Wonder Why People Who are Obviously Racist

[liberalmike27]

Seem to want to deny it.

Living in a southern state that has the ignominious distinction of being one of the two most racist states, one of the poorest states, and a state that voted 65 percent for Republicans, Alabama, I am surrounded by these people who will go into tirades about things, clearly racist, but desperately want to not be seen that way.

I don't get it. I sort of respect the few who actually do just openly admit it. I can at least respect their honesty. It's weird. Just feeling alone here in Alabama, liberal and left out.

[Dont TS Me Brah]

1. I know the answer. We discussed this just the other day.

Modern technology has masked the racism of most people. 50 or 70 years ago, one could be an outward racist, KKK meetings on Saturday nights, noose hanging from the rear view mirror and confederate flag at your house because you were judged and evaluated by your community. If you were part of a community of like individuals there was no impetus to hide or cover up the racism. But today, with the geographically omnipresent nature of scoiety these same people now hide their racism. And now with Facebook, etc... very few racists will let their feelings known as they know it can affect everything from social relations to job hunting to even criminal prosecution. There are NOT fewer racists today than there were 50 years ago, indeed there are more today as a percentage of total population.

[onehandle]

2. I'm in Georgia, but in the dead center of the most blue county in the state.

I rarely travel outside of Atlanta/Decatur area for obvious reasons.

[Dont TS Me Brah]

6. is it REALLY that bad? I've never been there before. nt

[DontBelieveTheHype]

3. My 1st post

Anyhow a good place to chime in.

I think peoples definition can vary, some people thing telling those jokes among their friends is acceptable and does not make them this. I dunno, sort of like saying :Well at least I am not like XYZ over there"

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Welcome to DU.

[Frances]

4. It is hard being a liberal in a right wing atmosphere.

I grew up in Alabama and sympathize with you. Although I now live in an overall blue part of California, the majority of the people in my townhouse development are fundamentalist Republicans.

If you want to be with other Alabama liberals, you might want to go to the Alabama site here at DU. There's also a blog called Left in Alabama that I visit.

[griffi94]

5. i've seen that same phenomenon

my mother swears up and down she's not a racist, and even falls back on the old "some of my best friends are black". the problem with her argument is that except for her maid, i'm not aware of her knowing any african americans.

OTOH when a local car dealership failed a few years ago she pointed out that it was because affirmative had made GM give the dealership to some "blacks" and they had given free cars to all their friends. good argument except almost every other dealership in town went bellyup around the same time.... but that was different.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. My brother put it best to me. There is a dichotomy, a schism.

Our father is hostile and afraid of "minority" groups as a whole but he's fine with individuals from those groups, provided he accepts them on his terms. This allows him to say without batting an eye that he isn't racist.

[griffi94]

10. a friend of mine from michigan

once told me the difference between racism in the north and in the south came down to this.

southern racists hate minorities as a race but may love them as individuals.
northern racists love them as a race but hate them as individuals.

while this a pretty broad brush he was using, i have to say that even tho i grew in the south some of the most racists people i've ever met were from ohio.

[Thirtieschild]

11. delete

dupe

[Thirtieschild]

12. In 1968 a black man from the North told me he preferred the racism in the South

to the racism in the North. In the South he knew where he stood; in the North they tried to hide it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. Because people who are racists have undeservedly high opinions of themselves

and little care for honesty.

[HopeHoops]

13. My wife (then girlfriend) got a job in rural SC in '85 and the overt racism was shocking.

Examples:

1) Her landlady could not say ANYTHING positive about a black person without qualifying it, and she would correct anyone who failed to do so. My wife said, "Bill Cosby is a talented actor", and her landlady corrected her with, "Bill Cosby is a talented BLACK actor". There were no exceptions to her rule.

2) She got spit on for holding the door for an elderly black man.

3) She only had one white child in her kindergarten class and he was there maybe two-thirds of the time. His grandmother excused him because "he's afraid of the black children".

4) Anyone who could beg, borrow, or steal would send their kids to the all white "academy". When questioned about it, they would admit that the public school offered a better education, but a white had no chance of getting a job if they went to public school.

5) She was known as the "little white woman who teaches the nigger kids". Everyone knew who she was AND knew she was from "Yankee territory" (PA).

6) Her aid was black and her best friend in SC. We went out together, my wife and I and her aid and her husband. We tried to enjoy ourselves, but the constant and loud comments were rather disturbing. We obviously weren't welcome. Her aid had her ass grabbed twice on the way back from the bathroom and her husband and I almost started a bar fight over it. Fortunately the women talked us into keeping our heads on, because we both probably would have lost them in the resulting fight.

There are many more examples, but the post is already getting long. After one school year, she moved back to PA.

Sure, that was 25 years ago. It was also 120 years after the Civil War. It was shocking that attitudes hadn't really changed in 120 years, and sadly I doubt another 25 has made any difference.

Racism is so far beyond ignorance and stupidity that I'm not sure there is a word to describe it. Our three children are more likely to point people out by their shirt color than by the color of their skin. That is as it should be.

[liberalmike27]

15. Sadly

It gets handed down. Either the child has to be enlightened, or intelligent, to be able to overcome both racism, and sometimes a religous influence on them. Hating is a learned thing.

[HopeHoops]

16. I fully agree. That said, there really are two very different forms of racism.

Hatred and simple ignorance.

The racism she encountered in SC was simple hatred, very much handed down through generations. It takes a strong person to break out of that cycle.

My wife's father, being from NW PA where there basically weren't any blacks, suffered from racism based on simple ignorance. Curiously, he was cured of this when he visited her in SC.

He had been an art teacher (retired at the time). When her parents came to visit, they joined her in her classroom for a day. Her dad set about giving an art lesson to her children. He later told her that in the midst of it, and while having a grand time doing what he most enjoyed, he looked around and realized, "all of these children are black!"

Simple ignorance is something that can be cured by experience.

[madamesilverspurs]

14. They not only want to deny their racism,

they accuse others of racism for having noticed the racist behaviors.

Goes like this:

Q: "Why do you complain only when brown-skinned people are involved?"

A: "You're a racist to even mention such a thing. YOU are the one who mentioned race, you are the racist."



This conversation happens routinely around my town, where the immigration issue is heated and very, very nasty.

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