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On CNN last night they did the baby doll test on white kids. The white kids failed miserably. The "experts" on the panel said part of the problem is that race is rarely discussed in white households. My experience as a white, absolutely true. White people almost never think about the color of their skin. Race is completely unimportant to white people. The only time I ever think about being white is when am around a black person, who I automatically assume hates me for the color of my skin. (a bit of an exaggeration) 95% of my education on racism came from the Tony Brown Show, Oprah, and PBS programs on the topic. What were your childhood experiences with race?
My parents never discussed race in our home but I knew that my dad was somewhat racist. However, my grandparents, aunts and uncles were racists and bigots. I heard all that as a child but even back then I found it hard to believe that they could hate people who had never done anything to them personally. My paternal grandmother detested Mexicans but never said why. My grandfather never said a bad word about anyone.
My maternal grandparents hated everyone who wasn't a WASP. My stepgrandfather was a first generation German and KKK member from Chicago so, yes, I heard a LOT out of him. My grandmother went along with it though and so did their kids. Imagine their disgust and "shame" when their youngest daughter married a Mexican! When they'd rant and rave about "those Mexicans" I'd remind them that they had grandchildren who were Mexicans but then I heard "Oh, that's different". Yeah, right. My stepgrandfather was so outspoken in his hatred of Jews that the FBI actually followed him and his family during WWII. I didn't know this till I was grown and it embarasses me still. My aunt has pics of the monstrous KKK rally in Chicago in the 1920s, just thousands of white sheeted men marching down the street, and she's so proud! Yuck.
I actually thought that my generation had gotten over all that racism and bigotry but I still hear it now and then in my cousins and even my brothers. I have given up saying anything but I lose respect for them every time. Don't ask me how I managed to "escape" but I did and I find it disgusting and despicable. Even as a child I had enough sense to realize it wasn't 'fair' to people and wondered why, if my grandmother couldn't stand Mexicans and Blacks, why did she have one to do all her laundry and a Black housekeeper.
Sorry to disagree with you, but in my opinion only! those who constantely bring up issues on any Race,
I'm not sure with whom you are disagreeing. I agree with you. What you focus on expands. If you are constantly on the look out for racism, guess what you will constantly see. Racism. It becomes the distorted prism through which you view the world. I don't think that not thinking about racism makes white people racist. I think it does give white people a disadvantage in articulating our beliefs about racism. It also can make us vulnerable to being persuaded that our words or actions are racist when, in fact, there is no racial component at all.
The baby doll test: In the CNN example, children are shown a piece of paper. I think this sheet had 6 children drawn on it. The pictures of the children were identical except for the shade of skin tone depicted on each child, from Nordic white to jet black. The "live" children are asked to point to the drawing of the child who is the smartest, the most liked, the meanest, the one who is always in trouble, etc. White children identified the lighter drawn children as favorable over the darker drawn children. So did the black children, however, some black children had been taught the PC answer and was able to answer the question "correctly." I think of myself before the age of 9, having no real concept of race. I don't know how telling any answer I gave would have been. I think it's normal to think kids who look like you are good. I also think that as a child if you think children who look like you are "bad" that's a problem.
Last edited by Gilpin Girl; 05-15-2010 at 06:03 PM..
My mother had to have the different race discussion with me when I was about 7 or 8 b/c I loved TLC, I thought Chilli was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen so I went to the yard with my blanket to get a "tan" like hers everyday. Mom told me that would never happen (one b/c I am white and two b/c red hair and freckles= zero tanning ability) I did not believe her so I kept on trying. The diffence was explained to me when I met my father around age 12, saw a friend from school (a black girl) waved and I said dad there's my friend and he made a racist comment, I remembered feeling sad and confused by his nastiness and had to get an explanation from my grandmother about why he acted that way.
In my early twenties, I went to downtown Denver with a friend ,and coworker, for some event. When we got back to his car, we saw that someone had thrown a rock through the driver side window. My friend was angry at the site of his damaged car. “Damn n*ggers!†he proclaimed. Oh no he didn’t. The moment those ugly words left his mouth I began screaming at him demanding an explanation for such ugly racism. I was screaming at him the way my sister had been screaming at my grandpa. I don't remember ever being so offended. People on the street corner were staring. After I calmed down, I had the most honest and complete conversation on racism with this man in my entire life combined. It was about seven hours long. It was also the only real conversation about racism I have ever had in my life. White people just don’t talk about race.
Great story. Just wanted to highlight this last segment as I think a lot of what allows racism to flourish is the very fact that it usually goes unanswered by those in the company of the one spouting the racism. Some are afraid to speak up, some are indifferent, some might even agree with it.
But in the end not speaking out against racism for whatever reason only amounts to its tacit approval. In fact, in same-race company there is usually the assumption that everyone in company believes the same way. It is only when people brave enough like yourself are willing to show their disapproval of casual racist remarks that racists will no longer be able to find safe haven in same-race company.
I watched this last night on cnn also. Only thing on tv at the airport. Pretty much all the kids had the same discrimination tendencies regardless of their own color.
My parents never really talked about race and because I wasn't raised in a victim mentality household we never really had a reason to blame a certain race for anything. Since that time any feelings I have towards a certain race of people have been created by my own personal experiences throughout life.
My parents never really talked about race and because I wasn't raised in a victim mentality household we never really had a reason to blame a certain race for anything. Since that time any feelings I have towards a certain race of people have been created by my own personal experiences throughout life.
Why don't we do the test on BLACK CHILDREN? I bet they will fail even further even though they made it to the top!
What gets me, Black athletes are making MILLIONS OF DOLLARS not pesos but dollars, AMERICAN DOLLARS a year to play a sport, they have to abide by their UNION CONTRACT...but they violate the drug policy, carry weapons, and still commit the same crimes and they still continue to play and my outrage is, these SCUMBAGS should be fired as any other AMERICAN WORKER but the UNION seems to be more protective but I see why, MONEY!!!
My race question is, shouldn't we all be proud of our heritage?
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