racist
Have you been hanging around non-whites lately? They love to call you racist, if they are anything like the non-whites I know. Maybe it’s because you say racist things. Or maybe it’s because they know it freaks you out.
Anyone can be racist, but calling a white person racist means something altogether different than calling a Vietnamese person racist. How? I’m not exactly sure. Any white people out there know what I’m saying? Let me take a stab at this. People call me racist for making a joke, which isn’t racist, but might involve someone of a race other than mine. They do it to be funny, because they know a non racist white person will be very sensitive to the charge. We get that deer-in-the-headlights look and start tripping over ourselves trying to apologize. That cracks other ethnicities up.
It has also become a term synonymous with “dumb-ass” or even “shit-head”, as in “That racist threw out my lunch.” Not because throwing out your lunch was racially motivated, just because it was ignorant to not realize you weren’t done with strange bone thing you were eating. (Ha!)
But they – (those who aren’t white, like, really white. Like the cliffs of Dover.) – they will use it abusively any chance they get. Maybe you ask a guy from India if he knows anything about Indian food. You get labeled racist. I can’t ask a dumb question about a culture I don’t know about without it becoming racist.
Excuse me? Do you know what racist means? Do you know what you are implying? Racist is someone who thinks their race is superior. In this case it calls up thoughts of Germans exterminating Jews, because that’s what white racists are racistly accused of. I’m confused too. I think I mean, maybe White supremists aren’t out to exterminate everyone but Aryans. Maybe they just think they are better. Like some people think Fords are better than Chevys. No one is getting killed over that are they? So give a White Supremacist the benefit of the doubt next time. He might not be a Nazi. You’re jumping to conclusions.
Then again, racism isn’t always about thinking your race is superior. It’s also those of us who make sweeping generalizations about other races. Like, “White people are all…salad eaters.” Or “white men can’t jump.” That kind of stuff. Maybe it’s your uncle who says, “Don’t let Italians work on your car.”
That might be the difference I was looking for. When an African American man on the bus calls me a racist, I know he isn’t talking about my advice not to trust Italian mechanics. He is talking about me being the virulent vicious kind of racist. He’s talking about white racists. The really evil racists.
I guess that’s all I was trying to pin down. Why, to me, calling a white person racist seems more powerful than using the same word on a non-white. I guess it’s because the dumb shit white people pulled in the past. The sins of a generation are passed down. If not biblically or genetically, certainly in the epithets chucked at the children.
Was this helpful?
did you ask him to give you his seat?
Comment by donny laundry — March 9, 2009 @ 7:54 am
this post is racist.
interesting dialogue you want to start, though.
gutsy. but racist.
Comment by p — March 9, 2009 @ 11:01 am
Nancy Green was born into slavery in Georgia, in 1834, She became the first african american female model. I make a toast to her every Sunday, not in church but at the table,,,,,now am I rasist little
Mr, P-????? Punk
Comment by poopies — March 9, 2009 @ 2:47 pm
She got hit by a car, now she is dead,, Do I now make fun of dead people mr P-??
Comment by poopies — March 9, 2009 @ 2:48 pm
calm down, poopies. you’re not being racist. you’re not making a gross generalization about a certain race. you’re being non-sensical and defensive.
Comment by p — March 9, 2009 @ 3:51 pm
Oh o.k , what do i do now?
Comment by poopies — March 9, 2009 @ 5:02 pm
your’e a gross overeaction of provocative thought, thanks for the breaking the backboard
Comment by poopies — March 9, 2009 @ 5:10 pm
ever hear about this greenland afrohero. one-upped the man. and i mean THE MAN.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oney_Judge
Comment by donny laundry — March 9, 2009 @ 6:17 pm
Here’s a newsflash: Everyone is a racist.
Comment by Lyle_S — March 9, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
i’m not
Comment by anonymous — March 9, 2009 @ 7:25 pm
yes you are lobster bait
Comment by poopies — March 10, 2009 @ 1:15 am
I feel like the label racist keeps white people afraid of speaking about differences, which they see among different cultures. If I start of a phrase, “You people”, that’s automatically racist sounding. “You people of the Yucatan Peninsula”. Racist. Because not everyone will do the exact same thing. But what I really want is to be able to laugh at people. That’s why I have a problem with racism. It keeps me from making jokes.
Comment by Rolston — March 10, 2009 @ 7:36 am
I like Oney.
Comment by Rolston — March 10, 2009 @ 7:37 am
Singing:
Everyone’s a little bit racist
Sometimes.
Doesn’t mean we go
Around committing hate crimes.
Look around and you will find
No one’s really color blind.
Maybe it’s a fact
We all should face
Everyone makes judgments
Based on race.
Everyone’s a little bit racist
It’s true.
But everyone is just about
As racist as you!
If we all could just admit
That we are racist a little bit,
And everyone stopped being
So PC
Maybe we could live in -
Harmony!
-Avenue Q
Comment by eirikur — March 10, 2009 @ 8:29 am
i also read that she started a hip hop group up with an old man named carlton during the cold winter months. heating things up at the grange hall that would later become the country view restaurant.
Comment by anonymous — March 10, 2009 @ 8:30 am
for you, dear poopies. don’t shit your pants.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/10/black-friend-finder-video_n_173497.html
Comment by p — March 10, 2009 @ 10:13 am
NP
Comment by poopies — March 10, 2009 @ 1:56 pm
I thank you all. Especially Avenue Q.
Comment by Rolston — March 11, 2009 @ 11:03 pm
fyi, avenue q is a broadway musical with puppets. just in case you werent aware of that.
Comment by p — March 12, 2009 @ 9:58 am
everyone has biased feelings. i think racist really comes down to who has been able to institute centuries of laws that favor their ethnic peoples. if you go to another land and are not the same ethnic group and they treat you like shit not because you’re a dumb ass but because they generally think that you are genetically inferior it’s racist. there’s no need to get to esoteric about a pretty simple concept of hate.
and i would guess that it’s the fear of the possibility that you are actually a hateful person that would freak out a white person who is has just been called racist. solidly, if you know that you are or are not then there’s no reason to freak out. it’s like being called gay, if you’re not or if you are you don’t flinch but if you’ve been secretly thinking about it and felt ashamed well then it’s probably a time for you to start fighting yourself manifest as fighting someone else.
what does your black friend say about it?
Comment by n.d.p. — March 12, 2009 @ 11:43 am
“i think racist really comes down to who has been able to institute centuries of laws that favor their ethnic peoples.”
I think racism can manifest in other ways than laws. Are you talking about government or just social law within any community sample?
Comment by Lyle_S — March 12, 2009 @ 8:11 pm
when racism is backed by laws it really screws people up. If you hate a certain group of people, what power do you have to hurt them? Maybe yell at them out your car window. But a government that bans an ethnic language, bars marriage, outlaws a religion, that is pretty powerful stuff.
Comment by Rolston — March 13, 2009 @ 1:44 am
What governments are these?
Comment by Lyle_S — March 13, 2009 @ 5:18 pm
i was thinking of the United States government, which forced Native Americans to go to school and speak english even on a reservation, and forbade african americans from marrying each other as well as white people, and again, religious practices of both those groups have been criminalized as well.
Comment by Rolston — March 13, 2009 @ 8:38 pm
РеÑпект! Ñ Ð¾Ñ‡ÐµÐ½ÑŒ вам благодарен за вашу Ñтатью.
Comment by Сергей — March 22, 2009 @ 1:12 am
Да да да,у Ð²Ð°Ñ Ð² коментариÑÑ… одни похвалы Ñто подозрительно.
Comment by Сергей — June 7, 2009 @ 7:48 am