Stories of Racism: Let's have a discussion

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When I was homeschooled I played junior high basketball for a private Baptist school. One of our away games was in Howell, Michigan, which an area with the largest KKK membership in the state. The school we played against was pretty bad, and we won by double digits. After the game both teams lined up to shake hands, and I noticed a few of their players refused to shake mine. Later I heard one of them outright say "I don't shake hands with monkeys haha." Our coach and his dad (the principle) heard him say this. My coach got upset, but his dad (the principle) calmed him down and said "I'm sure he just meant he's fierce like a gorilla."

Later we went to Burger King to eat. When I got up to order my food the person clearly wasn't thrilled with me being there, and said "what the hell do you want" under her breath. I ordered. Everybody got their food before me, and I probably ordered before half the team. When my stuff was ready she threw the tray on the table, lazily dropped my food on it, and said "shoo."

I ate a couple fries and threw my food away.
 
PhoenixPause said:
When I was homeschooled I played junior high basketball for a private Baptist school. One of our away games was in Howell, Michigan, which an area with the largest KKK membership in the state. The school we played against was pretty bad, and we won by double digits. After the game both teams lined up to shake hands, and I noticed a few of their players refused to shake mine. Later I heard one of them outright say "I don't shake hands with monkeys haha." Our coach and his dad (the principle) heard him say this. My coach got upset, but his dad (the principle) calmed him down and said "I'm sure he just meant he's fierce like a gorilla."

Later we went to Burger King to eat. When I got up to order my food the person clearly wasn't thrilled with me being there, and said "what the hell do you want" under her breath. I ordered. Everybody got their food before me, and I probably ordered before half the team. When my stuff was ready she threw the tray on the table, lazily dropped my food on it, and said "shoo."

I ate a couple fries and threw my food away.
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smh.

Terrible.
 
I grew up in a mostly black and latino neighborhood and got beaten up pretty much daily because I was the only white kid around. All i would hear was something like 'hey you white faggot' then bam couple dudes in there teenage years (Im like 11 so they were proper beat downs) on top of me just beating me the fuck up. I mean I'm sure this isn't what folks think of when talking about racism but it opened my eyes to how other people are treated and that it sucks and that I would never treat another human being that way.
 
Featheredkitten said:
I not so recently backed out of a friendship for this reason, we were pretty good friends and she never gave me any indication that she was horribly, horribly racist. She was even the emergency contact for my son at his school. Everything was kosher until her wedding/bachlorette party when her true colours came out. Quickly stopped contact with her. We were still facebook "friends" until the supreme court's DOMA decision came down, and she unfriended me. No loss there.
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I know the feeling. Similar thing happened to me with a guy I befriended at my old job. Seemed really nice and friendly, but eventually his bigotness slowly revealed itself and I cut all ties. We never got that close though luckily, sounds like your experience dragged on a bit longer. :/
 
hypernima said:
Yes, but they can still be subjected to prejudice



A common thing with people who are confused by what racism is to consult the dictionary definition of what the word means. If you want to speak more of it, feel free to PM me or start another thread.
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You're fucking dumb if that's what you think.
 
Coconut said:
I grew up in a mostly black and latino neighborhood and got beaten up pretty much daily because I was the only white kid around. All i would hear was something like 'hey you white faggot' then bam couple dudes in there teenage years (Im like 11 so they were proper beat downs) on top of me just beating me the fuck up. I mean I'm sure this isn't what folks think of when talking about racism but it opened my eyes to how other people are treated and that it sucks and that I would never treat another human being that way.
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I think that qualifies as racism. That's a pretty horrible story.
 
I actually caught a sense of the casual racism when I was visiting a friend at UofM. We went to one of my friend's apartment to hang out, and one of the people living there casually pointed out his girlfriend's "nigger award" (his words exactly). The award was for some sort of diversity scholarship. He then realized that I was there, and gave me the "Don't make a big deal out of it" look and then went on to tell me about his black friends.

The frustrating part being that even when we encounter overt things like this, we're supposed to just shrug it off and not be offended because "everyone is a little racist, right?"
 
JCX said:
I actually caught a sense of the casual racism when I was visiting a friend at UofM. We went to one of my friend's apartment to hang out, and one of the people living there casually pointed out his girlfriend's "nigger award" (his words exactly). The award was for some sort of diversity scholarship. He then realized that I was there, and gave me the "Don't make a big deal out of it" look and then went on to tell me about his black friends.

