Do you see racism?

[j.arledge]

i have been discriminated against. I live in texas and i am white, there are many hispanics here of course. My fiance is hispanic , but that is beside the point.

I have to some times wake up early for college to print stuff out or go over notes and so i got to were i would go by a burrito shop. They were hispanic and they did not take kindly to me being white. I tried 3 differen't shops and all were very unfriendly and very short with me.

It happens, i just didn't go to the shops. My fiance's family likes me and i love her and her family they are great people but it is just the typical sort of ignorance thing. Those people didn't actaully know me and i didn't know them. i didn't provoke them in any way.

either way i think it is still around but how much i can't say. I will say that i am very interested to see what happens to affirmative action if Obama becomes president. I mean nothing policaly charged by that but i think it will be an interesting topic to be addressed.

[Hikey Mikey]

It's around. My town has several reservations around and in my two years here, I have heard several comments about whites not wanting their kids to go to the res or hang out with tribal kids. Just one example of many in our society.

On the other hand, it has much improved in my lifetime since I was a young child growing up in north Florida in the 1970s. It was blatant and I could tell even at that early age.

[DavyH]

In South Africa? Every day. Both sides equally guilty, but only one side (guess which) is actually considered racist. The other side is simply 'prejudiced as a result of past injustices'.

All very sad and pointless.

[Brosa]

Originally Posted by Darin

Threads like get closed when people make it a big ugly confrontation. No need for all that. I'm just wondering if you see racism as much as we are told it exist by the media. If there's a debate to be had. It's not a racial one, but a media one.

You seem to have nick for creating threads that are bound to get locked. You know that talk about religion, politics, racism is a no no here.

Why challenge the rules a lot of the time? What's in it for you?

[Darin]

What's in it for me is, an interesting dialog that's about more than the debate between solid state and tubes. or what kind of pickups work in an RG5XX. The problem is when people get upset, start name calling, etc. We are adults with a common interest, guitars and noodly shred. And that is the glue that binds us Jemsiters. But like any family, there will be differing opinions on things. And that's were it gets interesting. Heck, if we all agreed, how interesting would a discussion be? Threads get locked when people lose reasonableness (if that's a word) and the discussion falls apart. The reason for the topic rules isn't so much that it's wrong to discuss those things as it is to avoid friends becoming enemies around here. I get people upset at me because of my views, and that's ok. I get hate pm's from people. But that my friend is ok with me. Now, here we are discussing not "are you racist", but "have you persieved racism recently around you". There is no conflict. No debate. No need to get upset or accuse anyone of anything. No need for bans. Just adults discussing what they see around them and sharing it with other adults across the globe. I get more out of what you guys "report" than any news person. I think the mods have beem pretty darn reasonable. They tend to watch closely threads that push the edges, and when conflict brews, they bring the hammer down and save friendships.

-Darin

[Gurj]

Originally Posted by DavyH

In South Africa? Every day. Both sides equally guilty, but only one side (guess which) is actually considered racist. The other side is simply 'prejudiced as a result of past injustices'.

All very sad and pointless.

I agree with this post. Racism works both ways. Plus I think it will always be there in some form or the other.
Growing up in England as an Asian, I've had my share. But tbh it has generally got better compared to when I was a kid.
In fact I experienced racism from some Asians when I went to university!!! Due to my up-bringing, I get on with everyone (well most everyone! ) and because I dressed up like other metalheads and wouldn't exclusively hang out with the rest of the asians, I would be called a coconut!!! Just pure ignorance as far as I'm concerned.

However, I do think that political correctness has gone too far and is causing a lot of problems today. People are starting to get tired of being told what they can and cannot say and do. And in England there is definately a lot of concern about the mass immigration that is going on at the current time. Although most don't say anything because they are frightened to be labelled a racist. However as some people think that the three main political parties will not be doing anything about these issues, some have turned to the far-right facist BNP party. I was saddened to see that in last week's local elections, they got the third highest vote in my home town and gained 2 seats (around 17% overall vote) and this was the first occassion they had stood for election here. Fortunately (imo) I should point out that this wasn't a typical vote around the country as they polled a very small percentage vote.

[alex10]

When i was living in Turks And Caicos The the majority of the "natives" were very racist towards any one who wasn't born there,

[jk-27]

Does racism exist? Yes it does. Is racism as bad as say 20 or even 10 years ago, not in my experience.

The problem now is that when it does happen, it gains more exposure than it ever has before, it's such a taboo and is hyped in the media as being indicative of a community as a whole, whereas I think it's much more isolated these days.

However, I have personal experience of it being used as an excuse. I saw a black guy start a fight in a bar that got pretty ugly. The fight was witnessed by several people, and all agreed he started it and was the aggressor. The police turn up, and he stated he was racially abused and that's how the fight started, yet 5 witnesses never heard any racist terminology prior, during or after the fight. He used it to explain his behaviour and seek sympathy, and that is just as bad, if not worse, than actually using racist words. And i think it's this use of "the race card" that is starting to really get on peoples nerves, because communities have worked to stamp out racism.

