Posted on 01/10/2004 7:02:50 PM PST by freedom44
I'm white. I dated a guy years ago who was a Puerto Rican from Harlem (but moved to Atlanta). I thought he was Italian when I met him, but had no problem that he was PR. My parents liked him when they met him, also thinking he was Italian. I could see a look of extreme disapproval when my dad found out otherwise. The relationship didn't last (due to the guy being a JERK).
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1. American white people tend to be very subtly racist, (often without realizing it), so we're often confused and offended when someone calls us on it. Always having been the dominant group, we tend to be genuinely unaware of why other minorities would find us threatening, or unable to see what inherent advantages we have over them socially.
2. American minorities across the entire socio-economic spectrum are often openly racist, especially the ones that are most vocal about white racism. I've heard black people discuss Asians (and vice versa) in terms that few whites would ever use, even privately. We don't punish minority hate speech the way we do white hate speech, which ultimately creates more of both.
3. Other nations, on the whole, are so much more racist than America that it's off the chart. I always find it entertaining to hear people in those countries talk about 'our racial issues', or people in this country lament what a racially divided country we live in. We're so far ahead of the assimilation pack it's absurd. Other 'diverse' nations paper over their differences and pretend that they're not there, but I'd rather be a minority in America than anywhere else.
My son's best friend down here in Houston Co, Georgia has a mom who is black, dad white. No one cares around here. Maybe the South is less prejudiced than the North. :D
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