The frustrating part being that even when we encounter overt things like this, we're supposed to just shrug it off and not be offended because "everyone is a little racist, right?"
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You sure that didn't happen in Lansing, Sparty?!?
 
Silas Lang said:
I know the feeling. Similar thing happened to me with a guy I befriended at my old job. Seemed really nice and friendly, but eventually his bigotness slowly revealed itself and I cut all ties. We never got that close though luckily, sounds like your experience dragged on a bit longer. :/
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It hurt, because it's really hard for me to make friends, especially with women. I trusted her and the whole time she was harboring all these awful thoughts and feelings. Racism, bigotry, discrimination. I still don't understand how you hate a whole race or group of people. SMH, it's sad really.

But it taught me to be more cautious of people, who knows what lurks beneath the surface (probably not a good lesson to learn.).
 
andycapps said:
I think that qualifies as racism. That's a pretty horrible story.
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People that were angry and raised to think a certain way, that's the attitude in the world that we need to change. That a lot of these negative feelings are around to keep the poor angry at each other.
 
JCX said:
I actually caught a sense of the casual racism when I was visiting a friend at UofM. We went to one of my friend's apartment to hang out, and one of the people living there casually pointed out his girlfriend's "nigger award" (his words exactly). The award was for some sort of diversity scholarship. He then realized that I was there, and gave me the "Don't make a big deal out of it" look and then went on to tell me about his black friends.

The frustrating part being that even when we encounter overt things like this, we're supposed to just shrug it off and not be offended because "everyone is a little racist, right?"
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Wow. :/
 
Tons of stories. Being born and raised (mostly raised) from the SouthSide of Chicago in the heart of gang central, I don't tell people where i'm actually from anymore, or anything about where I grew up as If I were to forget about it. Why? Cause racism. Its funny how something so small affects business relationships, or solicits responses from closet racists.
 
Kimawolf said:
I have been browsing some of the recent threads on things like the Zimmerman verdict, the juror's "reasoning" and Questlove's face book postings and I think it's time we have a thread for people to post their own personal stories of racism in and also try to explain how those being discriminated against feel. I won't limit this to black people, because Hispanic and Arabic people go through it too.

So I will begin with a fairly recent event which happened on Monday actually. I am trying to lose a bit of weight and I'm trying to get healthy, so a friend of mine suggests "why not begin running?" Well I think that's a great idea, I can go for a run on my lunch break since I have an hour and 15 for lunch and since my job has a shower, and we have people running out here all the time in this area after work and during lunch.

Let me preface it with I am a black guy, I do have my hair braided and the area I work in is actually a pretty good area of Kansas (Johnson County for anyone in MO/KS). So I begin to run (more like jog lol), and about 10 minutes into it I see a police officer pull up beside me. Now being black, I know immediately this could go bad, the honest truth is black people never like being pulled over or stopped by police, especially black males. We're told at a young age avoid the cops at all costs, and whatever you do NEVER make any strange movements, announce your movements before you do them, etc.

So he flashes his lights, and I stop running and of course keep my hands far enough from my pockets so he has no ideas. He gets out the car and asks me "if everything is alright". I say yeah, why wouldn't it be? Now I know deep down what's going on, but I play along.

He then says "Well we got a call of some suspicious activity in this area." and he's lookin dead at me. I say "oh, really? Anything I should be concerned about officer?" he then proceeds to ask me for my ID. NOW in another world I would be all hell no, screw you etc, but this is reality, and I don't want to get shot or thrown in jail in Kansas so I give it to him, he then tells me he will handcuff me just for both our safey. And he does. he runs it and then comes out his car 15 minutes later and uncuffs me "sorry for the inconvience but we just want everyone safe."

Now it's obvious, someone saw a black guy jogging, got scared and called the police. It's a sad thing, but it's definitely a thing, especially when none of the white people who were jogging were stopped.

Just wanted to share that story first.
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Sorry OP. You looked kinda suspicious and I wanted to be safe than sorry.

I'm from Johnson County too. You rarely see white people pulled over here. Always black people. It's a sad bullshit truth in this part of the country.
 
hypernima said:
Why the need to insult me?
I simply think Racism has a power aspect to it, that's all.
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no need to get mixed up in semantics, if a white dude is being stomped out for being white, call it what it is. we aint here to trivialize anyone's experience of bigotry, I cant stand the gaf posters around here that get like that with racial shit.
 
This thread is fucking awful. My heart seriously hurts for everyone how has had to deal with such bullshit over nothing.

