Have you ever been accused of saying something racist?

[Bicoastal]

Nowadays, It seems like people in the public eye can't go one week without saying something spectacularly offensive to a good chunk of the country. And yet, one can't help but wonder if something else is going--if we had microphones and cameras trained on for a good part of each day, would WE be revealed as racists as well?

This is NOT an apology for the words and actions of Imus, Richards, Limbaugh, Coulter and all those other celebs and pundits. However, my guess is that this is a problem for more Americans than one might think. And yes, I'll be the first to admit that I've been accused of saying something racist in public. It happened when I was a small child, but it was an experience that I'll never forget--because I WAS being racist, and I wholeheartedly deserved to be called out on it.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

1. Option 2: I'm an anti-Israel ethnic jew... any questions?

[BlooInBloo]

18. Just a failure to acknowledge that anti-Zionism is not the same thing as anti-Semitism?

[The Backlash Cometh]

43. I have one.

Were you ever called a self-hating Jew?

[Catherine Vincent]

2. Yes, I catch myself making a racist statement every now and then.

But I abruptly correct it and then give myself a spanking.

[Little Wing]

3. put me down for about 3 on the first option

[Demeter]

4. Right Here on DU, no less.

[Booster]

27. Me, too. I related a story of a black woman whom I worked with

who said she didn't understand a word Jesse Jackson said either - man, I was attacked for lying about even having a black friend, etc. Not one word of my story was meant to be a put down to any black person, but I was called a liar and a bigot.

[tammywammy]

5. On DU once

and I didn't think I deserved it. My co-workers got a good chuckle out of it though (of various races).

I've never been accused of being a racist out of this one comment from DU.

[otherlander]

6. Um...

One time when I said that China had a dictator a Chinese girl called me racist. :crazy: What the fuck?

[Bicoastal]

14. lol

[damntexdem]

7. Yes, and I'm not sure.

We are all raised racist in this country; and it was more true when I was raised (born 1946).

[Ishoutandscream2]

8. Yes, Accused and guilty as charged

Something I'm not very proud of.

[BuyingThyme]

9. All of the people who selected option 4 are clearly racists.

[DKRC]

19. How so?

[Bicoastal]

45. I'm learning a lot from this thread...

...but it's starting to become clear to me that people who made racist remarks at some point in their lives should not always be lumped into the group "racist'. After all, racism isn't just partially in the eye of the beholder--it's almost ENTIRELY within the eye of the beholder most of the time. That's why there's also such a difference of opinion about it, because there are no easy answers to be gleaned merely from speech.

Here let me state that I personally think it's quite wrong of Imus to say what he said about innocent young athletes. But I've known black people who use the expression "nappy-haired" casually; in fact, there was a children's book, written by a black author, that came out with that title a few years ago. There's no getting around the fact that Afro-textured hair differs greatly from the hair of Caucasians--in a descriptive (non-insulting) context, is "nappy" such an offensive term for a white person to use?

[Karenina]

46. Are you aware of your own racist tendencies?

Or are you simply rallying the troops to circle the wagons? Just asking. :shrug:

[Bicoastal]

47. Of course I'm aware of my own racist tendencies!

Aren't you aware of yours?

[Karenina]

48. I integrated the school in my area

in 1957.

[Bicoastal]

49. Good for you!

But EVERYONE has a streak of intolerance in them--it's just human nature.

I'm not calling you a racist--I'm pointing out that you've undoubtedly said (or have been accused of saying) something intolerant, bigoted, or yes, racist, at one point in your life. And I happen to think that BEING a bigot and SAYING something bigoted are two different things. If they weren't, almost everyone on this thread would be labeled a bigot.

[Karenina]

50. I'm quite intolerant of men not putting the toilet seat down

in a home where females may visit the can in their sleep.

Please, call me a racist ALL YOU WANT! Marginalize what I've come to understand having grown up black in white America in a multicultural environment ALL YOU WANT. (And NO, intolerance is NOT "human nature.") Assert your exnomination ALL YOU WANT!!! Knock yourself out, babe!!!!

