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....By my mother and my girlfriend. Is it racist, that I've noticed chances in a neighborhood i grew up in nearly all my life? (Bedstuy) Occasionally i'll say "oh wow, there's a lot of white people around here", which i found odd, since I haven't really catches wind at the growing influx of white people in Bedford Stuyvesant, or Stuyvesant Heights they are calling it now?
I mean I've notice the presence of on-foot police in my neighborhood, which is strange because when i was a kid, there were hardly much of them anywhere to be found on the streets. Normally i would find them patrolling in a police vehicle.
Does that make me racist for even saying such a thing? Surly i can't be racist because i accept everyone. It's just strange to see a large number of people in a neighborhood they once totally deemed as being dangerous and having a "High Crime Rate"
IMHO, no you are not.
But by today's standards of what constitutes racist thinking, you are first cousin once-removed to the Klan.
I find that the word is completely overused/misused, is the fall back statement for people who have no point/don't understand something or instinctively say it when others have a different point of view, and has been hijacked at this point for political gain. Anything you say, or not say, today is "racist."
Some of the times I have been called racist recently:
1. There are a number of "churches" in my area, and by that I mean random spanish speaking groups who take over a building and turn it into a loud music playing, hootin and hollerin, snake wrangling, speaking in tongues kinda place. They double park on my block and block others in. I have gotten annoyed with them, expressed my dissatisfaction to them (angrily) as they do not have someone outside to move cars, but instead demand that you go into the "church" and beg them to get someone to move their car. I am now a "racist" to them.
2. There are a number of youths who congregate in various locations and complain about how they can't find a job. Of course I grew up with many of them, and to say that they are making any sort of effort to actually get a job is laughable. When you point out the fact that they can barely speak a coherent sentence, nevermind present themselves in any reasonable way, you are called "racist."
3. I sometimes find myself talking with family (cousins, for example) who complain about the cops harassing them when they are "minding their own business drinking a beer or smoking weed." I explain to them that it is illegal to do those things in public and it's better to take it inside. Anyone who does not agree with their "right" to do these things, including while driving a car, is "racist"...including me.
These are just recent examples, however I have many. Being called a racist means very little these days.
I find that the word is completely overused/misused, is the fall back statement for people who have no point/don't understand something or instinctively say it when others have a different point of view, and has been hijacked at this point for political gain. Anything you say, or not say, today is "racist."
Some of the times I have been called racist recently:
1. There are a number of "churches" in my area, and by that I mean random spanish speaking groups who take over a building and turn it into a loud music playing, hootin and hollerin, snake wrangling, speaking in tongues kinda place. They double park on my block and block others in. I have gotten annoyed with them, expressed my dissatisfaction to them (angrily) as they do not have someone outside to move cars, but instead demand that you go into the "church" and beg them to get someone to move their car. I am now a "racist" to them.
2. There are a number of youths who congregate in various locations and complain about how they can't find a job. Of course I grew up with many of them, and to say that they are making any sort of effort to actually get a job is laughable. When you point out the fact that they can barely speak a coherent sentence, nevermind present themselves in any reasonable way, you are called "racist."
3. I sometimes find myself talking with family (cousins, for example) who complain about the cops harassing them when they are "minding their own business drinking a beer or smoking weed." I explain to them that it is illegal to do those things in public and it's better to take it inside. Anyone who does not agree with their "right" to do these things, including while driving a car, is "racist"...including me.
These are just recent examples, however I have many. Being called a racist means very little these days.
In Harlem, we observe exactly that but get the slightly modified version: "He think he WHITE. Well this ain't no WHITE [fill in the blank ...]."
Slightly modified because the mind-set is identical.
racism is a thing that victimizes groups
of people in a very bad way, whether it
is against another race or against your
same race (self-hating racism).
Well I get called "white" on occasion by ignoramuses who think Hispanics only come in 2 varieties: Tego Calderon or Pocahontas. Of course they quickly get corrected, but it's all the same to them....point is: You ain't "one of us"..and I wholeheartedly agree. These people have no concept of their own culture, or themselves, and their world revolves around a 10 block radius around their apt building.
But now I am ranting. Being called a racist is a right of passage these days...if you have never been called a racist...something is wrong with you.
I had a Panamanain friend who would get into spats with her friends who asked her why she was trying to be white seeing as she went to museums and read National Geographic. She told them "they publish it in Spanish as well you know".
There are some very odd ideas floating around out there.
....By my mother and my girlfriend. Is it racist, that I've noticed chances in a neighborhood i grew up in nearly all my life? (Bedstuy) Occasionally i'll say "oh wow, there's a lot of white people around here", which i found odd, since I haven't really catches wind at the growing influx of white people in Bedford Stuyvesant, or Stuyvesant Heights they are calling it now?
I mean I've notice the presence of on-foot police in my neighborhood, which is strange because when i was a kid, there were hardly much of them anywhere to be found on the streets. Normally i would find them patrolling in a police vehicle.
Does that make me racist for even saying such a thing? Surly i can't be racist because i accept everyone. It's just strange to see a large number of people in a neighborhood they once totally deemed as being dangerous and having a "High Crime Rate"
No it isn't racist to point out white people walking around an area where they use to be virtually non-existant. However, being labeled "racist" is very common in this city no matter what you do, so don't let it bother you.
Edit: I just read Sobros post and I agree with him.
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