The Pitters' Place

or whatever. I know it was yesterday.

So I just discovered a lot of my family is fairly racist. We were at a family gathering of sorts, and we were sitting on the porch talking about shit, as you do on Easter. It started about some shooting in the news, and then it morphed into gun control generally because a couple people just couldn't wait to vomit their political opinions on everybody (like "Oh, did I hear the word 'gun'? LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT GUN CONTROL IN A REALLY LOUD VOICE, BECAUSE THAT'S THE SUBJECT WE'RE HAVING NOW, FUCK YOUR CONVERSATION"), and then all of a sudden - like, in the space of two seconds - it shifted onto black-on-black crime, and then suddenly a bunch of people who were relatively quiet before - my grandmother, a second aunt, my uncle, a friend of his - just launched into a spiel apropos of basically nothing about high black crime is and how dangerous inner cities are and how gun control should be enforced primarily on black people (or as they put it "the blacks") because they're the ones killing everybody and on and on. My uncle's friend after not speaking for a while suddenly just said out of nowhere, "Blacks account for 75.6% of all interracial crimes in the Midwestern United States" or something like that. In a matter-of-fact voice. As if he had just been sitting on that for years and was just waiting for an opportune time to blurt that out into the open. Like he was just dying to release it from his body. And everyone around us just sort of nodded their heads at it and was all like, "huh, that's interesting".

And yesterday was also the very first time I heard someone use the "I'm not racist, but..." line in real life completely sincerely. And it was from my own mother. She launched into a complete tirade about how black people have their own television channels and their own colleges and their own basketball teams and how deeply unfair that is and a whole bunch of other stuff I see every single time I visit reddit. Like... that was from my own mother. I had no idea she had all this buried in her. I had no clue my mother was one of the "I'm not racist, but..." people. And again, everyone agreed with her. Like, she doesn't get emotional about political issues very often, and when she does she's typically very liberal. This came out of nowhere.

And then everyone started patiently explaining to each other (no one disagreed) that black people can be prejudiced against white people too, and that a lot of black people dislike white people, in fact, and how this is apparently some deep dark awful secret which most people don't want to acknowledge, and everyone had this attitude like this was some kind of profound truth. Like it's some kind of open secret which people can only speak of in whispers. And they think it's, like, really important to acknowledge. Like a really important problem which our media is nefariously keeping secret. Jesus Christ. No shit a lot of black people don't like white people. Everyone fucking knows that. I can't imagine why! Is this really news? What the fuck is your point?

I had no idea about any of this, that my family felt this way. It was fairly jarring. I didn't argue anybody, as I could see I was the only one who disagreed and I didn't want to cause a scene. And I was somewhat shell-shocked at the time in any case. I just wanted to leave

And these weren't country hicks, in case anyone's wondering. They're not even very conservative, from what I know. Just normal lower-to-middle class white people. It gave me a stark illustration... this rot infects basically everybody. Like, everyone in the country must think this shit. "Subtle" or "implicit" racism is very much completely mainstream in America. And I knew that, of course, but I guess I didn't know just how mainstream. And it wasn't just what they were saying. It was how they were saying it. Their tones of voice, their inflections, their mannerisms. They actually have a deep-seated dislike/contempt for black people. And my family is NORMAL. That's what's so fucking... ugh.

I hate everything. I don't know what to do. There's no progress. We suck. We always sucked. And we always will suck. Happy Easter.

Lol. I'm not surprised by any anti-black sentiments. Especially after frequently witnessing anti-blackness in political "allies". Consistently witnessing that even allies can have fucked up attitudes tells me that the rabbit hole is quite deep. If people that talk and think about these things pretty regularly, and generally seem to have decent anti-oppressive politics, can still have fucked up attitudes...how do you think the rest of America(that never really thinks about these things) is? Go to the comments section of any youtube video with a black person in the video and you are likely to finds tons of racist comments. Anti-blackness is the norm. People are just more "shy" about it these days. Like a psychopath that learns how to appear normal.

Cassius Clay wrote:Anti-blackness is the norm. People are just more "shy" about it these days. Like a psychopath that learns how to appear normal.

That's all that "progress" people keep going on about. Everyone just keeps getting more and more shy.

My family are a bunch of racists too.

Our only olympic medalist, is a k'eqch'i, so as you can see, people loved him. But these past week he went to a very high upper class mall here and took a picture, so a reporter published a tweet saying "I sell you peanuts and seeds."

The athlete sued the reporter, and rightfully so. And my family was all "freedom of speech." about it.

Dr_Liszt wrote:My family are a bunch of racists too.

