# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2017, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/81 "2017-06-22T12:27:19Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Lemme see if I can do this right: > > Why are you so convinced that’s racism? Maybe you looked exactly like the shouter’s best friend, who happens to live in China, and he’d organized a special surprise party for that friend back home, and he was excited for his friend to get to go to the party! It sure must be exhausting to hunt for racism everywhere! > > How was that? Is it not possible that at the time, they were struggling to eat from flimsy paper plates? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/82 "2017-06-22T20:37:55Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > [Historical uses of “jungle music” as a racist term](https://books.google.com/books?id=4pXsV06JjY8C&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=jungle+music+racist&source=bl&ots=njNpzkwFgG&sig=pR18Zx_AgEuolilP_vfbDowm7lM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8nYOd4M3UAhWq5YMKHQWWDzEQ6AEIUzAJ#v=onepage&q=jungle%20music%20racist&f=false). > > The effort people go into in order to deny racism in America is astonishing and disheartening. **LHoD** , you have probably just won the thread. Excellent work. “One example of covert racism was the use of the term ‘jungle music’ to refer to rock and roll. … But the real purpose of using that term was to connect rock with the jungle, or black Africa, and to imply that rock and roll had to be scorned because it was the music of blacks, who were ‘savages’.” Q.E.D. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/83 "2017-06-22T21:56:03Z")
Not racism, in this case, but homophobia. A lady I was working with and her husband. In casual conversation we were briefly talking about a movie I had just seen. It was a romantic comedy. He said something to the effect, “Oh, that fag movie.” It struck me that he was such a 100% male “guy” that he couldn’t even conceive of a movie appealing to women (and that it was more correctly a “chick flick”). Instead, in his world view, his only filter was “I’m a guy. The world exists for guys. What kind of guy would see this movie?” Now, he wasn’t calling me a “fag” at all - just the movie. ---
**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:** [June 22, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/84 "2017-06-22T23:09:22Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > 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. I so want to actually see this thing. I take it you don’t have a copy or anything, right? I sure can’t find it with a precursory Google search on the term, but just a few references to it. I know I’ll fail, but it still seems like it would be interesting to take that test. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/85 "2017-06-22T23:13:46Z")
I wonder if there’s an option called “SOUL? I intellectually know of this thing you people who identify with the African-American culture call “soul”, but everything that I’ve heard that supposedly has it seems FAKE FAKE FAKE to me and mainly useful for getting into pants.” ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/86 "2017-06-23T00:55:04Z")
I didn’t follow all the links but any [Steely Dan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcBSnUkexTU) references yet? ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/87 "2017-06-23T01:20:58Z")
A few years ago, I was at a thanksgiving dinner at a cousin’s house. I was watching football, and a black wide receiver dropped a pass. This old white guy next to me (I think he was a cousin’s wife’s dad) said to nobody in particular, “I bet he would have caught that if it was a watermelon.” He thought it was a hilarious comment, since the stereotype is that Black Americans love watermelon. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/88 "2017-06-23T02:25:59Z")
My BIL is overtly racist. Although for some reason he claims to he’s not. There are too many examples, some things include him working in the word “black” to describe people he dislike such as those at the Atlanta airports. Ever. single. time. He picked me up there, it would be a rant on the “make work for blacks” program is the reason that Atlanta airport employees are black. He’s humor impaired so he didn’t understand my mock outrage at the “make work for whites” program in Oslo. I was ill and needed a to visit the ER. On the way, he suggest I let them know that I’m not one of the hordes of Mexican immigrants. Why? Are doctors going to treat me better because I’ve got more Northern European blood? The final straw was on one rant where he told me the problem with America was that whites weren’t having enough babies. As I reminded him, my children are only half white. I finally told my sister that I’m not comfortable having my children around him. That was only an excuse, really I’m just too tired of listening to him. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/89 "2017-06-23T02:32:57Z")
We grew up in what was then lily white east side of Salt Lake City. The first black girl I met was in high school. My mother would not allow anything racist in our household. In contrast, my cousins were more typical and always were telling racist jokes. Looking back it was just something they said because everyone thought it was supposed to be funny. They didn’t know any minorities either. I don’t look back with fondness about that part of growing up in the 60s and 70s. People complain about too much PC, but I remember where we came from. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/90 "2017-06-23T04:56:19Z")
Truth, TB. One of my best friends in high school was half black at an almost entirely white school. Somebody stole her agenda and returned it to her with a noose circling a date that said “Leave this school or this is the day you die, nigger.” That was 1997. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/91 "2017-06-24T02:18:30Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I so want to actually see this thing. I take it you don’t have a copy or anything, right? I sure can’t find it with a precursory Google search on the term, but just a few references to it. > > I know I’ll fail, but it still seems like it would be interesting to take that test. I linked to an extant version in post [#63](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/report.php?p=20291702) above. Have at it! (The monetary values are from circa 1970.) ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/92 "2017-06-24T06:53:49Z")
Not racism, _per se_, but certainly smelled like bigotry: Last week, I was asked if I were Muslim - Specifically because of my beard (which I will admit is fairly epic). 😕 I replied that I was a “Born Again French Lumberjack.” I expect he’s _still_ trying to figure that one out. ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/93 "2017-06-24T11:44:37Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > So I’m on a crowded bus this morning listening to my McCartney and Wings collection, and the guy opposite me asks me what I’m listening to so I tell him. > His response? “I tried listening to the Beatles, but it was too much like jungle music to me”. he didn’t lower his voice or look around to see if there was anyone around that might find his remark insensitive-he just loudly offered up his racist comment is if it were perfectly acceptable for public consumption. Are you absolutely certain he wasn’t a fan of The Four Tops? I grew up in Wisconsin, but 20+ years ago, I lived in Washington DC and surrounding areas. There was a crab restaurant on upper Wisconsin Avenue with a bar overhead. I was in the bar once (well, more than once - but this only happened once) and used a racial comment as a joke. (Sorry) The bartender shushed me and pointed toward the door/stairs. A number of -to me- normal looking black people were entering. A few hours later, after eating and having a few drinks, they left. The bartender came up to me and said: “Goddammit Yankee, you gotta be more careful about your talk when niggers come in!” I have lived in Wisconsin for 20+ years and never heard anything like this… ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382/94 "2017-06-24T14:36:58Z")
Nawth Chucka wrote: “Those of you who don’t want to bother, it’s a group of black men singing a song w/ the word Jungle in the title. As to the point of their posting it, E-DUB will have to speak for themselves.” My point was that the gentleman in question may have thought that the Beatles sounded too much like this song, which he disliked. This song not only has the word jungle in the title, but has actual jungle sounds in the background. It also stands as an prime example of how black musicians had to, at one time, play into cultural stereotypes if they wished any success beyond their own community. I thought all that was fairly obvious.:dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-of-overt-racism-in-everyday-life/789382.md?page=4)