DISCLAIMER: This thread is not intended to be "racist" nor is it intended to alienate any forum member from the discussion due to race, color or creed. Due to the nature of the subject, please reframe from posting anything other than a mature and respectful replies that add to the discussion. Anything that I deem inappropriate will be reported to a moderator immediately to ensure the quality of the discussion. In other words, don't be a bunch of dumbasses. Thank You.
Racism in America. Do you think it is a problem or is it just a figment of our imagination left over from a time of segregation? Personally, I think racism is brewed over time and someone is not just born a bigot. It's happening to me day by day, I can tell that I am becoming more and more racist. Or am I? Here is my story...
I grew up in a small town of around 1,000 people in Central Oklahoma. We literally didn't have any African Americans in the town until I was about 16 and a family of 4 moved into town. The two boys were the same age as me and we went to the same classes and I got to know them real well. After a while we had become pretty close friends but it seemed like alot of the other kids didn't feel the same way, they were constantly harassed and one night even had a cross burned in their yard. Eventually they moved. As soon as I graduated, I joined the USAF where I went to basic with several African Americans, I went to Tech School with several African Americans and at every station I went to I had several African American friends. Some of my best friends in life have been blacks. None of them EVER gave me a reason to hate, distrust or feel awkward around them, in fact after a while I didn't even really consciously realize they were black, they were just another friend or acquaintance.
Skip to Oct 2005. I move to Dallas TX. Everything is going nicely until one day I walk into a convenience store to buy some gas. A black man was walking through the door as I was walking in and looked at me. I kindly nodded my head and said "Howdy" and kept walking through. The guy swings around and says "Hey! WTF you call me nigger?". I turned around and said "What?" and he said it again. I told him that I just said Hi and he then he says "Thats what I thought." and walks out to his car and leaves. Now I'm standing here next to the guy at the counter and we're looking at each other with the classic WTF looks on our faces. I just shrugged it off as maybe the guy was having a bad day and went about my business.
Skip to Feb 2006. I move into a new apartment that is closer to work. The neighbor hood is "nice" and the apartment complex is very well maintained, the only problem is that 80 percent of the residents are African American. At the time I could care less, it was clean, cheap and close to work. The third day I was here I came up the stairs and there were two black guys sitting on their porch watching me. As I walked into my apartment and shut the door I heard one of them say "Fuckin white boy movin in next me.". Now I'm thinking to myself, "What a fucking asshole", and again, went about my business. The VERY NEXT DAY, my girlfriend is walking up the stairs and I opened the door for her and the same guy starts going "Hey baby why don't you come over here and holla at me?" at which point I poked my head out the door and said "Hey asshole, why don't you shut your fat lips!" and shut the door. Ever since that day, every time I make the slightest sound, the cops show up to my door saying that someone called the cops because it sounded like I was beating my girlfriend up. They seriously call the cops at least once a week and I know it's that asshole doing it. So I knocked on his door and told him if he called the cops again I was going to wreck his face. Now the cops show up once every two weeks.
Skip to Last month. I walk out to my truck only to find that the passengers side window has been completely shattered and my CD player is missing. I'm thinking to myself automatically (this is where the "I am becoming racist part comes in) "some fucking nigg** just broke into my shit" AUTOMATICALLY, that pops into my head. Sure enough, I come home from work one night and catch a black dude breaking into a car that was three spots down from where I was parked the night mine was broke into. I quietly parked my truck on the other side of the apartment, reached under my seat and grabbed the sawed off axe handle I keep in my truck. I snuck up real quiet behind this guy and hit this son of a bitch in the back as hard as I could and knocked his ass straight to the ground. Then I commenced to kick the ever living shit out of him. Someone heard this asshole screaming and called the cops, who promptly showed up about 5 minutes into me kicking the shit out of this guy. They pulled me off and put him in handcuffs after seeing the car window was broken and there was a CD player laying on the ground.
So the cops are asking me what happened and I'm telling them and they are asking the black dude what happened. The guy says that he saw me breaking into this car with an axe handle and he was trying to stop me. Mind you, I'm standing here in a pair of black slacks and a button up long sleeve shirt with a tie and he is saying that I was breaking into a car. Of course the police knew he was full of shit and hauled his ass off to jail. While I'm standing there filling out the report a black lady comes down and starts yelling racism and how its typical that a black man gets beat up and thrown in jail and the white man gets off scott free. Then people start waking up and pretty soon there is like 10 people down there. This is the best part...the guy who's car was getting broke into at the time comes down and starts calling me a "motherfucking KKK nigger hater"!!! I JUST STOPPED SOMEONE FROM BREAKING INTO HIS CAR AND HE IS CALLING ME A KKK ***** HATER!!???? FUCK YOU! Eventually the cops made everyone go home and I ended up going to Irving to stay with my girlfriend until things cooled down a bit.
