Do you believe you live in a racist nation?

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My family was never racist....For instance...My Dad was in the National Guard....He would bring home anyone to have dinner with us...
My favorite was a Black Man...this man was 4 more feet then my Dad....Dad would take him home for dinner every so often...He was
not married, he lived in an apartment....The 2 of them were very nice friends....My Dad would bring in his Best friend, he was Mexican...
He married a White lady and were my young baby brother's baptisim...They were Catholic....Martin was a great man....They are all gone
to heaven.....I had a great childhood....We had a big family of cousins and Aunt's and Uncle's....Not one of them are alive....
Very Sad….
 

My mom was racist, my dad wasn't. My aunt, my mom's sister, was racist and so is my brother and his family. My husband was racist and his dad was a damn bigot. These people had no reason to be racist they just felt more comfortable being racist. So I'm not expecting any big changes ahead. It's really difficult getting ignorant people to see and admit their ignorance, they need to do that to change. Good luck with that.
 

Laurie said:
Not since I came to Scotland.

Been here since 1957 and have only been subject to racism twice, both times because the perps thought I was English.

When I lived in England I was subject to racist remarks most every day. They even arrested me for wearing my national emblem on my national saint's day.

When I protest about racism it's personal!
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But aren't English and Scots the same race? How could that be "racism?"
 
I believe racists come in all colors. Does racism exist here? Yes. But I go out every day, and I see couples of different races, I see people getting along and being polite, and I rarely see overt racism. Sure, you don't know what people are thinking. Once, when I was teaching, I was asked by someone in an official capacity how many black students I had, and how many Hispanic, and how many white. I'd no idea. I had to sit down with a class list and picture their little faces, and classify them by race. If he had asked how many boys and how many girls, I could have told him right away. If he had asked how many special ed kids I had, I could have told him. If he had asked me for the three brightest kids, I could have told him. I realized that I just didn't "classify" kids by race. I just didn't, because it wasn't important. And what about the mixed race kids? Because I had some of those too. If only we could focus on commonalities.
 
All countries even stiff dictatorships like North Korea have differences of opinions simply because it is in our DNA to see things differently from each other. In most countries opinions are allowed to be heard and like fingerprints our minds are unique. The description "racist nation" applies to apartheid race based governments like the former South Africa and Hitler's Germany among others. Even though race was written in to our laws at one time it did not apply to all states so while racism plays are part in our daily lives somewhere we are not a racist nation.
 
I remember the separate drinking fountains from my early years but they were gone by my teen years. Black people usually sat in the back of the bus but they didn't always. Nobody really paid much attention. Racism existed but I think Fort Smith was less racist that most of Arkansas. We had separate schools and I always thought they were "Equal but Separate" but later on I was working with a man whom had gone to the black school. He said when the white school got new equipment their old equipment went to the black school.

The above has changed a lot since my youth. Race relations had improved so much I thought racism would be over in ashort time. But too many people were making a good living stirring thing up so that they are worse than they were in many ways.

Personally I have removed race from my thoughts about people. I have black friends and I have dated a black woman.
 
rkunsaw said:
I remember the separate drinking fountains from my early years but they were gone by my teen years. Black people usually sat in the back of the bus but they didn't always. Nobody really paid much attention. Racism existed but I think Fort Smith was less racist that most of Arkansas. We had separate schools and I always thought they were "Equal but Separate" but later on I was working with a man whom had gone to the black school. He said when the white school got new equipment their old equipment went to the black school.

The above has changed a lot since my youth. Race relations had improved so much I thought racism would be over in ashort time. But too many people were making a good living stirring thing up so that they are worse than they were in many ways.

Personally I have removed race from my thoughts about people. I have black friends and I have dated a black woman.
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My mom was so tore up about the fact that the colored kids had to sit at the back of the bus. She got pissed one day and sat back there with them. I would've, too. I have people of different races in my current life that I happen to like. And I don't necessarily see their color per se but, they have certain qualities that make them interesting to me.
 
Only one uncle of several was racist, he claimed he turned when he was in the war.

I had one cousin who was racist when her police-officer husband had to work the riots in Newark a long time ago. I don't think she was before that. I was a lot younger so I really don't know.

My elderly aunt used to tell her 3 daughters not to date Italians because they carried knives, and besides, they might even be Gypsies! Her oldest did marry an Italian man and she was dam lucky to get him.

Nothing more.
 
Pecos said:
I live in South Carolina and the racism I've seen in this state has not improved in the 25 years we have lived here.
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I haven't seen that, pecos….I was just there for 5 months....We haven't had any racism in our area....Many Black people are very friendly
in the super Markets... also some in our area... I'm from New Jersey....A different State....I would rather move to So. Carolina....
 
RadishRose said:
Only one uncle of several was racist, he claimed he turned when he was in the war.

I had one cousin who was racist when her police-officer husband had to work the riots in Newark a long time ago. I don't think she was before that. I was a lot younger so I really don't know.

My elderly aunt used to tell her 3 daughters not to date Italians because they carried knives, and besides, they might even be Gypsies! Her oldest did marry an Italian man and she was dam lucky to get him.

Nothing more.
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Hi RadishRose...I.m laughing about (Italians you mentioned)...I'm Italian through and through....So is my husband... are kids also are Italian...
Except my daughter married a German, decent man...Who always said he rather be Italian....

