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In my high school many hispanics and blacks were in groups that fought with each other. The white people just tried to stay out of their way. The 4 tables in a lunchroom hallway were understood to be black and woe to the white person who tried to sit there. My first time in a middle school I sat down for breakfast(free breakfast for us poor kids) and I was one of the first ones. Next to me came and sat a black girl and I was thinking, oh how friendly, to sit next to someone that she doesn't know. Then two more of her friends came and then a few more. Needless to say, they didn't invite me into their group, they told me to leave. The other thing that formed a big impression is hearing the N-word about 10 million times in my youth and only hearing it from one particular race(which wasn't white).
These events and memories can happen to anyone and I'm sure the same thing has happened to black kids in white communities. I think people tend to group themselves when they get old enough to realize there are differences between us. The first grouping is typically by sex.
As far as my opinion, people present themselves in public in a certain way. Someone dressing as a thug or gangster rapper would be the same as someone else dressing as a punk rocker. I think most people would tend to stay away from either person. Unfortunately dressing as a thug or gangster is much more acceptable to society than dressing as a punk rocker. Imagine if half of all white people starting dressing as punk rockers and came up with their own vernacular which could only be spoken by white people otherwise white people would get mad.
If I walked into a fast food place and had to sit with one of two groups, one black and the other white, the race wouldn't matter that much to me. If the white group was dressed up as skinheads and the black group as professionals, then I'd probably sit with the black group. On the cable show "What Would You Do?" they tried an experiment where they had a group of black teenagers vandalizing a car and then a white group of teenagers vandalizing a car. They saw who had the police called on more times. Of course the black teenagers did(because that was the whole point of their experiment). The thing I couldn't agree with is that they dressed the black teenagers up as gangsters and the white kids up as preppy college kids. They should have dressed the white kids up as skinheads and the black kids up as preppy college kids and repeated the experiment. My hunch is that they dressed them both the same initially and saw no difference in phone calls, so they had to repeat the experiment but make the black teenagers look like gangsters to get the outcome they wanted.
I have no prejudice against any race, I've dated black, white, asian, my wife is hispanic and my children are half hispanic. However, I really wonder why such racial inequality exists in the world. Why do countries that are predominantly black or hispanic struggle so much while predominantly white ones do so well? Why do some races seem to do so well in the U.S. while others do not? These are questions that really have no answers, but things that a 3 or 4 year old are not seeing. When your child grows up they will watch the news and learn about the world and different countries they will probably wonder some of the same things.
The history of society is all about inequality, some people prospering and others failing. Some people come away from this with a racist/prejudice view and others do not. Even if we were all one race, then maybe we would divide ourselves by hair or eye color, or maybe height. Some people push this viewpoint and exploit it while others do not.
It is rare that I read a long post but this one is wort it. True , true ,true and true.
Some racism is inherited and some is developed over time. Some racism is taught by one generation to the next, but if you took a group of middle school kids who were not racist in any way they would still groups themselves according to something. There would be some intermingling, but once kids reach a certain age they start grouping themselves, regardless of outside influences. It's not a far leap for one of the groups to start making fun of differences between them and the other group. What I'm trying to say is that it's more natural than you think. It comes from our tendency to group ourselves and then to compete with other groups. Racism is a tendency that must always be fought against, it's not just something that happened in the U.S. in the last 150 years. It has been around for thousands of years.
Yup. They learn it from their folks and other adults and then when no one stops them or when their little buddies think its funny, it blossoms into full racist behavior.
The PBS series "Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes" exhibits that to a tee.
And that was done decades ago.
My point is, you think think your bias is correct over that of others and gives you some moral high ground over everyone else.
Sorry, thats just hypocrisy.
I beg your pardon? There are several bias' I have that I think are "correct" over that of others. There are some people that think it's OK to steal, I have a bias that they're wrong, and I don't steal. Does that make me a hypocrite? Because I'm biased toward thieves? What's your point? That only those who will tolerate any behavior at all are allowed to be biased toward others, when they think they are wrong?
This hypothesis would suppose that, somewhere in our collective distant past, there was a single mutant racist that all racism was subsequently passed down from.
Adam and Eve were racists, oh I mean, God is/was racist?
Religion shares some of the tendencies of racism. A group of people form their own beliefs and then anyone who is not part of that group, a non-believer, will have some kind of punishment.
My friend's son was bullied and beaten at a few majority "black" schools and had to be transferred a few times (he's white). He then went to a majority white suburban school and did very well. He learned on his own what they were about.
I'm African-American and I got bullied alot in majority-White schools, by White students. For me, being in a majority-White environment didn't mean I was going to do any better.
A room full of 3 and 4 year old children and there is no racism.
It's not just parenting. People form opinions throughout their lives. And it's not limited to race. Many people learn to dislike others who are different in any way, including religion, accent, politics, etc.
And yet we're expected to "like" other races by merely being in their presence. It's non-sense, but it's the governments way.
It sounds like your attitude is one driven by force. At some point your natural self gave way to a nurtured point of view, the way you look at everything. I'm pretty sure you weren't born with it, but acquired it via life experiences (perhaps that is something you're claiming?).
Parents and societal set up can influence. When I meet people who are very open minded, I see that reflected in the attitude of their parents. Occasionally though, I have also seen siblings being exact opposite. In other words, something more than just the parents influenced them.
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