Skip to 2 days ago. I come out of my apartment to come to work and there are three black kids sitting on the stairs in my way. I said politly "Excuse me", and they turn around and tell me to "Go back to Europe". At which point I told them to "go back to Africa and get the fuck out of my way". One kid who apparently likes to immitate 50 Cent stands up and asks me if I'm some kind of racist. I'm standing there thinking to myself....this kid just told me to go back to Europe, but I'M the racist? I decided to just say "whatever, sorry" and go around to the next staircase. As I am driving to work I am just getting more and more pissed off and as I work, more and more pissed off. I start thinking about how if I lived 50 years ago, THAT would not have happened, period. Ever since then, every time I see a black person that i do not know, my mind starts reacting in a defensive manner, thinking and plotting what to do if this guy does something. I caught myself moving closer to a stack of canes in a convenient store the other day because there was a black guy behind me, and if he pulled something I was going to smack him with a cane and commence a beatdown....AGAIN.
My girlfriend has told me several times that people have tried to sell her drugs or tried to hit on her in the short trip between her car and my front door, which is about 10 feet. Thats what really pisses me off is when they mess with her. I truly am afraid that something could happen to her, so much in fact, that I don't let her come over alone anymore and I walk her from the car to the door and back.
I guess what I am asking here is, is it just me becoming racist? Am I justified by my experience to feel and act this way? Am I at fault or are they? What would you do in this situation?
Even in the media you can see what I am starting to refer to as reverse racism. Mayor Nagin of New Orleans said that "It is time to rebuild New Orleans, A CHOCOLATE, New Orleans". Now what if the mayor of Oklahoma City says "It is time to rebuild OKC, A MARSHMALLOW OKC." Even something as large as a Hurricane, brings out the "America is racist" voice, even though white, Indian, Asian, Mexican and all other races in the area were affected but all you here are black people saying that nothing was done because the city was full of blacks. Whats more sad is the fact that the shit actually flys and people give them sympathy and cast an open ear to hear it. Do I even need to mention Kanye West?
You have things like BET that has black music and black VJ's and black commercials and it's called Black Entertainment Television. But what is there was a WET, White Entertainment Television? perhaps it only play Rock or Country music and sold products that depicted the perfect stereotypical family in the suburbs and nothing was ever mentioned of other races? It would not fly, people would deem it racist and it would be shut down. Organizations like the NAACP that grants scholarships to African Americans ONLY. What would happen is a white person from South Africa applied for a scholarship from the NAACP? I'm sure he wouldn't get it.
I don't know...I'm starting to ramble on but I guess what I am saying is....is this right or is this wrong? What would you do in my situation and is what I am experiencing wrong or am I justified in feeling the way I do? Is racism starting to reverse itself where minorities are becoming the bigots and majorities becoming the hated? It seems that way to me.
Racism in America. Do you think it is a problem or is it just a figment of our imagination left over from a time of segregation? Personally, I think racism is brewed over time and someone is not just born a bigot. It's happening to me day by day, I can tell that I am becoming more and more racist. Or am I? Here is my story...
I grew up in a small town of around 1,000 people in Central Oklahoma. We literally didn't have any African Americans in the town until I was about 16 and a family of 4 moved into town. The two boys were the same age as me and we went to the same classes and I got to know them real well. After a while we had become pretty close friends but it seemed like alot of the other kids didn't feel the same way, they were constantly harassed and one night even had a cross burned in their yard. Eventually they moved. As soon as I graduated, I joined the USAF where I went to basic with several African Americans, I went to Tech School with several African Americans and at every station I went to I had several African American friends. Some of my best friends in life have been blacks. None of them EVER gave me a reason to hate, distrust or feel awkward around them, in fact after a while I didn't even really consciously realize they were black, they were just another friend or acquaintance.
Skip to Oct 2005. I move to Dallas TX. Everything is going nicely until one day I walk into a convenience store to buy some gas. A black man was walking through the door as I was walking in and looked at me. I kindly nodded my head and said "Howdy" and kept walking through. The guy swings around and says "Hey! WTF you call me nigger?". I turned around and said "What?" and he said it again. I told him that I just said Hi and he then he says "Thats what I thought." and walks out to his car and leaves. Now I'm standing here next to the guy at the counter and we're looking at each other with the classic WTF looks on our faces. I just shrugged it off as maybe the guy was having a bad day and went about my business.
Skip to Feb 2006. I move into a new apartment that is closer to work. The neighbor hood is "nice" and the apartment complex is very well maintained, the only problem is that 80 percent of the residents are African American. At the time I could care less, it was clean, cheap and close to work. The third day I was here I came up the stairs and there were two black guys sitting on their porch watching me. As I walked into my apartment and shut the door I heard one of them say "Fuckin white boy movin in next me.". Now I'm thinking to myself, "What a fucking asshole", and again, went about my business. The VERY NEXT DAY, my girlfriend is walking up the stairs and I opened the door for her and the same guy starts going "Hey baby why don't you come over here and holla at me?" at which point I poked my head out the door and said "Hey asshole, why don't you shut your fat lips!" and shut the door. Ever since that day, every time I make the slightest sound, the cops show up to my door saying that someone called the cops because it sounded like I was beating my girlfriend up. They seriously call the cops at least once a week and I know it's that asshole doing it. So I knocked on his door and told him if he called the cops again I was going to wreck his face. Now the cops show up once every two weeks.
