# Americans: in your community, is white racism, black racism, or Hispanic racism the biggest problem? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 29, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353 "2014-07-29T20:07:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/1 "2014-07-29T20:07:09Z")
First a little housekeeping. By “white racism,” I mean racism expressed by white people against other ethnic groups; likewise for black and Hispanic racism. I specified “your community” because it is not the nation as a whole I wish to discuss, or even any specific state, but rather poster’s impressions of the city/town/county they live in. You can decide what problem means for your own damn selves, and I wrote “biggest” rather than “bigger” because the spirit of my eleventh grade English teacher possessed me while writing the thread title. Damn Christian Brothers. Another way to phrase the question would be “Is racism most prevalent among blacks, whites, Hispanics, or some other ethnic group,” and I think I will phrase the poll question that way. [ETA: And I asked the question of Americans (meaning USAmericans) rather than of the world as a whole because racial attitudes among USAmericans is what I want to talk about. Deal with it. :p] Anyway, the poll will be up in a minute, but don’t let that slow you down. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/2 "2014-07-29T20:11:23Z")
Hard to quantify. Possibly a tie for all groups. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/3 "2014-07-29T20:32:24Z")
I am deeply offended by your omission of dessert. I intend to prepare Cherries Jubliee on your front lawn. Regards, Shodan PS - that’s not a hood - the chef’s hat just keeps slipping over my eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/4 "2014-07-29T20:40:02Z")
I’d say white racism, but it’s difficult to quantify because it’s rare to see really overt displays of racism - being an obvious racist would quickly isolate you. Despite this, there’s quite a lot of subtle snobbery that goes on, which is harder to fight. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/5 "2014-07-29T20:47:21Z")
I would say INSTITUTIONAL racism, which is furthered by people of all races, usually unconsciously. It falls disproportionately on minoriry studentr, and probably the hardest on poor African American students. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/6 "2014-07-29T20:53:16Z")
Here in Seattle, there are Russians who will go out of their way to find someone of a similar background. For example, a woman really wanted me to do tax returns for her, but her husband vetoed anyone not-Russian. Other than that, I don’t see much real racism. There are outliers of all sorts, of course, but they’re pretty much equal opportunity across all racial lines. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/7 "2014-07-29T23:58:14Z")
I have only encountered two people who have expressed horribly racist views, and both were elderly white men, so I picked “white.” I do think personal racism is vanishingly rare, and institutional racism is more of a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/8 "2014-07-30T01:27:22Z")
Racism is fairly rare here in Southern California…but it certainly exists. Just yesterday, I happened to overhear two guys saying uncomfortable things about Jews. One conversation I heard outside my window made me laugh. “Africa! Man, Africa! AF-RI-CA!” “Dude, he’s Indian.” “Oh, like fuck? He is?” Orange County (CA) recently had an incident of flyers left at front doors, attempting to recruit for the KKK. Open recruitment? It made the news, but we may take some comfort: nearly everyone said, “Oh, I just put it in the trash.” ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/9 "2014-07-30T01:44:10Z")
I have no idea. 100% of the people I encounter who would possibly show racism around me are white people. But like 95% of the people I interact with in a year are white people. So it may be that there’s just as many racist shitheads amongst the black, hispanic or Asian populations around here but no one is mentioning it to me. Whites are the most racist people I know. They also are the most people people I know. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/10 "2014-07-30T04:09:25Z")
The town where I grew up in West Texas was very segregated – Blacks on the east side, Hispanics on the north side, Whites on the west and south, and a little mixture in the middle. I know I grew up among some shamefully flagrant White racists. When I was old enough to intermix with Blacks and Hispanics from the other sides such as in my restaurant job in high school, the others seemed a lot more mellow than the Whites I grew up among. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/11 "2014-07-30T04:16:11Z")
I’m in the San Fernando valley and usually if I experience racism it’s from Hispanics. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/12 "2014-07-30T04:45:23Z")
I’m not sure which is more common, but I’d venture that racist attitudes by white people is the biggest problem. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/13 "2014-07-30T05:39:07Z")
I live in a very diverse suburb. My house is situated between an African-American neighborhood and an ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhood. The rest of us are scattered around randomly, including a visible LGBT community. I haven’t noticed any racism at all, except: Several years ago there was an orthodox Jewish City Council member who blocked every issue that favored LGBT rights. Eventually he got voted out of office. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/14 "2014-07-30T10:46:35Z")
I was a bit surprised to see the poll categories about who are the most racist, rather than who are most often the victims of racism. I think the latter categorization would have made for an easier choice (in my case), because – and this is a huge generalization, based on no real data – I think blacks tend to be the victims of racism (usually in subtle but pernicious ways) which is directed towards them, on average, about the same from whites as from Hispanics. (The mitigating factor among Hispanics, and this the reason I chose “whites” in this poll, is that the ones from Cuba, DR, Panamá, or Brazil don’t entirely distinguish “black” from “Hispanic” – although even many of them DO make more-or-less-racist assumptions based on skin tone distinctions.) ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/15 "2014-07-30T11:11:34Z")
The thread title (Americans: in your community, is white racism, black racism, or Hispanic racism the biggest problem?) and the poll title (Americans: in your community, what “racial group” is most likely to display racist attitude [sic]) are asking two different questions. Anyhow: as a white American living in Genesee county (home of Flint, MI) I have witnessed more instances of white racism, mostly against blacks and Middle Eastern persons, than anything else. However, abhorent though that is, I don’t think racism per se contributes much to the largest problems facing this community: the economy, high crime, and blight. As an aside, I know and work with quite a few Middle Easterners, mostly from Iraq and Syria, and mostly Chaldean or Orthodox Christian. Some are atheist too, and some are Muslim. They will on occasion be frustrated by the fact that people assume Middle Easterners are all Muslim by default, and to be eyed with suspicion. There’s a big, diverse Middle Eastern community here. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/16 "2014-07-30T11:13:01Z")
What’s left of the KKK meets around my neck of the woods. Sis often sees Grand Wizard at work (a bank.) Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/17 "2014-07-30T11:31:10Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Whites are the most racist people I know. They also are the most people people I know. Agree, but I’ll fine-tune for my area. _Rural_ whites are the most racist people I know. I love living in the country, but damn are people racist here compared to my city living friends. ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/18 "2014-07-30T14:38:25Z")
This is a difficult question to answer. Black people and white people in my area keep themselves segregated from each other to a great degree, and most seem to think that’s normal. It’s self-perpetuating of course, as people that find the situation intolerable are more likely to vote with their feet and relocate. Personally, I think it’s appalling, but actually I seem to be subjected to racism less here than other places because everyone is so caught up in the black/white dichotomy (I am neither) and my interactions with people here are pretty limited these days. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/19 "2014-07-30T19:00:20Z")
No idea. Our town’s Wikipedia entry lists it as something like 99.3% white. The 0.7% is our Hispanic postal worker. As far as I’m aware, everyone likes her, and she likes everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353/20 "2014-07-30T22:30:34Z")
In my community? **Persians**. I live in [Little Persia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehrangeles) in L.A. Mostly my neighbors are cool. Occasionally someone is a dick about alternate ethnicities. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/americans-in-your-community-is-white-racism-black-racism-or-hispanic-racism-the-biggest-problem/694353.md?page=2)