I HAVE A LOT OF PROBLEMS UNDERSTANDING RACISM. I UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS CRUEL AND STUPID AND HURTFUL AND EVIL AND BASED ON FEAR AND ALL THAT STUFF. BUT THE THING THAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS WHY IT EXISTS AT ALL. I NEVER REALLY HAVE UNDERSTOOD THIS AS LONG AS I HAVE LIVED. I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY THE COLOR OF SOMEONE'S SKIN, OR THE VARIANT SHADES OF THAT COLOR, HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH WHAT AND HOW WE SHOULD PERCEIVE THAT INDIVIDUAL OR, FOR THAT MATTER, A WHOLE RACE OF PEOPLE.
YOU MUST UNDERSTAND, I AM WRITING FROM ABSOLUTE IGNORANCE ABOUT WHY PEOPLE ARE ETHNICALLY AND RACIALLY PREJUDICE. IF I DISLIKE SOMEONE, IT IS BECAUSE THEY ARE AN ELOHSSA, NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE BLACK OR HISPANIC OR ORIENTAL OR WHATEVER. THE CONCEPT OF HATING SOMEONE BECAUSE THEY ARE DARKER-SKINNED THAN ME OR BECAUSE THEY COME FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY AND SPEAK A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE, IS SIMPLY BEYOND MY ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND.
I REALIZE THAT I AM ONLY REPEATING WORDS AND RE-ASKING QUESTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN SPOKEN OR ASKED THOUSANDS OF TIMES BEFORE I EVER CAME ALONG. BUT THIS IS WHAT I WAS THINKING ABOUT TONIGHT, SO THIS IS WHAT I AM WRITING. SOMETIMES I WRITE THINGS TO JUST "THINK OUTLOUD" ABOUT THINGS THAT TROUBLE ME, NOT TO RECEIVE SOME PREDETERMINED RESPONSE FROM THOSE WHO READ MY WORDS.
I SIMPLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THE TINT OF SOMEONE'S SKIN HAS TO DO WITH THAT PERSON'S CHARACTER OR SIGNIFICANCE OR WORTHINESS. I FIND THE WHOLE SUBJECT VERY BIZARRE AND NONSENSICAL. IT IS IRRATIONAL AND UNINTELLIGENT. IT BORDERS ON THE FRINGE OF COMPLETE MENTAL INSTABILITY TO ME.
IS RACISM AN ATTEMPT TO MAKE THE TARGETS FEEL INFERIOR OR TO MAKE THE RACISTS THEMSELVES FEEL SUPERIOR?? OR IS IT A COMBINATION OF BOTH?? AND IF IT IS, WHAT SENSE DOES IT MAKE?? BECAUSE, IN THE END, HOW IS ONE PERSON INFERIOR OR ANOTHER PERSON REALLY SUPERIOR BECAUSE OF WHAT COLOR THEIR SKIN IS?? THIS IS THE PART THAT MAKES MY MIND WANT TO SHUT DOWN WHEN I CONTEMPLATE IT. HOW IS ONE COLOR OF SKIN SUPERIOR OR INFERIOR TO THE OTHER??
WHAT ARE THESE INSANE THOUGHT PROCESSES BASED ON?? WHAT IS THE FOUNDATION FOR ADHERING TO SUCH LUNACY?? WHERE DID SUCH STUPIDITY COME FROM?? PEOPLE ALWAYS POINT TO HITLER AND NAZI GERMANY AS THEIR EXAMPLE OF EXTREME RACISM. BUT HITLER's ARYAN BULLSHIT ONLY LASTED A FEW YEARS, RACISM IN THE UNITED STATES, FOR EXAMPLE, HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR CENTURIES!!
AND, IN MY ASTUTE IGNORANCE, I CAN FIND NO SATISFACTORY EXPLANATION FOR ITS EXISTENCE. I DOUBT IF I WILL EVER COMPREHEND IT. WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, WELL-MEANING PEOPLE WOULD ALWAYS TELL ME, "YOU HAVE TO LOOK PAST THE COLOR OF A PERSON'S SKIN, AND SEE THE PERSON INSIDE." BUT I ALWAYS THOUGHT I WAS STRANGE, BECAUSE I NEVER SAW THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN AT ALL. I JUST SAW ANOTHER HUMAN BEING JUST LIKE ME. ANOTHER SOUL, IF YOU LIKE, WHO LAUGHED AND CRIED AND WORRIED AND HOPED AND WANTED TO BE LOVED AND ACCEPTED AS MUCH AS I DID.
