Psychology What is Racism like in your town or city?

for me its an big issue because i live in virgina which was once called the (mother of slaves) anyway in my school everyone is seperated evern by sex . girls at one table boy at another whites at one, black at another. i understand that my want tsit with your finends but this is an everyday thing. maybe iam reading more into it what do u think?

 

Is it that bad throughout all of America??

Here in Australia, I don't think it's much of an issue. I mean yeah you get the occasional racist joke, and there seems to be a bit of underlying tension about the whole "Aborigines were here first" etc etc, but I really don't think it's a big problem. Of course, it could just be where I live, I can't speak for the whole country. At least where I am, there is absolutley no separation between *blacks* and *whites*. I've never even thought about it.

Well actually, sometimes you get the odd 'ethnic gang', if you can count that. And if you're really angry and an inconsiderate person you might yell a racial slur. But you will usually get some dirty looks from people of all races if you do that.

*kitty*

 

Sounds kinda like how it was at my high school on Kauai (overall I think it's the same on most of the islands here in Hawaii). People often segregate from others to be with people of their same kind. But it's not really just a choice on race; some people simply would rather hang out with the people they grew up with (usually people of the same race). Also, people of similar race seem to prosper in different places, within just a few miles of each other, maybe cuz they just stay there and multiply, or cuz of something about the place. The North Shore has mostly white people, and it's a great surf spot so lots of them grow up surfing. Then there's a town on the east side which has mostly Hawaiians, but it's cuz the land is specially available for them there. Finally, different towns have either a majority of Filipinos or Japanese, with only a few towns being fairly mixed.

In high school, sure there's a row of tables in the cafeteria which have a lot of Filipinos (most of them were immigrants). And then there was a row of tables with pretty much all white people. Finally, the Japanese mostly stuck together, but they're usually the most preppy so other preppies mix in with them.

There aren't any big fights between the ethnicities, but sure people make fun of each other behind their backs. But on a different level of maturity or whatever, there's also the light-hearted, non-threatening view of each other which allows us to crack ethnic jokes without fear. Like how one guy once said something like "The only way we can all get along together is to laugh about each other" (here in Hawaii that is...not sure about other places). In joke stereotypes, Japanese are smart/trendy but have small everything, Hawaiians/Polynesians are strong/tough but stubborn, Portuguese are proud yet stupid, Filipinos are hardworking but weird/eccentric, and whites are simply...themselves!

Probably the most popular accent to make fun of here is the Filipino accent. To give you an idea of what it sounds like, "The bus station" and "devastation" would both be pronounced "de bus stay shone," in a Filipino accent that is. Nearly everyone, including American Filipinos, sometimes just bust out their impression of the accent in everyday life, usually if the subject of Filipinos turns up. There this joke that goes, an teacher asked a Filipino student to use the words deduct, defense, defeat, and detail all in one sentence..."Deduct jumped over defense, first defeat and then detail." Sometimes I get a lil offended when people make fun of the accent, mostly cuz people hardly ever tease the other accents. Most of the time though, I just go along with people's jokes about it (even though it's not THAT funny).

Compared to the rest of the USA, over here, whites are sort of the outcasts sometimes! There's an underlying racism going on, where local people treat whites (we call em "haoles") with a lil less respect. So when my friend who looks kinda white (but is part Hawaiian) gets judged by how he looks, people get surprised when they find out that he grew up in Hawaii, part Hawaiian, etc. I jokingly tell him sometimes, when he gets treated bad, that it's probably cuz of racism. I also remember our cross country team in high school, there were a bunch of blonde haoles, but this one guy was really white... one time when he ran without his shirt, someone said "it's a ghost!"

 

In reasent years there has been an increase of foreign nationals coming into Ireland. This has probably been going for longer then i know but i really only noticed it when i was about 14 or 15.

It's not something that bothers me at all. I'm a believer in the right to life and the right to travel were you wish and do as you wish. So i've always thought it ok to see foreign people in our schools and workplaces. I know that not all irish people see this way i do. Some people over here don't want to see these people over here cause they think that they are trying to steal our jobs and fill up the places in our schools.

I've heard that people in foreign countrys think that Ireland is a very friendly country, but the fact is that with the increace with the amount of foreign people coming in there has been an increace in racism. I've read in papers and magazine interviews by foreign people that they can be going about there normal buisness and then some irish person will walk up to them out of the blue and tell them to leave the country and go back were they came from. You will even see the resentment of some people if you just watch certain people. Like on the bus a while ago you could see the bus driver giving a black man a very surly look as he got on.

I think that this whole idea of not liking people is rediculious. It seems that certain people seem that the are part of a master race or something. That they are the ones in charge. I think they should grow up and except the fact that there is more then one race in this world and they have all the rights that we have and they should learn to keep their thought to themselves. We're all human so what does it matter if theres only a small difference like the colour of our skin or the religon we choose to follow.

