racism misspent youth no one wants to talk about it, not even on blather. and what about reverse racism? does that just mean that if i am white, and i get desciminated against that its being reversed on to me. but that implies that i was racist against someone else for the same reason. doesn't racism mean descriminating against a person or people by some difference whether physical or mental? 010321 ... Black on both sides the world is to small for this ,aren't we all on the same side ,I geuss not when you have places like america and coke and Mc donalds nah we will never all be on the same side , keep tyhe faith lets fuck each other over 010404 ... orange lifes a joke when coupled with other people 010405 ... Kevin we're all human beings, it doesn't matter what we look like or what we believe in. Racists should be more severely punished, I think. 010704 ... sasha people been judged by the color of their skin, or by their culture is as primitive as...a primitive person, i dunno. 010704 ... dB Ok, you want to blathe about racism, let's go. We gave the maori people everything they asked for. Sure there were battles in the past when white people fiirst colonised this place, but it was nowhere near as bad as it was in australia or anywhere else for that matter. And sure, I'm all for preservation of culture, it IS important to know where you came from. BUT, you know what I see EVERY fucking morning! I see white kids going to that run down health risk of a kindergarden down the road. about 10 minutes after that I see the latest Ford econovans, a fleet of them going to pick up the maori kids and take them to their kindergarden. The vans are paid for by the tax payer. They get upgraded every year, and there are 7 or so for every maori kindergarden. The building itself is fully wired with the latest computer gear. The staff get paid between two or three times as much as a normal kindie teacher. The buildings are upgraded every two years, fully overhauled. Things like insulation, heating, carpet, EVERYTHING that a normal kindergarden does not have, these kids have. Now I have nothing against that. I believe that having good facilities for the young people to learn in is most important. BUT, when the government, in the name of "equal rights" segregates learning centres, and give the maori kids more than they need, and the white kids end up sick because the hearters thy have are old and don't do the job, and even if they did, there is no insulation or carpet to retain that heat, it tells you something. This is just an example. If you want further proof, i got more. If you want to be a teacher, you have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to get the training. If you are maori, and you want to be a teacher, the government pays for you. Not only that, but they give you an allowance and extra money for your books and stuff. Eropeans have to take out a loan for everything. A loan with interest rates so high that they are near impossible to pay back. It's the same with most of the education system here. Special rules and pay-outs if you are maori. If you are a maori on the dole you get more money and special "bonuses" for getting clothes or equipment like computers or whatever if you claim it'll help you get work. When I was on the dole, I was paying $100 a week board in my flat. I was only GETTING $98.15 a week form the department of work and income because that was all I was ENTITLED to. THE LIST GOES ON AND ON!! They asked for equal rights. They got them. Then they wanted more. And they got that too. I'm not racist. I treat everyone the same. If you are black, white, asian, smart, stupid, purple with pink spots, it doesn't matter. I hate everyone equally until you give me a reason not to hate you. And that reason could be something small, even something as simple as a smile will do. In New Zealand there is a problem. and it's going to get worse with time. RACISM. As the maori people demand more and more and the two races are driven further apart, what do you think is going to happen? 010704 ... csiagian why does the color of our skin provoke such attention? when my sister announced recently she was marrying a black man, my mom said innocently "he has kinky hair doesn't he". i'm originally from borneo but i used to live in youngstown, ohio (which i amazingly learned to adore - ghetto, jazz, and all) and one day at the parking lot of the downtown post office this guy with blue eyes and greying hair comes up to me, gives me a big hug and says "my, you're a goodlooking one, do you know jane chong? i used to know her in china." i hugged him back because he seemed nice. in singapore people always asked "are you malay or chinese" depending on if i had a tan, but a white guy there came up to me once and said "you look just like my daughter." he later explained his wife was indian. i now live in oklahoma (i know, i've lived some strange places) and people still say things like, "wow