Instances of Racial Discrimination/Bias

[Gonzo]

So, I think that's the right name for this topic (it's 2 am PST over here, plus my brain is fried from thinking).

Anyways, I was wondering if any of Iwaku members have had any instances of Discrimination/ Bias against them due to race. This isn't meant to be some giant debate about race and how white people are garbage and how black and Hispanic people are ruining countries, or any of that shit. I'm merely curious as to how many of Iwaku's members (no matter what race) have been treated differently due to the color of your skin.

Again, please no arguing about race here. We are only posting about instances, and sympathizing/empathizing with others. Okay? Okay. Wonderful. Glad we had that talk.

So, I'll start. Being a Hispanic male who lives in a partially upper-scale part of Sothern California, it's not very uncommon for me to walk into a Nordstrom (or really, any other store for that matter at most malls), without being watched/followed by an employee. If I think of anything else that's happened, I'll post here.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Outside of a few isolated online incidents where people said something along the lines of "Check your white privilege!", not really.

Race was never a big thing for me growing up, everyone just seemed to see each other as people.
Though I might be a bit unique also in that two therapists/teachers I had for a good 8 or so years, and then another 2 as bosses were from other races.
One had Indian heritage, and another had both a black and white parent. So I was exposed to those of another colour enough that I really just didn't think anything about it.
I grew up around it, there was nothing to make me go "Those people look different".

 

[Halo]

I was once refused service in a shop in Falkirk shortly after I moved to Scotland because I had an English accent and handed the guy an English note. He legit just flat out refused me service because I was English. Irony is all these years later I'm still considered "the English one" when I'm in Scotland, along with all the jokes and shit that come with it, but I'm now Scottish-seeming enough to be "the Scottish one" when I'm down south at uni. My brother got it pretty rough, kids used to beat him up every now and again for being English.

Uh... wait. English is a race, right? Right? D: I'll take solace in the fact that it's still relevant.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Wait. English and Scots don't like each other? o.O
I thought it was just an independence thing, not a societal culture thing. :/

 

[Hellis]

There is a lot of bad blood between scots and english. IT'd be like if Sweden ruled Denmark or the opposite way around..

 

[Halo]

There is a lot of bad blood between scots and english. IT'd be like if Sweden ruled Denmark or the opposite way around..

To be honest, not really. There are a minority of Scots who really hold a grudge over some stuff, but most I've met don't care about shit decades or centuries in the past. As for the English, I've not met any who really give a shit - most are just sick of earache from that vocal minority. Then again I live in Edinburgh... it's worse further north.

 

[AetherDream]

When I was in junior high school, one of the the math teachers had separated me and the other boys of color (2 latino, 1 black and 1 Thai) into a remedial math class away from our white school mates because he said, "You all don't have what it takes." Mind you, we did not have the worst math grades in the class, quite the contrary, but there we were, pushed off to the side. When the results of the final exam came around, I was happy to slam my paper on his desk with a big 96% right next to my name. I looked him dead in the eye and said, "I've got more than what it takes." He looked at me and shrugged dismissively. Fuck that guy.

 

[Hellis]

To be honest, not really. There are a minority of Scots who really hold a grudge over some stuff, but most I've met don't care about shit decades or centuries in the past. As for the English, I've not met any who really give a shit - most are just sick of earache from that vocal minority. Then again I live in Edinburgh... it's worse further north.

Well you know. Most swedes don't hate Danes and Vice versa. Albeit you have a loud vocal minority considering swedes to be terrible snobs.

 

[dragonesper]

It's more accurate to say that Swedes, Norwegians and Danes have a lot of fun by making jokes about each other. It's mainly because of the shared history and also partially the fact that both the Swedes and the Danes have argued about who got to have Norway.

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As for being put through racial discrimination: No, not that I'm aware of, but I'm white.
I've been put through a ton of blonde jokes while growing up and told to not be so sensitive to the inaccurate implication of being stupid (note: mainly my family have done that) also I have an uncle who has a thing (read: fetish) for blondes so... Yeah... Sexual innuendo during my puberty/teens from a guy that was at the time mid-to-late-forties. Gross. (That's sexual harassment masked as jokes though, not racial bias)


Have I experienced/seen racial bias without being the target: An emphatic yes. My family have strong traits of racism in them. Their bias against immigrants is strong and the dinner conversations when the family is gathered is kinda nasty when on that subject. I occasionally snark at them for it but then they think I'm being too sensitive. I don't really have a 'voice' within the family so being an agent for a neutral stance is difficult.


Do I want to be a racist? NO! I prefer meeting people as people. Skin color is not a good indication of anything really so I make sure to grow the mentality of 'people are people'. I'm not perfect, but I'm getting there.

 

[K3l]

All the time growing up. When I wasn't in online school I used to be bullied by these white guys. Got the whole, "Nigger!" and "Go back to Africa!" jokes thrown at me. There were times where they tried to catch me alone and jump me but they couldn't fight for shit which was probably why they needed to be in a group. They never expected the quiet four foot something kid to fight back. The bullying from them kinda ended after that though.

Teachers? All they said about the bullying was to try and ignore it and maybe it'll stop. They did nothing to try and help the situation. When I fought back I was the one to get scolded though, so...that school was fun. There are more experiences I might share at a later time. In recent times all I really get is looks from white people here and there when I enter a store, and like with Gonzo's experience I've been watched and followed as well.

 

[AetherDream]

Do I want to be a racist? NO! I prefer meeting people as people. Skin color is not a good indication of anything really so I make sure to grow the mentality of 'people are people'. I'm not perfect, but I'm getting there.