Everyone on this thread NEEDS to look inward and check his/her deepest inner responses to external stimuli. Confessions not required. This is NOT the Catholic church. Thoughts are THINGS. We are each and every one responsible for our own.

[Bicoastal]

52. If intolerance isn't human nature....

...than why are so many of us guilty of it?

At the the Simon Wiesenthal Musuem of Tolerance in Los Angeles, the very first thing you come to at the beginning of the main exibit are two doors, one marked "Tolerant" and another that is marked "Intolerant."

But the door that says "Tolerant" is always locked.

[Karenina]

54. Acculturation.

Tolerance is a learned behaviour.

[IChing]

10. My dad was a major bigot

he is not as bad now, but that does rub off on you
until your consciousness catches up.

I did it in my youth and found out that
by watching "all in the family" that I was
living with Archie Bunker and I had
turned into Mike.

[Bicoastal]

11. While we're at this...

...has anyone ever heard the song "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" from Avenue Q?

It's the same show that produced the even more notorious (and funny) song "The Internet is for Porn."

[nevergiveup]

12. I do not make racist statements

From time to time I do have racist thoughts. I think most of us do but that does not mean we have to give in to them. People who proudly boast that they are not racists become suspect to me.

[Ediacara]

13. I was at a coffee shop once

And ordered a "white mocha." An African American woman in line behind me kind of angrily asked me what that was, I sheepishly told her, "It's a mocha with white chocolate instead of normal chocolate." Her response; "Oh... that sounds good!"

Although I am now always sure to include chocolate in the phrase "white chocolate mocha."

[SoCalDem]

15. no .......n/t

[Lilith Velkor]

16. Yes, I said, "Mazel tov on your conversion."

I'd known this guy for years and that he was a Wiccan priest, but during this one conversation he asserted that he was Jewish, so I says mazel tov and he totally freaked out and called me worse-than-a-Nazi.

I tried to ask mutual accquaintances what was wrong about what I said, but they shunned me and don't talk to me anymore. My Jewish family members never had a problem with the concept of Judaism as a religion, so I dunno, maybe it's another one of those weird California fads. :shrug:

[Behind the Aegis]

24. What an odd story.

So you still don't know why he "freaked?" Are you Jewish? Well, not that it really matters because if you were complementing him, "Mazel Tov" is a perfectly legitimate expression. I think the only way it could possibly be an insult (and I still wouldn't see it as an insult) is when someone who is not Jewish uses Yiddish or Jewish terminology in regards to Jewish issues, because it could be seen as "mocking" Jews. I see that here from time to time.

[Lilith Velkor]

34. Oh.

I'm Unitarian/Pagan, so I guess he took it as mocking. My home church is majority Jewish, so I'm familiar with a lot of Jewish terms.

I seriously thought he had converted, because I was unfamiliar with the word "Jewish" in any context other than religion. The very mention of Jewish ethnicity (or asking about it) was considered extremely rude when I was growing up, we were told that the Nazis emphasized that distinction so they could kill people and terrorize the rest into submission.

Apparently there's been a change in social consensus that I was slow to pick up on. This happens sometimes, ever since I threw my TV away.

[Behind the Aegis]

37. Sounds like he was being as ass.

There are a number of ways people count themselves as Jewish, but to react that way to someone wishing you well, sounds very asshole-ish to me. Besides, why be offended if someone thinks you are one religion and not another? People here think I am a woman, though my profile clearly says I am male. Doesn't bother me, other than it is inaccurate. Consider yourself better off!

[Lilith Velkor]

38. Yeah

There is no identity that grants one immunity from being an ass. I wish more people could grok that.

[Marrah_G]

32. A Wiccan Priest who claimed he was of jewish decent ?

As a Wiccan Priestess I have to say the story makes no sense to me. There are of course Priests of Jewish Heritage but the reaction you describe is absurd and not in keeping with most Wiccan tradition. I would have said thank you as would all the other Priestesses ansd Priests that I know. Perhaps he was simply insane?

