Not being a racist bigot A-hole is a lot easier said than done

[RZZZA]

Lately I've noticed a rather unattractive quality in me that I've grown to acknowledge: I think I hold contempt for Mexican and latino people. Conciously I know that a mexican is worth every bit as much as I am but subconciously I find myself sneering at them for what I assume are imagined transgressions. I think my racist feelings have emerged out of the immigration scandal that occured here in the U.S. a while back, culminating into a march of millions of latinos (which I assume where all illegal aliens). Now I just think theres too many mexicans. Everywhere I look, too many mexicans. I'm not even in a southern state, I'm in Illinois and I notice that theres so many mexicans. Everytime I turn on boxing, i am gaurunteed to see a velasquez, hernandez, castillo, morales or gomez. And I never root for the mexican fighter, unless of course its two mexicans fighting...in which case I have no choice.

Just a few days ago I go into wendy's and the employee starts talking to me in spanish. After I tell him that I dont know spanish, he acts amazed as if everyone should know it. I'm sorry but I thought fast food customers were supposed to expect the employees to speak english, Ive never heard of employees expecting the customers to all know spanish. Not in America.

This is a serious problem, I've never even considered the possability of counting myself as a racist before but I feel like I am slowly heading down that path. Someone comfort and reassure me.


edit: P.S. why am I an Emperor now? I wanna be straight out a comic book...

[Denny Crane!]

Its good that you can recognise it as irrational.

I to have had these sorts of feelings towards pakistanis and indians in my own country due to having, the majority of the time, a very bad experience of them and a distaste for the personal attitudes displayed.

The thing is to remember it is irrational and not to judge all by the limited scope of your experience.

It is however natural to instinctively judge based on your experience, you are a better man for recognising personality flaws and will be an even greater man to force yourself to rationalise them.

Pete

[RZZZA]

I'm not sure its all that irrational, I can probably come up with very good reasons to exscuse my bigotry, if not justify it. The erosion of standard american cultural values seems like a good enough reason to hold some contempt and I'm sure its not all that original. Probably every minority group to ever immigrate here has dealt with bigotry and contempt. The italians, the irish, the germans....all of them have had to overcome tribulations but the difference here is that the mexican influx seems to be on a much wider scale than any immigrants before them.

Never before has one group of immigrants threatened to change the country so.

[Denny Crane!]

Thats opposing mass immigration of an untrained work force not racism.

I don't particularly desire that either, nor to have large swathes of my country filled by people who don't speak english. Some immigration is neccessary though remember, even a fair amount of unskilled workers.

Peter

[vikrant]

@Seneca
u hurt my feelings
just kidding
but the feeling is justified of course we too have many illegal emigrants here {Bangladeshis} but
Indians and Pakistanis who are working in england are not illegal emigrants thats the big difference here

[Denny Crane!]

@Seneca
u hurt my feelings
just kidding
but the feeling is justified of course we too have many illegal emigrants here {Bangladeshis} but
Indians and Pakistanis who are working in england are not illegal emigrants thats the big difference here

You know I secretly harbour BNP membership.

No I had prejudices built up but never let them effect my judgement. Product of my experiences and the more you learn the more you learn to rationalise and not base things purely of personal experience. This sort of thing builds a stronger character.

Don't get me started on the French though.....

Peter

[Darkragnar]

@Seneca
u hurt my feelings
just kidding
but the feeling is justified of course we too have many illegal emigrants here {Bangladeshis} but
Indians and Pakistanis who are working in england are not illegal emigrants thats the big difference here

Thats not the half of it, Indians don't hate other people as much as they hate other Indians , think of it as being black in the 50's America, where you were denied job's , salary raises, promotions etc etc... to less deserving candidates
just because you were black.

In India people hate other Indians for any reason they can dream up,
For example if you live in say Bengal , your going to be hated by the rest of the country,
If you eat Meat, your gonna be hated by a group of people with the same relgion and they woudnt want to eat with you while your eating anything Non Vegetarian (Jains).
If you even follow the same religion your gonna be hated for not wubing a particular god from that religion (Vishnu Followers Hate Inrdra Followers in the South)
If are an employer and you get two candidates for a job opening , your not going to choose candidate X over Y even though he might be slightly better at the job ,because hes not from your Home City/Area/Town/Religion.

sometimes watching all this happen in front of my eyes makes me smile , but i quickly stop as everyone staring at me

The Irony is that , im dabbling in Racism my self. by writing these examples here.

[Manji]

The Irony is that , im dabbling in Racism my self. by writing these examples here.

NO you aren't; racism implies the belief of superiority of a specific racial group over another, you are not trying to assert your superiority over another group hence you are not being a racist.
I just hate it how nowadays you can't say anything without being branded a racist, crappy PC behavior is creeping everywhere.

[Denny Crane!]

NO you aren't; racism implies the belief of superiority of a specific racial group over another, you are not trying to assert your superiority over another group hence you are not being a racist.
I just hate it how nowadays you can't say anything without being branded a racist, crappy PC behavior is creeping everywhere.

Crappy PC behaviour or crappy understanding of the words?

Peter

[shadyrome]

Well In uk, there's to many polish who doesnt speak english, pakistan and indians.

[RZZZA]

Maybe I was wrong, perhaps saying "Theres too many {insert minority here} in my country" is not considered racist or bigoted...

I thought it was though.