Personally, the worst I've had to deal with is instances of typical generic Asian-oriented jokes/bullying, which came about when living in a White majority High School and neighborhood in PA.(though the jokes would come from people of all races). Doesn't matter that I was Filipino, all the jokes about any and all Asians would come my way anyway. Felt pretty shitty, but I learned to develop a thick skin about it all, even if it got to be a bit frustrating at some points.

Really glad I live in a pretty diverse and accepting place now.
 
I've had little prejudice directed at me. Maybe sometimes I'll see a young black or Hispanic guy glaring at me when I'm in the "wrong place", especially if I smile and nod at them for whatever reason, but that's been very rare, and I assume they just have some sort of personal anger problem toward nice people and that it may have nothing to do with race and may have things to do with them having a bad day.

I've had more racism directed at my wife and specifically that we're a mixed couple. I've spoken about it before, but people will sometimes assume that
1) We met on the internet
2) I must have met her when I was serving (I never served in East Asia)
3) I bought her from a catalog
4) She just wants a green card
5) I have a fetish

3 and 4 bother the shit out of me. 5 bothers me a little less, but it still bugs me because it implies that I feel that "any Asian would do" or that I feel my wife is an object.
 
That's a really shitty situation OP. I would be so angry if I were you. Were you angry, or do you feel a sort of depressed acceptance of the situation?

My mom is an extremely racist person, but she's completely unaware of it. Whenever a black/hispanic person walks by our car at a grocery store, she says "lock your doors!" She's not vicious, she's just scared and ignorant. Your archetype of the middle class Christian white female.

My wife and I lived in South Chicago for 2 years, and the neighborhood was probably 80-90% black. When my family came to visit, my sister told me that when my mom saw the area, she said "Sarah, lock your doors or they will break in and rape you."

When I was a kid growing up in Arizona, I said the word "nigger" once not really understanding what it meant. My mom's response? "Karst, your father doesn't like it when people use that word." Not "that's wrong", or any kind of shaming of me, just a warning not to say it around dad, or that it would make dad upset.

It's remarkable that I turned out to be so amiable towards non-whites.

In terms of racism against myself, I do get tired of assumptions that because I am a white male, I have a good or easy life. I understand the thought process behind it, but it is still a very racist and sexist attitude. People should be treated as individuals, and you should get to know the person on the individual level instead of making assumptions. Any assumption that a person has attribute X because of his/her race is racism. While racism against whites is not nearly as terrible as racism against blacks in practice, I'd like to see both stop.
 
I'm white and can't say I have been the victim of racism. However I did have long hair when I was younger and was assaulted verbally and physically because of it, and also stopped and searched by the police at least a handful if times.
I do remember talking to a guy at a pub, who was a tax inspector of some sort and he was talking about how he would always extra scrutinize 'Paki's' because 'you know they have another 20 of them living in a back room'. It was the first time I saw active racism beyond the name calling type and it was pretty shocking.
 
I have to be honest and say that for a while I was incredibly racist towards white people. Funny enough since I'm a white ass hispanic, but I had all Jamaican friends growing up and it was pretty ingrained in my mind how all white people are "back stabbers and are never to be trusted".
 
I'm white and grew up in a very heavily black and Hispanic neighborhood. I was bullied relentlessly because I was a "white boy"

One time a kid threw a cup full of random things like cleaner and hot sauce and stuff in my face.
 
I'm Caucasian and have never personally been discriminated against, bullied, or picked on due to my race. At least not in real life anyway. I had a black guy call me a cracka in Halo because I picked up a sniper rifle before him. However, I have experienced racist customers while working. When I was working for Comcast one lady called up wanting more "white shows" on the CW, said "Ya'll got too many blacks on that channel, why don't you put more white shows in there?" It was pretty sad, and I had to mute her to hold in my laughter. There were a few things shocking about this to me. First, the racism, and then that she thought the cable company was in charge of the programming on an individual channel. I've only ever been discriminated against because of how I dressed when I was 18.

I wore baggy pants and a hoody with the hood up even while I was in stores. I went to buy the original Max Payne at Toys R Us and this lady followed me and my brother around the store. I walk up to the counter and hand her the game, she then says "ID." So, I hand her my ID and she says "This is a mature rated game, I can't sell this to you." I lived in MD at the time and the front facing driver's license means you're over 18, a side view is issued for learners or underage. She had made the decision that I was trying to get away with something based just on how I was dressed.
 
