Relatives and racism

[faxman75]

My grandmother when she was alive loved mixed nuts in a can. Her favorite were these brazil nuts.



She called them "nigger toes". We all used to gasp whenever she said the word and she never understood what was wrong with the name and wasn't for making an effort to call them anything else, very stubborn I would say.

Have any of you had relatives growing up maybe that would make racist comments that made you uncomfortable? Actually, it doesn't have to be about race it could be homophobic or any pejudice really.

In retrospect both of my grandparents had pretty extreme views, and my grandfather was born in Italy. They were really wonderful grandparents and they never pushed their views on me. They were democrats and fairly liberal but when things race wise in general would come up, they all had different whacked out opinions, grandpa was more like Archie Bunker saying the blacks are harder working than the mexicans and things of that nature, but his opinion on Hitler was pretty deplorable. I was raised in a house with my grandparents, aunt and mom and outside of my mom they were all pretty racist from time to time with their comments and slurs on occasion. It's not easy to label your immediate family as such and they obviously weren't making slurs on a daily basis but they made enough comments over the years that it wasn't just a slip up either.

[TomAz]

dagos.

[Young blood]

My dad was known as the grand wizard of the kkk by my friends growing up. He used to be a heavy drinker from Kansas who is 80 years old. Racist jokes are his specialty.

At a restaurant the other day, he asks our gay waiter the daily specials. One special just had to be quiche. As the waiter was walking away my dad makes the off hand comment that back in his day quiche was known as faggot food.

[Alchemy]

A big part of my family are born-again Christians, so they have some funny ideas about all sorts of different people. They think paganism, for one thing, has been spreading in America like a wildfire (and that might be linked to Harry Potter). They have a lot of opinions about homosexuality and Islam, of course. A lot of them had opinions about Barack Obama being president, not because they are republicans, and not because of his politics, but because he's black. I'm from Texas.

[canexplain]

my relatives up in greely, about 50 miles north of denver were always prejudice about native americans or indians or red faces as they called them ... i think it actually came out of their grandparents fought the indians so i guess that is the reason .... lame but you know older peeps cr****

oh and faxy, that is what my people always called those nuts

[Young blood]

Like your grandpa faxman, im pretty sure my dads idol is Archie Bunker.

[Young blood]

When I asked to go to the mall one time when I was a kid, his drunken reply was "which mall has less roids?" in front of my friends.

Roids~(per the dictionary of my dad) Negroids, or hemorrhoids on society.

Yet he voted for Obama just so he can bitch about him on a daily basis.

He is a bastard.

Issues.

[chairmenmeow47]

i don't have a real point per usual, but these are my experiences...

my mom went to a segregated school in the south. somehow though my wise mother managed to escape the south as soon as she legally could and never looked back. she surprisingly went back for a reunion recently, but was disappointed to hear her classmates talk about how "lucky" they were to be the last segregated class to graduate from their school.

she is not racist one bit, but her mother was. my granny used to live with us and it always took me back whenever she asked me shit like "how long them darkies been living across the street" while peering out the window, clutching a bat. unfortunately she was slipping into dementia though, so no matter how many times my mom yelled at her for being racist, it never stuck because my grandma was simply stuck in a different time. all we could really do was state that we were offended and leave it at that. there really was no reasoning with her as her mind was too far gone to understand.

now that she's passed, there isn't much racism in the family. i have a feeling my half-brother on my mom's side is racist, but i don't see him enough to really know. he's made some passing comments though, he has some borderline white supremacist tattoos & it's rumoured in my family that when he went to jail in miami in the early 90s, it had something to do with a race riot with the cubans or something. no one tells me anything though, so this is all just a guess. i love him very much and he really doesn't show it around me, but it is sad to hear him make racist comments here and there about people, especially mexicans since my dad's (not his dad, we have the same mom but different dads) family is mexican.

i really don't try to engage him in a debate though since i see him so rarely. racism is a terribly difficult thing to combat and i'm not sure i would even know where to begin with him. it's kinda like when my dad talks about how gays shouldn't marry. i try to explain to him all the trouble my male theatre friends went through when they came out, because my dad watched them grow up with me and i hope that it will give him some sort of personal connection. it still doesn't have any effect, he feels bad for what they went through and still likes them as people, but some part of him will always feel that they shouldn't get the same rights as a hetero couple and i'm not sure it is in my power to ever change that. i'm just glad for the most part, my family doesn't blindly hate on any one race. i'd probably never talk to them if they did.