[Armfelt]

Well from what you describe it seemed to be sub-concious thing which you have recently became aware of, and it should be easier for you from now on to see when you are being "racist", though I hate to use the term racist for your problem since EVERYONE has these sub-consious feelings. Just try to be aware of your behaviour and don't do anything stupid.

I have these feelings towards gypsies, not because there are many of them, but because 90% of them are uneducated, and I have never, I repeat NEVER seen one working (well unless you consider selling "omegas" for 40€ at the railway station working).

Ps. Do you look like a Latino or did the fast food worker just start to speak spanish to you because she didn't know how to speak English?

[RZZZA]

Well from what you describe it seemed to be sub-concious thing which you have recently became aware of, and it should be easier for you from now on to see when you are being "racist", though I hate to use the term racist for your problem since EVERYONE has these sub-consious feelings. Just try to be aware of your behaviour and don't do anything stupid.

I have these feelings towards gypsies, not because there are many of them, but because 90% of them are uneducated, and I have never, I repeat NEVER seen one working (well unless you consider selling "omegas" for 40€ at the railway station working).

Ps. Do you look like a Latino or did the fast food worker just start to speak spanish to you because she didn't know how to speak English?

I'm 25% gypsy Nah i dont think I look latino...I just walked up to the counter and he started to say spanish words to me. After I told him that I dont know any spanish he looked shocked, which I found to be curious. Shouldn't we expect our fast food employees to speak english, not the other way around?

[RusskiSoldat]

I used to be racist.
Then I realized that whites are no better.
The reason that I'm more likely to be robbed by a black or a latino than an Irish or an Italian is because every group tries to commit crimes outside it's area of residence.

[Miraj]

Believe it or not every race feels that way about each other. We all think "there are too many of them". When I lived in Kuwait the Arabs thought there are too many Indians and :wub:. When I lived in Singapore the Chinese thought there are too many Malays and Filipinos. When I lived in Canada the white folk have nothing but derision for natives "alchoholics". It's just an irrational feeling everyone develops. If you start justifying the feeling as a something that is real then you are no different than any bigot from Saudi Arabia or Texas. But if you realize that this is a common biological reaction against the "other" that is part of our primitive mind then you are a wiser man.

Just remember whenever you start generalizing about another race or ethnicity you will always find a hundred examples that will blow those stereotypes right away.

[RZZZA]

Believe it or not every race feels that way about each other. We all think "there are too many of them". When I lived in Kuwait the Arabs thought there are too many Indians and :wub:. When I lived in Singapore the Chinese thought there are too many Malays and Filipinos. When I lived in Canada the white folk have nothing but derision for natives "alchoholics". It's just an irrational feeling everyone develops. If you start justifying the feeling as a something that is real then you are no different than any bigot from Saudi Arabia or Texas. But if you realize that this is a common biological reaction against the "other" that is part of our primitive mind then you are a wiser man.

Just remember whenever you start generalizing about another race or ethnicity you will always find a hundred examples that will blow those stereotypes right away.

I guess this is true enough, but the mexican situation is a unique one since they can in all posability, not just add to the american culture but change it drastically in their image. It seems like there are only two positions to take, one where you say i dont care and welcome the united states of mexico as a possability or one where you stand against the mexican influx and say no, I dont want this change. I seem to be on the side of the latter, a side shared by seedy, ignorant groups such as the KKK...or the "real" racists as I call em. I dont want to be on their side but I also dont want the united states to change so drastically, as I know it will, if mexicans continue to immigrate here and morph the U.S. to suit their customs.

All the immigrant groups from the past have contributed something to the culture with their arrival, but this I feel is the first instance of an immigrant group threatening to completely overtake the culture...even going so far as to claim the western united states to be their own and adopting radical political stances such as secession. Our own president suggested amnesty for illegals, clearly this is a symbolic victory for the illegal latinos when the president of the U.S. pretty much goes "Border laws? pshaw...what laws? They dont apply if you dont want them to."

[Tyr]

All the immigrant groups from the past have contributed something to the culture with their arrival, but this I feel is the first instance of an immigrant group threatening to completely overtake the culture...even going so far as to claim the western united states to be their own and adopting radical political stances such as secession. Our own president suggested amnesty for illegals, clearly this is a symbolic victory for the illegal latinos when the president of the U.S. pretty much goes "Border laws? pshaw...what laws? They dont apply if you dont want them to."

At least your nation has a reasonable explanation; its allmost impossible to patrol the whole US-Mexico border.
Britain is an Island! A darn Island!! There are few developed nations who should have it so easy as to keep their borders secure, yet Britain also has an immigration problem, namely there are too many who contribute nothing. i accept Britain needs immigration, otherwise its population; like Italy and a few other European nation, will begin to decline. Certain immigrants bring valuable skills to the country and contribute to the workforce; but when the number of illegal immigrants alone outnumbers your countries Army and Police force 2 to 1, you know you have a problem.

[wilpuri]

How can prejudices be irrational if they stem from experience?

[Aristophanes]

I used to be racist.
Then I realized that whites are no better.
The reason that I'm more likely to be robbed by a black or a latino than an Irish or an Italian is because every group tries to commit crimes outside it's area of residence.

...?

[RZZZA]

Yeah i dunno about that, theres a reason rich neighborhoods are safe neighborhoods and ghetto areas are more dangerous. I know a black man trying to rob someone isnt going to drive out to some white county to do it. No...they wait for the outsiders to come to them, much safer that way.