Quote:
Originally posted by irishpipes
I don't know how to ask this without making everyone's head explode, but I am going to try. I am a white person. I can't help that I am a white person. What is it that I can do that would make blacks know that I am not a racist? Do you think that the history is so bad between blacks and whites that this could never happen? I am not asking this to cause trouble. I am asking because I seriously don't even know where to start, and I think that racism is something that needs to be dealt with in every individual in order for it to be combatted. However, I know that I feel frustrated that maybe no matter what I do as an individual, blacks will see me as white and therefore a racist. I realize that is nothing compared to the frustrations that blacks have endured over the many years, but I would seriously like to know. My question comes from a position of reconciliation, not hostility. [/B]
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I don't think there is anything you can do to let BLACKS know you are not a racist because, as previously stated, every single black person is different. Point blank. My mother, for example, thinks ALL white people are racist. Every single one. The only way a white person can get on her good side is if she's known them for years. Seriously. She blames everything that white people do (cut her off while driving, accidentally bump into her in the store) on racism. I disagree with her and she says that I wear rose colored glasses (or whatever that phrase is). I DO NOT believe ALL whites are racist, I just don't feel it in my heart. I don't believe that God made me to think like that. I do believe, however, that racism does exist in many white people.
On the other hand, I am sure that there are white people out there who were raised to think certain things about black people based on their parents and surroundings. Just as my mother tried to instill in me that all whites are racist, I'm sure white families said stereotypical things about blacks and other minorities that are not true. You cannot change the way people are brought up, because most children trust in their parents, they believe their parents speak the truth. Some peoples truths are based on experience, some on ignorance. My mother's truths are based on many bad experiences with white people as a child, teenager and in college and thus groups them in a bunch. Her not trusting and hating white people comes from experience. A lot of times, whites live in gated communites, or communities where they have that 1 black family...so their truths are based on what they see on TV!!!!
They're calling US refugees and looters...refugees??? Tell me if I"m wrong but when I think of a refugee, based on what I have seen on TV growing up, I think of poor Hatians, Jamaicans, Domicans etc. who are also black. Although the people in NO were basically living in poverty and without homes I never thought for a minute they would be called refugees. I went to dictionary.com and refugee =One who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution. Although this is just one definition this is the definition we use the term to mean in the U.S. This in no way reflected those people down south. Now they are using the term evacuees...
All of these are examples of things that white people have said or done to us to make us the way we are. Just as you clumped us together when you said what can you do to let BLACKS know that you're not a racist, some BLACKS also clump WHITES together when using their judgement. All Black people don't think all white people are racist, and not all Black people are the same (reference me and my mother). I don't think you should be concerned w/letting people know you're not a racist. If they care about you then they will be able to see it in your eyes and feel it in their heart. As for everyone else, let them do what they do.