Anyone ever experienced racism

• Zoltan

  ytownfootball;1079381 wrote:Twenty-five years ago, I moved from my well sheltered, anglo-saxon community in NE Ohio to NJ to start a job just out of college, Hackensack to be exact, Nice little garden apt. with some guy I didn't know from Adam at $950 a month ('87). A couple months pass, job is fine, but I need a damn haircut.
  
  So I pull out the yellow pages and see what's close by, never really paid attention to the barbers in the area as it wasn't a need at the time, and more pressing needs like groceries and pizza joints were front and center, anyway. So the closest "barber" was just about 3 blocks away, cool I'll walk. I call and get an appointment for later that day at "Hair's Our Family" barber shop (this should have been the red flag required, but hey I was 23) So I walk down the 3 blocks and see the sign and sling open the door and walk in...here I stood, the only white guy within a few blocks and a damn mop of hair on my head that had it's own micro-climate and an appointment. I'm not sure whose look of shock was more evident, mine or the 13 black ladies who were staring at my blazingly white countenance...oh the horror.
  
  I quickly suveyed my options and decided to sack up and get my haircut anyway, figuring I would look pretty ****ty turning around and walking out, besides, how bad could it be? Once they realized I wasn't going anywhere they had me take a seat and discussed who would be the sacrificial lamb to cut the "white guys" hair. I laughed along with them because, well by now it was just funny. Even more funny was the look on the endless parade of old black dudes who would pop in to charm the ladies, see me sitting there and watch their faces change from wanna be pimp to what the ****, the ladies just laughed. So this poor young girl fresh outta cosmetology school, laboriously struggled through my haircut.
  
  Long story short, that was a perfect opportunity to spread racism from either direction, in the end though, we all just kinda had a good laugh about it.
  
  The haircut was fine but I decided not to return...

  Very similar story for me too, except it was a barber shop with all black guys working. Everyone pretty much knew what happened the minute I walked in. I asked if they even had a scissors in the building and everyone laughed like a bastard. They cut my hair while we watched some NCAA tourney games on the TV and all was good.
• Pick6

  

  Grew up in SE Ohio and now live in Akron, which is pretty ghetto for the most part. I've been called hick, redneck, white boy, cracker many-a-times, but it really doesnt bother me. But if you call a black person nigg**, black boy, thug....all be damned...
  
  And no, im not racist, just pointing out the double standard.
  
  I dont know if I'd call my grandpa racist or not. He uses the word nigg** a lot..but much to the same as calling a white person "white trash". He has no problem and gets along with black people who arent "thugs".
• Little Danny

  

  SnotBubbles;1079558 wrote:Before I got paroled from prison I was a skin head. I shot some blacks who were trying to steal my car out in front of my house and then curb stomped this one colored kid who couldn't get away and killed him. When I got out of prison I was reformed, I liked negros, but my brother was big into the brethren. After some hard work, I finally got my bro (Danny) to stop hanging out with the neo-nazi gang. But in the end, I saw racism first hand. I walked Danny to school and some black shot him in the bathroom...cold blood...dead! All because he was white! I hate racists now.

  Funny.... The original script called for you to shave your head in the bathroom after Danny was shot.
  
  P.S. You really were getting your nut on with that crazy bee-yaatch before you made the dude in dreads bite the curb.
• I Wear Pants

  Pick6;1079791 wrote:Grew up in SE Ohio and now live in Akron, which is pretty ghetto for the most part. I've been called hick, redneck, white boy, cracker many-a-times, but it really doesnt bother me. But if you call a black person nigg**, black boy, thug....all be damned...
  
  And no, im not racist, just pointing out the double standard.
  
  I dont know if I'd call my grandpa racist or not. He uses the word nigg** a lot..but much to the same as calling a white person "white trash". He has no problem and gets along with black people who arent "thugs".

  This sounds really racist.
  
  The last part of this explains why "cracker" isn't even close to nigg** as far as insults go.
  [video=youtube;TG4f9zR5yzY][/video]
• Pick6

  

  I Wear Pants;1079889 wrote:This sounds really racist.

  call me what you want, because im not.
• I Wear Pants

  Pick6;1079894 wrote:call me what you want, because im not.

  I didn't call you a racist. I said that sounded racist.
  