I remember my dad telling about how hard it was being Italian in those horrible days....Dad had 3 brothers and 6 sisters....I remember going to
my Grandma's house....My Grandpa was not alive....He was run down in the street when he was in his Forties...So Grandma had to take care
of the kids....Some Aunts were married by then....My Dad came from a poor family...I never knew that until I was in my teens....So my Dad
never was a bigot....He was in the National Guard for 40 some ode years....Would bring home anyone who needed help or a meal...
My Dad had only 1 eye....when he was born he got the measles...it hit his other eye and never came back....He became an armorer and
took care of that for many years, he also was a painter for homes...That's how he made a living for my brother, me and my younger brother..
I can go on...but I had a great childhood...
 
Speaking as an Australian, the answer is YES.
We are moving towards the light but at glacial speed.

One of my favourite Australian authors, the late Frank Hardy, said 'scratch an Australian and underneath you will discover a racist'. He was, of course speaking of white Anglo Aussies like me and my family. He wasn't wrong when he said these words. I have taken them to heart and have shifted internally. Still, I sometimes judge people according to their cultural origins. At least I can recognise what I am doing now. When I was young I had no idea.
 
peppermint said:
Hi RadishRose...I.m laughing about (Italians you mentioned)...I'm Italian through and through....So is my husband... are kids also are Italian...
Except my daughter married a German, decent man...Who always said he rather be Italian....

I remember my dad telling about how hard it was being Italian in those horrible days....Dad had 3 brothers and 6 sisters....I remember going to
my Grandma's house....My Grandpa was not alive....He was run down in the street when he was in his Forties...So Grandma had to take care
of the kids....Some Aunts were married by then....My Dad came from a poor family...I never knew that until I was in my teens....So my Dad
never was a bigot....He was in the National Guard for 40 some ode years....Would bring home anyone who needed help or a meal...
My Dad had only 1 eye....when he was born he got the measles...it hit his other eye and never came back....He became an armorer and
took care of that for many years, he also was a painter for homes...That's how he made a living for my brother, me and my younger brother..
I can go on...but I had a great childhood...
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Lol.....You crossed my mind when I wrote that. I grew up with a lot of Italian kids. I thought I was Italian too! (I'm not) That aunt I was talking about lived in PA, where we live in CT. I didn't find out about her prejudice until I was grown.
 
Yeah we had the Klan active around where I live. They bought an historic restaurant in a town 10 miles away and were recruiting for a while. They like using rural areas like this to spread their propaganda. Was public knowledge, on the news, couple of protests, then they faded away. I hope from lack of interest.
 
The animals aren't racist; they all love one another mostly except when hunting for food--but they do that to survive. We have no reason to be racist. Yes, there are people who are racist, there is one where I live who openly calls the blacks here by the "N" word. I couldn't believe it when I heard him talk that way! I have also encountered many others over my life time who talked the same way. They actually sound very ignorant to me.

My dear departed husband was a black man and we encountered some problems but we did not go out a lot. He also went out alone a lot. I wanted to go with him on a trip to Georgia in the early 80s and he said there would be big problems if I went with him as he explained there was lots of racism down there at that time. So, I didn't go. We did take a trip to New York and that went okay.

I think things have certainly improved for people who aren't classified as "white" in terms of getting a fair chance to move up in society but know there needs to be more education given to the ignorant who are racist. In college everyone was required to take Black Studies classes. A lot of the things I read that blacks endured had me crying.
 
peppermint said:
My family was never racist....For instance...My Dad was in the National Guard....He would bring home anyone to have dinner with us...
My favorite was a Black Man...this man was 4 more feet then my Dad....Dad would take him home for dinner every so often...He was
not married, he lived in an apartment....The 2 of them were very nice friends....My Dad would bring in his Best friend, he was Mexican...
He married a White lady and were my young baby brother's baptisim...They were Catholic....Martin was a great man....They are all gone
to heaven.....I had a great childhood....We had a big family of cousins and Aunt's and Uncle's....Not one of them are alive....
Very Sad….
Click to expand...

Peppermint, your Dad reminds me of my Dad. He wasn't racist at all and that as the way I was raised. He had a friend named Harris that visited us all the time. My Husband has a friend named Craig and he always says that my Husband was better to him than his own Dad was. It's funny because I'm Italian and my husband is Irish. His Mom would always say that she hated the Italians,but not me. She said I was better to her than her own daughters.
 
Having grown up in a very integrated part of Chicago, choosing to live in integrated neighborhoods, working jobs where my coworkers were of all races, I can't say that the US is a racist nation, to a large extent, as I've experienced it.

In fact, the op uses poor examples, with the music biz: There have been black C&W singers and musicians, more than a few white R&B singers and musicians. The music business has been ahead of the curve, integration-wise, for most of its existence in the US. Yeah, Minstrel Shows were disgusting, but one of the most famous headliners was black. (See: Williams and Walker.)

FWIW: My next door neighbors, on both sides, are Hispanic, my across the street neighbors are black, two doors down, my neighbors are Arabic. Variety keeps things interesting. Interesting to meditate on that as I consider a move to a small town in Colorado that's 97% white.

Uh-oh......
 

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