True Life: I Experienced Racism When…

April 12th, 2012 - By MN Editor


Jessica: At a previous job a co-worker was talking about me to another co-worker and referred to me as “Shenaynay” in a joking manner. She cut him right off and told him my name was Jessica and if he was confused to please refer to the nameplate on my desk.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Don-Petros/100003970786463 Don Petros

    I experience racism almost every time I go to a retail shop in the
    Detroit area which is very often staffed by surly, angry, rude clerks
    with an attitude and a permanent work slowdown. I experience racism
    when I am called a white cracker, a white mother-f—er, or hey white
    boy. I experience racism when my wife is subjected to racists taunts
    and whistles from a group of young black males calling out phrases like
    come here baby and lemmee give ya some brown sugar in that little white
    honeypot” or “whoo baby I am going to f— that until she turn black.”
    Imagine a group of white males shouting such racist obscene taunts at a
    black female. I can’t. Not without national news coverage, protest
    marches, and pious calls for racial justice. I experience racism when
    when I am targeted for a beating or a mugging because I am a white male
    which has happened more than once. I experience racism when I apply for
    a job but they hire a black female instead even though she is
    considerably less qualified than me. I could go on but what would be
    the point.

    Many whites voted for Obama thinking it would help heal the racial
    divide and will not make that mistake again. The racial divide today is
    not based on whites discriminating against blacks- it is based mostly
    on jealous blacks hating whites and finding support for their anger in
    every form of media, in the schools and in the popular culture. As
    Jesse Jackson chanted: “Hey hey, ho ho, Western culture’s got to go.”
    No amount of white guilt, no affirmative action, and no government
    program is ever going to change hearts and minds.

    These observations are NOT based on race but on a dysfunctional
    subculture here in the U.S. Talk to almost any African immigrant (i.e.
    “real” African Americans) about opportunities in this country and the
    attitudes of contemporary “African Americans.” They will observe the
    anger is palpable- and almost inexplicable. Often they will inform you
    with a comment like: “It is all white peoples fault- what do you expect
    from slaves…..”

  • Starr

    another viewpoint ok? I happen to be caucasian. When we lived in Chicago my son was one of two caucasian children in his magnet school. His teacher could not tell the other child’s mother and me apart. We look nothing alike! She whined to the principal, in front of me, “they look the same to me.” This same teacher, unable to handle my ADHD child, left him in the block corner all day. When confronted by another teacher, she said, “I don’t have time to mess with him. I have too many kids as it is. And he is a white male, he’s going to be fine no matter what.”
    My other son had a best friend who was from Nigeria. One day they both wore their bulls hats, bulls jackets, red bulls t shirts, jeans and sneakers. My son was so excited-”Me and Ben are exactly alike! NO ONE is going to be able to tell us apart!!!!” What was sad was that his parents would not let Danny go play at their house with Ben. They said they liked him, but that their friends and family “would not understand.” This crushed my son.
    I think it is shocking and tragic that racism is still alive today. But lets be honest. It goes both ways.

  • Meg

    Growing up, I never really “saw” race. When I began dating my (now ex) husband, it was several months before it occurred to me that he wasn’t
    white. It just wasn’t important to me, but it blew me away to discover how many people thought it really WAS important (and bad). Thankfully, both of our families responded positively to our relationship and, despite our (amicable) divorce, I’m very close to his family. However, it’s frustrating to see my relatives living in total denial of the continued existence and repercussions of racism, in spite of the fact that my grandmother’s own sister made snotty remarks about it being a “shame” that I had “all those little black kids” (which caused a fight between her and my grandmother). The same aunt has no relationship with my uncle because his wife is Hispanic. Racism is right in plain view, but they don’t want to admit it. It’s almost like they feel that acknowledgment equates to some sort of “victory” for minorities and/or a “loss” for themselves. I don’t understand it, but I apologize on behalf of all ignorant white people for the damage and pain they frequently cause others.

  • Kramer

    And blacks are racist,too. Just look up the “white girl bleeds alot” incident or the white tourist in baltimore beaten,robbed and stripped etc etc . People have woken up to the deep and hypocritical hatred that animates many blacks. Do unto others as you’d like to be done to you.

  • itsmemeg

    Now imagine what I go through, being an African woman (with an accent) who came here for University. I’ve only been here for 4yrs but my stories can top most of yours. Every single person out here treats me like crap including African Americans. I feel so alone, I just keep to myself when I used to be so outgoing. I’ve never done anything to anyone, all I want to do is get my degree.