[Lilith Velkor]

35. Perhaps

...he was simply being a dick. That phenomenon seems to be pretty evenly distributed among all religions and tribes.

[Marrah_G]

44. LOL...Agreed!!!!!! n/t

[Cha]

17. Yeah, don't forget

sexist..imus managed to get a twofer.. but as Keith Olbermann so rationally pointed out.."it's been a disaster waiting to happen and it's happened".

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x621725

[ashling]

20. When I was in Jr. High (about a brazillion years ago)

I remember telling my best friend that if he used the N word I didn't want to hang out w/ him anymore.

[MedleyMisty]

21. It was hard for me to answer

My earliest memory of racism is noticing it in Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None in second grade. I think that's what spawned the entry in my journal from then about people using their mouths for a force against goodness. ;)

I honestly can't recall ever being called out for a racist statement. I would occasionally call my family members out on theirs, though. It didn't change my brother but I think my mother is more tolerant now. Well - I think she never really was a true bigot at heart but would just occasionally repeat racist statements that she'd heard without really thinking about it and just needed a little help opening her mind.

I most likely have said something racist in my life, but I can't remember anything specific and no one's ever accused me of it. Probably because I was around white people and it was subtle, like presuming to speak for an entire minority group or something like that. Hell, who knows, I've probably done that today without being conscious of it.

[orleans]

40. my parents were not racists but my grandmother would use the n word

every once in awhile when i was a kid. i remember i didn't like it.

when i was in my early teens i remember telling my grandmother to stop using that word or at least don't say it in front of me.

(a mere kid having to tell her grandmother!)

[Uben]

22. I was a racist!

When I was young, I knew no better. My grandparents worked the fields during the depression, and since they were white, they oversaw the blacks. My grandmother and my father used the "N" word with reckless abandon. Everyone did in the small Texas town where I was born, and still reside.

It all started changing for me in 1965. Our schools were integrated. The one school allotted the blacks was closed and they were bussed to the white schools. I was in the fifth grade. I had my first black teacher, a history teacher, and her son was in my class as well. We had to learn not to use the "n" word, we stopped playing a game a recess called blackman (a ball game).

Once we were introduced to black students, we realized they were the same as us, albeit less fortunate in most cases, but no less educated! I made friends with them all....we were just kids. Then, we played football and basketball and ran track together. We suffered defeat together and celebrated victories together. By the time I reached high school, racial tensions were high because there were still some on both sides who had to agitate things...one kid was stabbed in a classroom!

By the time I got to college in 1973, all my bias had gone. I hung around with blacks and whites. The old days of belittling blacks were over, and I was embarrassed when I heard anyone use a racial slur in the presence of a black person......even mad!

There's probably not a lot of folks from Texas, or anywhere else in the south, that cannot identify with my life back in the sixties. That's the way it was. I'm not proud of it.
It was and is a two-way street. Yes, there are still racist people here, both black and white, but the vast majority have moved past that.

Have I used racial slurs? Yes, but I am no longer a racist. People can and have changed. Thank God almighty!

[spacelady]

31. I have had this experience as well. Grew up in small-town

Nebraska. By age 8 (1970) had heard relatives use the word coon & they always said it in a derogatory way so there was no excuse about it being "colloquial". My father, b.1910 was a gentle soul who did not seem to have an ax to grind referred to brazil nuts as "n-toes" and large pink granite rocks as "n-heads". He quit doing that once it was pointed out to him that it was no longer polite or acceptable in general parlance.
So I guess my point is that there is little excuse anymore to use such language and claim "ignorance" or "too old to learn new tricks".