SO, I HAVE LIVED MY LIFE IN IGNORANCE AND CONFUSION. SHAKING MY HEAD AND WONDERING WHAT ALL THIS STUPID HATE IS ABOUT. WALKING THROUGH LIFE, NOT UNDERSTANDING WHAT HUE AND HAIR TEXTURE HAS TO DO WITH ANYTHING. UNABLE TO FATHOM THE MOTIVATIONS AND SMUG SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS OF BIGOTRY. INCAPABLE OF COMPREHENDING HOW ANY PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS CAN MAKE ONE HUMAN BEING LESSER THAN ANOTHER OR HOW ANYONE CAN BE SUPERIOR MERELY BECAUSE THEY ARE PALER THAN SOMEONE ELSE.
OTHERS WITH A FAR GREATER COMMAND OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE HAVE SAID ALL THIS BEFORE, WITH MUCH GREATER CLARITY THAN I AM CAPABLE OF EXPRESSING. MANY HAVE DIED IN THEIR ATTEMPT TO SAY IT. MANY MORE CONTINUE TO SAY IT EVEN TODAY. YET, I BELIEVE THEY ALL SHARE WITH ME THE SAME CONFUSION AND DISBELIEF THAT ONE INDIVIDUAL COULD EVER SEE HIMSELF AS SUPERIOR, OR ANOTHER AS INFERIOR, SOLELY ON THE BASIS OF SKIN PIGMENTATION.
(I think I've said enough...........................)
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Comments: 45
I had just turned fourteen and I was living under the direction of the juvenile court, in a small boarding house on Market Street in downtown Jacksonville, Florida.
On the way home from my job at Murphy's Heating and Sheet Metal Shop, I happened upon a small wood frame house that was in full flames. Standing out in the street was a woman; her arms wrapped around three small children. Next to her was a man who was down on his knees, his hands covering his face as though he were crying. Within minutes, the fire trucks began to arrive and people were running in every direction. I just stood watching as the small wooden house finally collapsed in on itself.
"Do you live here?" a police officer asked me.
"No Sir. I think that woman and that man live here," I told him as I pointed at the couple.
The police officer walked over and began to question the family.
Within thirty minutes, the fire was out, and there was nothing left of the house except a smoldering pile of embers.
"What's we gonna do?" the woman asked the man, as she too began to cry.
The man just stood there shaking his head back and forth.
"We got nowhere to go," the woman yelled out at her children, as she began hugging them.
"I got this here room at the rooming house. You can stay there for tonight. I'm sure it will be alright," I told them.
The woman said something to the man and within several minutes, the six of us were walking towards my rooming house. When we arrived, my landlady was standing out on the front porch. As we walked up onto the deck I could see from the look in the landlord's eyes that something was not right. She told the family to sit down on the wooden chairs, and she asked me to come with her.
As we walked down the hallway, I explained to her that the family had nowhere to go, that their house had burnt down, and they would have to sleep outside in the cold.
"There is no way that they can stay here. Those people are Negroes. Can't you see that, young man?"
"But they got nowhere to go."
"That's not my problem; and it's certainly not your problem."
"But what are they going to do?" I inquired.
"Look at me," she said, cocking her head to one side. "It's not your problem and there is nothing that we can do for them. Now you go out there and you tell those people that they will have to leave the premises, immediately!" she continued.
Slowly I turned around and I started walking back down the hallway. That was the longest walk I ever had to travel. Half way down the hallway, I stopped and I looked back at her.
"Come here for a minute," she told me.
I followed her to the door leading into her room. I stood outside while she went in. Several minutes later, she returned and handed me five dollars.
"Give this to that family and tell them that is the best we can do."
"Can I see if anyone else will give a little money?" I asked.
"Just this one time, but don't you be doing this anymore. Ok?"
"Ok." I said as I smiled back at her.
As fast as I could I traveled from door to door telling the story of the family who had lost everything. Out of twenty-eight rooms, I raised almost sixty dollars. When I had finished I walked back to the landlady's room and I showed her the money.
