You don't have to apologize, but as a human being you have a responsibility to acknowledge the lingering inequality and oppression that BENEFITS you on a daily basis in every facet of your life, and work towards dismantling it by calling out others, educating yourself and not engaging in oppressive behavior, which is everything from not making racist jokes that demean people and reinforce often lethal stereotypes (like black people all being thugs), to making sure that you be as objective as possible when selecting a candidate for a company you work in (should you be in this situation) and actively dismantle notions of racism that could affect your decision.
1) I'm not your sis.
2)You don't know a thing about me, and vice versa. But I'm not gonna play this game with you and pretend that some white person being called a "cracker" is equal to a black person being called a "coon" or Latino person being called a "wetback" and YOU know it too. You cannot erase a history of Caucasians (at least in the US) implementing programs to keep minorities down just so you can feel right. I will be the first to admit that there is prejudice against whites, but like really? Just stop.
I never ever ever said it was the same. I acknowledged that minority races are discriminated way way WAY more than white people are. I never ever said otherwise. ALL I'm saying is that, judging a white person for being white IS racism, because it is about their race. It is not a hard concept to grasp
Don't let it get to you. I am lucky enough to be fluent in my first language. Don't you speak first language at home?
No, my parents and two of my three sisters can speak it but I can't. Apparently I could when I was a baby, but I have since forgotten it and my parents haven't bothered to teach me. I don't really care about speaking it because I would never need to use it. My parents speak poor English, but I can deal with it. I can usually make out what they are trying to say, even if they speak Vietnamese sometimes.
In Latin America if you take the Top 10% earners and compare them to the bottom 10% the difference in average skin colour is STAGGERING. The Top 10% could be from anywhere in Europe while the bottom 10% are straight up Native American. This is not a coincidence, that's why it angers me so much when people say "but in POC countries whites face discrimination!!", no they don't. I've lived in Latin America and in my school British and American teachers would get paid 3x more than Latin@ teachers even if they had exactly the same amount of experience and the same level of credentials. It's illegal but no one does anything about it and it's accepted. At the same time in the media all things European and American are exhorted as being superior, if something is from Europe it's automatically assumed to be better than anything local or from Asia, Africa, etc.
And if you can't connect things like that to how POC are treated in Western countries then you're a moron (in Canada, for example, a study was conducted that showed people with non-white names and surnames were 40% less likely to receive a call back from a potential employer than people with typical white names like Lily Smith, John Brown, etc).
And it's not shocking one bit.
You can't go from discriminating against minorities and then all of a sudden say we're all equal.
That's a nice idea, but without laying the groundwork first it's nothing more than an idea.
Old wounds don't heal over night.
The ****ing irony that GreasyBruce came in here to invalidate the OP's experience with discrimination and claiming that it is not as serious as "real" racism. Isn't he an upper class latino?? I'd bet my left nut he's a rich, white-washed, white passing latino ****-talking whites when he is most likely very white himself. Same goes to JonnyLightning. Hispanic is not a race so I guess by your logic, your experiences with racism are as baseless as the OP's Irish/White-directed "racism".
What I am is irrelevant, and if you haven't noticed, I have not given any personal examples of racism in this thread. And you don't know me, I've never even posted a picture on here, on what are you even basing your rant?
So let me get this straight. Both Irish and blacks:
- can be portrayed as savages
- can be forced into slavery
- can be forced to work for low wages
- be forced to convert to another religion
- have their land taken away from them
- be murdered in riots and bombings
- be profiled by the police
- be barred from jobs and education
- be seen as subhuman
- bewhitewashed in films
- have their culture appropriated
- be called ugly due to beauty standards
- be ****ed over repeatedly by the British
- be murdered in extensive numbers during wars for their freedom
- be lynched
- be targetted by hate groups like the KKK
- be barred from immigrating
- be viewed as lowing the moral standards of the US/UK
- be viewed as equals to each other
...but it's inherently worse against one group and not another, even though the Irish have never been in a position of power?
