Fear is the most common type of racism amongst younger people these days?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I honestly wasn’t sure where to put this thread, and I’m not even sure if it’s a valid topic for discussion, or if it just veers off too much into “blog it” categories. Anyhow, if it needs to be moved or closed I apologize in advance.

It seems like a lot of the racism I see in my friends and colleagues these days isn’t so much disrespect or outward hatred, but simply fear.

For example, a few months ago I was walking down a street in the middle of scorchingly bright sunny day with my friend to get his mail. He noticed a few black guys playing basketball and turned around, saying he was afraid of getting mugged or something. I was pretty upset with him that he would be afraid of such a thing, in the middle of the day. The guys were obviously just out playing basketball, and I don’t think that any reasonable person could have had a reason to be afraid and turn around and go back home, but my friend felt afraid and that’s what we did. So I thought it was clearly racist and I mentioned it to him but he didn’t want to address it and just shrugged it off. He didn’t really want to DEFEND himself either, and I didn’t feel like pressing it, so I just let it go.

I’ve also seen this in other people, being afraid of black guys when they are walking on the street. And, it’s bothering me more and more, the more I see it happening amongst my otherwise not-racist friends.

I’m not trying to imply that we shouldn’t be on alert in reasonable situations. If I am in my car, and I see someone walking along the street toward me and I’m stopped at a red light or something, I instinctively lock my car doors, for example. The race of the person doesn’t matter in these situations, but age and gender typically do.

I’m not sure what, if anything, there really is to discuss… but, maybe just a few questions relating to this phenomenon.

Is anyone here intrinsically afraid of people of a particular race, even if rationally you know you probably shouldn’t be?

Is this clearly a form of racism? It seems to walk the line for me, because it seems to be a little bit more intrinsic and less controllable than a typical bigoted belief. And they also aren’t acting against anyone of a particular race, so that’s good. When discussing feelings of fear toward a particular race I’ve been told by someone, “Well I know you are right, but it was how I was raised by my parents and it’s just a feeling I get that I have no control over.”

What, if anything, should people do to try to get over racial fears?

I’ve addressed blacks in this thread, but what about middle-eastern/arabic/Muslim fear? I think a lot of people probably get a little uneasy or fearful when they see men who fit those ethnic/religious physical traits. Can anyone here relate to that?

2

I think fear is the basis of most bigotry, fear that a black guy will beat you up, fear that a gay guy will turn you on, fear is behind it all.

3

Last fall my wife and I were in downtown Baltimore, near Lexington Market around lunchtime on a weekday. Walking down the street there, it seemed I was the only white guy around, and virtually everyone else I saw was black. I was…uncomfortable. (My wife, who grew up in the homogeneity of Japan, was even more uncomfortable). I felt like at any minute someone would point out “hey, he’s white, GET HIM!” Whereas fifty years ago one commonly saw images in the news and media of white mobs assaulting black individuals, in recent decades it seems those images have been replaced with their polar opposite, i.e. black mobs assaulting white individuals. The most obvious example was the 1992 riots in LA, during which predominantly black mobs went on a violent rampage. Part of my discomfort I think also stemmed from the fact that most of the people I saw on the sidewalk just seemed to be loitering and chatting with each other, as opposed to the hustle-and-bustle of (for example) Manhattan, where office workers always seem to be in a hurry to get fom point A to point B.

Two other things that may have heighted my discomfort:

[ul]
[li]The parking ramp where I had left my car denied all pedestrian access, except to people who had received a token by driving their car in. I had never seen a parking ramp that so actively excluded non-customers, and this seemed to heighten my sense that this might be a high-crime area. [/li][li]I was aware that Baltimore’s crime rate was much higher than the national average.[/ul][/li]Two years ago I was in Japan. Walking down the street there, I was the only white guy around, and virtually everyone else I saw was Japanese. I was not at all uncomfortable.

4

Ha! Machine Elf makes me laugh. Personally I think every white person (really, every person) should experience what it’s like to be the extreme minority. Living in the States and having a lot of so-called “white” interests, I’m always the minority in everything. Hell, I just went to the garlic fest last weekend - a sea of white folks, with maybe three or four Asians, and maybe two black people.