"I am really surprised."
She stood there shaking her head back and forth.
"You see there was something that we could do. All we had to do is keep trying real hard." I told her.
"You are something else, Roger Kiser!"
I walked back to the front porch and I explained that it was against the rules for me to allow anyone to stay in my room.
"There ain't any black people live here, so all this here money came from white people. They all feel real bad that you ain't got no place to go," I told them, as I held out the handful of money.
"Everyone who lives here gave money?" asked the man.
"Everyone that was home, and in their rooms."
"Can you tell them that they get a free shoe shine if they come down to the Trailways Bus Station?"
As far as I know, no one ever went to the Trailways Bus Station to collect on that free shoeshine, including myself. However, two years later I had joined the Army and returned to Jacksonville from basic training at Fort Gordon Georgia. When I walked into the bus station, I saw a man shinning shoes. I walked over and sat down in one of the three chairs, and placed my feet up into the stirrups. The man said not a word as he shinned my shoes to a glow. After he was done, I got down from the chair and I held out a dollar bill.
"Don't guess you want that free shine, Mr. Roger?" asked the man.
It took me several seconds before I recognized the gentleman. I slowly stepped down from the high bench-seat and he and I hugged one another.
"I would be honored to have a free shine." I told him.
Beautiful story. F*** that landowner!
when i first moved into the place i just moved OUT of, i was shocked, astonished and deeply disturbed when my landlord, who is portuguese, told me that we would have BIG PROBLEMS if that "nigger" friend of mine came around too much, he said. he also told me that i would have to find someplace else besides my apartment to have her watch my children for a trip i was to go on. he didn't want one of "those" in his property. i was horrified. to top it all off, he said this to me in front of my daughter who is 1/4 african american...so one entire side of her family is black. and are you ready for the best part? when i wrote a letter to the MASS COMMISSION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION they returned my request for their help because his property is owner-occupied. I still cannot believe it.
my friend never did come over again when he treated her so rudely. and i never did go on that trip, this being one of the many factors. and of course since i am a woman i was only a bit higher in HIS mind on the ranks of my friend.
i still dont' understand why the mass commission against discrimination does not regard women as being discriminated against?
pretty whacko to me.
From my understanding people like to blame other people for their problems so they blame a whole race. Hitler is one of the examples of what happens when this is carried to the extreme. The way to make Germany strong again, in his mind was to wipe out all the Jewish people and in the process steal their land and possessions. Back in the days of slavery, white men saw the black people in Africa as lesser beings as they were not "modernized" and it was a cruel money motivated industry.
Racism is passed down generation to generation. More people are not listening to their parents, like me, and do not understand this lie. We are all the same, we have the same blood running through our veins. There are intelligent and less intelligent in all groups. There are honest and dishonest in all groups. We may have different traditions, but we are all human beings and no human being is superior to any other. We all have a right to be treated the same and this mass hatred needs to be gone. It is just taking time, but it will happen.
Many times during wars soldiers were taught to de humanize the enemy. This is how you teach some one to kill. This is where many bad words came from and bad attitudes. Soldiers are only taught what there governments want them to be taught and they fight battles that they had no individual decision in and then they fight each other. I am not saying we shouldn't have soldiers, what I am saying like in wars, the Germans were Krauts, the Japenese were Japs and this is done in racism. Derogatory names to de humanise others.
Intellectually this is so very wrong and all races and groups have had individuals show the world that they have made the world better. Here are a few, some not so well known people.
Garrett Augustus Morgan
(1877-1963) invented the Gas mask used in World World 1. Look at all the lives he saved. Garret was Black.
Saul Adler (1895-1966, Jerusalem) was an expert on Parasitology and helped find the cure for Malaria. Look at all the lives he saved. Saul was Jewish.
Physicist Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1936) accomplished the first successful wireless transmission of radio waves and won the Nobel Prize in 1909. Look at all the lives that were/are saved from being able to transmit radio waves for help and rescue. Guglielmo was Italian.
Chemist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev (1834–1907), invented the periodic table. How many people were able to use this table to learn and do great things? Dmitry was Russian.
Physican and Scientist, Sir Charles Brian Blagden FRS 1748–1820) came up with the concept of a chemical reaction, which he reported to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1783, effectively founding modern chemistry. Sir Blagden was English.
and roger, that was WONDERFUL!!!