you speak such good english" - and i still don't know what exactly to say back because i'm not sure if they're ignorant or the r word. 010706 ... Dafremen I think racism isn't as a big a problem as people make it out to be. I myself am a big proponent of the sport. When Dale Earnhardt died I wasn't sure if I would be able to continue being a racist...but racism limped along without him and so did I. So like I said, I don't see what all of the fuss is about. Everyone I know enjoys racist events and shows and we even go to the NASCAR Expos that show up at the convention center from time to time to see some of racism's best drivers. I highly recommend racism to anyone as a way of having fun with the family and not spending too much money. (Be careful about letting the kids see all of the racist souvenirs...I mean who can resist you know?) Everyone's just GOTTA love racism...it's one of the few activities anymore that brings people together instead of pushing them apart. Maybe if more folx got into racism instead of hate, people of all religions, creeds and colors could finally learn to understand one another instead of fighting all the time. 010706 ... Sol i never understood racism, my best freind a few years ago was shri lankan, and now one of my best freinds is chinese. It frightens me, and the media make it worse, i think ,they have brought it into my mind and nowe it is lodged there, i fight against it all i can but there is a vaguely racist/race oriented subcurrent which scares me which very infrequently makes itself knwon in my thoughts, although rarely if ever to an individual, it would be about a neiboring nation (eg the welsh/french, where my thoughts are feeding off centuries of dischord)it scares me a lot that I am capable of it 010706 ... Dafremen Another fortunate consequence of parentless childhood...I was spared. Thank gawd too. I met my biological mother 22 years later and she was a heroin addicted White supremacist loser who I associated with only BRIEFLY and then only for purposes of getting some old photos of ME and some answers about my past and my heritage. Thank gawd that's all I got from her. ~Shudder~ Nature Vs. Nurture? You decide. 010706 ... nocturnal you SOOO do not want me to comment on that issue in reference to you and your birth mother. I'll be going on about this in my head for hours. 010706 ... nocturnal oh, and on the subject of racism, I don't usually think in a racist manner. but today I found myself doing it. in my defense, however, I challenge any of you to come down here this weekend (it's essence fest weekend) and hang around in the downtown/quarter area and not think a single racist thought. 010706 ... black-dyed gel product Hey Sol, so your best friend a few years ago was sri lankan and your new best friend is chinese eh? Why not keep the old best friend, he sounded nice enough, what happened? Did you kill him? you did, didn't you. You bastard! HOW MANY BEST FRIENDS ARE YOU GOING TO KILL BEFORE YOU'RE FINALLY BROUGHT TO JUSTICE?!!! YOU SICK SONUVA BITCH! 010707 ... Dafremen Ohh you're soo wrong nocturnal. That would have been DELIGHTFULLY pathetic if you had gotten into the whole me and my birth mother thing. I would have been amused for hours I'm sure. Something about a fiery red head getting cheap kicks out of trashing some drug-addicted, vacuous, wasted, human life that's just really kind of amusing in a epileptic-swallowing-his-own-tongue kind of way. And THEN to start trashing my biological mother TOO?! Tsk tsk. (Feel free....it's been a hobby of mine whenever the subject of racism comes up to offer her up as sort of a conversational sacrifice to be burned in effigy.) 010707 ... yummychuckle Wowwww....ok this has nothing to do with racism, but um i just realized dafremen reminds me of the comic book guy on the simpsons. when comic book guy goes "you make me laugh"...its dafremens sarcasm i guess. aannnny way...my grandfather is racist, which provoked some interesting conversation on my brothers birthday (spent with family at the grandparents house). 010709 ... Dafremen Actually ms. chuckle, the guy on the Simpson's is being arrogant AND sarcastic and I am not, I would ACTUALLY be amused and arrogance is beneath me.(I'd also be interested to hear a few good "your mom is" disses from noc, let's see what she's got.) Otherwise the whole lonely geek comparison is pretty much dead on. Marvel Comics rule! DC Bl0ze! 010709 ... black-dyed gel product further proof that daffy is a weenie that eats poopie aHAHAHAHAHA! 010710 ... Dafremen In yer hair fat boy! 010710 ... Power through Passion racism is all about people thinking about themselves. It's about taking incredibly minor differences between people and half baking them into something far more meaningful in the crucible of the human mind. But it has no meaning. I could set twenty people in a line and you could not tell me that any one person was a different "race" from either of the people next to them. But many claim that the two people at the two ends of the line are a different "race." I say, shame on you. 010710 ... Dafremen By the way Power Through Passion....have you met black_dyed_gel_product yet? (points at bdgp's 'considerably-taller-than-most basketball-players' spiked hair) I thought not... Now that you have...care to revise that blather? 