Dinosaur said:
Some black guys made fun of me playing basketball at the park. Made me feel bad, I thought I played pretty well.
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HitfizF.png
 
I had a friend growing up who's parents were Italian and who lived just around the corner from me. Went to the same primary school and high school, best friends 4 lyf etc etc. no problems with him whatsoever.

Another friend, stereotypically most English girl you will ever meet (lol) also lived down the road from me. Now this girl had no problem with the other friend,..until we got to high school.

Before I go any further, let me explain. This girl's dad is quite well known (or so she says lol) for being racist. But she never really showed any signs of racism until high school (irrc).

So we're sitting on our own in a classroom, just us 3, talking about shit as normal young pre-pubescent boys and girls do... Then the conversation switches to where we were born etc. So the boy says his parents are Italian but he was born in England. The girl then says "Go back to your own country!" and laughs. This confused me and the other dude cos he WAS in his own country lol. But he told a teacher anyway and she got put in isolation for a while.

So I believe that was the first bit of racism I experienced first-hand iirc.

She has also said she wouldn't go out with a black guy because, and I quote, "their lips look weird." I was like WTF :lol

Also tried to get a bunch of us to vote for the BNP. (Far-right wing party in the UK) that failed miserably lol.

Nice girl, but the things she says at times are mind-boggling.
 
Think the only racism story I have in my 42 years of being white was when I was a freshman in High school. Two of my classmates and I were silly every day and always laughing with each other when half way through the school year the rather large black kid near us accused us of calling him the N-word. We didn't say it and could not convince him that we did not so we just shook in our boots as he grilled us about it and said we were dead for a few weeks. I think only Condemned Criminal Origins has put a bigger scare into me. I've had a boring life.
 
Had to stealth it home through my local town after those Leeds fans got stabbed in Istanbul. Mad chanting of "i'd rather be a Paki than a Turk" as i made my way through backstreets as England hammered Germany.
 
I had a good upbringing, and was told from an early age about racism, and how I should treat everyone equally. I've personally never been on the other end of racism. Although my first sort of run in with it, was in highschool. There was a group of black bullies, that flaunted racist attitudes towards non-blacks. They would start a lot of fights. Anyways, they would break into the P.E. area and steal from peoples backpacks. And one day my CD player got stolen. About a week later I saw one of them using my CD player (I know, because I wrote my name on it, and he apparently didn't think to take it off). I went to the faculty to complain, and they said: "In the school rules, it says you aren't to bring devices like that. So we won't look into this). Even despite my name being on it. I guess I could have pressed theft charges outside of school, but I was just too discouraged to even care.

My CD player being stolen wasn't a racist thing. But I do feel the way they treated others at school was. After being raised by my parents to NOT be that way, it was a pretty stinging moment to see that. That said, that's small potatoes to what minorities experience daily. So I feel bad even wasting a post in this thread on that. Some of these other posts have made my stomach churn. So disgusting how people can treat others.
 
Reading some of the comments here make me smile (the good ones, not the stories)

As much as I have been subjected to racism before (and even these days) I refuse to give in to the hate myself. My blood boils, but I know not everyone is like that. I choose to surround myself with positive people, my friends are all diverse as hell and truly do not care about color.

Good people keep me going, and fortunately in my life, there have been more good than bad.

Although having racism directed at you from your own family is possibly more hurtful than any stranger on the street can do. Which unfortunately I still have to deal with.
 
Catatonic said:
I had a good upbringing, and was told from an early age about racism, and how I should treat everyone equally.
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That's how we're raising our son, we've told him some people don't want to treat everyone equally and that's wrong. He's still young so we haven't expanded too much on that. There's a little girl down the street he's friends with, and I won't let him go play at her house 'cause her parents are extra-super racist. I haven't explained to him why i won't let him other than, "Her parents don't think everyone should be treated the same, and that's wrong".
 
I have a buddy who moved down to my neck of the woods when he was in high school, very rural south Georgia, he moved to a fairly well off neighborhood and decided to walk to the grocery store for a snack, half way there he encounters and older man who immediately pulled a pistol on him. The guy said that it was just for his protection but yeah it freaked him out.
 
Race is a complete non-factor on who a person is. All race is is a categorization of people based on skin color and to judge anyone by such a metric is a sad thing and yet another manifestation of tribal mentalities that only serves to divide people.

