaws. Mainly made this so we can have some positive talk about how we change based on educating ourselves.

Anyway...


I used to be antisemitic. I would go around with my friends and we would wait outside a synagogue and wait for the prayers to end. Once they came out we would walk slowly behind them and slowly whisper "jew jew.... Jew... Jew.. “ this is when I was in the middle east.

This is me when I was 13-14. I'm not even sure if I can say I was antisemitic, I honestly didn't even know what I was doing or why I was doing it. Everyone around me was involved , so I guess I did it as a way to fit in. Not trying to excuse what I did, it was and is very wrong.

I also remember that how we used to insult each other by calling each other a jew. It was the worst insult we had. If someone called me a jew, I would get very angry.

Years past, and I went to Europe. I remember when I was around 17 I saw Schindlers List. I absolutely loved the movie. Then it hit me what a terrible person I used to be just a few years ago.

I don't even remember how the transition happened. I guess I just grew up, and realized what a fucking idiot I was.

To the day, whenever I meet someone who is Jewish my stomach sinks. I constantly want to apologize to them for being a terrible person.

But yeah, I am glad that I changed for the better.

Feel free to share if you are comfortable.
Click to expand...

My father was a member of the KKK, and I grew up in a very rural area with virtually no non-whites, so yeah. Exposure out the outside world and to people outside the KKK really opened my eyes. Moving to Columbus, OH after high school into a mostly black neighborhood with my best friend (and landing my first job as the only white guy on my shift who wasn't a manager) pretty much cleared me of any lingering racism. Something that still sticks with me to this day was one of my co-workers and friends (a black lady a few years older than me who, looking back, hit on me more than once) who was leaving offered to get me a job at the place she was going: a soul food shop. Kind of wish I had ended up with a non-white girlfriend, just to see my dad's reaction (see if the confirmation that I'm not gay overrode his racism :p).
 
100ppp said:
Everyone has been at some point in their life and everyone still is to a degree. Be it from a cultural perspective to an individual perspective. Aside from the seriousness of this topic, look at how many poster will go ahead and disregard someone by saying that they must have a "neck beard" or they're a "hipster". Point is, prejudices aren't just bond to skin tones, ethnicities or religious beliefs, but also apply to how you might judge someone by the way they dress, talk, smell, etc... without actually knowing them.

This happens every single day. You probably remember the BMW/Jacked up Truck/1989 model station wagon... that cut you off and made a judgement of the driver based on the vehicle type, not just their idiotic actions.

Again, I don't want to down play the seriousness of the common working definition of what prejudice is, but rather it's human nature to judge people off of petty things.
Click to expand...

^This.

You absorb so much shit through your parents, your peers and media from a young age that invariably concepts get into your head that will sit there until new evidence comes to light.
 
I used the word "gay" in a derogatory sense until I was about 14 and then realised I was being a bellend.

Never been racist.
 
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