Be honest, are you a little bit racist?

[True Dough]

Joe Walsh, who has shown himself to be more than a little racist, says "we're all a little bit racist":

"We’ve all said racist things. I’ll bet if you and I went through everybody’s Twitter feed, we’re going to find things that are objectionable and offensive. I think we all have. I know when I look back at some of my Tweets over the years, because I was so outspoken, yeah, I’ve tweeted some racist things. On purpose? No.”


So, if you were to be introspective and completely honest, how racist are you on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being free of any racism and 10 being a full-on KKK member.

I think I'd rate myself a 3 with the bit of racism I may possess being due to ignorance and blind spots, not some sort of willful hatred. (I'm a white male, BTW.)

[RainCaster]

1. Racist and proud of it: I can't stand orange men

I think that every last one is an idiot and unfit to live in America. I feel they should all be sent back to Russia.

[trueblue2007]

34. i dislike orange men too.

Yuck

[Coventina]

2. I think any sociologist would say everyone is racist because we live in a racist society.

We have to maintain a conscious vigilance to overcome it.

Some people, though, apparently like to use that as an excuse, rather than try to improve themselves.

(referring here to Walsh and his ilk)

[hlthe2b]

3. Arguably we all are to one degree or another, one time or another in the past. The difference

Last edited Tue Aug 27, 2019, 11:47 AM - Edit history (1)

is whether one has learned from those feelings, those statements, that time, and tried to never repeat it.

We are all a product of our environments. But that doesn't mean we can't move past it.

[True Dough]

4. Yes, this is so true

It matters a great deal how much effort people put into learning from their previously bigoted views.

[Disaffected]

10. Yes,

it's often a matter of intelligence overcoming instinct (I believe most tend to be wary of things different or unfamiliar i.e. the instinct part of it).

[ExciteBike66]

5. Is it racist to hate carnies?

Then YES!

[jmg257]

31. Small hands, smell like cabbage. Nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Even if everybody is "a little bit racist," Walsh can't excuse his very racist remarks

by relying on that. https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/joe-walsh-worst-tweets/ We are all the products of our environment and upbringing, so the best we can do is try to be as aware as possible that we might be harboring biases and at least avoid acting on them. Walsh, however, let his racist flag fly, so he can't use the "everybody is a little bit racist" excuse.

[Wounded Bear]

7. Yes, but I've spent a lifetime trying hard not to act on that...

We are all products of the era and area we grew up in. As adults, we are responsible to recognize and over come the down sides of that. It's trite to say that most of these problems would be solved with the application of simple manners. That is true, but the trick is to admit that all people deserve to be treated with those basic manners until they prove otherwise.

And yeah, I'm a white male. I grew up in a segregated area in the era of segregation (50's/60's). It has been my experience that children don't much notice race beyond a bit of curiosity when someone looks different from what they're used to. Beyond that, they have to be taught to hate people.

We didn't learn hard racism, though we did indulge in plenty of ethnic jokes. I don't join in that kind of shit much anymore. I guess I'm a 2-3 or so if I'm rating myself.

[dchill]

8. I'm a white male, too...

...and the race AND GENDER that I have the most prejudice against is my own.

[treestar]

17. I hear you

White female, and while there are good white people on average they can be smug. Excluding. Some cultures are inclusive and if you are with them you are one of them. The average white wants to be a member of some exclusive club and needs outsiders to smug over. Maybe it comes from the ranks in European culture.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. We live in a racist country, society and culture. It takes active work to dismantle it from one's

thought processes, and an honest reckoning with one's beliefs, upbringing, and values. I definitely have racist thoughts and reactions. I work hard to wrestle with them and ensure they don't turn into actions.

[Disaffected]

13. It's useful to

keep in mind that people, no matter what race or ethnicity, are first and foremost individuals and prejudice directed at an identifiable cohort is therefore basically unjust and irrational.

[Hortensis]

11. :) How about, "Are you a little bit human?"

What I'd like to see are questions inviting people to examine how nice they are and how suited they believe they currently are to today's very diverse world.

Introspection and self awareness are good. Strong bigots are notably poor at it, some to the point of being completely incapable of analyzing self.

[wasupaloopa]

12. I am a reformed racist (I think I am reformed)

Coming back from Vietnam I hated Vietnamese. Then I became controller of a manufacturing company who hired Vietnamese workers.

I had to interact with them and getting to know them helped me overcome my hate toward them.

I also believed that Mexican immigrants were negatively impacting my life.

Then the million immigrant march happened in Los Angeles where I use to live. I listened to young people tell how hard they had it in Mexico and that they just wanted a chance to have a better life for themselves and their families. I began to have empathy for them.

