# Incidents of overt racism in everyday life **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 19, 2017, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382 "2017-06-19T17:21:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/41 "2017-06-20T06:48:15Z")
Maybe he should have tried the White Album. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/42 "2017-06-20T06:57:23Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > That is extremely retrograde, an attitude that was obsolete well before the majority of Dopers were even born. But then there are still assholes arguing that women oughtn’t have the vote. > > This may be a relevant point: Many years ago, I came across a product of the 1960s Black Power movement, the “Black Intelligence Test to Counter Honkeyism (B.I.T.C.H.)” — which was written to demonstrate how IQ tests are culturally/racially biased in their assumptions and questions. All the questions were ones you’d presumably get wrong if you weren’t steeped in African-American culture. > > So one of the questions was: **“Do the Beatles have SOUL?”** (uppercase in original) Wow – I remember you sharing this anecdote the first year I joined the SD. Time flies. But it was actually the Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Marci\_Al](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Marci\_Al](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marci_Al)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/43 "2017-06-20T08:58:43Z")
Hohum. First world jibes at anything third world can be much worst. And a lot of those given above aren’t racist at all, though they might mention a certain race. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/44 "2017-06-20T09:35:33Z")
No message. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/45 "2017-06-20T11:03:34Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > This reminds me of something I’ve noticed for a long time: > > A racist white person assumes all white people are racists. > A sexist man assumes all men are racists. > An antisemitic gentile assumes all gentiles are antisemitic. > A homophobic straight person assumes all straight people are homophobic. > Etc. > > I think it gives them an excuse for being what they are, in the sense of “Of course I’m a racist; it’s part of being white” or “Of course I’m homophobic; it’s part of being straight.” I think it behooves those of us who don’t fit this pattern to speak up and show them that hatred is not automatic, no matter what you are. _Cree el ladrón que todos son de su condición_; a thief believes everybody is also one. Used as advice that if someone’s default mindset is to think ill of others… he’s giving you warning. And of course, for those more obvious ones you mention. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/46 "2017-06-20T11:13:18Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > That is extremely retrograde, an attitude that was obsolete well before the majority of Dopers were even born. But then there are still assholes arguing that women oughtn’t have the vote. There were four walking mummies in the supermarket yesterday who kept bumping each other up on the subject that there is no need to have laws against rape and sexual assault, because according to them “someone rapes your little girl, you just beat the crap out of him”. They didn’t even notice the Silence of Doom that formed around them. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/47 "2017-06-20T11:14:38Z")
On time at a card table, someone broke one of the informal rules of the table and the guy next to him got mad and said “you just cost me $200, why don’t you go back to your country?” to the Latino guy. I was dumbfounded and didn’t say anything because I thought they might have known each other. Another reason I didn’t say anything: this was in _Miami_. The remark, in context, was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/48 "2017-06-20T11:16:54Z")
I’ll balance that with an incident where it was _right_ to not say anything: another time, a player was ranting about Obama, and at some point in his rant, pointed at the only black guy at the table and said “YOUR guy did that!” I was taken aback at this again but said nothing, only to see more clearly later on that the black guy was wearing an Obama cap :smack: ---
**Author:** ![MareIt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@MareIt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MareIt)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/49 "2017-06-20T11:35:01Z")
I went from Northern VA to Austin TX for a job interview with EA (Electronic Arts). As part of the terms of agreeing to the interview, I asked that they fly me in early so that I could check out Austin and be sure I wanted to move there. This included looking at barns where I could keep my horse. The first barn I went to, when I left and told them I was heading to barn B, said “that place always looks great because they have lots of Mexicans”. The third barn I went to, the owner told me that I would want to live on the west side of Austin because “All of the Blacks and Mexicans live on the east side” My main thoughts included: “WTF. I am a complete stranger!” and “At least in Texas most of the Hispanic folks are actually Mexican”. Those two conversations were definitely part of the reason I turned down the job. I went into the interview after 2 days of wandering around non-tourist Austin and thought that “I had better LOVE the job if I am going to relocate here” and while I thought the job sounded pretty cool, it wasn’t cool enough to pick up my entire life and move to Texas. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/50 "2017-06-20T12:02:02Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Did African Americans not come originally from a place where the jungle predominates as a bioform, and bring their cultural musical styling with them from said provenance? And voluntarily choose to associate themselves with that musical genre through the present era? You tell us, Livingstone. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/51 "2017-06-20T13:20:53Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Minor hijack - I’m in Southern MD - St. Mary’s county - and I’ve been surprised at the number of interracial couples I encounter. When we moved here 13 years ago, I was bracing for racism, but while it does exist, it’s not as pervasive as I’d expected. I’ve encountered more than my share of assholes, but there are still enough decent folks to keep me from feeling humanity is doomed. Yeah, it actually doesn’t seem to be as bad now. At least I haven’t had anyone assume I’m a racist white guy lately 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/52 "2017-06-20T13:33:13Z")