Back to the OP: Fear is indeed the basis of most bigotry. Fear of the different. When you have grown up in a time and a place and a culture where everyone looked just like you, different means other and alien.

5

I think it’s a good thing that people are admitting the fear, though. It allows people to treat the root of the problem. Once I realize that the phobe part of homophobe was accurate, it was much easier for me to deal with the problem. When I was scared I might be gay, it was a much harder problem.

6

So Machine Elf, did anything happen at the markets that day to rationalise your discomfort? Get mugged or bashed?

7

Tell me more. Do you routinely feel feel fearful when you are the lone Asian in a sea of white people? Whatever you feel, do you feel that same way when you are the lone Asian in a sea of any other ethnic/race group?

FWIW, I think the circumstances may have had as much to do with the fear I described upthread as anything else. I probably would not have felt nearly as paranoid on the campus of a black college, or in the pews of a black gospel church.

Absolutely nothing untoward happened; our day went fine. I don’t claim that my fear is terribly rational - only that it exists.

8

Fear is common but so is condescension. Poor [insert minority here] are too [insert negative trait here] to help themselves. Mexicans are too lazy, blacks are too infuenced by rap, africans are too ignorant, Chinese are too brainwashed/oppressed, Poor people are too subject to their base reproductive whims, gay people are too subject to their base reproductive whims, fat people lack self control…

there are hundreds of negative stereotypes out there that are predicated on “oh they just can’t help themselves. it’s just part of who they are”

9

Your fear may not be totally irrational even if you experience the fear at times when it should not apply. Racism works both ways and when we are outnumbered it is good to excersize caution if you don’t know the neighborhood that well. In my neighborhood I don’t give race a second thought but 3 miles down the road I stay aware. If a neighborhood is known to be dangerous you are best to use caution no matter what race is involved.
Pancakes makes a great point about condescension, this is the most hideous yet acceptable form of racism.

10

Not fear. But I do sometimes feel the discomfort you spoke of. No matter what, I have my “difference” clearly stamped on my face; whether I want it or not. And I often feel unwanted, or as though people are asking “Why is she here? Who invited her?” Even when it’s clearly not the case and people are welcoming.

I don’t feel uncomfortable in a sea of black people, either. I do begin to feel a little…wary if I am amongst all men and alone. That doesn’t mean I think all men are rapists or anything like that.

11

Interesting. A feeling of “I don’t belong here” comes to mind, and may have been part of what I experienced in Baltimore. My wife experiences that a lot, too. She recently became a US citizen, but she says she doesn’t think she will ever feel like she is fully an American (not in the sense of loyalty, but in the sense of “this is my home and I belong here”). I tell her she’s every bit as American as my mom (a British subject by birth, she became a US citizen only 16 years ago); she says it’s not the same, because my mom “looks” American and speaks perfect English.

I would have thought that for you (and for my wife), those feelings would fade over time, since you basically spend pretty much all day every day being a racial minority and get used to hanging around with white friends. I guess not? So the black guy down the hall at work (with the rest of us being pretty much white) probably always feels a similar sense of discomfort/non-belonging?

12

I’m 100% American and think of myself as so. It’s other people who keep reminding me I’m not. Hell I (and my SO) have slipped up and referred to ourselves as white, or identified with white people.

But other people:

“Where are you from?”
“That’s a beautiful name, does it mean anything?”
“How do you pronounce that?”
“There’s an Indian guy on the phone. I can’t understand him, can you talk to him?”
“A woman married a dog in India! Did you hear!”

All of these things and more are said to me and all are constant reminders that I am other and not from here. This is my home and I belong here and no one can tell me otherwise…but I don’t always feel that way.

I speak English very well but I don’t look all that American. And I don’t look all that Indian, either! Indian people tell me I am not faithful to my roots. So I get stuck between two worlds forever. :frowning:

13

Well, if your little hypothesis is correct, than younger people are pussies and cowards.

More likely, they are ignorant, and oblivious.

