"Where's your green card?"

D_Jacqueline_Boozann

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I have only lived and worked in four states: North Carolina, New York, New Jersey: Newark, Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck, graduating from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, retiring 2009.

The only difference, compared to the above posters, I was born and I witnessed racial segregation in North Carolina, specifically, Durham, NC.

There were segregated schools, water fountains, restaurants, and movie theaters, and churches!

Although there were many, many professional blacks in Durham, they were our role models: owning their own businesses, keeping the money in the community, and giving back to the community.

Our parents and our teachers taught -- we had to be twice as good as white people -- in order to meet their mediocrity.

Nevertheless, although black women endured racists views, too; it was black men, who experienced racist venom among racists whites.

The worst racism I felt and endured was in the south: not New York, New Jersey, or New Mexico. The only difference between the south and some other more 'liberal' states -- is that -- they are more overt with their attitudes/views; unlike, the other mentioned areas.

Yes, there is racism in New York, but it is mostly covert: people attempt to blend in, there are millions of people, struggling to survive, and racism is their least concern. The existing racists in New York do not walk around in white sheets and hoods; they wear business suits, now.

Also, depending upon one's age, makes a differences. I think racist views are more spewed toward younger people than older ones: 50s, 60s, and 70s. Possibly reason: some southern racists are threatened by change, and they are aware that the older generation will not be around long enough to see any changes.

Finally, what is hard to hear from some racists whites is the statement (and it could be true): "some of my best friends are black/African-American!" Most of those people have no best friends, who are black -- but, may work with some blacks in their businesses.
 
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D_gdv01xz

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I am a lifelong southerner and agree we have a large number of racist and homophobic people here. However, I do take offense when my entire region is treated as though we are all racist, inbred, hicks who have few teeth and brain cells. Ignorant people are present throughout the world. The south has a good reason to be stereotyped but I get upset when citizens outside of it act as though their region has zero racist and homophobic citizens. Ignorant and racist attitudes exist in many parts of the world. Individual extremes shouldn't typecast a specific race, geographic area, or culture.
 

Klingsor

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Yikes. But then again, I see you took the opportunity to drivel endlessly about yourself it seems. Probably your first intention to begin with. Sorry for your white guilt, but perhaps you can find more productive and nurturing posts in your future. Hope the best for you and your troubled guilty spirit.

What, it's 2012, and people still try that sadly transparent ad hominem ploy to divert attention from racism? What'll it be next, calling him an n-word lover?
 

vince

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Chanting "Where's your green card?" at a Puerto Rican basket ball player is just as bad as believing ...that the US declared war in Iraq because Saddam Hussein bombed the Twin Towers in New York.

Yikes. But then again, I see you took the opportunity to drivel endlessly about yourself it seems. Probably your first intention to begin with. Sorry for your white guilt, but perhaps you can find more productive and nurturing posts in your future. Hope the best for you and your troubled guilty spirit.
As you only have eleven posts here, I'd like to ask you to take a moment to review the political forum rules as they pertain to personal insults. Thanks.

http://www.lpsg.org/185361-forum-rules.html
 
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Tee&A

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...I grew up among mormons who taught that people with black skin were direct descendants of Cain and marked with black skin because Cain killed Able. I haven't checked if they still try to pull off that institutionalized racism shit in their religion any more. Someone should ask Mitt about that.
Indeed, and I am very glad that you brought that up. What does it mean for blacks in America if Mitt Romney were to be elected POTUS? I don't think it's "out of line" for blacks to ask.

When I moved to Austin, Texas, to attend grad school in the early 80s that was the first time I realized that, because I appear white, white Texans felt they could use the N word freely when talking to me.
I am black, but I am what a racist white person would consider "one of the good blacks" :31: When living in the south, I've been privy to more than one conversation where someone white "slipped up" and used the word "nigger" in front of me. Their discomfort afterward was palpable. My response? "Why hide it? Be who you are. If that's how you really feel about people who look like me, let it out. It's too hard to live your life as a lie, because you'll slip up like you did just now." Sigh...