  I also edited in something that is funny while at the same time showing how "cracker" is no where near as offensive as the insults for black people you posted. History matters.
• Gblock

  I Wear Pants;1079889 wrote:This sounds really racist.
  
  The last part of this explains why "cracker" isn't even close to nigg** as far as insults go.
  [video=youtube;TG4f9zR5yzY][/video]

  pretty funny
• bigdaddy2003

  

  Whether some people think being called a cracker isn't tantamount to being called a nigg"" really doesn't matter. The point is that neither should be acceptable. Oh and I'm not going to take Louis C.K. serious at all. I know he is a comedian but the guy seems to have white guilt big time. Basically since white people owned all of the land in the early years of our country and some try to make it seem like white people still run the country now it's alright to call them names. Hm
• Little Danny

  

  I Wear Pants;1079896 wrote:I didn't call you a racist. I said that sounded racist.
  
  I also edited in something that is funny while at the same time showing how "cracker" is no where near as offensive as the insults for black people you posted. History matters.

  As someone who is bi-racial, white guilters who like to point out how everyone else is racists cracks me up. White guilters get on their soap box to try to portray they are so enlightened while everyone else is so stupid.
  
  As the old saying goes, when you point your finger you point three more back at yourself.
• I Wear Pants

  bigdaddy2003;1079909 wrote:Whether some people think being called a cracker isn't tantamount to being called a nigg"" really doesn't matter. The point is that neither should be acceptable.

  Well yeah, people shouldn't insult other people.
  
  But it's an insult to everyone's intelligence to pretend that calling someone cracker means the same thing as calling someone a nigg**. It doesn't. It's not even close.
• ytownfootball

  

  Little Danny;1079911 wrote:As someone who is bi-racial, white guilters who like to point out how everyone else is racists cracks me up. White guilters get on their soap box to try to portray they are so enlightened while everyone else is so stupid.
  
  As the old saying goes, when you point your finger you point three more back at yourself.

  I bet you like shitty beer too huh?
• I Wear Pants

  Little Danny;1079911 wrote:As someone who is bi-racial, white guilters who like to point out how everyone else is racists cracks me up. White guilters get on their soap box to try to portray they are so enlightened while everyone else is so stupid.
  
  As the old saying goes, when you point your finger you point three more back at yourself.

  What I said has nothing to do with white guilt but with the meaning of words. Are you disputing my claim that "cracker" is not as offensive as "nigg**" based on what the word actually means and the history behind it?
• Pick6

  

  I Wear Pants;1079913 wrote:Well yeah, people shouldn't insult other people.
  
  But it's an insult to everyone's intelligence to pretend that calling someone cracker means the same thing as calling someone a nigg**. It doesn't. It's not even close.

  what about a black person calling another black person it?
• I Wear Pants

  Pick6;1079917 wrote:what about a black person calling another black person it?

  Honestly I don't have enough insight into how and why that practice started becoming common or why it's cool in certain situations.
• ytownfootball

  

  I Wear Pants;1079923 wrote:Honestly I don't have enough insight into how and why that practice started becoming common or why it's cool in certain situations.

  Wouldn't it be safe to assume just by it's use that it's original meaning has evolved into something different rendering your point moot? Yeah, I think so.
• sleeper

  

  Pick6;1079917 wrote:what about a black person calling another black person it?

  This is just something that white people aren't smart enough to understand. Black people had to deal with the horrors of slavery and the only reason they aren't all billionaires is because they are being held down by the white man.
  
  They elected Obama to fix this issue, but he is too busy fixing the economy Bush left us and doesn't have time to allow black people to experience their full potential.
• Little Danny

  

  I Wear Pants;1079916 wrote:What I said has nothing to do with white guilt but with the meaning of words. Are you disputing my claim that "cracker" is not as offensive as "nigg**" based on what the word actually means and the history behind it?

  I was referring to your first sentence where you went out of your way to tell Pick6 that what he said sounded racist to you. I just really have a beef when others like to act as judge and jury on what is racist or not. As I alluded to earlier, it usually is because the one telling everyone how racist they are actually insecure themselves.
  
  
  As to your question, I find both words offensive. I don't caught up trying to define which term is more historically repulsive.
• I Wear Pants

  Little Danny;1079941 wrote:I was referring to your first sentence where you went out of your way to tell Pick6 that what he said sounded racist to you. I just really have a beef when others like to act as judge and jury on what is racist or not. As I alluded to earlier, it usually is because the one telling everyone how racist they are actually insecure themselves.
  