Skip to Last month. I walk out to my truck only to find that the passengers side window has been completely shattered and my CD player is missing. I'm thinking to myself automatically (this is where the "I am becoming racist part comes in) "some fucking nigg** just broke into my shit" AUTOMATICALLY, that pops into my head. Sure enough, I come home from work one night and catch a black dude breaking into a car that was three spots down from where I was parked the night mine was broke into. I quietly parked my truck on the other side of the apartment, reached under my seat and grabbed the sawed off axe handle I keep in my truck. I snuck up real quiet behind this guy and hit this son of a bitch in the back as hard as I could and knocked his ass straight to the ground. Then I commenced to kick the ever living shit out of him. Someone heard this asshole screaming and called the cops, who promptly showed up about 5 minutes into me kicking the shit out of this guy. They pulled me off and put him in handcuffs after seeing the car window was broken and there was a CD player laying on the ground.
So the cops are asking me what happened and I'm telling them and they are asking the black dude what happened. The guy says that he saw me breaking into this car with an axe handle and he was trying to stop me. Mind you, I'm standing here in a pair of black slacks and a button up long sleeve shirt with a tie and he is saying that I was breaking into a car. Of course the police knew he was full of shit and hauled his ass off to jail. While I'm standing there filling out the report a black lady comes down and starts yelling racism and how its typical that a black man gets beat up and thrown in jail and the white man gets off scott free. Then people start waking up and pretty soon there is like 10 people down there. This is the best part...the guy who's car was getting broke into at the time comes down and starts calling me a "motherfucking KKK nigger hater"!!! I JUST STOPPED SOMEONE FROM BREAKING INTO HIS CAR AND HE IS CALLING ME A KKK ***** HATER!!???? FUCK YOU! Eventually the cops made everyone go home and I ended up going to Irving to stay with my girlfriend until things cooled down a bit.
Skip to 2 days ago. I come out of my apartment to come to work and there are three black kids sitting on the stairs in my way. I said politly "Excuse me", and they turn around and tell me to "Go back to Europe". At which point I told them to "go back to Africa and get the fuck out of my way". One kid who apparently likes to immitate 50 Cent stands up and asks me if I'm some kind of racist. I'm standing there thinking to myself....this kid just told me to go back to Europe, but I'M the racist? I decided to just say "whatever, sorry" and go around to the next staircase. As I am driving to work I am just getting more and more pissed off and as I work, more and more pissed off. I start thinking about how if I lived 50 years ago, THAT would not have happened, period. Ever since then, every time I see a black person that i do not know, my mind starts reacting in a defensive manner, thinking and plotting what to do if this guy does something. I caught myself moving closer to a stack of canes in a convenient store the other day because there was a black guy behind me, and if he pulled something I was going to smack him with a cane and commence a beatdown....AGAIN.
My girlfriend has told me several times that people have tried to sell her drugs or tried to hit on her in the short trip between her car and my front door, which is about 10 feet. Thats what really pisses me off is when they mess with her. I truly am afraid that something could happen to her, so much in fact, that I don't let her come over alone anymore and I walk her from the car to the door and back.
I guess what I am asking here is, is it just me becoming racist? Am I justified by my experience to feel and act this way? Am I at fault or are they? What would you do in this situation?
Even in the media you can see what I am starting to refer to as reverse racism. Mayor Nagin of New Orleans said that "It is time to rebuild New Orleans, A CHOCOLATE, New Orleans". Now what if the mayor of Oklahoma City says "It is time to rebuild OKC, A MARSHMALLOW OKC." Even something as large as a Hurricane, brings out the "America is racist" voice, even though white, Indian, Asian, Mexican and all other races in the area were affected but all you here are black people saying that nothing was done because the city was full of blacks. Whats more sad is the fact that the shit actually flys and people give them sympathy and cast an open ear to hear it. Do I even need to mention Kanye West?
You have things like BET that has black music and black VJ's and black commercials and it's called Black Entertainment Television. But what is there was a WET, White Entertainment Television? perhaps it only play Rock or Country music and sold products that depicted the perfect stereotypical family in the suburbs and nothing was ever mentioned of other races? It would not fly, people would deem it racist and it would be shut down. Organizations like the NAACP that grants scholarships to African Americans ONLY. What would happen is a white person from South Africa applied for a scholarship from the NAACP? I'm sure he wouldn't get it.
I don't know...I'm starting to ramble on but I guess what I am saying is....is this right or is this wrong? What would you do in my situation and is what I am experiencing wrong or am I justified in feeling the way I do? Is racism starting to reverse itself where minorities are becoming the bigots and majorities becoming the hated? It seems that way to me.
