Of course, I’d like to think everyone is trying to conquer their own bigotry, (fat chance) but do we have the same ire for say, indian vs asian, black vs latino etc, than we do for say white vs black, or white vs jewish or whatever?
I work with some of the latino persuasion, and once in conversation a co-worker told me “Well you know those Puerto Ricans are known to be trashy people.” She was from Chile, but I’ve heard Mexicans express the same sentiment. I have no idea what the Puerto Ricans think of them.
The thing is, we at large tend to shrug that sort of thing off. Whereas, once a white receptionist at another job once told me with disdain about “ghetto n-words” and I was like :eek:. I wasn’t like :eek: about the Puerto Rican comments. Probably because the person speaking to me was Chilean, although I was put off by it.
No, it’s not more shocking when whites show racial prejudice. It’s just that whites are the only people who are seriously expected not to care about race.
It’s not any more shocking but I take issue with your example. What if the white receptionist said she finds black people to be trashy and the Chilean told you of the disdain she feels for Puerto Ricans.
Expressing misguided negative views of a particular people is inherently less shocking than expressing outright disdain for them, particularly when accompanied by a racial epithet.
It shouldn’t be more shocking, but for me it is. Maybe cultural training.
However, there may be a (tiny) justification for it. William Raspberry, wrote a column about twenty years ago where he made the following analogy:
Consider the bumper sticker “My other car is a Rolls Royce.”
If you see it on a 1992 Nissan Sentra, it’s funny and ridiculous.
If you see it on a 2002 Honda Accord, it seems like harmless wishful dreaming.
If you see it on a 2009 Bentley Arnage, the driver’s a total asshole.
Whites have been the unofficial ruling class in the United States from 1776 until now. Now it’s starting to change a little bit. Still, it’s there, at least for this generation.
A bum can make fun of a CEO. A bum can make fun of an accountant.
An accountant can make fun of a CEO.
A CEO making fun of a bum? Asshole.
Mexicans and Puerto Ricans have a pretty notable rivalry between themselves. And if you are looking for a group that Puerto Ricans really look down on, it’s Dominicans.
At least that’s the impression I get from my Puerto Rican father-in-law, who often sounds like a darker-skinned Archie Bunker.
But you see, the negativity was about the same in both conversations. They were both showing disdain, in fact the receptionist was trying to seem funny.
But I never quite felt the same about talking with the receptionist, while with the Chilean, I wouldn’t say it affected my opinion of her in the same way. Granted I liked the Chilean personally more than, oh never mind.
It all gets so complicated, but still white vs whatever prejudice still gets a :eek: from me and inter-non-white is more of a reaction. Maybe it’s me? I’m prejudiced against whites!
Most white people are willing to give any minority group a pass if they make a racist comment. I’ve heard minorities make comments that would make most racist whites blush and they almost never get called on it. Almost as if their view is more rational and legitimate than a white person’s views. It seems to me the people who are most shocked by racist comments are the least likely to have ever lived around or interacted much with minority groups and, thus, are more willing to hear out the views of a minority group.
It all goes (in a way) down to cultural pride. In Latin America, every country thinks theirs is the best. And even within countries, some regions are more regionalists than others.
In Puerto Rico, the minority that is look down on is Dominicans. When I’m surrounded by people from Mexico and Central America (I was with them a lot in Baton Rouge), the minority look down on were Hondurans. I have to admit their pop music sucks.
Argentinians have the stereotype of thinking way more of themselves than elsewhere in the continent.
One big difference with Puerto Rico is that there are two different populations. The ones who consider themselves Puerto Rican but have never been to the island, didn’t grow up there, just had their whole ancestors and family there. The others are the “islanders”, growing up in the island, with the family around, in what is basically a Latin American nation.
The former group, if they came from the first mass migrations, when it was mostly poor people… Well, poor people tend to end up living in the poorer parts of towns (ghettos). The later migrations do not follow that, and the “islanders” come from a much varied background, and a place from where they were certainly not a minority.