  
  As to your question, I find both words offensive. I don't caught up trying to define which term is more historically repulsive.

  The "this sounds really racist" was mostly directed to this part of Pick6's post: "I dont know if I'd call my grandpa racist or not. He uses the word nigg** a lot..but much to the same as calling a white person "white trash". He has no problem and gets along with black people who arent "thugs"
• Belly35

  

  Hell I’m still trying to figure out what the difference is using "nigga" as a expectable white/black verbiage and "******” is not .. Sadly the Blacks have established this as some type of ruling of approval ... Unless you’re White in a crowd of Blacks then the rule does apply …
• I Wear Pants

  ytownfootball;1079930 wrote:Wouldn't it be safe to assume just by it's use that it's original meaning has evolved into something different rendering your point moot? Yeah, I think so.

  In certain situations probably.
  
  But a white guy calling a black person a nigg** still is likely a greater insult than a black man calling a white person "cracker". I mean, really.
• thavoice

  Is there still racism?
  
  Of course.
  
  I think it is less prevelant than what the average black thinks, and more prevelant than what the average white believes.
  
  FX did a show called Black/White a few years ago. It was mildly interesting where they took a white family and made them black, and vice versa. There were often times the black guy would say what we just witnessed was racist where in reality it seemed like he was just looking for it, and at times the white person totally dismissed things that did seem racist.
  
  Kinda funny...the girl on the show.....whom they turned black....looked much better as a black girl than a white!
  
  
  
  and of course we cannot forget the SNL skit with eddie murphy as a white guy.....
• ytownfootball

  

  I Wear Pants;1079952 wrote:In certain situations probably.
  
  But a white guy calling a black person a nigg** still is likely a greater insult than a black man calling a white person "cracker". I mean, really.

  Degrees of separation, it doesn't matter. It either is or it isn't.
• Little Danny

  

  Pick6;1079917 wrote:what about a black person calling another black person it?

  I wrote a paper on this in college. The practice has existed for a couple years but the context has changed a couple times. The word did not become pejorative (for anyone's use) until the turn of the 20th century. In the 1700 and 1800's, blacks would refer to themself and one another as n* as a device to let whites know they were actually okay with their position in the wold. A classic example is Mark Twain's character in Huck Finn (which revisionist have changed but that is a topic for another day). The character Jim, clearly let it be known his name is N* Jim The name was not what the whites called him. By the same token, when a black spoke affectionately about another to a white, he might say "Tom is a good n*".
  
  Later, when blacks migrated to the cities they used the word for someone they saw as beneath them(black v. black). The word was not race exclusive as these communities often blended with the irish and italian immigrants who also called each other the term as well (along with blacks).
  
  The word became en vogue in the late 50s, early 60s as a term of endearment as we see today. It was also a form of enpowerment. Blacks called each other this term and denied whites the power to use the word. We later saw women do the same thing with the word "b*".
• I Wear Pants

  ytownfootball;1079956 wrote:Degrees of separation, it doesn't matter. It either is or it isn't.

  Situations matter, not everything that is okay to say in one situation is okay to say in another.
  
  But as for the cracker/vs nigg thing, I think the use of either as an insult probably shows that the person saying it really doesn't have other arguments left.
• fan_from_texas

  Little Danny;1079983 wrote:I wrote a paper on this in college. The practice has existed for a couple years but the context has changed a couple times. The word did not become pejorative (for anyone's use) until the turn of the 20th century. In the 1700 and 1800's, blacks would refer to themself and one another as n* as a device to let whites know they were actually okay with their position in the wold. A classic example is Mark Twain's character in Huck Finn (which revisionist have changed but that is a topic for another day). The character Jim, clearly let it be known his name is N* Jim The name was not what the whites called him. By the same token, when a black spoke affectionately about another to a white, he might say "Tom is a good n*".
  
  Later, when blacks migrated to the cities they used the word for someone they saw as beneath them(black v. black). The word was not race exclusive as these communities often blended with the irish and italian immigrants who also called each other the term as well (along with blacks).
  
  The word became en vogue in the late 50s, early 60s as a term of endearment as we see today. It was also a form of enpowerment. Blacks called each other this term and denied whites the power to use the word. We later saw women do the same thing with the word "b*".

  +1. You're on a roll in this thread.