When my family moved to Massachusetts from Virginina we were one of the first black families to move into the neighborhood. The people were distant but polite...the kids were just fine.
One girl invited me to her house for a pool party.
My parents, unsure about this asked whether I was absolutely SURE I was invited.
Long story short: The pool party came and went and I never received an invite. Later the girl explained why...It was apparently the same reason why, when we were playing and I asked for a glass of water, her mother offered me the hose.
My friend, and I call her that because she was, probably has forgotten these incidents. But I-decades later, can still remember the hurt associated with them.
Insidious and sad and ongoing...In 2007 I can tell you similiar things still occur. I have expereinced them and I worry for my children...
I have no answer.
Pamela
There is some unrest in Portugal against the newer and illegals immigrants from mainland Africa who have no ties to Portugal but as Portugal is still a poor country, the poorer Portugese say they are feeling pressured for the poorer-paid jobs.
BTW, that's not me condoning racism, I hate it - in any form!
That man was a bigot, pure and simple.
Yes, that's it exactly.
Her son was very dark. One day they were riding in the car together and she got pulled over. The police man asked her what she was doing with that n---er in the car with her. She responded by saying he is my son. This of couse was in the 1930's, but racism is still alive and well today.
Money is a physical object or represents physical objects. That means that it can be taken away from you and everybody has a motive to take your money even though most people are content to trade fairly with you.
Because money is treated as a physical object transactions involving its use give people the impression they are in a zero-sum game situation even though they are not. It makes people feel like the only way they can get money is if someone else loses money.
Because money is a physcial object it is amoral and can be used for any purpose whether good or bad.
Therefore, because many people are tempted to hurt others to gain money and some will yield to that temptation (organized crime for example) we get such things as slavery and milder forms of exploitation of others. The American experience with slavery was obviously an explointation of others. To justify that institution and the wealth that a few gained from it, the slaves had to be denigrated and made out to be somehow not quite human.
That discrimination which money makes possible and which money rewards continues to this day and is justified to this day in the same old ways.
If we change the nature of our money so that only by helping and benefitting others can we gain money then we eliminate most of the motivation for discrimination and thus for racism.
To see how it can work see the science fiction novel "Invisible Hand" available online without charge at:
http://www.unc.edu/~mason/hand.html
Not to make light of a huge problem, but I think when man evolved from apes some things just didn't go right. And of course, there will be people who are prejudice against this statement, because there are all those people that don't believe in evolution..... get my point?
Now I'm not saying that fighting is right, because it isn't. But I couldn't believe that in the 90's, people would be brass enough to say a stupid comment like that. I was furious and shocked that people could be so stupid. D and I broke up - for different reasons - not too long after that. Sometimes I wonder if he took it too much to heart when those bigots came over to our table.
I guess this is my way of saying YES! Racism SUCKS!
Not this side of the pond....! Or if there is, it's waaaaay back in the days when our ancestors first stood upright in Africa!
For example did you know in schools they no longer want to call it sitting indian style? They want to call it criss cross apple sauce? I am Native American and the term Indian style in no way offends me, it's just a way of sitting that was based on Native Americans. I think it's completely silly - but it's ok to play cowboys and indians and the indians be the bad guys.
In sort - racism is bad and I think as a population we think to much about not offending anyone that in the end we offend/hurt everyone.
The thing that I find most disturbing lately is blackface. No, I am not letting it go. Gather may restrict my eyes from articles I find offensive, but when White people on this site put on a black face to offend me and put forth a racist agenda, I am finding that it is not only offensive, the American judicial system is saying that if illegal.
If Gather won't address, I SHALL.
Hiding articles is not the answer Gather.
I did not bring the issue to your attention so that you could put blinders on me.
I do not need to be made to "feel good."
That is the problem with this country today, every body just want to
"FEEL GOOD."
Well la de da!
And here is your
"feel good drug!"
No, thank you!
I want solutions! action and
CHANGE!
Let's get with the program here!
My God, what in heaven's name
or is it hell's name
Is wrong with people?
Still happy you invited me to this party Berf?
Thank you, either way! :=)
I got distracted by LadyNalita's rant & now must know what she is talking about. "Blackface"? "White ppl putting on a blackface?" What does that mean? Does anyone know what she's talking about? I'm really curious now.
