BY JEFFG at ANGRYBLACKCAT.COM
Nobody is born racist. They are taught to hate. Bigotry is not
inbred, it is a learned behavior, and is typically learned from
prejudiced parents. Most bigots keep their opinions to themselves, and
many try to raise their children to be open minded, at least to some
extent, despite their own irrational fears and beliefs. Unfortunately,
parents can't pick and choose what habits their children learn from
them. Typically, children are more apt to learn from what you do, not
what you say.
Let me tell you a story about a friend of mine. This friend's father
"became" racist one day. Many years ago, he was assaulted by a group of
black men. It wasn't specifically targeted, he could have been anybody.
They were just a bunch of thugs who decided to attack him because they
could. After this event, the father targeted his anger at those men
toward the entire black community. It wasn't a group of hoodlums that
attacked him. In his eyes, he was attacked by a group of black hoodlums.
The man chose to be a racist. Fortunately, my friend saw beyond this
prejudice; I'm glad for this because if this friend was a racist, we
wouldn't be friends. Upon hearing the story I asked a question: "Do you
really believe he just 'became' racist? Or was it perhaps just a
validation for a prejudice he already held?"
See, no one simply "becomes" racist on the spot. This man was
attacked by a group of black thugs, but had they been white thugs,
would he hate all white people? Generally people don't have an answer
for that question. In my eyes, an isolated event like that is no excuse
to condemn an entire group of people just because they share the same
color of skin.
Let me tell you another story, this time it's my own. As I've
mentioned here in the past, I went to a culturally mixed school, though
primarily black. Well, there were a group of four young men, who made
my life a living hell my first year there. I got my first taste of
racism when I was only eight years old.
These boys were all twice my height, they were a year or two older
than me, and they beat the living shit out of me on a daily basis. When
they weren't busy beating me up, they were finding other ways to
torment me. Due to this, I had a lot of anger and self esteem issues in
my youth, many I didn't overcome for many years, even into adulthood.
I knew then, and still know now that they picked on me because I was
different. I was white, I didn't fit in, and I was smaller than they
were. This was enough reason in their eyes to send me crawling to the
infirmary on a regular basis, to kick in the stall door on me in the
bathroom, to take anything of mine they could get their hands on, and
in general, to torment the fuck out of me.
I hated these boys for years, even years later, when we were older I
refused to accept apologies from one of them who realized how much shit
he and his cohorts had put me through. But I never saw any reason to
hate them for being black. See, four pieces of shit do not equal all
black people. I continued to go to that school through graduation, and
many of my friends were black and of other races and cultures. Knowing
people from different backgrounds and cultures opened my eyes to a wide
variety of experiences that I wouldn't have had otherwise.
My wife recently made a post about personal responsibility. That
subject rings especially true in this case. Your open mindedness is
your personal responsibility. If you are a racist, it is because you choose
to be a racist. And because of this choice, you will be coloring the
views of your children, either toward people of the culture you are
biased against, or towards yourself once they open their eyes and see
you for what you are.
As I've said, bigotry is a learned behavior. So is acceptance. You
may not be in control of every situation you find yourself in, but you
always choose what mindset and what feelings and knowledge you take
with you from the experiences in your life. When you are a racist, you
are only teaching your children to hate. Whether they hate you or they
hate an entire race of people is their choice. All people come to their
own feelings in time. But really, is either option a weight you're
willing to bear?
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This is a great post. Thank you.
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=IwHwu3tydDY
"Many years ago, he was assaulted by a group of
black men. It wasn't specifically targeted, he could have been anybody.
They were just a bunch of thugs who decided to attack him because they
could."
If it was the other way around it would automatically be assumed that the White attackers attacked a Black man through racial motivations and the suggestion that they were just thugs and would have done the same to him if he was White would be scoffed at by many people, White and Black.
If you were a Black guy who had limited personal interaction with White people and suddenly a group of them attack you, there would be a certain amount of understanding available to you if you subsequently felt that it was racially motivated and that from your personal experience with White people, the only personal interaction that stands out is getting the shit kicked out of you.
I wouldn't be surprised if you ignored the thousands of White people who had never done anything bad to you, the many groups who didn't attack you went you walked by, and could only focus on the ones who attacked you. It's like motorway accidents, people always focus on the one off accident, not the millions of vehicles that have passed that spot without crashing.
I read an inteview with a Nigeria guy who lived in Ireland for one year before moving to England. When he lived in Ireland he was walking through a rough area of Dublin City and got jumped by a gang of thugs who beat the shit out him. In the inteview, in The Guardian, an English paper, he stated as fact that all Irish people are very racist, which is horseshit. Every nation on the planet has racists and the amount per head of capita usually doesn't shift that much. For instance a friend of mine was working in a school in Ghana. She became really ill at one point with a stomach infection. she was refused treatment in the local medical centre, because she was White. That's the reason she was given and they didn't care where she was from. Does that make all Ghaneans 'very racist'? No, she got treated at another medical centre, who we appalled at her previous refusal.
The fact is I've been jumped by the same kind of people in the same kind of areas. Being local however, I know to stay the fuck out of these areas, and I'm able to spot the kind of people who'll most likely attack a person far easier than a foreigner will. I learned the hard way. This guy targeted his hate at an entire people, not at a group of thugs, who probably were racist, but it still doesn't lessen the chances of them kicking the shit out of anybody who looks out of place in their neighbourhood, regardless of colour.
"See, no one simply "becomes" racist on the spot. This man was
attacked by a group of black thugs, but had they been white thugs,
would he hate all white people? Generally people don't have an answer
for that question."
I do. No he wouldn't start to hate white people, because he is white people, his family are white people, most probably the majority of his friends are white. He knows white people and have countless interactions with them. He probably had limited contact with Black people and didn't know much about them. If he's only interacted on a personal level with Black people a handful of times, then the fact that he was attacked will be factor thus: 'Well I've only ever had a 5 or six dealing with Black people, one of those times I got the shit kicked out of me, so there is aprox a 1 in 5 chance that Black people will just attack you if you're White', it's fatally flawed logic and hopelessy shortsighted, but explainable. It works the other way around too, if a Black guy is attacked by a gang of Black guys, what are the chances of him targeting his hate at all Black people?
It's not uncommon for people of all colours to travel to a foreign country for a few weeks holiday, where they got unlucky and happen to run into a couple of assholes, to return home and tell people that all those people from that country are assholes.
"In my eyes, an isolated event like that is no excuse
to condemn an entire group of people just because they share the same
color of skin."
Agreed,
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I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong