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That sums up the Black experience in America if you grow up anywhere outside the inner city. This was my experience in several cities and states, a military brat that moved a lot.
It was culture shock because I was born outside the country due to my father taking any overseas tour he could (wanted to travel). So when I finally wen to school in Flag Staff AZ. I got a rude awakening as to what American was really like. Before that time it was just stories in text books and documentaries. Didn't change regardless of where we moved, its endemic to the culture of America.
I grew up in the suburban/exurban areas, more like exurban areas. I never grew up in the inner city. Alot of what I described happened to my during high school, and some of it happened in college. I still remember the first time I got called the "N" word. I was in elementary school (5th grade). This kid was kind of a bully anyway. No sooner did he do this, he got punched in the stomach by another kid. It was a one-off incident where I was living at the time. Inner ring suburbs of Atlanta.
I've lived in other places throughout the USA. I'm not a military brat though. My big rude awakening came as I got into my adolescent years and into high school. When I was in middle school, my family moved to a new town. We were about 45 minutes west of downtown Atlanta, but it was a world away. The outer ring exurbs of the Atlanta area. Some people still flew Confederate flags. The county we moved to was 92% White at the time. I went from an area there was a bit of everybody, to being the only Black kid in my homeroom. It was a culture shock, but I got over the culture shock. Looking back, being one of the few Black kids isn't what bothered me. What I did deal with was several kids who bullied me alot. A few kids did call me racial slurs to my face. It got worse in high school. Interestingly, the demographics of where I was living started changing. My middle school was about 95% White when I started (in 1997). By 2000, when I left middle school, it was 85% White. My high school was about 80% White and 15% Black when I was going there (2000-2004). Atlanta is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the USA and many people started moving into the outer-ring burbs and exurban areas. The county I lived in was one of the fastest growing counties in the USA during the late 90s.
As for racism, I grew up thinking "maybe if I go to college and get away from here, things will get much better". My college years taught me something. There will still be racist people that you will encounter. It wasn't to the level that I experienced in high school.
I will also add something else. I was always a nerdy kid (not to the extreme like what you see on TV shows like Family Matters and Saved By The Bell). I had my issues fitting in. I dealt with racism from some of the White kids. I also dealt with getting clowned by some of the Black kids.
I am in my mid-sixties, and I remember growing up in an all white town. It's easy to think that there is no racism in a place that has no diversity. But the opposite could be true. Not that far away from my little town, there was a bigger city where there were obvious racial problems, ghettos, rampant discrimination, resulting riots and unrest. That was in the sixties. I believe that there is actually less racism now because there is much more diversity, and when we are exposed to other races in our communities, I think we find out that they are not much different from us. Even so, there is obvious racism in this country. You need only look at unequal law enforcement to see examples of that, but there are lots of other examples as well. I don't believe in the concept of institutional racism toward what is still the privileged group (whites) because most institutions are still controlled by whites. Of course, any individual can engage in any type of prejudice and racism.
I can believe there is less white racism now than say in the 60s. But I think there is more anti-white racism today more than there was general white racism in the 1970s. I think being exposed to diversity revealed the lie whites were told about the benefits of diversity, and the realization became clear that people are inherently different and not fully compatible is true.
There's nothing good or natural about diversity. It just promotes tensions, division and strife. Not only do I don't need it. I don't want it and I don't like it. It's about the worst idea on its face that ever came down the pike. I believed the policy was hatched with the worst motives and intentions.
Well, I do know some actual honest to God card carrying White supremacists. This is a situation that was forced on me and not a choice. These people are from or currently still reside in an area with a tradition of this ideology. I was drug into this mess by my ex wife. What she truly is and her background in this did not come out until my son was born and she figured she had me looped and tossed.
She's a vicious b**** and her family who she wanted me to adopt as my own and forsake my own family are also a vicious lot. Many will say that I should have just took my son and left, which in hindsight I probably should have done. But that's not how things went and it's water under the bridge now. Lamenting that I didn't doesn't do any good at this point. But it was me who raised my son.
He was stuck to me from the time he could walk and follow me. His mother did cut me off from my family and friends for a time, which is a classic tactic for narcissistic control freaks and phsycological abusers. But what that served to do is make me more involved with my son. When he was old enough to understand I explained what his mother and her family were all about.
And they didn't infect him. They tried to recruit me into the group they belonged to and I had to listen to some wild stuff. When I did make the split when my son was grown I let her have all the material stuff which was all that mattered to her. A court battle would have been nasty and let the whole town know what an ugly person she is and seen my son tarred as well. He would not have had a chance there. Small towns are funny that way.
What I saw of her family and how things are in their AO is pretty scary. But they are rather ...contained. As bad as they are they are not really a domestic terror threat. These modern racist groups don't operate in any organized way. It has been lone young men looking for something to belong to that do the dirty work. The internet is a dangerous tool. You don't have to look hard to find both right and left wing violent extremism.
It's a boiler with a low water overfiring condition out there now. As things are I see that peaking. These two ideologies are going to butt heads. With all the rest of us caught in the middle trying to figure out who to point our guns at first.
That is one thing about white supremacist thinking. Kids learn it from the parents. And parents pass it down. I think your ex-wife understood she had little to lose. She knew that she was going to be seen as a horrible person. One thing about ugly divorces is this. The kids are often used as pawns in the divorce. She knew what she was doing and she likely wanted your son to be like her.
I think with modern racists, they can be a threat. I would certainly be worried about said racists. However, because they aren't organized, they can't really be tracked. The thing that scares me about lone wolf types is that they are unpredictable and can't be traced. I think about Dylann Roof. No one could see him coming. When I heard "shooting at a church in Charleston", my first thought was "uh oh, so and so had an affair with the pastor and is settling the dispute with violence". It was on the radio and I didn't hear everything. I found out shortly after that it was hate crime. It shocked me alot.
7.14 percent of those in this thread are true moon bats, they actually believe all white makes are white nationalists. I guess I better go start starching my bedsheets and cutting holes in my pillowcases
Well, I'm not one of the moonbats. I don't think all white males are white supremacists. In my definition, it is the mindset and actions that define a white supremacist.
Sorry that you had to deal with bullying, blatant racism and bigotry starting at such a young age; you didn't deserve it. No one does.
Quote:
Originally Posted by green_mariner
I grew up in the suburban/exurban areas, more like exurban areas. I never grew up in the inner city. Alot of what I described happened to my during high school, and some of it happened in college. I still remember the first time I got called the "N" word. I was in elementary school (5th grade). This kid was kind of a bully anyway. No sooner did he do this, he got punched in the stomach by another kid. It was a one-off incident where I was living at the time. Inner ring suburbs of Atlanta.
I've lived in other places throughout the USA. I'm not a military brat though. My big rude awakening came as I got into my adolescent years and into high school. When I was in middle school, my family moved to a new town. We were about 45 minutes west of downtown Atlanta, but it was a world away. The outer ring exurbs of the Atlanta area. Some people still flew Confederate flags. The county we moved to was 92% White at the time. I went from an area there was a bit of everybody, to being the only Black kid in my homeroom. It was a culture shock, but I got over the culture shock. Looking back, being one of the few Black kids isn't what bothered me. What I did deal with was several kids who bullied me alot. A few kids did call me racial slurs to my face. It got worse in high school. Interestingly, the demographics of where I was living started changing. My middle school was about 95% White when I started (in 1997). By 2000, when I left middle school, it was 85% White. My high school was about 80% White and 15% Black when I was going there (2000-2004). Atlanta is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the USA and many people started moving into the outer-ring burbs and exurban areas. The county I lived in was one of the fastest growing counties in the USA during the late 90s.
As for racism, I grew up thinking "maybe if I go to college and get away from here, things will get much better". My college years taught me something. There will still be racist people that you will encounter. It wasn't to the level that I experienced in high school.
I will also add something else. I was always a nerdy kid (not to the extreme like what you see on TV shows like Family Matters and Saved By The Bell). I had my issues fitting in. I dealt with racism from some of the White kids. I also dealt with getting clowned by some of the Black kids.
Please give us a link to any example of this denigration of whites.
I am white, and have never felt denigrated because of my race. I recognize that there is such a thing as White Privilege. No, I don't hate myself, and I don't hate whites in general. I don't feel responsible for racial injustice. I just feel fortunate and recognize that I have had it easier because of my skin color.
Sorry that you had to deal with bullying, blatant racism and bigotry starting at such a young age; you didn't deserve it. No one does.
No one should have to deal with that kind of crap. Sadly, it's a part of life. This stuff starts young, and it comes from the parents. If the kids are like that, where do they get it from?
Grew up in South Carolina... yea I have known a few
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