So far the only racism that I've come across on Gather was 2 very anti-gay articles. Both articles & the members who wrote them got chewed out by a lot of us & I know that at least 1 of them has been removed by Gather.
I just do not understand any kind of hatred and racism against anyone. If I hate someone it is going to be for something he or she has done .. that individual person .. not the whole race!
I would write more .. but two of my kids keep bickering!!!!! So I got to go play warden!
My father always told us, that the Black man, fought in many a war to keep this country free, his blood is the same color as ours.
We were also, told to treat people as we would want to be treated.
In order to have friends, you have to be a friend.
My mother would always tell us, to do what our heart tells us to do, and live by the golden rule as well.
I had parents that were ahead of the times. It seemed that they could sometimes foresee the future. They were very wise parents.
all life is about survival. racism helps people survive without sharing.
There is no logic in it. How could Christians with a Jewish Savior and Jewish disciples writing our Bibles be prejudiced against Jews?
I love quotes and I think this one applies:
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It's not.
--Theodore Seuss Geisel, aka "Dr. Seuss"
i have never understood racism either. i believe that ppl are raised to hate or love. but, as you get older, you can think for yourself. i never understood it either and sometimes don't want to. i stay away from ppl that are racist.
racism will never end. at least not in my lifetime.
racism I think is a kind of mental illness just like some one that is afraid of odd things.
Racism should be punishable by law!
My parents are great examples of racists. Everything they say or do revolves around hating anyone that is not white. It was incredibly difficult for my brother and I to have friends as kids when our parents were doing this.
And even now, to this day, they are still hating...the only problem is....it's even worse.
i know someone like that in my family...i don't tell a lot of ppl about him cause of it. it doesn't matter what you say, he'll find something racist to say. it's like it's sec. nature for him but i know he was raised like that cause his parents were the same...i just turn the other cheek. but, i don't hang out with him at all cause of it. know how you feel
i don't go into public seen with him...he's embarrassed me too many times. he'll be racist in public and then ppl will assume i'm racist cause i would be with him in public...and he wonders why i don't go out with him
I watched a National Geographic special recently about DNA and how all humans on this Earth share 99% DNA and the few molecules that separate us makes us look different. We are all a product of our circumstances. Like you color of a person's skin was never an issue with me - in fact I can search my heart abd say I am truely color blind. We have raised our children that way too. The only way to change the world to not be racist is one person at a time.
If not race it may be religion or caste that divide us.
You do see more mixed relationships now than you've ever seen.
I am from India,a land that’s known for its cultural diversity.A lot of factors divide us from each other- namely religion,caste,sub-castes and language.A garden of differences in which the weeds of racism have their roots running deep through the soil.
We can be racist on practically everything.But what really annoys me is our obsession with white skin.Its quite amusing to see all those fairness cream advertisements harping on how using their product would ‘make our lives better ’ or ‘get us a husband’ or ‘a job’ or a life.
Pregnant women are told not to drink too much of tea.It would effect the baby’s skin tone(read that as ‘make the baby’s skin black’)
Dark babies are bathed in yoghurt,turmeric,gramflour and what not in the hope that they would magically turn white.
Matrimonial advertisements(yes we still have arranged marriages) hammer it day in and day out that fair brides have a higher chance of finding a husband.
Call it the ‘colonial hangover effect’We like to blame the Brits for everything,don’t we?They left our country over 50 years ago but their skin colour still rules us and it always will. In a developing nation like ours where poverty is widespread , fair skin has been attributed to health,wealth and social affluence.Will that perception change?
I doubt it ever will.
Whether I am in India or in Dubai, I deal with racism gracefully.
If a person cant see beyond my skin colour,that person is definitely not worth fretting over
If a person cant see that there is more to me than my appearance, that person doesn’t know what s/he is missing out on and
If a person cant see that deep down we are more similar than different,that person is definitely not worth knowing.
Call it an escapist approach.I don’t care because It works for me and my peace of mind.
His comment really got into me for a while and it bothered me a lot. So I decided from then on that not only do I make sure that I walk on the right side of the sidewalk I make sure that when I go out there I always held my head up high and let people know that I am proud of who I am and where I came from. And when I encounter people who are ignorant, I make sure that I don't waste any of my time with them.