Ugg, if you were getting that from your Uncle...base sexual innuendo and harassment are like...disgustingly enough, the least of your worries there. I am of course assuming that you mean Uncle as in the brother of your father and mother and not like...some guy who is "your uncle."

It's a wonderful thing that you take a personal stand and have not allowed your families prejudice to influence you in the ways that racism has a way of doing so. Keep rocking that tolerance, it makes you awesome!

 

[Brovo]

Got the whole, "Nigger!" and "Go back to Africa!" jokes thrown at me.

They should go back to Europe then. You're one of the brightest kids I know, you were born here and belong here. If they have a problem with that... Fuck em'. Their opinion means shit compared to someone like you anyway.

As for instances of racial discrimination, the only events I can think of involve those who dismiss my opinions because I'm white, regardless of content or intent... Usually the same folks have absurdly high and contradictory standards too. The only way one can stay rational with them is to just shrug your shoulders and hope they're not gunning for power of some sort.

Aside from that, I tend to actually more often spot racism than I am a "victim" of racism. Primarily from, and towards, the aboriginals living near the city.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

To be honest, not really. There are a minority of Scots who really hold a grudge over some stuff, but most I've met don't care about shit decades or centuries in the past. As for the English, I've not met any who really give a shit - most are just sick of earache from that vocal minority. Then again I live in Edinburgh... it's worse further north.

 

[dragonesper]

@AetherDream my uncle is an old childhood friend of my mom. The man has been married to his wife longer than I have lived. While not blood he's always been my uncle. That's one of the reasons I hated the treatment I got. Interestingly enough it all stopped after I had trained aikido for a year and dyed my hair black.


As for the mentality I'm building: I don't want to call it tolerance since it feels like I'm simply just masking any ill feelings underneath a smile. Having negative feelings towards a complete stranger I know nothing about is in my opinion illogical.
I prefer calling it a simplified framework that gives me less to edit opinion-wise when it comes to an individual.

 

[Hellis]

Also. On the subject of being subjegated to racial bias. No. I am white, blonde and blue eyed. It's fucking wierd to go abroad and not have a sideway glance thrown at me in customs while a family of four behind me get stopped (they were middle-eastern). I see it all the time, sweden right now is a festering pit of intolerance bubbling to the surface. I have publictly distanced myself from my Cousins husband after he started ranting about "Svartskallar". For those of you who are swedish, you know how bad this word is, and what kind people are prone to using it.

The Discrimination I HAVE faced is becouse I am bisexual. My coming out and confession of a crush earned me two days in hospital. SO there is that.

 

[AetherDream]

I prefer calling it a simplified framework that gives me less to edit opinion-wise when it comes to an individual.

Perhaps you're right about the use of my word tolerance. Sometimes it does have a bit of a negative feeling behind it. I live my life in a way that gives everyone an even shake until they prove to be one way or the other. Respect and love for my fellow man and woman :)

Aikido seems pretty neat, I always wanted to get some Aikido practitioners to join the MMA club we had in college but they always refused. They were pretty snotty about it. Ah well.

 

[dragonesper]

Haha, yeah, no place is without it's share of jerks regardless of any foreseeable factor.

As for what Hellis have mentioned about increasing sense of racism in Sweden? It's happening in Norway too because there's a pervasive attitude about immigrants leeching of the welfare systems and getting money they don't even 'deserve'. It's a very dangerous idea because it feeds this "us vs them" mentality that protected the human tribes ages ago and is useless now.

 

[Diana]

During my middle school years, I was the only white girl living in a black neighborhood. The ONLY white kid on the bus. o__o It was a really really shit ghetto apartment complex. I spent my entire 6th grade year getting bullied by this one girl and her gang of friends. x__x They would jump me after the bus left and later stalk me through the complex to jump me on non school days. I'd get called cracker and oreocream and get a lot of shit. I had never even met the girl before she started kicking my ass. @____@ She just sat next to me on the bus one day, snatched away my test papers and started pulling my hair. It eventually ended with my mom calling the cops cause I couldn't leave the house without being afraid she was hiding around the corner.

That'd started my long career of "missing the bus" and skipping school. x____x Thankfully my parents were pretty awesome about my social education, so I never went the "omg black people are assholes!" route. But it did give me a complex about racism issues for a long time, and STILL pisses me off when people say you can't be racist against white people. o__o

 

[Aine]

Eh, dunno if it counts since nothing that happened to me was serious, but I do have some experience with racism even though I'm white as fuck. The strange thing is the perpetrators were always another white people. Let me explain. I travel quite a lot, at least in the context of Europe. I've got lots of relatives everywhere, so I like to visit them. In some places, random people like to inform me I'm 'Slavic scum' and that 'Slavs are subhuman.' You know, the usual Nazi rhetoric. I'm always like: "Hahahahaha, who asked for your opinion, asshole?" because I don't take shit from strangers, but it's still pretty annoying. Well, as I said, it's no biggie. Those are just words and I have a thick skin.

 

[SacredWarrior]

I'm an African-American female and I grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood with some other races here and there. It was actually cool and diverse. I didn't experience racism until I was in high school and I was close friends with a white guy (we're still friends to this day :D) and you can imagine the comments I got. It was bad enough that I'm intelligent, made good grades, and didn't behave like the other girls did.

Once an obnoxious asshole who was black decided to try to physically hurt my friend and I marched over to him and kicked him in the nuts as hard as I could. No one dared to mess with him or me after that LOL!

Nowadays I honestly hardly see racism anymore (at least IRL). And I live in Tennessee O_O I have friends of all races and I love all races ^_^