[stinkbutt]

My stepdad who I'm really close to is extremely racist to the point of having a swastika banner on the ceiling of his shop and a stack of these around


He is getting better as he is getting older but I have just learned to ignore that part of him and focus on his better points

[marooko]

Originally Posted by Alchemy

A big part of my family are born-again Christians, so they have some funny ideas about all sorts of different people. They think paganism, for one thing, has been spreading in America like a wildfire (and that might be linked to Harry Potter). They have a lot of opinions about homosexuality and Islam, of course. A lot of them had opinions about Barack Obama being president, not because they are republicans, and not because of his politics, but because he's black. I'm from Texas.

mind stating your ethnicity for a clearer picture?


im gonna go ahead and guess the majority, if not all of us have stories like this.

[canexplain]

if no one knows, i am as white as they come but being in the military all my young and early life, you lived and delt with all kinds of people .... i think that is why i am like i am ... i will say, during the 7 and 8th grade i went to west jr high and aurora high school the 9th grade and i dont think there was a person of color in those schools at the time .... its really changed now .... cr****

[Alchemy]

Originally Posted by marooko

mind stating your ethnicity for a clearer picture?


im gonna go ahead and guess the majority, if not all of us have stories like this.

They're all Mexicans (me too), which is the oddity of it. Sometimes my aunt will make crazy statements about black people. The funny thing is that she's rich and she belongs to a country club and she has two kids that she and her husband are pushing to be very successful (which isn't looking too well). What does she think would happen if her son ever became president? The fools she hangs out with at her country club will be going off about how a Mexican can't run the country.

It's all very silly.

EDIT: Oh, buy my family will not say, "We're Mexicans," or, "Mexican-Americans," they'll say, "We're Americans."

[faxman75]

My grandfather felt Hitler did what he had to do. He saw how the jews were destroying Germany, taking jobs from germans. He was a strong and firm believer in socialism. He thought Hitler had the right idea but kinda got carried away in his later years. As an Italian he really liked Mussolini too and didn't seem to mind that Hitler screwed him over.

On a recent trip back to the Chicago south burbs, my mom informed me of our neighborhood really "changing". I asked her what she meant exactly. She said she hates to say it but she thinks the blacks are trashing the place. I looked out the window and giggled and asked her what the hell she was talking about. Rather than let her comments go I always point out how ridiculous they are and teach her that her theories are flawed. Remember she's the one that actually has black friends, however her black friends mostly hang out with white people and even promote this racism by saying stuff like "there are black people and then there are niggers". The ignorance would drive me crazy. So I press my mom for specific details as to how the city is changing (mind you the demographics have changed in the town, blacks used to be about 20% of the population and now it's about 60%). She goes on to tell me that they are angry and leave their garbage everywhere. Again I asked her where, the streets look pretty clean. She then says to me almost red faced "do you know what they did? they threw a half used bottle of afro sheen in our back yard". I bust up laughing. I ask her if she is serious and if that is the worst of it? She goes on ranting about how it's a disprespect for property and that never used to go on in this neighborhood.

I decided to let my mom know what kind of animal I was in the neighborhood growing up. I broke into cars, threw rocks in snowballs at cars, set a field on fire and so on and so forth. When I told her all this stuff I then asked her what she thought of her white son and white people who have done much worse in this town. Her response "you know everything Mark don't you". ha ha ha

[menikmati]

Hitler was far from socialism.

[Alchemy]

Hitler was far from the right idea, too.

[disgustipated]

My uncle and cousin on Dr. Phil...

http://drphil.com/slideshows/slidesh...347&showID=214


He went to his grave feeling the same way. He believed what he believed and in some way, I respect him for that.

[Geno_guerrero]

My grandfather fought in WWII and was discriminated because he was mexican, he wouldn't let my father of his siblings learn spanish, and he was racist towards african americans, he said it was the war that made him that way. My dad had his football team over for food and to watch a video, and my grandfather came in and made everyone leave because there was a "black" in his house (my dad went to a Catholic High School), I go to visit him in Santa Maria and he still says racist remarks and I've learned to ignore it...

[faxman75]

Originally Posted by Young blood

Like your grandpa faxman, im pretty sure my dads idol is Archie Bunker.