010710 ... Sonya cowardice ignorance bitterness hatred there is no justification for it... don't even try 020117 ... cube Yeah, those aussies - good lookin' with those cute accents. Hate 'em. Should ship 'em all back to wherever they came from. England, i think. And those bloody english bastards - great music and a hotbed of new trends. Hate 'em. Should ship 'em all back to wherever they came from. Continental europe, i think. Those continentals... ³ 020118 ... kx21 Human's basic instinct... 020118 ... Shane When my best friend in middle school was black my Korean parents told me to stop talking to her. In elementary school the bullies called me a chink and I often daydreamed about killing them. I wonder if they had known what was going on in my mind they would have stopped. It's hard to be the only Asian in a redneck high school which is 80% white, 19.9% black, and .1% other. I was the one other. AND JUST FOR YOUR INFORMATION I AM NOT RELATED TO BRUCE LEE AND I DO NOT KNOW KARATE. AND HOW STUPID ARE YOU TO ASK ME IF I CAN SPEAK CHINESE WHEN I'M KOREAN!!! 020920 ... offended redneck i guess that means yous the wrong person to ask how to use these here throwing stars? jeesh...don't be so abrasive. i try to understand your culture. the least you can do is try to understand mine. after all...i love pokemon. so you go home and fix yourself some nachos with cheese whiz and we'll be even. haha...funny item from a korean menu..."duk man doo gook". cute written language though...all the little circles... oh haha...and the first time i went to my friend's house...his grandma took my shoes off of me by force and threw them out the window. all we ask of guests in my rv is that you clean your plastic utensils after use and put them back in the utensil mug. 020920 ... Drake Dracoli A fabrication. Non-Existant. Un-Natural. Not ever once found in Nature. Have you heard about those recent white dog vs. black dog wars? Niether have I. Racism is a fabrication. It is an excuse for certain groups of people, to justify their actions against certain other groups. You will never find a racist who is racist because he actually cares about his or her 'race', or believes that a certain 'race' is better at something than another. They happen to hate things that are different, or feel jealous when they see two people of diffirent 'races' with each other. They use this word to attempt to justify their falliable beliefs. They will soon be destroyed by my imperfection. Imperfection is power. 030217 ... Novice Ok, I firstly am African-American, I've spent most of my life going to schools with white kids. Up until now, I haven't gotten any sort of racism from the kids at my school, or the parents, teachers, no one. I was treated just like everyone else, maybe b/c I'm in a Christian School system. But newayz, my mom and I moved, and still I went to my school and nothing changed, until I had to go to camp, that was mostly black kids. I really hated it b/c I was the outsider, I "acted white" making friends was hard. I hated it, its not til now, does anything make sense, but still making friends with those kids is hard, b/c I still the outsider. 030428 ... misstree catching up with an old acquaintance at the bar on tuesday... he said he'd gotten a sweet webdesign gig for some section of the white nationalist movement... i was pretty unfamiliar with them, so just like with the crazy_nazi, i swallowed my initial reaction and asked him about it... and again like the nazi, he dodged for a bit... but it basically came down to "white males are getting the short end of the stick," and this particular group wants to remedy that. i've had this argument before. they spout shit about affirmative action. i tell them to look at a lineup of the ceos of any major corporation. they rant about college scholarships. i tell them that my grades weren't enough to qualify for most of the race-based ones (i checked for shits_and_giggles), and that not only are there scholarships for european descents, there's a million that have nothing to do with who your ancestors were. they tell me they're being blamed for all the country's problems. i tell them that everyone is to blame, current political leaders most of all, and oh look, they happen to be a similar demographic to those holding the corporate purse strings. not to mention that i know what deeper sentiments lie unspoken behind this whole bucket of shit. just thinking about it is making my right temple throb with the desire to punch some sense into people. they're so isolated in their own little world that they