It's very sad to see that frustration result in votes for the BNP though, we don't need that, and his speech at the London Mayor inauggaration was just so hate filled and aggressive it was a joke.

[mike570]

Do I see racism? Yes.
Do I see it from the "stereotypical" source, meaning white people? Extremely rarely! It seems normal to see racism work in every other direction. I also see a lot more other discrimination, like age discrimination, economic discrimination, maternal discrimination (they don't hire women with kids), health discrimination (they don't hire you if you or a relative has a condition that costs the insurance company money), or intellectual discrimination (the discriminator is an overeducated $#ithead).
Those who discriminate simply seem incapable of accepting others as they are, for whatever reason. As social creatures, we seem to set our own criteria for letting people in or keeping them out. It's kind of sad that the criteria is very narrow for some people.

[Darin]

I gotta admit. When I hear about racism working the other way. Wera black people use racism as an excuse for somehing. My first reaction is that it is reverse racism. But then I tru to imagine their culture. It would be hard to argue that the black and white culture isn't profoudly different. With real racism, segregation etc going on for so long. I think it's a natural reaction from them to still be defensive. I'm sure there are older people in the black community that can remember being victims of racism. And that frustration is past on. There has been a heavy effort to teach young white kids to be color blind, which is good. But how do you teach young black kids that they don't need to be on the defense racially? Do you say, "It's ok now. Your parents were treated poory, passed over for job promotions, and you grand parents were told to sit in the back of the bus. But we white people are better. You can trust us now." I mean, it just seems like it want that long ago. I suspect it'll take a couple generation for those feeling to fade. That doesn't relate to the asian or mexican thing though.

When I was young living in the SF bay area. Me and my 2 brothers and 2 cousins were sent to the store to buy ciggerettes for soemone at the party at my house. I was in 4th grade, and kids could still buy them "for an adult" So this gang of mexicans starts folling us and we all get scared. One guy from our group breaks off and runs don the street and knocks on the door of a house. Unbelievably, it some tough looking bikers. They come out. One big guy walks up to a gang guy, who now have us all but surrounded in the middle of the street. And grabs his nunchuk things from him. It was simply amazing. And health saving. That was my early impression of mexicans. And it stuck for many years. "Mexicans hates whites" I thought. I was also "taught" to hate blacks. So my first job is working in Oakland. Were I was the only white guy. My 2nd job, working on a paving crew where I was one of the only non mexicans. Both of those experiences changed me. Now, all that to say. As kids, I think our early experiences cement stereotypes, and quite wrongly. So kids growing up in a culture where they are taught racism is pretty hard to overcome.
"When we are all the same colora then it will be sizism..." That's a sad thought.

Regarding the early post about controversial topics. It dawned on my this morning about thing we can still agree on while we bebate things we don't. Elcid probably disagrees with me on a list of things. But c'mon. The guy keeps his wife in a cage in the basement. What's not to like about him? At least we agree on how to keep a wife in her place.








I'm only kidding!!!

Rock on cid!

[shreddersymphony]

Darin, you mustve been on jemsite for FOREVER now. You must have realized that this is not the place for these sort of discussions. Jemsite in general is a very sensitive community, I found a lot of the time that even when I asked simple un-attacking questions aka "Why are the JEMS priced as they are", etc, by the 2nd or 3rd response I'm met with a hail of nastiness. I think the point is, until jemsite changes and people stop being this way, stick to guitars and amps

[jemswirl]

Has everyone forgot, it's all about human nature. People tend to gravitate toward their same color, creed, language, culture, religion, ect. Being a racist is someone proud of their heritage. Being a bigot is someone thinking their better than someone else.

[elcid]

Originally Posted by Darin

But c'mon. The guy keeps his wife in a cage in the basement. What's not to like about him? At least we agree on how to keep a wife in her place.

Darin, it's the cage OR the basement. I'm not an animal.

[waylay00]

Originally Posted by Darin

Listening to talk radio recently. You hear terms like "race card", "racism" etc. But I just don't see it. I think the last time I saw a guy that really seemed like he might be was 8 or so years ago. I think for the most part, people are color blind. I see mixed relationships all the time, and they don't seem to be getting grief for it like they would have years ago.

So what do you think? I think, in this country anyway, that people really haved moved on from small minded racism. And its a good thing. I just hate that we keep hearing about it being alive and well. Am I alone?

Definitely. Move down South a few hundred miles and you'll see it.

My city has some of the worst reverse racism too.

[mike570]

If Jemsite is only for guitars, why have a "Chat" or an "Off Topic" section?
Personally, I find it interesting that we all share such a common interest, Jems or the derivatives thereof, yet see the other similarities and differences we have.
Nothing bad comes of talking. It's just when the nastiness or childishness comes out that there's problems, but that can happen with ANY topic!