Yep, my dad is another story. Considering I wasn't raised by him I would only hear his prejudice diatribes over long summers and when I visit. I only see him once every few years because we have always lived in different states but i've heard him in the past use the "n" word and chuckle racist jokes with friends and such. He even joked he was moving to Idaho because it was mostly white people and he likes his guns. He was in the army for a few years and worked for the department of corrections in Arizona for a long time as well though he is very intelligent and can school anyone at chess or Jeapordy and was quite the pot head, D&D fan growing up with a love of concerts and music with his favorite bands being Black Sabbath, led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. It always strikes me as odd when people who are mostly socially liberal have some crazy thoughts on races.

[zenidogx]

[Alchemy]

It's amazing how many Mexicans are racist against Mexicans. Here in El Paso, the El Paso Mexicans are racist against the Juarez Mexicans. The two do not mix together, and I've heard a lot of my El Paso Mexican friends criticize Juarez Mexicans. The conception of Juarez Mexicans are that they are kind of like airheads, that they dress nice and spend a lot of money, but are oblivious to everything going on around them, and the ones that are not like that are wild criminals. The conception of El Paso Mexicans are that we are snobby wanna-be Americans that don't appreciate our culture (and a lot of El Paso Mexicans refuse to let their children learn Spanish, because it will make them like the Juarez Mexicans).

It was interesting though, in later years, when all these people in Juarez started dying. There was a little bit of sympathy added to everyone, and I think people are starting to get along a little more.

[zenidogx]

In the US, these tasty little snacks are called "Bimboletes"

[marooko]

Originally Posted by Alchemy

They're all Mexicans (me too), which is the oddity of it. Sometimes my aunt will make crazy statements about black people. The funny thing is that she's rich and she belongs to a country club and she has two kids that she and her husband are pushing to be very successful (which isn't looking too well). What does she think would happen if her son ever became president? The fools she hangs out with at her country club will be going off about how a Mexican can't run the country.

It's all very silly.

EDIT: Oh, buy my family will not say, "We're Mexicans," or, "Mexican-Americans," they'll say, "We're Americans."

I don't call myself "______ American." I was born here, I'm just an American. Or, a United Statesian or whatever it was. Plus, what would I say...I'm a "Puerto Rican Ecuadorian American"? That's just fucking stupid. Or, "Hispanic/Latin American". Whatever.


But yeah, I knew you were of Mexican ancestry, I just wanted it noted. Mainly because my mom has said her fair share of crap. She was born in Puerto Rico. My dad, while he doesn't like certain people of certain color, he's well aware it's wrong and watches his mouth and taught otherwise.

Originally Posted by zenidogx

also, ive been meaning to tell you something, zeni.

FUCK YOU!!!!
i didnt realize you quoted me. im saddened to even see that come out of me in text form.

[paganman7]

When I was 5, I won a Japanese rising sun t-shirt at the state fair for popping balloons with a dart. I was sooooo proud of that shirt. I even wore it home in the car.

When I got home, my grandfather saw the shirt, had me take it off, and tore it to pieces right in front of me. My mom tried to explain to me that it was because he was in "the war", and had a bad view of "orientals".

It wasn't until a handful of years later that I realized that his stupid ass was in the Korean war, not WWII. I wanted to kick his ass for tearing up my shirt as well as confusing which asian race to hate.

[Dr. Lufs-al-ot]

[Grouchy Smurf]

I hate wops who eat chili dogs!

[Dr. Lufs-al-ot]

Originally Posted by faxman75

She called them "nigger toes".

[chairmenmeow47]

it's interesting though, how else do you convince people to go to war unless you convince them to hate those people? i'm not saying there wasn't some reason to hate the japanese after the attacks on pearl harbor, but we took that a step further and rounded them up into camps here. how are we just supposed to expect everyone to flip a switch inside themselves and treat their former enemy as their new brother all of a sudden after the war? like with slavery, we created that hate and now we gotta fight our way out of it. i mean, we used to convince ourselves that slaves were "inferior" to justify enslaving them. that's a whole lot of indoctrination to overcome and doesn't happen easy.

[Alchemy]

One time I was joking about Jews in front of my Jewish friend, accidently. I'm not actually prejudice against Jews. I just think it's funny to satire that specific form of prejudice. Anyway, it was a bit awkward, but I think she knew I was just joking around.

[marooko]

She hates you. Jew hater!!

[faxman75]

Yep and that's exactly what I see happening with Mexicans now. People don't stop to talk to mexicans or get to know them. They simply assume they are illegal or their parents were illegal or somewhere along the lines they found some loop hole and are cheating the system in some way. They aren't americans. They aren't like us. They are inferior because they didn't come over on a boat through Ellis Island or they aren't European because those people are cool and look like us.