I also learned that my anger toward them as impacting me negatively and not changing how things were going.

So I have had Vietnamese coworkers who were the children of the kind of people I had spent my year in Vietnam with and got along with well.


I also live in a city that is 75% Hispanic and I love it here.

[True Dough]

14. War would definitely color your view of the "enemy"

That said, I have heard about American WWII veterans who used to meet annually with German and/or Japanese counterparts to make amends and they became genuine friends.

[wasupaloopa]

16. Many Vietnam vets go back to Vietnam to help build schools and other things in North Vietnam.

[Sherman A1]

15. I challenge anyone to go through my Twitter feed and find one racist posting

That I don't use Twitter will make that more difficult, but the challenge remains.

[Act_of_Reparation]

18. Of course we are.

We've been brought up in a racist society. That stink doesn't come out easy.

But the "little bit racist" most people I know are differs from Joe Walsh's "little bit racist" in that they don't hold explicitly racist opinions, let alone say them out loud... in public... because it's their job.

[treestar]

19. Maybe a 1

I don’t think Walsh admits this as a liberal would though. Likely he and his followers deny white privilege. He is defending himself rather than thinking seriously.

[RichardRay]

20. Of course, I've not escaped my karma.

But I strive to work it off every day.

There is no redemption through grace. Only through works.

[maxsolomon]

21. I went to Anti-Racism Training 6 months ago.

So I'm cured!

I really did go to Anti-Racism Training...

[WestLosAngelesGal]

22. I once had "sensitivity training" at a state job

I learned that some cultures do not ever mention the names of the dead. And that others forbid the address of people by their names, even if you work together. Also, I should not cross my legs in a way that the sole of my shoe is displayed to another person. I was editing an archaeology paper and I had to mind all the rules, which was not easy when I had a question. I came away with a respect for many cultures, even the ones of extinct peoples.

[procon]

23. I grew up in a racist family.

When I was in high school (about 15) and trying to use my newly learned critical thinking skills, I finally realized that everything my parents taught me about people who were different than us, was so wrong.

It was hard to unlearn the evils of racism because it was baked in good and deep, even as young as I was. Of my 4 siblings, I'm the only one to break the cycle. Even now, 60+ years later, I lament that my upbringing still leaks out and rears its ugly héad now and then. Still, I persist, looking past those relapses to carry on with my lifetime recovery efforts.

[uponit7771]

24. Not willfully

[Xtermin8 H8]

25. I have had critical thoughts of POC through the years but, like True Dough, it was always

"due to ignorance and blind spots, not some sort of willful hatred".

Backstory......

TL,DR: When I was six or so, I made friends with a black kid. The white kids gave me the business. I was stuck in the middle and ditched my new friend. Mom initiated my journey of understanding the wrongness of racism. I should have ditched the white kids instead. My journey continues...

When I was a wee lad in VA, around 1970, I made a friend in the woods behind my childhood home. I was walking along the forest path to my favorite play place, a huge dead-fall tree laying on the forest floor, that I climbed around on and lived out childhood adventures. As I was approaching, I noticed this black kid and stopped to watch him for a moment. He was walking along the tree trunk when he tripped and fell off from about six feet up. He was able to break his fall somewhat and he began crying as he lay on the ground. I ran to him as he was sitting up and I helped him to his feet and tried to comfort him. He was not seriously injured but did get scraped up a bit. Well, you know kids, and soon after he had shaken it off and he asked me if I would play with him and, of course, I did. We had fun and became friends and agreed to meet there again the next day. He was my first black friend.

Back home, I told my mom all about it and when I told her he had invited me to his house to play some time and she asked where he lived. And I said he lives in "n-word town" on the other side of the woods. A split-second later, I was bawling and wiping a bit of blood from my mouth. Now, my mom didn't often use corporal punishment, leaving that to dad (of course). But when she did, it was always made clear to me why I was being spanked/disciplined. Not that time, though. I was too close to her and her reflex took over and POW!, right in the pie hole.

I was shocked and had no idea what had just happened. But my mom realized what she had done and immediately pulled me in and hugged me, saying she was sorry for smacking me like that. She asked me where I had heard that word and I told her that that's what my friends (white kids) call that part of town. She began to explain to me as simply as she could (to a six-year-old child) that saying that word was very bad and why it's bad and that I should never say it again, ever, and made me promise that I wouldn't. Also, she encouraged me to be friends with the kid and promised to take me to his house and meet his parents and said he could visit me at our house.