Yeah, racism is everywhere. But it's more acceptable these days. Suddenly it's cool to be racist, especially toward Hispanics. You've got the inbred racism that has developed in what's left of the Republican Party which assumes everyone who is Latino is an illegal alien. Racism is out in the open in Barcelona where I live, too. It's mostly directed at illegal aliens from Senegal or the French Congo pimping their beautiful girlfriends to the locals. If you have dark black skin and drive around in a new Mercedes convertible in Barcelona you're just asking for trouble. But you'll find that it's no coincidence that in the U.K. press they refer to the Mediterranean Eurozone countries as PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain). Yup, we're the PIGS! Yeehaw! And Brits just eat that stuff up. Then they vacation along the Costa Brava or to the south which has become known as the Costa del Sexo, because the pasty white folks where the Pound Sterling is still king can run around and engage in sexual escapades they'd NEVER consider indulging in at home in their own country. At least the Germans have become more comfortable being sexually deviant these days within their own borders.
Since I am so in love with Korean culture, I honestly wasn't expecting the level of racism I received in Korea. Apparently many Koreans believe that dark skin is a sign of being poor and low class (because field workers show the evidence of their daily toil in the sun through their deep tans). I honestly wasn't prepared for the treatment I received. Granted, it was mostly from older Koreans, but I did not relish random ahjimmas on the street grabbing my arm and rubbing it briskly (nearly to the point of pain), to see if my brown would "rub off". The ahjussis participate, too; they will sneer at you in front of the masses, then greasily tell you how many ways they'd love to screw you when no one else is around.
There is a large Nigerian population in Korea that have committed a minute portion of the overall crime statistics in the country, so they use that as justification to hate all dark-skinned people, too. Meh. Thankfully, the younger generation continues to distance themselves from that sort of thinking (funnily enough, mostly due to the fact that Hip-Hop has dominated k-pop and korean television)

Back in grad school (University of Texas, Austin, remember?) I bought a used air craft carrier sized Lincoln Town Car. It was cheap because it was a gas guzzler. But I only needed to use it occasionally for romps down to San Antonio or the hinterlands of "the Hill Country." The first thing the woman who worked as the secretary to the Dean of Communications said to me was, " I hear you got yourself an "N" mobile." She made the mistake of saying this in my ear at the beginning of a meeting of all the departments of the college. So I turned, smiled, and said "I've never heard it called that before. Fran, why don't you share that with Glenda (the academic counselor for the black undergraduate student body who had just sat down on my other side."
Glenda, a woman definitely not to be messed with and addicted to gossip immediately asked, "Tell me what?"
And I forced Fran to tell Glenda exactly what she had said to me, verbatim. It was a great moment. And once Glenda heard the racist comment she insisted that the Dean's secretary share her humor with all of the department heads and members of the faculty in attendance. Fran lasted about two months after that before she was fired, which is almost impossible to do to a merit employee working for the State of Texas. But Fran was just unlucky. She got caught. Firing her didn't change a thing, and still hasn't.
Don't you just loooove it when they get "caught"? Not because it will change them (because as you stated, the only thing it will change is their workplace). For me, it's the fact that when it does happen, they come off as someone completely nude who walked into a room they thought was empty--only to find that it's full to the brim of people. I love it. Like I said, be who you are.

Chanting "Where's your green card?" at a Puerto Rican basket ball player is just as bad as believing the President is a Muslim, or he doesn't have a legitimate birth certificate, and that the US declared war in Iraq because Saddam Hussein bombed the Twin Towers in New York.
Jeremy Lin stated in several interviews that while playing basketball at Harvard, opposing teams would yell things like, "Ching-chong-ching", or "the orchestra room is that way!" The treatment came from both the crowds and the players. This was just a few years ago; so yes, racism isn't dead.
I used to say "Racism isn't dead; it's just more covert". I can't even say that anymore. Now it's wild, in your face and in living color (pun intended).