    • Meg

      I haven’t responded to any of the other stories so far, but yours really touched me and made me feel sad. I’m so, so sorry that you’re having to go through that. Please know that not everyone in the States will treat you that way. If you lived in Houston (which, statistically, you probably don’t) we would have to hang out so you wouldn’t feel lonely! :) Far from being hostile or rude to people who are “different,” I’m more likely to befriend them because it’s interesting to talk to people from different cultures and backgrounds. I have friends who are African-American, African, Hispanic, Asian, European, and plain old white American, employees, self-employed, unemployed, old, middle-aged, young, upper-class, middle-class, and completely impoverished (I’m one of the latter – lol). The world is so full of people and each person is unique and has his or her own amazing story to tell…I’ll never figure out why, in a world so full of “stories,” anyone would want to limit himself to only one section of the library! ;) Hang in there please; I’m certainly not the only person in the world who thinks that way, and you WILL meet others and have plenty of great friendships!

  • Courtney

    I experienced racism several times in my life living in Georgia. One time was when I was 9 years old. I was a very shy child, and my elementary school had a buddies program where adults would volunteer to be friends with children who were really shy, or had troubles. My buddy was a white/italian woman who was an elementary teacher at my school. One day I was playing out on the playground with her, and all of a sudden out of the blue, she asks me if my Mom would let me marry someone outside of my race. I was puzzled why she would ask me this, but I told her yes. She has a son who went to the same school as me who was my age or a year older, and said she wouldn’t let her son marry someone of another race; that she thought it was wrong and that’s how she was raised.Till this day I have no idea why she said that to me. When I was 12, my sisters and I were in a Big Lots in this country county, and we were running around and playing. All of a sudden, three white employees come up and scold us and told us to stop running around and if we weren’t going to buy anything, not to pick it up off the shelf. And the said with such a mean look on their faces. Another time, I was working at TJ Maxx in a rich area of Georgia, and I checked out this older white woman. When I gave her her change, she tried to accuse me of shortchanging her like 10 cents. I told her, “No ma’am. I gave you correct change because you gave me this amount.” She was effectively calling me a liar, and tried to stare me down. I wasn’t budging, so she told me to give her my name, and I just showed her my name badge. As she walked out, she was telling another older white woman who was her friend about what happened. Another time happened when I was checking this old white woman out, and she asked me if my hair was real. And I have natural hair, and wear it in two long braids which I pin around my head. I’ve even had white customers mistake me for another one of my black co-workers, even though we look nothing alike.

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  • Barnes4975

    Well this is why i don’t understand black men they want to date white women because now all of a sudden black women are hoodrats. However white people can’t stand them.

    • granny

      Hello Barnes4975:  These men are doing so because they are dillusional.  Many of these men are in denial about racisim. They date these women because it makes them feel powerful and also helps them to escape from reality.  Racism is here and it’s here to stay.  I’ve been on this earth for the past 79years and it has been the same old story.  It is quite comical when I hear young people today say how people are not as racist as the old days.
      It’s the same old show just a episode.  We have closet racist today.

    • Meg

      Well, that may be true in some cases, but then not in others. It isn’t fair to automatically assume you know the reason behind every interracial couple’s relationship; that’s the same sort of stereotyping that leads to racism itself. My ex-husband and I were together for 7 years, and he’s black and I’m white. Neither of us had ever dated outside our race before, and he admitted that he was taking some grief from his family at first for “going white.” I learned later that both his older brothers and his cousin had a reputation for slumming it with the stereotypical “trailer-trash” type of white girl, so his family was half-expecting me to be the same way. They weren’t expecting a college-educated bookworm with a passion for science and a total lack of tattoos. Conversely, my stepfather insinuated that my then-boyfriend drove an Audi because he was a drug dealer; in reality, he was an ex-military man who worked two jobs, saved his money, and combined it with a loan from his credit union to purchase his Audi. So what brought together the non-trailer-trash and the non-drug-dealer? The same thing that brings together many other couples – we just clicked!

  • ivy419

    I experienced an act of racisim when I was our for an evening with my friend and my Mexican boyfriend and after dropping my friend off at home we were pulled over by cops who insinuated I was a prostitute and repeated grilled him asking him where we met and where he picked me up from.  I truly believe that had I not been a black woman with a Mexican man or a man of any race other than my own we would have never been stopped, and most importantly had I not been a black woman I am sure they would not have insinuated that I was a prostitute.  I am an educated woman and I am very average looking so the only reason they pulled us over was becasue of the fact that I was a black woman with a non-black man.

    • Nitty

      Baby mexicans are black

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