14

My main point I guess I was making is that, if the base of all racism is fear, then of among my generation, that seems to be all that is left (for the most part).

I very, very rarely ever see people of my generation (mid 20’s here) being outwardly prejudiced and hateful. But I do still see the fear of other races, and I wonder just how common and prevelent this is among human beings.

I think that, for each and every one of us, there might be a little bit of fear about people who don’t look a lot like us. But it’s our actions that define us.

Now, my friend turning around and refusing to walk past the black guys playing basketball, that was an action that I found to be pretty deplorable. But again, he wasn’t going out of his way to hurt anyone, he wasn’t calling them names, and no one was negatively affected by his action (except for him, since he just flat out refused to go get his own mail).

So, if racism only manifests itself in “harmless” actions like the example above, is it defensible or understandable?

Am I giving it too much credit by classifying it into a different “type” of racism; is all racism the same?

15

I think you and my wife have a lot in common. Thanks for sharing; I appreciate your candor.

16

Eh, that’s just being oblivious, exactly the same as people who go out of their way to be extra super nice to someone who looks different.

Granted, I don’t tangle, as a white man of 36, with groups of young black hard looking kids, whereas I’ve confronted once, maybe more, a bunch of white kids acting like dicks at a restaurant. Same thing, I probably wouldn’t say what are you looking at? To a black hard looking kid, where I have with a white kid (pretty sure that happened a few times to me IRL – stay off drugs, kids!)

Maybe everyone’s an idiot. Are there black folks I’d mess with if they were giving me static? Yeah, absolutely – but not if he and a bunch of his little posse are trying to look all tough.

Combination of being a good judge of character – younger kids probably don’t know enough to get anything or have anything good to say to defuse a tense situation – and just not knowing in general enough, sticking with your example, black kids to know when playing is just for fun.

17

I think you make an excellent point. In past generations, outward expressions of racism were more prevalent - considered loosely acceptable by those doing it. It was still based on fear then, but the coping mechanism was to subjugate and everpower the targets with speech and action. However, our greater society has mandated that these outward expressions are no longer acceptable, and eventually most people learned to suppress the behavior. Because the behavior isn’t as prevalent now, children do not adopt it at all - progress! But the underlying fear of the other is still there.

18

I often feel that I am among rather few white people I know who are not scared of black people, and especially frightened of being in a situation where they are a minority. I now live in Philadelphia, which has a large black population, and I lived in mostly-white suburbs of Philly for the past decade… there’s more overt hatred among older people, but there’s still a pervasive uneasiness among the younger generations (I’m in my late 20s now but I know plenty of people 21-and-under who have it too).

Recently I moved to a predominately black neighborhood (a decent neighborhood, on the edge of a rather bad one). Two of my roommates are also black, and so are most of their friends. I am often in situations (including parties in my house and on my street, walking through my neighborhood, shopping in nearby stores, etc) where I am the only white person around. I guess I register it sometimes, but barely. I don’t have any feeling of unease or ‘difference’, and no one makes me feel unwelcome (in fact in my neighborhood, I am as likely to be spontaneously greeted by strangers as I am to greet them first myself). I’ve never once been a victim of discrimination or aggression based on my ethnic background, and I don’t expect to be. I think it’s safe to say that black people don’t give a shit that I am white. Why would they?

19

Young men of any race are going to be on my radar, groups of young men especially. You’d have to be pretty stupid to pay as much attention to a couple of old women as a group of rowdy young men. Just tonight I took my son to McDonalds, walking back there was a rather deserted street and on the other side around five teenage guys were hassling a vagrant(they sounded drunk), you best believe they had my full attention.

Call it sexism if you want, it would be stupid to do otherwise.

20

Wise point, grude.

Just to stereotype, I think groups of young white wannabe hard kids have no sense of humor – that’s probably the only thing that kept me from getting a beating my numerous times being drunk and stupid in all kinds of places. Total stereotype, but I think it’s true if you know the local rules of the game, you can just as often end up having a laugh and chilling out for a few minutes with some wannabe tough black kids. White kids, even in their twenties, are just drunk and aggro.