When was the last time you came to the defense of someone who was the target of a racial slur and yelled back at their detractors? Or better yet, have you ever chased their detractors down and beat the shit out of them?
Anyone? Anyone? Ferris? Anyone?
I have a hard time keeping friends because of this. Don't do ignorant shiznit in front of me, because I will call you on it.
Don't bring your fat arse to KFC, get in line in front of me, and then loudly complain (loudly) that the woman taking your order can "barely speak English"--because I will embarrass the hell out of you. Been there done that, and didn't care that she left the restaurant. She didn't need that chicken anyway.
Don't mistake me for a white woman on the phone (happens all the time), and talk about the "ugly nigger" in your office who brings his "stinking ass jungle food leftovers" to lunch. When I meet you in person, I will enjoy watching you squirm while I (loudly) bring up your lack of proper upbringing. Been there, done that.
Don't attack a gay man outside of Applebee's on St. Patrick's Day (simply because he's gay), because I will jump in, take off my stiletto heel and unleash enough Amazon fury to get him to my car and to the police. Been there, done that.
Many people won't do it because they don't care; many people won't do it because they feel it's none of your business; many people won't do it becausethey secretly feel the same way as the aggressor; either way, silence is a form of agreement.
 

travis1985

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How should the President have handled it? When a small group of students does something embarrassing, there's not a lot you can really do. An apology and the hope it doesn't happen again is a good effort. The name could have been spelled correctly, but it seems a little petulant to portray a misspelling as invalidating the intended gesture.

I think it's common knowledge that those born in Puerto Rico are considered citizens. Please don't let the ignorance of a few college kids (who are famous for not knowing their ass from a hat anyway) lead you to make sweeping judgments about the white people of a region.
 
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Tee&A

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The actions of a small group of college students can leave an ugly, smelly stain on the entire fabric of a university's makeup. Ever head of Duke? FAMU? Anyone?

The President of a university--y'know, the place where young adults go for higher learning--should understand the importance of fact-checking when making any statement on behalf of their school. It's a common courtesy, prevents the place from looking "toopid" and frankly, shows that you're sincere and give a damn. Could the misspelling have been an honest mistake? Perhaps. But the failure to even research the young man's name (or have one of her many staff do it for her) speaks volumes about the sincerity of her apology.

"Madam President, do you feel ashamed of what your students did?"
"Oh sure, sure...I've already apologized to Smith."
"Uh--his name is Jones, ma'am."
"Oh. Yeah. My mistake."

Of course this didn't occur, but you get my drift. There seems to be a big "whatever" stamped on an apology where the name of the person wronged is misspelled. Just my two pennies.
 

travis1985

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I see what you're saying, but, as you acknowledge, it wasn't as big a deal as Smith for Jones. It was a misspelling of an unusual variation of a common last name. At worst, it shows a lack of attention to detail, and that may be the fault of a careless secretary failing to examine copy as closely as he should have (I'm in that line of work myself, and it can easily happen to the best of us in a bad moment).

I just think we should give the benefit of the doubt on that point. Some assholes said something meant to be cruel that was in fact just stupid and non-applicable. The president of the school tried to do right by the situation by apologizing for their idiocy, and gets treated like her gesture was worth nothing at all because a q that should have been a g slipped through. Looking at the situation as a whole, I don't know what a more appropriate course of action would have been than the one she attempted, and as I suggested before, I think turning a spelling error that may not have even been hers into a case for martyrdom is looking for a reason.

Something stupid but ultimately not devastating to life happened, and someone tried to say sorry for it. There does come a point where if it isn't enough, there's just not much more to reasonably be done. You have to put a period somewhere.
 
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MovingForward

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When I lived in NYC I was told that in some areas of the US you are considered white only if you are blond with blue eyes. Which would make me - brown haired of celtic descent - in their peculiar perception probably an african or at most a biracial guy. Funny!

Well even white people had problems when they came over. Irish, Scottish, German people had a hard time in their second immigration wave
 

dandelion

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I am a lifelong southerner and agree we have a large number of racist and homophobic people here. However, I do take offense when my entire region is treated as though we are all racist, inbred, hicks who have few teeth and brain cells. Ignorant people are present throughout the world. The south has a good reason to be stereotyped but I get upset when citizens outside of it act as though their region has zero racist and homophobic citizens. Ignorant and racist attitudes exist in many parts of the world. Individual extremes shouldn't typecast a specific race, geographic area, or culture.
If outsiders stopped making comments about behaving like stereotypical bigots, would that make the said bigots go away or become more numerous? Stereotypes are stereotypes because at some basic level they are true.

Which is not at all to disagree that these people exist throughout the world. But as an outsider you might be better placed to point them out for us when we have simply grown accustomed to ours.