paint others' worlds as they choose and then make their decision based on that. gerrrrr. (gerrrrr turned to grin my dafremen's post of 010706. yay defusing though humor!) and re nocturnal's mention of essence_fest... it's a new_orleans yearly celebration of black culture... every restraunt in the french quarter puts a little insert into their menus, sometimes with special items, sometimes restricting items, but *always* with the phrase, "15% gratuity may be added to bill"... i was working at a greasy_spoon when essence came through, and i refused to put gratuity on any check for the first day and a half... then, as i was making about 1/3 what i normally do, i started doing it to about half my tables... old people and families tip shitty too, but not that bad... and as far as racist thoughts during fest? tourons in nola are pretty damn intolerable to begin with... i don't care what skin color someone is, if they're rude i'm going to snarl at them, and ghetto culture and i don't mix well, and essence draws a whole lot of ghetto... i freely admit to culture clash, but i don't judge culture by unchangable physical attributes... take it as you will... 040311 ... sleepy* Why does it always have to be one or the other? Them or us? There are lots of us out there who don't fit into just one category. When are we going to start making our voices heard? When are we going to stop being the exception and become the rule? I think there is enough of us now. One day we of no race will be the only race. We will look back on these days of borders and boundaries and wonder how we could have been so silly for so long. 040409 ... oldephebe rascist and the anti-human have a septic tank where their soul should be 040409 ... kookaburra to who ever said it: racism is natural, actually. whole ant ribes will attack each other if they smell different. Lions will fight other lions. its not uncommon in the animal world. ((Disclaimer:kookaburra is not at ALL trying to condone racism. im just clearing up a point.)) However, racism is not good for a species survival in most cases. it destroys adults that could have been reproductive. ((Another Disclaimer:kookaburra knows that sometimes racism may be good for the species. dont tell me. i know its possible)) And to Shane, I know its probably very hard for you to deal with being asked if you can speak chinese, but sometimes it isn't racism. I personally cannot tell the difference between races. all that i can distinguish is skin color. So maybe, maybe, maybe try to understand that some people just cant tell the difference. And its not just chinese and koreans, i cant tell anybody apart. Im just tryin to save a little angst. ((I Swear This Is The Final Disclaimer: kookaburra is black, and she cant even tell her "own race" apart. I might ask an ethiopian if they speak swahili or something.)) 040410 ... sleepy* Why do we always want to 'tell people apart'? It really hurts. Why can’t people get over this desperate struggle to put everyone into the correct racial categories? I'm sorry, I realise this sounds like trite and tacky "why don't we look past the differences and all hold hands and be happy" sort of stuff, but it cuts very close to the bone with me. I am "of mixed race" (I have never been able to find a way of saying that which doesn’t feel like it should go in quotation marks). "mixed_race". “half”. The question which frustrates and confuses and angers me most is “Where do you come from?”. I hate it because I can’t pretend I don’t know what they mean. I hate it because there is no satisfactory way of answering it that doesn’t make me look like a wanker. I hate it because I can always see it coming- that slightly confused edge of a gaze which means that you don’t look quite right to them, that something about you needs explaining. I hate it because the person asking always wants a nice, neat answer, they want statistics. I don’t feel like I am 50% one thing and 50% the other. I usually feel like 95% one thing and 5% not really thinking about it- until something makes me realise that when many people look at me, they see someone totally different to who I think I am. For those people, a whole different lot of stereotypes are invoked when they look at me. I spend so much time living down those stereotypes, trying to confound them before they are even fully formed. And sometimes I think I go overboard trying to prove how opposite I am to the stereotypes. I have become so used to trying to hide or ignore a part of who I am, sometimes I can almost believe it’s not there. The worst manifestation of this racism that I have ever experienced was in a Psychology course at uni. It was on “Perception and Cognition”, and we spent some time learning about how people perceive faces. They had this fancy new piece of software which could put together photos of different people to make one new ‘blended’ face. They decided it would be interesting and fun to take photos of