Race study, 1st views on raceFollow

One of my very earliest memories--I was probably between 2-1/2 and 3 years old at the time--was of my absolutely incensed mother hauling me with her down to my 6-7-year-old sister's school (we were living in Arkansas at the time) where she then proceeded to read the riot act to the principal because my sister had come home in tears. Why? Well, it turns out she mentioned to some of her school mates that back in Michigan she had played with black children, and they started calling her a n*****-lover.

My mom? She got it wrong on about 95% of the stuff that matters, but that's the one time she really, REALLY didn't and it pretty much set the stage for my attitudes regarding racial intolerance for the rest of my life.

I won't say I don't suffer from (probably more frequent than I care to admit) moments of white-privilege obliviousness. Last Halloween a friend of mine, whose parents were from the Philippines and whose husband is Korean, made a big post about Halloween and race and why white people think it's okay to co-opt stereotypes from other cultures and flaunt them as costumes. Until that moment, it never occurred to me that that was pretty much exactly what I had done dressing Tristan up as a ninja (and worse, considering the source of the decision to use that costume came from the derogatory use of the word "ninja" as it pertains to MMO gaming, the connection to which was inspired by Tristan's sneak-thief ways.) Then I promptly started questioning whether or not the fact that Tristan is 1/4 Japanese makes his claim on the costume legitimate. Stupid stupid stupid.

I was invited to my friend Charm's birthday party at Applebees when I was 7 or 8. I was the only white friend she had; we lived in a mixed military neighborhood and most of her other friends were black.

We told the white hostess we were there for a birthday party. We were shown to a table on one side of the restaurant. There was no one else there. On the other side of the barrier in the middle of a restaurant, we could hear the sounds of a birthday party. My mother asked our waitress if perhaps just maybe that was the party we were supposed to be at, but the waitress assured us it was another group.

After 45 minutes passed and I was weeping on the table because I'd apparently been invited to a nonexistant birthday party, my mother got the nerve up to actually peek over the barrier to see what was going on. Yup, it was my friend Charm's party all right. I had all but missed it.

At that point, my mother spoke with Charm's mother, and together they asked for the manager. I'm too young to remember what happened next, but I do recall that all the mothers agreed to a boycott of Applebees for a while, the manager of the store was involved, and probably a letter to the editor at the local newspaper as well.

My family was military, and I was taught that racism isn't right - you judge a person on their merits, not the color of their skin. My porcelain skinned mom (who had to order her makeup from Europe; no one in the US made makeup in "white as a ghost white" at the time) tried to live that every day of her life.

(Religious views, on the other hand, were something else. She was firmly Catholic, although not fanatically so, and I know she would have preferred for me to marry a fellow Catholic.)

I think you're confused here. Are you saying that the police are justified in pulling over and ticketing blacks and not whites because they're illegal aliens?

No, of course you're not. You're trying to tie together two completely different topics through the kinship of racism. Your post has no relevance in relation to my post.

I was probably 8 or 9 years old when my mother explained to me that it wasn't a good idea to be too friendly with my little black friend. She didn't mean to be unkind, which makes it worse, somehow.

I was bereft, and left in a lose-lose situation: betray my friend or disobey my mother. At that age, it's an impossible choice. I compromised by being friends at school but never being available for sleepovers and after-school play. It sucked, and yes, neocons, I did and do feel guilty about it.

Moebius,



That's 2 more than me. I don't like people either.

I still play ball at college park, with the brothers, and still get a blast out of being the only white person on the court and embarrassing the sh*t out of whoever tries to guard me. Of course 3 yrs ago that almost got me in trouble. Making a black person look bad in front of his friends, and girlfriends, generally pisses them off and one took a swing at me. He missed and I beat the sh*t out of him leaving him unconscious and bloodied. All his friends stood there mouths wide open in complete surprise. Fortunately I was smart enough to leave that scene quickly. Then again i've been jumped by a gang of blacks more than once, so I know what it's like being on the other end.

Locked,

Who gives a sh*t what you call? It is what it is. At 35 i'm still one of the best ball players in this city.

I just can't get over the amount of kindergarten level self-promotion ******** that keeps spewing from virus's fingers. I mean.. really, I bet his daddy could beat up my daddy too! I've never known such pathological stupidity in my life.

Brown,

You people start talking about your associations with blacks and yet when I relate my experiences i'm somehow self-promoting. Ok ok...I am confident in my balling skills.

The fact is most of you have very little, if any, association with blacks yet you act like you know something about race relations. Why don't you go sell your white mans guilt to someone else, i'm not buying it.


Oh and the obligatory "you're stupid".

Don't you ever get tired of repeating the same nonsense over and over? Of course you don't. It's not like you can think of anything better to say or anything.





Edited, May 19th 2010 5:27pm by knoxxsouthy

ITT we learn that varus is into ball play.

Hockey. Was this an actual question?

See also:

Bobsled. Polevaulting. Auto racing. Bike racing. Motorcycle racing. Sprinting. Skeet-shooting. Olympic swimming. Highdive. Rock climbing. And in fact most of the rest of the Olympics lineup.

Edited, May 19th 2010 4:45pm by AshOnMyTomatoes

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