While discussing how my job (SCORE! tutor) is entering promotion time, and how I was talking to new parents about the center/trying to get them to join, my stepfather asked me about the racial demographics of the center. I told him that its about 40% Indian, 40% East Asian, and 20% everything else (Caucasian/hispanic/african-american mainly). Well, my stepfather then gave me a lecture on the reason that there are so many Indian and East Asian kids at my center is probably because “Those kids don’t need any extra help. Their parents just take them there as a supplement to make sure they are better than everyone else” :eek: Now, I’m not the kind of person who gets easily offended, but I was really floored by this guy’s level of ignorance. According to his logic, Indian and East Asian kids at my center are there “just to be better than everyone else” while the caucasians are “the ones who need the real help” and that I should “Go around promoting SCORE! to more white people”. I can’t believe what he was saying! I mean, I can be pretty predjudiced at times, but compared to my stepfather I looked like a goddamn saint . His bigotry extends to every spectrum when it comes to blame. White people are infallable, according to him. Its everyone else that causes problems for them, he says :rolleyes:
At the time, I was too mad to even utter any coherent speech, but excused myself and fumed in my room for a couple of hours. I can’t believe he would have the gall to say something like that. Caucasian kids are NOT being opressed in the center- everyone that goes there is there because they need extra help in one thing or another. The kids that make up the majority race-wise are not perfect little geniuses, they are coming in to get a little extra help with math/reading just like everyone else.
I can understand you anger. Your stepfather is unbelievable.
I think you answered this but it is true that everybody who comes in (no matter what their reason) gets the help for which they ask, right? If so, nobody is being kept down by the center - only by their parents not bringing them in.
Ask this question to your stepfather:
Child A and Child B are having problems in Subject X.
Child A comes in for help and Child B does not.
Which child will do better in Subject X (all else held equal)?
If Child A happens to be Indian or East Asain while Child B happens to be white, guess it is racism, huh?
Damn, now I’m mad. Because Parent B didn’t bring Child B into the center, he/she is doing worse than Child A (whose parents cared to bring him/her in). Now whitey is bitching about how well others are doing.
I’m not mad at what is happening at the center. I’m mad at what the OP’s stepfather is saying. That is what got me mad. Somebody complaining about how others are doing better because (as I see it) the “others” are asking for help.
Would you rather I said “Now asshat is bitching about how well others are doing?”
Your stepfather is an ignorant fool who obviously lives in a Candyland sort of universe where whites/caucasians are the most put upon and beaten down race on Earth.
Depends what you meant. If you meant “now white people are complaining about…” that would be racist because you basically are lumping all us “whities” with one ignorant ass.
Well, the “beating down Whitey” bit is arrant nonsense, but the stepfather’s first statement isn’t racist at all, but the plain truth. I taught English in Seoul, South Korea from 1993 to 1999, and it is SOP for Korean parents to send their children to cram schools (hagwon in Korean) precisely that their children will get a leg up over their schoolmates. There are only a limited number of seats in the nation’s universities and one’s employment prospects are heavily affected by which university one graduates from, so getting good grades in school is paramount. For example,a graduate of Seoul National University has a much better chance of getting the plum jobs than a graduate of Konkuk University does. Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese parents place a huge emphasis on grades and studying hard and are heavily invested in their children’s futures.
Diogenes, though whitie in this context didn’t offend me, I can see how it might. Should msmith537 not be offended because he is of the privelaged class? (How does “whitie” compare to the “n-word”?)
The use of whitey in the OP was clearly insulting the racism of the OP’s stepdad.
You can call me “Whitie”, anytime. You can call me cracker, wonderbread, or even cornflake. I don’t mind, because I am THE MAN[sup]TM[/TM].
But have some sympathy before you throw those racist epithets at me. I work hard to keep the guard that holds back the minorities. Creativity is important in this endeavor, and in the '80’s I cooked up my best plan ever. Crack to keep the blacks back and AIDS to keep the gays at bay. Despair and strife are the tools in my playbook’s pages, but quality of life and wages are hard to keep down in these modern ages.
No, I don’t know what the point of that was, either. It’s a work in progress - satirical lyrics tentatively titled “sympathy for THE MAN”
Diogenes, do you honestly not see how racism == racism in any context? Do you not understand how hatred is the same, no matter who it’s directed against?
Whitey is not racist, it is a goofy term used by all to mock the “man is keeping me down” excuse used by people who aren’t being kept down by the man. No one uses whitey seriously, except maybe a few drooling morons who don’t count in the grand scheme of things. Please not that my post is not saying there is no racism left in the world, just saying that some people using it as an excuse have other problems. Now kindly get out of the Pit if you want to crusade against hatred, since this whole forum is based on peoples’ hatred of things. Or sit back and complain about Whitey keeping you down.
“Don’t worry sister, I’m only here to kill crackers.”
-Ronald Taylor (quoted in testimony by a witness at the Wilkinsburg McDonalds when Taylor went on a rampage, shooting 5 people and killing 3.)