What’s the worst example of racism you’ve seen in public?

My mother was giving some things to her cleaner’s husband and the police came and questioned him because they thought he was stealing.

The worst in my conscience is getting angry at my next door neighbor when I was five years old, and blurting out something stupid. We were playmates, about the same age. It wasn’t the n-word, but it wasn’t any better. I can’t type it today out of shame.

The worst up close nastiness I have seen is drunk white teens attacking a black guy at a 4th of July concert in a park. I am proud to say I was one of many who chased off the punks.

But the very worst public example is undoubtedly the Republican courting of resentful whites since the late 1960s.

I was hounded in grade school from neighbourhood bullies for being a rich white kid.

The election of Donald Trump.

Never seen any just heard about it a lot.

When I worked at the theater summer was coming up and a lot of people quit (university students going home). But summer was coming and we had to hire around 20 people in a few weeks.

So there was a black kid that was actually looking for a transfer. No training really needed. Everyone thought he should be hired. Everyone but our general manager.

I asked him about why the kid wouldn’t be hired. His response was “We already have one of them.”

Them being black.

I was around 20 at the time. I would like to think if placed in the same situation now I would have said something. But I was chicken-shit kid that liked my job and eating so I said nothing.

Racism is alive and well. You just can’t see it.

Just watch a Trump rally. Shamefully pathetic. Before the Trump circus, I actually thought our nation had gotten better. I was proud of it. I was very proud when Obama was elected. I grew to understand that my pride was seriously misplaced. Many stupid white people would make snide unsolicited remarks about him to me , assuming that I must also be racist because I’m white too. There comments were frequently ignorant, factually incorrect, thinly veiled, racist rants. Very disappointing. Just plain pathetic honestly.

Again. I don’t blame Trump. Without the pathetic people who empowered him, he’d just be another idiot. Watching the pathetic sheep listen to that empty can rattle has been a true awakening for me. I no longer have faith that any of his supporters are salvageable human beings.

For a self proclaimed “greatest country on Earth,” we don’t come close. This Trumpism is a complete disgrace of everything that I was taught about our nation in school. To learn that a third of my fellow Americans are so pathetic really hurt…

When I was in college, I ran into this guy I knew when we were children — Ron. Turned out Ron was in college down the street from me and offered I ride in with him in the morning (I did not have a car, he did).

First morning he picks me up, we’re at a red light, he rolls down his window and starts yelling at this Hispanic guy next to us. “What are you looking at you fucking wetback?!” He turns to me, “Fucking spic has an attitude.”

I was speechless. He was a sweet little kid. His dad was a minister. His mom dated my dad when they were younger.

Few blocks later, another light, rolls down his window, starts yelling at a black guy sitting on his stoop. “Hey, get a job you fucking porch monkey.” He turns to me, “They’re all fucking lazy, ya know.”

I said to him, “What is wrong with you?” He said, “What? Oh, you know what I mean.” I never rode with him again.

This was 1990.

My wife and I were getting ready to leave for China to go adopt our daughter. We worked together at the time and our co-workers threw us a little baby shower. This guy we worked with comes up to us and says, “You’re adopting a Chinese baby? Wouldn’t she be better off with her own kind?”

We were speechless. He was a black guy. It made no sense to me.

I eventually said to him, “If by ‘own kind’ you mean undernourished in an overcrowded orphanage, then no.”

This was 2002.

Sorry, but now I’m curious. Where are these instances of blatant racism located, like what state? Since I’m in the middle/ south and never had these experiences, yet have been called racist here, I’m just curious.

I’ve never experienced that much personally. Not in public. Jerry and I used to get some looks when we went out, but no one ever said anything.
But I have one acquaintance, a female who is uber racist. Lord she hated Obama. Her husband had the TV on to a basketball game once, and she said, “I remember when the WHITE boys played basket ball. Now you got all these black boys out there,” and she shook her head in disgust.
Never misses a Sunday sermon, of course. She’s Catholic.

@Call_Me_Jay I had a similar experience and it has just haunted me. I was in 2nd or 3rd grade and the was a kid in my class named Clarence. He was my friend. He sat in front of me. One day he did something to displease me, don’t remember what, but I hissed the word “Nigger,” at his back. His face when he turned around to look at me in disbelief, the pain I saw, the shock and the disappointment…it leveled me. So I went home and asked my mom what the word meant. She just said, “It’s a word for black people what we do not use.”
I tried to be extra nice to him from then on. I hope he can forgive me.
Kind of crazy what kids can pick up on, when it doesn’t even come from their own home.

@KNOWITALL: I’m in Massachusetts, arguably the most progressive State in the country.

I think that’s why the instances (in my life) stand out so much over the past 40+ years. They’re not only infrequent, but in shocking contrast to most of my experiences here.

There’s also the odd, subtle racism.

My gay aunt has no problem saying blacks are lazy but Hispanics are hard working.

My Hispanic, immigrant brother-in-law was business partners with a black guy, best friends with a gay guy, his daughter is gay (married to a black woman whom he loves), but he “can’t fucking stand the towel heads.” He literally just said that at my house on Easter Sunday.

A customer asked my mom if the blacks are a problem in Jasper.

