# Ever know any bigots who changed their attitudes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 22, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211 "2009-12-22T17:04:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211/21 "2009-12-23T08:01:02Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > Korean shop owners in LA especially got alot of vitriol in those riots. Some of it had to do with the Soon Ja Du case. Note Ice Cube’s song “Black Korea.” It was complicated. Tensions had been simmering for a while, and the Soon Ja Du thing plus the Rodney King case was just the last straw for a lot of people. Of course the riots were wrong, but as a Korean I can kind of see how the black community might have resented the Koreans. Koreans in general are quite racist and I doubt they took much trouble to hide their opinions on black people. It is my experience that minorities can actually be harsher on other minorities. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211/22 "2009-12-23T13:01:00Z")
George Wallace of Alabama. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211/23 "2009-12-23T14:20:42Z")
I was once talking to a 75 year old guy who made a crack about not liking “what gays do.” I immediately went into my spiel “What gays do? You mean like going to work? Owning property? Paying taxes? Raising children? Going to the movies? Or are you judging them on what they do for one hour every week?” He laughed and said “One hour if I’m lucky.” Later he told me that had changed his whole attitude on the subject. I taught an old dog a new trick. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211/24 "2009-12-23T15:21:32Z")
> [@Manwich](#): > > Watts went all Jesus on Clary’s ass and turned the other cheek, told him he loved him. Non-violently resisted Clary into submission. "Went all Jesus on his ass … " I love it! Mark my words, I _will_ be stealing and using that. Sooner rather than later. You’ve been warned. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211/25 "2009-12-23T15:38:44Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > I actually find that a little funny, a person from a visible minority being a racist themselves - it does happen, but a vast majority of them are white in a majority white country (Apartheid-era S. Africa and Rhodesia excepted, of course) In Chicago, it seems to me that the biggest (open) racial tensions exist between Mexicans and blacks. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211/26 "2009-12-23T15:44:26Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > It is my experience that minorities can actually be harsher on other minorities. I don’t know if there’s a word for that phenomenon, but I think there should be, because I see it around too. It is very complicated though, so maybe that’s why there is no general term for it because none adequately describes the precise motivations and other factors across the board for all people. Where I first saw it occur was in people who were born into a (dominant) culture but didn’t actually ‘belong’ to that (dominant) culture. I think in that case, they try so hard to assimilate into the dominant culture, from their very early school-kid days, and continually get knocked back again and again buy officials of the dominant culture, that they end up with an ingrained belief that EVERYTHING not from that culture is to be looked down upon. Even though that dominant culture might still not fully accept them! I find it strange but I think I can understand the psychological aspect. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211/27 "2009-12-23T16:15:16Z")
As a famous example, D. W. Griffith, who made the very racist **Birth of a Nation** then followed it up with a movie condemning **Intolerance**. Griffith’s racism may have been just a case of his accepting the racism of his time and upbringing (he grew up in Kentucky, the son of a former Confederate officer) and discovering there were other viewpoints. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211/28 "2009-12-23T16:19:46Z")
> [@GameHat](#): > > I guess maybe he’s got the whole Chris Rock “Black people vs. N------” thing playing in his head. I’ve known a few people who act like they’ve heard that routine and sort of morphed the racism of their youth into a similarly angry classism (“I don’t care about your skin color. I like whites, blacks, and hispanics; but crackers, niggas, and wetbacks should all be jailed.”) ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211/29 "2009-12-23T17:41:19Z")
> [@Manwich](#): > > This one amazed me - [former KKK leader Johnny Lee Clary talking about his past.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBwIRq_hmjg) (youtube link) > > Clary harassed Reverend Wade Watts, burnt down his church etc. So Watts went all Jesus on Clary’s ass and turned the other cheek, told him he loved him. Non-violently resisted Clary into submission. I read a similar story about a KKK guy and a synagogue. Not only did the guy change his viewpoint, he ended up converting to Judaism. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211/30 "2009-12-23T18:09:22Z")
I know two people who moved in opposite directions, based on the same type of experience, but from different starting points. #1 was a lifelong liberal who got a job in the school system, teaching the Homebound (kids who were sick and/or disabled, and were taught at home). She got a lot of exposure to inner city kids and their families and lifestyles, and came to see many of the problems they faced as being largely of their own making. #2 was probably what you’d consider a racist, who mellowed out somewhat by becoming - of all things - a slumlord. As a result of his experiences with his tenants and their lifestyles, he came to the conclusion that most of these people were doomed by their surroundings, and the ability of any individual to rise above it was very limited. (For example, he had one tenant who he considered a good and decent person - and he is convinced that the guy was turned down for a mortgage because of his ethnicity - but who was unable to prevent his son from hanging with what was or became a drug gang, and eventually dying in a gang war.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-any-bigots-who-changed-their-attitudes/522211.md?page=1)