Fifty some posts later and i’m still wondering how overwhelmingly racist you’d have to be to call the Beatles “jungle music”. Reminds me of my fundie pastor railing against “Satanic Rock and Roll!” (right in my face, I guess he grabbed the first “youngster” he could find after the service), and he rears back and says “As practiced by bands like the Eagles!” I started laughing, covered that by a coughing fit, and had to leave before I started mocking him: “The Eagles? What about Megadeth?” And quoting lyrics from the “Satanic Panic” of the 80s (this was 1982). ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/53 "2017-06-20T13:55:40Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > This reminds me of something I’ve noticed for a long time: > > A racist white person assumes all white people are racists. > A sexist man assumes all men are racists. > An antisemitic gentile assumes all gentiles are antisemitic. > A homophobic straight person assumes all straight people are homophobic. > Etc. And the corollary is that people who look for racism find it everywhere at all times. It must be exhausting to find/notice/imagine/construct racism all day, every day. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/54 "2017-06-20T14:11:56Z")
> [@Orwell](#): > > And the corollary is that people who look for racism find it everywhere at all times. It must be exhausting to find/notice/imagine/construct racism all day, every day. Are you saying that this is what happened in the OP, or are you “just saying”? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/55 "2017-06-20T14:21:06Z")
There’s a chance he wasn’t being racist at all when he referred to The Beatles as “jungle music”. Likewise, there’s a chance that when someone I knew a few years back pointed at some young African-American women across the street and referred to them as “jungle bunnies”, it was because he had met them before at a Rwandan Playboy Club. ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/56 "2017-06-20T14:21:39Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Are you saying that this is what happened in the OP, or are you “just saying”? A little of both. The Beatles are the most famous musical act of the last century, and everyone knows they are all white. How could it possibly be racist to refer to “jungle music” in reference to the Beatles? OK, perhaps the other guy didn’t recognize that the music was the Beatles. I’m hard-pressed to think of many songs by the Beatles that sound like what most would consider to be traditional black music - R&B, gospel, funk, hip-hop, etc. It seems more like a comment that would have been made 50 years ago about rock music in general, in a completely non-racist way, BTW. My thought in the OP’s situation would be to think about the other guy being a fuddy-duddy, hopelessly old-fashioned or nuts… but not racist. But in a more general sense, it is my observation that some people go out of their way to look for racism, and analyze every comment and situation through that prism. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/57 "2017-06-20T14:21:43Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > So one of the questions was: **“Do the Beatles have SOUL?”** (uppercase in original) Rubber Soul. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/58 "2017-06-20T14:35:15Z")
I’ve mentioned this on the board before, but I witnessed a driver hit another car in a parking lot. Managed to memorize the license plate and report it. In a later conversation with a responding police officer, he informed me that they’d tracked down the driver and matched up broken glass from the scene with the broken headlight on her car. He said that she’d claimed she’d hit a tree. I said, “Wow, so she just straight up lied to your face about it, even with the evidence there in front of her?” The officer, who was white, responded, “Oh, she’s just being Asian.” I was dumbfounded: a) he would say that at all to a relative stranger, and b) he wouldn’t realize that I’d immediately wonder what he considers “just being black.” ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/59 "2017-06-20T14:39:19Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > There’s a chance he wasn’t being racist at all when he referred to The Beatles as “jungle music”. > Likewise, there’s a chance that when someone I knew a few years back pointed at some young African-American women across the street and referred to them as “jungle bunnies”, it was because he had met them before at a Rwandan Playboy Club. You really find those two examples to be equivalent? ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/60 "2017-06-20T14:42:57Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Surprises me that some people haven’t heard the term. It was widely used in times past when idiots like the one you met on the bus complained about rock music corrupting our youth. Maybe it’s a regionalism, but I didn’t think so. It surprises me too. I don’t think it’s an obscure term. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382.md?page=4)