One post from another thread I started inspired me to start this one:
I fucking hate it when people pull that shit. Racism is very real, and a lot of people are hurt by it, but there are some assholes who use it as a weapon in order to intimidate or make someone feel like they’ve done something wrong when they haven’t. Case in point:
My neighbor in the apartment below me told me horror stories about the last tenant who was in our unit. Apparently this guy, who was Arab, stayed awake till 3 or 4am and had a huge big screen tv, which he had on full volume the whole time. Our walls are thick, but our floors are not, and our poor neighbor could not sleep. After a couple weeks of this he’d had enough and asked this tenant if he could please try to keep the volume down if he was going to be awake so late. This guy accused our neighbor of being a racist. (???) Another time - the guy was spray-painting his car, in its parking space…with 2 other tenant’s cars parked RIGHT BESIDE his. Coloured mist from the paint was permanently trailed all over one side of the other people’s cars. When they rightfully complained, he said the same thing…they were all a bunch of racists.
I’ve never had this accusation flung at me, but I know if I did I would be EXTREMELY pissed off, because I’m part Native, but you’d never know it by looking at me. So if I ever heard what Lsura heard…OOOooooooooh! :mad:
I used to manage a movie theatre, and was taking a day off. The assistant manager from a neighboring theatre was filling in for me. He asked one employee to run over to the other theatre to pick up a bag of popcorn. The employee refused, saying it wasn’t part of his job (which it was – we did shit like that all the time). After a few angry words, the AM told the employee “If you don’t want to do your job, you can just go home. And don’t bother coming back.”
Well, the next day, the angry ex-employee had a few choice words for me. He cornered me in my office in a very threatening way, and accused me of being a “racist bastard” because I fired him.
**Former ** Cow-orker: Why should I have to do the report? Get SoAndSo to do it.
Me: Look, you’re the one with the info, you do the report, it will take you maybe five minutes to do.
FCW: You think I don’t know what the problem is? You think I can’t figure out why you don’t want to ask SoAndSo to do it? Hmmm SoAndSo is WHITE isn’t he?
Me: I know that you’re not accusing me of what I think you’re accusing me of.
FCW: Admit it. You got a problem with me because I’m black.
Me: (Seething) No, I have a problem with you because you’re a lazy, fucking bitch, I couldn’t fucking care less what color you are.
Well she never did accuse me again. Grrrrr. (And normally, I’m a very nice, calm person. Really!)
Satyricon don’t let that get to you. Believe me all black people aren’t like that. I live here on the South Side of Chicago and I’m surrounded by people in that mindset all the time. I don’t know why, but for some reason todays African American generation seems to be going downhill fast in many areas. I’m not trying to come across as some type of uncle tom or anything, but I believe that the media and the enviroment that most of todays generation of black people live in (especially our youth) has a great deal of influence over how we see both each other and the world at large. Sometimes people will refer to you as a racist when they feel threatened and believe that this accusation is the only defense that they have (although this still doesn’t make it right)
I’m willing to bet you that the person who called you that will call another black man a nigger ( or another black woman a Bitch or a whore) a whole lot faster than he/she will call you a racist. Many black people find these insults just as painful coming from one of our own as we would coming from a white person or from anyone else, and many of our Politicians and Civil Rights leaders are making an effort to stop this.
As for the arab guys you mentioned, they may have learned that from watching other people thinking that if others can get away with it, then so can they. (Who knows)
But to make a long explanation very short, don’t let it get to you, just blow it off and forget it…it wasn’t meant to be anything and at most wasn’t worth paying any real attention to!
Starguard , nobody had said that to me… The OP had a quote from Lsura , from another post. That was her experience.
But I totally hear where you’re coming from. It’s kind of like that quote “they can’t see the forest for the trees”. Too many people can’t see the people for the colour. If that makes any sense.
Heh, I once worked part time as a bouncer in a bar.
One time this black gentelman came in (he was the only black guy in the place.) very drunk, which I wasn’t too happy with but I figure if the bartender wants to serve him, what the heck, it’s his ass not mine. Anyway on top of being drunk the guy was being a totall asshole to everybody in the bar (e.g too touchy feely with the ladies, not sure what was said but he got into a couple of confrontations with some of the male patrons. probably for hitting on their GFs)
Well, I decide I should nip this in the bud and asked the guy to leave, I even offered to pick up his tab for him. (which was like a beer and a shot).
His response to me: “Oh, what you don’t like black people in your bar?”
MY response "No I don’t like assholes in my bar. And don’t go blaming your assholiness on ALL black people everywhere. "
Thats what I’ve been thinking about as well. I too fear being considered the proverbial “Uncle Tom”. For every asian youth I see doing good, I see 2 that aren’t. Of course, Carcasians aren’t the only ones experiencing this bullshit. I was branded a racist because I kicked a bunch of latino youths out of a store that I worked at a while back. Word must of spread, because I got into a few more altercations with strangers about that incident.
First a tiny bit of background: I was a Girl Scout leader and my troop was frequently noted for its diversity: two white girls, two black girls, one biracial girl, one Asian girl, two Hispanic girls, one mentally-handicapped girl (all third-graders) and a paraplegic (and male) co-leader. We used to joke about how we neatly fit into ALL demographics. Took my girls to the petting zoo one day, and let them partner off and go off on their own to see some of the animals in this very small zoo. After a half an hour or so, I began to collect the girls for the ride back to the school. I approach one pair, and one of the little Hispanic girls is making a gigantic “OH” face, a lady with a stroller is looking horrified, and both are staring at my little biracial girl. I come to find out that the little biracial girl was frightening the turkeys in the pen, and when the lady with the stroller asked her not to, the child turned to her and said, “Fuck you.” I had no choice. I called the child’s mother and explained that this little girl was no longer welcome to be in this troop.
The mother, who was by the way white, called the Girl Scout office and told them that I kicked her kid out of Girl Scouts because “that white girl has a real problem with the fact that my kid’s a nigger.”
In a way, I feel bad that the Girl Scout office knew me and my troop well enough to laugh right in the mother’s face. I say I feel bad, because I think I would have liked to have the chance to defend myself against that accusation. It still bothers me, five years later, that no one sat this mother down and explained the situation to her, and for all I know she is still walking around thinking I’m a big ol’ racist.
You know what I hate? People who make a big deal of it. Hello, people, they’re using “racist” as an insult, not as a genuine character evaluation! It’s like if somebody calls you an “idiot”. Yes, the person calling you an idiot probably genuinely believes you to be an idiot, but you’re not going to sit there and think, “‘Idiot’! Why I never! Would an idiot have an IQ of 115?”. You’re not going to remember the insult like it was an event (“Yes, I too remember a few times when I was accused of being an idiot”). Don’t extrapolate some grand macrocosmic analysis about race and personal responsibility in our society; just take it for exactly what it is - a last ditch effort to hurt your feelings.
The OP had a quote from Lsura , from another post. That was her experience.