No one said anything about one being worse than the other.
I said one is not racist because it is not discrimination based on race.
How on earth does that equate to either one being better or worse?
Goodness, it's like you want the Irish to be victims of racism just so you can come in here and boast receipts as if this is some sort of contest for us
The ****ing irony that GreasyBruce came in here to invalidate the OP's experience with discrimination and claiming that it is not as serious as "real" racism. Isn't he an upper class latino?? I'd bet my left nut he's a rich, white-washed, white passing latino ****-talking whites when he is most likely very white himself. Same goes to JonnyLightning. Hispanic is not a race so I guess by your logic, your experiences with racism are as baseless as the OP's Irish/White-directed "racism".
I dont identify as hispanic because many hispanics are actually of BLACK ancestry, but they act as if they're above blacks by saying theyre hispanic (because anything is better than being black in their minds). I've dealt with this first hand.
Everyone in this thread has been going on and on about how racism is worse than discrimination because it requires it to be institutionalized (and the power structure, especially in Britain to this day, is still against the Irish)
Well I don't know I feel like discrimination against a whole group because of how they look vs Discrimination against a small portion of people based on where their from is a little worse.
I mean I really can't see how someone who looks like Niall Horan has it worse than someone who looks like Zayn Malik in Britain.
Not to mention the Irish were given power over the slaves in order to promote the myth of white superiority and cause tensions between the two.
I think Blatboy is intelligent, but just misinformed.
I want to make it very clear that I am in no way, shape, or form trying to compare white discrimination to other races being discriminated. All I'm saying is that logically, discrimination for someone being any race, is racism. White people aren't institutionally oppressed, but an act of discrimination, which you all admit is possible, is racism in my book. That's just the word
EDIT: Not to mention I find it hard to admit any type of privilege I may hold, considering the fact that my own race discriminates against me every single day for being gay.
No, Black people are sometimes the worst. But I think it is more classicism. A lot of them say I'm not really Black. I want to be white. I live in an upper-middle class family, so apparently, I don't understand the struggle to be truly black. I hate my race because I am Republican. Etc. Etc. I can give you a twenty page experience about it, but not worth the time.
Edit:
Also because i'm light skinned, some people have reversed paper browned me. WTH. I didn't know people still did that.
All of that tbh. Because of the fact that I was friends with a lot of white people and spoke proper english that meant that I "wanted to be white". I was told multiple things like I don't act black enough to be black and that came from both white people and black people. It's all just a mess.
I want to make it very clear that I am in no way, shape, or form trying to compare white discrimination to other races being discriminated. All I'm saying is that logically, discrimination for someone being any race, is racism. White people aren't institutionally oppressed, but an act of discrimination, which you all admit is possible, is racism in my book. That's just the word
EDIT: Not to mention I find it hard to admit any type of privilege I may hold, considering the fact that my own race discriminates against me every single day for being gay.
Just saying. 90% of people who have called me a ****** have been white.
I get what you're trying to say, but this may come across as you comparing discrimination against gays to the black struggle. Which in many ways is a valid comparison (or one day will be by the way things are looking in Uganda and Russia), but it's not there just yet. Plus homosexuality is something which you can hide, your skin isn't.
This thread was intended for personal encounters with racism, not for arguments. Y'all deserve a WP for being off topic.
Anyways, these videos are quite interesting in showing how so deeply ingrained these racist values are on Americans.
I'm white, and I have never faced racism and never will (although I will face sexism). The system is in my favor, and there's nothing I can do about it. Things are getting better and all (I never thought I'd live to see the day where a black president was elected) but it'll be a while. I have first hand seen how racist white people can be (my parents, friends, etc.) and it's not purposely done, it's just that people have yet to learn to see humans and not skin color. I've been judged (by blacks AND whites) for being friends with blacks, it's just a mess. Society is unfair.
