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This thread is mostly for those people who will absolutely deny they are racist or have racist views.
In the era of social media, where we can hide behind the guise of anonymity, it is easy to resort to racist tropes, and stereotypes of people of color, and then claim you are not doing so.
However, if you are a racist, it will come out in your arguments and conversations, no matter how carefully you attempt to hide the fact. AND the most ironic part is this:
You really think you are fooling anyone who was brought up to view people as people and have the ability to reason and think for themselves?
So rather than bash my head against those who will deny having a racist bone in their body, I will tell a personal story.
I was born to German parents who emigrated to Canada after WWII and they moved into an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Toronto.
Our next door neighbor was a black man, edging towards retirement age, a widower, and the nicest human being you could ever hope to meet.
He loved his flower garden and never missed an opportunity to pass a bouquet to my mother.
On summer eves, we would sit out on our porch, and our black neighbor on his, and my parents would carry on a very polite conversation back n forth always in friendly enough tones.
But as I grew up, something occurred to me, and I had to ask my parents about it.
It was simply that despite our friendliness with our black neighbor, we never visited his porch nor invited him to ours.
I got curious about that, so I finally reached the age where I thought to ask the question of my parents "why not?"
With perfect candor and straight faces, they said this to mean "We have nothing against Mr.... or black people, we have no bad feelings about them, but inviting them to your home, is just something that isn't done. That isn't racism, that is just the way things are."
From that day forward I learned how to recognize racism in other people, no matter how cute or deflective they try to be about NOT being racist.
Like the man who claims he isn't the least bit misogynistic and claims he believes women are equal to men, but yet expects his wife to stay home to raise the kids and that it is his "duty" to go to work and "provide" - a racist will reveal themselves by what they say and how they say it.
In the era of social media, where we can hide behind the guise of anonymity, it is easy to resort to racist tropes, and stereotypes of people of color, and then claim you are not doing so.
However, if you are a racist, it will come out in your arguments and conversations, no matter how carefully you attempt to hide the fact. AND the most ironic part is this:
You really think you are fooling anyone who was brought up to view people as people and have the ability to reason and think for themselves?
So rather than bash my head against those who will deny having a racist bone in their body, I will tell a personal story.
I was born to German parents who emigrated to Canada after WWII and they moved into an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Toronto.
Our next door neighbor was a black man, edging towards retirement age, a widower, and the nicest human being you could ever hope to meet.
He loved his flower garden and never missed an opportunity to pass a bouquet to my mother.
On summer eves, we would sit out on our porch, and our black neighbor on his, and my parents would carry on a very polite conversation back n forth always in friendly enough tones.
But as I grew up, something occurred to me, and I had to ask my parents about it.
It was simply that despite our friendliness with our black neighbor, we never visited his porch nor invited him to ours.
I got curious about that, so I finally reached the age where I thought to ask the question of my parents "why not?"
With perfect candor and straight faces, they said this to mean "We have nothing against Mr.... or black people, we have no bad feelings about them, but inviting them to your home, is just something that isn't done. That isn't racism, that is just the way things are."
From that day forward I learned how to recognize racism in other people, no matter how cute or deflective they try to be about NOT being racist.
Like the man who claims he isn't the least bit misogynistic and claims he believes women are equal to men, but yet expects his wife to stay home to raise the kids and that it is his "duty" to go to work and "provide" - a racist will reveal themselves by what they say and how they say it.