everyone in the course (there would have been 400 or more students) and make a ‘blended’ face of all of us. When they came to showing us the results, they explained that they had actually made two ‘blended’ faces- one of all the ‘asian’ students, and one of all the ‘non-asian’ students. I will always wish I made a bigger deal about this. I will always regret that I just asked the one quiet question in a tutorial about why this was done. I will regret never finding out who made the decision to make two different faces and explaining to them how this tears me apart, even now, years later. The idea of a face which was a ‘mix’ of both ‘asian’ and ‘non-asian’ was so weird, so absurd, so perverted to that person that they couldn’t bring themselves to make it. I want them to understand how awful it is for me to know that I wear that very face every day, that I am the face they couldn’t conceive of. I want to tell them how I hate them for making me realise that although I have always thought of myself as belonging to one of the faces, I am fairly sure my photo would have been ‘blended’ into the other one. I want to tell them that I hate them, for making me see that the worst racism I have ever experienced is my own. . 040411 ... cinzento On blather, I'm blue. Light blue words over dark blue skin. Can you tell what race I am? Can you discriminate against me when you can't tell what you're discriminating against? Or do you only see me, just me? Are you forced to face the person instead of the barriers you've put up? But I did learn something important. Blather doesn't remove the differences; instead, it becomes an open forum where the differences are harder to see and easier to talk about because they're not as accentuated. 040411 ... Annie111 The only thing I know is that the more it is talked about the better it will be. Honestly, you can only hope right? Exploding to the surface and forming a hard, healing scab is better than seething under the skin like some blistering pustule. 040411 ... misstree re: "mixed race" being in quotes; a close friend is a family geneologist, and is planning to get the flags of all 11 countries he has identified heritage from tattoed around his ankle, with the word "Mutt" in the middle. we're all mutts, if you just look back a little bit. for some people it's a generation or two, for some it goes back 600 years. and the ancestral separations are being smudged faster and faster, people moving to new places more frequently, lines of culture and heritage being less and less important when selecting a mate. i think it's wonderful. a rainbow isn't just stripes; it's a progression. variety isn't just the spice of life, it's the whole damn meal. lack of variety would be ramen at every meal (and i'm betting there's more than one skite that knows just how hellish that is). those of "mixed race" do have a hard road to hoe, because mutts from physically disparate ancestries haven't been terribly common until recent times. but that's changing (halleluiah!), and somehow, the human race seems to be dealing with it relatively well, friendly confusion being the average worst reaction (not bad considering how people *normally* react to things outside their experience). or i'm great at having my head in a hole. but if i am, can i just keep it there a while longer? i have plenty of reason to be bitter about humans, i'd like to at least pretend that once or twice they actually get something right... 040412 ... tinkerbel when i was 7, my best friend at school was amber. she was funny and caring and made me feel like we would be best friends forever.. it annoys me to have to even mention that she was maori, i'm sure the vast majority of you believe as i do that it is as inconsequential as the colour of my carpet.... but for the purpose of my story i need to express that she was.. one day we were playing soccer, just the two of us and this girl from our class walked up and started teasing my friend amber. so random it caught us by surprise.... she called my best friend a 'black bitch'... without even thinking i punched that girl so hard in the face i gave her a blood nose.... now i know violence is not a way to solve anything... but if a child at the age of 7 can be so infuriated and know in the greatest depths of her soul the injustice... why then can others not see it... ignorance is not bliss... its ignominious 041206 ... () (rejection of intimacy on a huge scale) 041206 ... sleepy* When I was 6, I said to my mother "Mum, I don't want to be Chinese any more." No 6 year old should have to think that. 060409 ... sleepy* When I was 6, I said to my mother "Mum, I don't want to be Chinese any more." No 6 year old should have to think that. 060409 ... niggerpenis I, for one, hate niggers and beaners and various other ethnic minorities. tehehehehehehehehehehehhehehheh 060409 ... JPW why_racism_sexism_and_homophobia_exist 101010 ... . 101012 what's it to you? who go blather from