I am not even sure what people consider me to be. I'm am completely Lebanese, but I'm white and that's one problem with stereotypes. Arabs and Hispanics, especially, aren't all so obviously unified/distinct regarding skin color and a lot are quite fair-skinned (as are, from my experiences, Persians, Afghans, and even some Pakistanis). It's an even lesser known thing when pertaining to Arabs, but yeah, I'm pretty white (hazel eyes and brown hair, too). Anyway, while I've never experienced anything overtly racist towards myself and I consider myself lucky to live in an area with all kinds of people having accepted a more multicultural society (the stories I read on here can be very disheartening; I have nothing of the sort, just some whining :P), I have had the misfortune of people not believing me when I mention my ethnic background and it really irritates me. People make all kinds of assumptions on skin color alone and in my case, they make the wrong assumption on what my heritage even is; not that I think there's anything wrong with being white, but it's grating to be told I can't be what I am based on pretentious, preconceived notions of what I should look like. At least I don't get the Arab stereotype racism in any serious context.
 
Featheredkitten said:
That's how we're raising our son, we've told him some people don't want to treat everyone equally and that's wrong. He's still young so we haven't expanded too much on that. There's a little girl down the street he's friends with, and I won't let him go play at her house 'cause her parents are extra-super racist. I haven't explained to him why i won't let him other than, "Her parents don't think everyone should be treated the same, and that's wrong".
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Shouldn't you let your kid play with this girl maybe he will be a good influence on this girl.


Serandur said:
Race is a complete non-factor on who a person is. All race is is a categorization of people based on skin color and to judge anyone by such a metric is a sad thing and yet another manifestation of tribal mentalities that only serves to divide people.

I am not even sure what people consider me to be. I'm am completely Lebanese, but I'm white and that's one problem with stereotypes. Arabs and Hispanics, especially, aren't all so obviously unified/distinct regarding skin color and a lot are quite fair-skinned (as are, from my experiences, Persians, Afghans, and even some Pakistanis). It's an even lesser known thing when pertaining to Arabs, but yeah, I'm pretty white (hazel eyes and brown hair, too). Anyway, while I've never experienced anything overtly racist towards myself and I consider myself lucky to live in an area with all kinds of people having accepted a more multicultural society (the stories I read on here can be very disheartening; I have nothing of the sort, just some whining :P), I have had the misfortune of people not believing me when I mention my ethnic background and it really irritates me. People make all kinds of assumptions on skin color alone and in my case, they make the wrong assumption on what my heritage even is; not that I think there's anything wrong with being white, but it's grating to be told I can't be what I am based on pretentious, preconceived notions of what I should look like. At least I don't get the Arab stereotype racism in any serious context.
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My family is Spanish but we all look white. It's easier for me to identify as white as well, then explain to people why my last name is Morales and that people from Spain aren't exactly 'dark'. But that's getting to a conversation of what is the difference between, ethnicity, race, and actual skin color.
 
Coconut said:
Shouldn't you let your kid play with this girl maybe he will be a good influence on this girl.
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was thinking the same thing. But then again you may start super drama with them if they find out you "teaching" their kid anything that they don't agree with.
 
hypernima said:
I simply think Racism has a power aspect to it, that's all.
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I agree, but this probably is not the topic to have that conversation; I think this is more for people to talk about times where they experienced racism rather than arguing over the precise definition of the term.
 
Like the hat? said:
I'm white and grew up in a very heavily black and Hispanic neighborhood. I was bullied relentlessly because I was a "white boy"

One time a kid threw a cup full of random things like cleaner and hot sauce and stuff in my face.
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Yeah, That's fucked up. 'Retaliatory' cowardly shit, and to just do it to a kid because he's white. I always made it a point to see if the one white dude was cool, because I was all too often that one black dude. They usually were. And it made it less easy for them to get singled out.
 
Coconut said:
Shouldn't you let your kid play with this girl maybe he will be a good influence on this girl.




My family is Spanish but we all look white. It's easier for me to identify as white as well, then explain to people why my last name is Morales and that people from Spain aren't exactly 'dark'. But that's getting to a conversation of what is the difference between, ethnicity, race, and actual skin color.
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One of my best friends is Spanish and he has mentioned the same thing annoying him as well as plenty others (mostly language-related things like "Spanish" actually being Castilian and not the only Spanish dialect), but yeah, it is kind of stemming off of the racism discussion.
 
Duane Cunningham said:
Christ, OP, where was that? Corporate Woods?
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Nope a bit further south, around 135th, but same basic area. Lots of offices, nice homes and stuff.

And yes this thread is more about sharing your stories, experiences so others can see and perhaps understand what some people go through daily or more importantly have the potential to go through daily. I don't live in fear, but I am cautious every day when I come to work because I don't know what the police or the people out here will think.
 
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