I think that some people just have to learn to grow up.

 

The town I live in right now and the town were I went to school are all white( with one black family liveing in the town I do) but most of the people here aren't racest.

When I lived in Calif. before I moved here there was a "Racest War" my 2nd year of high school,(It started over samething Really Stupid...I don't remember what). And we had the police at are school for 2 month, it was scary.

 

I suppose racism is an issue here. But in my school at the lunch tables and such, yes, people sometimes will seperate themselves to be with their own race....but most of the time people just sit with each other because nobody really cares. and yes sometimes there will be a picture that shows up saying some racist slurs and such (its happened twice and both times the person that did it was of the same race that they were making fun of) but i guess what im trying to say is...around here (i dont know about everywhere else) racism isnt a big deal....around here we dont see very many people getting made fun of because their skin is black, or white, or even both...we just accept them for who they are

 

.. Why was this in debates? Moving it to Misc.

- Ark

 

You don't wanna know...

 

Sounds a little like my highschool, actually. I grew up in California's Bay Area, and the highschool I went to had a black/Hispanic majority. There was a lot of quiet discrimination against the white kids, and it irritated the hell out of me at times. Mind you, I'm about as white as it gets - my heritage is half Austrian, and some Scottish/Irish/etc. There was one instance where I was suggesting some improvements for something a friend was painting in art class - incidentally, this was an Asian friend - and this one particularly obnoxious girl (who happened to be black), looks up at me and goes, "You know, just because you're white doesn't mean you can tell everybody else what to do." Or something like that, probably a bit less tactful... I was stunned. It didn't help any that the teacher heard - the class was too small NOT to hear everything that got said above a whisper - and she did nothing. I couldn't very well complain... in a school like that, it's easier just to blow it off and not invite trouble. But it was insulting...

I guess oftentimes when people have been oppressed, whether in their own lifetimes or generations ago, they feel like they have a right to entertain racist feelings against the group they perceive as enemies. There's a lot of basically accepted anti-white sentiment across the USA from various ethnic groups. Of course, there's also plenty of anti-black, anti-immigrant, anti-whatever. People always seem to want a reason to hate each other. But it's like it's OK for people to hate whites - racism's never alright, dammit. We're not breeds of dogs, there isn't one that has a superior bloodline. -_-;

 

I dont happen to see alot of racism in my city since were mostly pretty much asian or european- and most of us are intertwined through marriage to, which is pretty cool too. So i think its pretty much not obvious here.

 

I don't think it's really that bad around here, there are very few minority groups around here unfortunately...

 

In my school Racism is not takin lightly, especially by the system. Also u dont want to say something to offending about a certain type of group or otherwise u are gonna get jumped. In my school it is best to keep ur opinion to urself.

I myself dont really care. If u talk about me or my nationality...i couldnt care less. I guess i take it lightly.

 

My school is 99.9% white. There are a large number who say mean things about all other ethnic groups besides their own even though they have never made any real contact with people of the group they slander. At my school it is usually blacks, and sometimes Mexicans. I've gotten in a few arguments over it, but I don't think they understood.

 

Despite what a few people who hear the occasional thing off news, particulary the whole asylum seekers incident (They were foolish sending the poor buggers into the bloody inbred part of the city :/ ) i have rarely witnessed racism, there is the occasional joke but similar to what D3vil's Anjil said, most times it was them having a drunken steriotypical dig at there own ethnic, sure i know it's around here somewhere... judging upon when i got invited to an MSn arguement against a couple of Neds (Actually i think they were slightly more south of the border but meh) who called them self aryan (sp?) despite not knowing what it meant, except to hate foreigners... by there defination :/

 

Not good, just general ignorance really.

 

not that bad because i live in Valdez Alaska, (pure white town) the only racisim go to the natives

 

well i think i'm lucky. i live in Kitchener, ontario, Canada *near toronto* my high school has a large diversity. there's punks to preps, whites to blacks. Racism is very rare...i mean very!!! and if there is some guy that's racist, which i can't think of anyone, they would prolly get beaten up or something by a whole bunch of guys. racism is basically a joke here, everyone is alright with each other, and don't care where they're from.

 

I live in a part of New Jersey that is dominated by blacks and Latins, so for some reason there seems to be a lot of hostility towards white people and such (hence why I tend to stay inside on my computer all the time ;P). Not that I don't blame them.. I *am* quite an ***hole after all.

 

I live in Southern Cali as well, but in my city there isn't much racism at all. To a certain extent, yes, I suppose you could say SOME people are racist, but don't you get that almost everywhere? Blacks aren't really discriminated against at all, though, the only form of racism that I've seen is the way some of the asians view the whites (with the exception of their few white friends, fortunately for me ^_^).

Other then that, racism is pretty rare, other then the occasional racist joke made by a few ignorant people. But such is quickly wiped out anyhow.