But my troubles were not over, however, relevant to this event. As it turns out, this event revealed to me the nastiness regarding race when some of the (mostly slightly older) white kids on my street found out I was friends with a black kid. Apparently, they lived in actively racist households and I was called "n-word lover", and otherwise made fun of and shunned, because of it. When this development was relayed to my mom, she suggested that those kids were not worthy of my friendship and that I should disassociate myself from them. This was hard for my young brain to process as I could redeem myself with my white friends by not being friends with the black kid and I avoided the woods, as well as the kids who taunted me, which is what I did. Things seemed weird after that, I felt the wrong that infused the entire affair. I felt caught between my mother's expectations, my friends I had grown up with, and the haunting interaction with the black kid I had befriended and who had hugged me for being his friend as we parted that day in the woods. And that feeling stuck with me as I grew up and it fueled a need to understand it all. I came to understand how wrong it was to hate someone simply for the color of their skin.

We moved some time after, before I could sort it all out, and I never saw that kid again. And my life is a little less meaningful because of it. But I learned a valuable lesson from it all and it has since shaped my view of POC and racism. He was just a kid, just like me, and the blood that seeped from the scrapes that tree inflicted on him as he fell off it was the same color as mine, even if his skin wasn't. To this day he probably occasionally wonders what ever became of me when I failed to show up the next day to play with him in the woods. Indeed, he probably knows by now exactly what happened to me and is saddened by it just as I am saddened, still, that I abandoned him. I wish I could say I am sorry to him and hug him one more time.

[wryter2000]

32. Welcome to DU

One of my earliest memories is of my mother becoming angry at something I'd said. I figured out later that what I'd said was racist. Normally, you know what's going to make your parent angry, but this was a complete surprise to me. I guess that's why I remember it over 60 years later.

[Xtermin8 H8]

38. Hey wryter2000, thank you for the welcome! Yea, our moms taught us well. Hope you

are enjoying your day!

[zackymilly]

26. Am I racist if I hate everyone the same? n/t

[Norbert]

27. As a white male

I used the "N" word as a young child more times than I could remember and told enough of the jokes that goes along with it. In my environment that is what we did. At first it was because I didn't know what it meant but continued to use it even when I did know. As I grew into a young man the jokes and the "N" word stopped but I still gave a token laugh at the jokes I heard.

Today I look back and feel bad about it. I realize there isn't much I can do about the past except to refrain from ever using any such vugarity again and not only that, to be intolerant of anyone in my circle being racist. My current job is a place where diversity reigns. My favorite supervisor is an African-American lady and favorite manager when he was with the company, an African-American man. My supervisor has been a friend, a mentor, someone I will always look up to and a model of how to conduct myself professionally. I don't have black friends, brown friends, yellow friends or gay friends, I have friends.

I don't want to sound like a goody-two-shoes. I still have plenty of other faults, it's just that I realize I needed to change or be left behind.

[Cartoonist]

28. In my youth

I heard and passed on lots of jokes. Not just racist, but homophobic, misogynistic, nationalistic, dirty, and all the rest. I even told Polack jokes and I'm of Polish descent.

By the time I left college, that was all over. I had finally grown up. The first division with my brother was to tell him I no longer wanted to hear those kind of jokes. I tell everyone to knock it off when they start.

I do have a fear. I can be very funny when drunk. The problem is I have no inhibitions in that state and may say anything. So I'm now a teetotaler.

[wryter2000]

29. I was not raised to be racist

White female, 70 years old. I try very hard to be aware of any prejudiced attitudes. I'd have to say I'm probably not perfect, but it's not for lack of effort.

[tblue37]

30. Remember Michael Moore's book "Stupid Whit Men"? Was he being racist? In which direction

(especially since he is a white man).

OT, but your OP made me think of the book.

[wryter2000]

33. The morning after the 2016 election

i woke up thinking, "I hate white people." That's not true, but I do hate white privilege and the stupidity it often creates.

[kozar]

35. Racist is a new media term,,

they want us to believe that we hate anyone not our skin tone, my racist definition means,, that you immediately and consciously reject any one who is not exactly the same as you. FYI all,, this not only means skin color,,it means religion,beliefs,handicapped folks, among others. My God,,we are either all Americans,,or we aren't.. throw your stones in glass houses


Koz

[JCMach1]

36. Of course we are! My wife is African (I am white), but having lived in Dubai

for 10 years (very multi-cultural there) I developed a lot of likes and dislikes about other ethnicities and cultures.

You also discover the racism in other cultures as well... it's rampant!

[NoMoreRepugs]

37. If your old (almost 70), grew up in white suburbia and your honest, you have to admit

that at some points in your life racist statements were made, may not have been said maliciously, but said out loud nonetheless.....