[TahitiNut]

23. Well, I've been called a "n_____-lover" more times than I can count in over 40 years.

Would my answer of "Yep!" be considered racist? I dunno. :shrug:

[doc03]

25. I have been unfairly accused of it on DU because

I think we should stop illegal immigration. I have made racist comments and had racist thoughts in the past and if you say you haven't I say you are lying. Something that made me think and changed me was Micheal Moore's book "Downsize This", where he said think about it in your life did a black person ever actually do anything to you. I discovered he was right, I have had three pensions taken from me, I have had my wages cut several times, have had to go on strike 3 times to fight for my rights once for 10 1/2 months and every time it was always a white person that screwed me.

[WritersBlock]

26. In the 4th grade, newly arrived in Texas, I got called into the principal's office for

allegedly having called a classmate the "n" word.

Only problem was, I had never even *heard* the word before in my entire life. 9 years old. I had to ask the principal what it meant. That was the beginning of my "education," I guess. Or at least of my education about lies and bigotry.

:shrug:

[Jack_DeLeon]

28. I havent been accused, but I have called a few people...

racist names. In this country I am free to express myself in that manner if I so choose.

I do not however do so at work.

[lumberjack_jeff]

29. "A", "B" and "C"

But "A" and "C" not recently. I try to do better.

[riderinthestorm]

30. Yes, right here on DU over hijab, burqas and niqab

and their real vs. perceived meaning in Islam and American society as well as their meaning for women's rights, independence and gender equality.

I have also been accused of being "racist" (sic, yes I realize their usage was way off) for espousing my views on women's dress and safety and rape and gender issues.

Wierdly enough, I have also been accused of being a "racist" on DU for being critical of organized religion. Go figure.

I'm assuming you are trying to make some kind of equivalancy with Imus but for the record, I believe Imus is a fool. I don't own a teevee, nor do I watch him at friends' houses but everything I've ever read leads me to believe he needed to be taken down. Furthermore, for the record I hold no animus towards those who also believe I am dead wrong. Thank god for DU I'm not a shock jock earning a bazillion dollars influencing millions..... :evilgrin:

[LisaL]

33. Why, right here on DU.

[sandnsea]

36. I caught it and apologized

I was in a group setting and asked a Native American for info about the Indian Drug/Alcohol program. Any one of the individuals had a history that would indicate they may have been to that facility, but I targeted only the Native American. Not a huge deal, I'm not even sure she thought anything about it. But I felt horrible when I realized I was categorizing people. Apologized, she made a joke, and sure enough, half the group knew the answer to my question, of all races.

And, of course, there are the glbt at DU who get mad at me when I say it is true that most straight people find the thought of gay sex unpleasant. I don't think that one is slander though, it's biological and nobody should be told their homophobic for having a biological reaction.

Other than that, I've never said anything racist to anybody and I've got the worst temper in the world. If I can manage to get through life without offending people in that particular way, I would think anybody can.

[Kerrytravelers]

39. Yes... and it was justly said... and I learned and there are no hard feelings.

Thanks to my Du pals! :hi:


My only concern is that anything I may have said before that time on DU has gone without so much as an indication. I wish someone had said something before, but hopefully they considered the source and know it was from ignorance and not heartless bigotry.

[Raine]

41. Yes and I did not deserve it nt

[WernhamHogg]

42. Yep and it was undeserved

I was once accused of making racist comments and it was totally undeserved. I was chatting about different kinds of music with a work friend (who is black) and I said, offhandedly, that I think that rap music is crap. A second black woman we worked with overhead my comment and went to the boss, repeated my stated dislike of rap music and claimed that qualified in her book as a racist comment (luckily for me, the boss disagreed with her definition of what a "racist comment" actually is).

For me, it was difficult NOT to take a charge like that personal, but the same lady making that claim about me truly appeared to have serious issues. She seemed to deeply despise quite a few people for no apparent reason. She didn't work with us for very long (a month, maybe less).

Other than that one instance, no.

[WinkyDink]

51. What can I say? Fifty-seven and have never uttered the "N" word.

[Bicoastal]

53. There's a lot more to intolerance...

...than just the "N" word.