@cookieman

I literally can’t imagine someone saying something hateful to someone in front of me like your examples. Here, it’s a lot of talk behind closed doors, but not like that.

My acquaintance calls them towel heads too.

@KNOWITALL . I was traveling with a black friend of mine about ten years ago. We drove up to Wisconsin. I was surprised to see lots of signs, and things about the KKK. Apparently the grand dragon, or leader lived up there. I found it interesting that the most obvious racism I have seen in open display was in a state where in a week of traveling we only saw one other black person.

I used to work with a girl from PA. She said that as children they went to cross burning meetings regularly. She didn’t really see, or know any black people until she moved down south. Another place where racism was thriving, despite the fact that nobody even knew any people of color. Most racist white people around my area don’t know much about black people either…

To me, this proves that most American racists, have been taught the thinking by older generations. They aren’t becoming racist through cultural experience. It’s cultural ignorance.

“Here, it’s a lot of talk behind closed doors.”

We’re not known for our politeness (have you heard the term MassHole?).

Plus, I prefer it out in the open. I like to know who the assholes are.

I would never pick Wisconsin or Mass as racist-full areas. So odd!

I’m not living in my country. I know racism and racism doesn’t know me, because a racist person can think I don’t wanna know you. An example of racism for me it was the worst. I tried to talk with an italian girl in the past, she told me what do you do in italy because I’m romanian. Hmm, some words about me she can’t do anything she’s crying she’s a loser. After some time I discovered a word for that italian girl: the word racist with the help of his friend, he told so about her during a lesson. I was 16 years old and before my decision to stop my studies without saying anything: the racist, the italian racist girl changed her treatment to me but she arrived late to understand something, exactly like other persons in the classroom. I mean it was too late

I have no idea what @meidrinkmojito just said…

@Dutchess All I got was an Italian girl was mean because he was Romanian.

I kind of gleaned that out too.

^I would think that English is not a first language, for that jelly.

Today, at the very same spot, I heard an elderly woman say, while looking down the library staircase, “Well, there sure are a lot of blacks here.”

Well, this wasn’t public. We were visiting Rick’s dad about 10 years ago, when he was 85 or so (he’s 95 now.) Rick got him to watch American Idol. So this black girl gets on stage and really belts it out.
Rick’s dad said, “Well, she’s very, very good but her color is against her.” It seemed like he sounded rueful.
I, like, fell out of my chair! To this day I don’t know if he was just giving me shit (he likes doing that) or if he was serious.

I’m a mature female & when I was a young child, racism was the norm. My parents were out shopping with me in tow when a black man was going in & out of every store on the block (before malls). Turned out he was asking to use their restroom & every store turned him down because blacks weren’t allowed to use the same bathroom as the whites. As he continued down the street, he suddenly wet his pants because he ciuldn’t hold it any longer & knew he would get a free night in jail if he relieved himself in the near by bushes. My dad was one of the biggest racists in town; but, he looked at me & said “no man should be forced to be treated like that”. Well, it didn’t change his racist views very much but it did change my thinking as I grew up. When the first black student needed a ride home, I gladly offered to give her a ride. My dad saw us turning into the black section of town & I got my butt busted when he got home that night.

@LadyMarissa Then things haven’t changed as much as we’d hoped, because I can still see that happening today, as far as you getting your butt busted afterwards for helping.

The number of times I’ve heard that ‘it’s okay for other families, but not mine’ in regards to biracial marriages or children is far too numerous to count.

When I was in the Navy, the 80’s, being on base and off base made a big difference. Stationed in Meridian Mississippi, I had four roommates, two white, two black. After being there a while I was feeling brave about visiting town. I shared a cab with a friend, and we shopped at a mall. I was fresh outta boot, and I wanted a new pair of Jordache jeans. I put them on layaway.
When we got back, we were telling our friends the fun we had, and insisted they come along next time.
These were roommates, classmates, friends we sat with at lunch. One girl practically cried when she stated they don’t dare, because of their color. I ached. I told them they were thinking of the old south. “It’s the eighties.”
The other friend present described things which had happened recently to people who had left the base. The friend who had shopped with me swore with me we would stay on base and spend no money in a town like that. Okay, I had those jeans on layaway. I got them the last possible day, and kept them packed away until I was sent to my new base.

The Navy was strictly enforcing integration and acceptance. I still saw and heard things from time to time, but leaving base was so shocking wherever it was. Friends on base, would behave indifferent to me off base, to protect themselves from public ridicule and harm.
After service, I lived a bit in Baltimore. When I saw spray paint on an overpass, “we rape white women”, I got a chill, and had to keep in mind I was no longer living on base.
I went home one day with a girl I worked with, and met her sister. They both had daughters in the four year old range. They saw my waist long white lady hair, and instantly, there was twenty little brown fingers wriggling around behind my back. Both moms in unison told the girls to quit. I told them I didn’t care, kids should go with their curiosity. So then, my friend asked could she touch it. She and her sister both did. It was quite the gathering. All pretense was dropped, and we spoke our minds. It was cleansing.
I went home with quite the unusual hairdo. Them little girls really had fun.

It’s a very primitive instinct to groom each other. My grandkids play with my hair a lot. Once they they “braided” pine cones into it!