What pisses me off really bad is when someone comments that I don’t look like a Puerto Rican because “you don’t dress/talk/walk like them”. No shoot, missy, I’m not from the ghetto, and it disturbs me that you equate my whole dear country with one!
No sense in being pissed…this is your opportunity to explain the difference to them. For people who have not been to PR or exposed to many people from there, you can’t expect them to know the difference.
No, that’s backward. The OP’s stance suggests she expects less of minorities than of white people in terms of racism, as if minorities on the whole just don’t know any better but white people do. That opinion doesn’t make any sense no matter how it’s sliced, though. If the white person’s comments seemed more shocking, maybe it’s because “ghetto niggers” is a harsher epithet than “trashy people.”
Yes, see I acknowledge that I have that expectation I guess, and I do think it’s wrong (and a form of prejudice) to expect more from whites in terms of racial tolerance. But I do believe I’m not the only one. And I do believe inter-non-white prejudice is just as bad. However, it doesn’t hit me as viscerally as white prejudice does. And that’s wrong, but it’s true all the same.
Did you see my first reply to **Two Many Cats **? I specifically suggested that “ghetto niggers” was simply inherently more shocking than “trashy people”. Two Many Cats came back to insist that the hatred and intolerance was equal in both cases, in spite of the way it was written. So I’m not going to argue that what Two Many Cats wrote is more accurate than (s)he says the tone really was.
I’m just saying, whatever the case may be it’s Two Many Cats’ bias and not anything intrinsically different between whites and non-whites.
I’m just explaining it for what it is. As far as the visceral part goes, you’re white, right? Maybe you’re nervous about someone else assuming you share those views, or fear you share them yourself.
[/QUOTE]
I’m just explaining it for what it is. As far as the visceral part goes, you’re white, right? Maybe you’re nervous about someone else assuming you share those views, or fear you share them yourself.
[/QUOTE]
I wouldn’t say I fear being bigoted. I have my prejudices same as anyone. I recognise them as wrong, but I can’t help whatever gut reactions I have. And as for the two conversations, the spirit of the terms “trashy people” and “ghetto niggers” were comparable in my view. Both wrong. Perhaps you had to be there. The receptionist was attempting to joke around. The Chilean was not.
I don’t consider Puerto Ricans and Chileans to be separate races or ethnicities. Obviously, there are cultural differences, but a Chilean insulting a Puerto Rican, to me, is more like a New Mexican insulting a Texan or an American making fun the French. It’s not the politest thing in the world, but it’s not the same thing as insulting someone explicitly because of their race.
:dubious:
I guess I just think of different ethnicity when I think of “American” and “French”, it’s one thing for someone to insult someone’s culture but to insult someone’s race is a bit… more off putting to me.
A Native American can talk about a black Frenchmen eating their croissants and drinking wine and whatever other stereotypes you want.
The moment they start complaining about their actual skin color or genetic predisposition, that starts to irk me. The cultural one I see more as in good fun just like rooting for your favorite sports teams (though people do get shot and killed over that sort of thing), the racial one… I just don’t take that one as well usually- it never really feels as lighthearted.
But ethnicity is no more a choice than race. I’m German. If I went around talking about dumb Dagos or whatever I don’t think that is better than if I went around saying those stupid Chinks. That doesn’t make any sense.
True, but I don’t think it’s all that rare. Look at the reaction to the atrocities of the Nazis, and those of the Imperial Japanese - the Nazis are regarded as iconic of evil, but the Japanese atrocities are almost obscure. In part, I believe that’s because we just didn’t expect any better of the Japanese, for racial reasons. In other words, I think that racism among non-whites is often ignored due to the assumption ( often subconscious ) that you can’t really expect anything better from “those people”.
IMHO, another reason is that racism has been pushed as a “whites against everyone else” thing so much that racism by non-whites surprises just because it doesn’t fit the stereotype.
reaction. Maybe it’s me? I’m prejudiced against whites!