Our only olympic medalist, is a k'eqch'i, so as you can see, people loved him. But these past week he went to a very high upper class mall here and took a picture, so a reporter published a tweet saying "I sell you peanuts and seeds."

The athlete sued the reporter, and rightfully so. And my family was all "freedom of speech." about it.

I think a few things got lost in translation there. I have no idea what a k'eqch'I is. I understand "I sell you peanuts & seeds" is bad in the context presented, but no idea why.

It's a mayan ethnic group. Because he was in an elite environment and his presence there is associated with him selling seeds. Like mayans do, basically meaning a mayan person only can go to those places to sell seeds and not be customers like white latinos. Even if you are an olympic medalist, you should learn your place.

oh yes.

Recently, I witnessed my grandfather actually yell "Go back to India!" at a bunch of Indian people crossing the street.

Is it ok for me to hate people for hating people? Is that allowed?

Derived Absurdity wrote:

Cassius Clay wrote:Anti-blackness is the norm. People are just more "shy" about it these days. Like a psychopath that learns how to appear normal.

That's all that "progress" people keep going on about. Everyone just keeps getting more and more shy.

http://jezebel.com/turns-out-many-white ... 1696252027

I work with a racist. It's fucking depressing.

aels wrote:

Derived Absurdity wrote:

Cassius Clay wrote:Anti-blackness is the norm. People are just more "shy" about it these days. Like a psychopath that learns how to appear normal.

That's all that "progress" people keep going on about. Everyone just keeps getting more and more shy.

http://jezebel.com/turns-out-many-white ... 1696252027

I work with a racist. It's fucking depressing.

There's just one thing about the article that confuses me:

What are "back people"?

aels wrote:

Derived Absurdity wrote:

Cassius Clay wrote:Anti-blackness is the norm. People are just more "shy" about it these days. Like a psychopath that learns how to appear normal.

That's all that "progress" people keep going on about. Everyone just keeps getting more and more shy.

http://jezebel.com/turns-out-many-white ... 1696252027

I work with a racist. It's fucking depressing.

Did that article just come out today? Man, am I timely or what?

And the top comment said, like, the exact same thing I said a few days ago about people not finding entire races attractive. I don't really like Jezebel that much, but I do like that I don't at least have to mentally steel myself before I read the comments about race.

But, um, back on topic, yeah, that's depressing. I don't really know what else there is to say. I guess we just have to wait until some scifi tech of the future can change our brains to make us all unracist, because that is literally the only way I can think of that might help with the problem. There's been significant social change for the past fifty years at least and it doesn't seem to have done jack shit except make people shyer. I don't know how anyone can believe yet more social change is going to do anything.

I have to admit I have a very America-centric view about all this, because, like most Americans, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about race relations in other parts of the world. And when you grow up in American schools, you get the rather strong general impression that racism basically died in the 60s and that there's there's no more racism nowadays except an odd group of Neo-Nazis here and there and maybe some hillbilly KKK members out in the backwoods of Alabama or something. Needless to say that's not true. But I really only found that out a few years ago.

What are "back people"?

Not front people. Duh.

I guess we just have to wait until some scifi tech of the future can change our brains to make us all unracist, because that is literally the only way I can think of that might help with the problem.

More racial mixing! Although admittedly that doesn't really solve the racism problem, it just makes it harder for people to draw lines to decide who qualifies as targets to be racist to.

Alternatively, I like the idea of raising children in isolated communes away from their parents and other corrupting influences, and having them taught by unprejudiced robots who believe in the equality of all human scum.

Unprejudiced robots are still scifi though! But I do like that idea.

But I think I made some progress tonight. Netflix gave us Twelve Years a Slave and me and my mother watched it, because I still watch movies with my mother and she likes those kinds of movies. (Roots is one of her favorite shows... go figure.) And we got to talking about it and she reluctantly agreed that maybe it's justifiable for black people to feel just a teensy bit of resentment towards whites for the centuries of oppression we've put them under. That if she was in the same boat, she would probably feel the same way. She was also, apparently, completely unaware of the history of Jim Crow, of lynchings, of the Civil Rights Era (seriously...), of mass incarceration rates, etc... all that basic shit. She apparently thought racism completely stopped with slavery. So I learned her about it. And then we got to talking about institutional racism and white supremacy and whatnot, and she basically agreed with all of it (that they existed and were bad). So... progress, of sorts!

Awesome.

The media can be used for so much good or evil; and it's had such a powerful influence on how people view various minority groups, both in strengthening or even creating bias as well as in sometimes changing attitudes for the better.

This is why I want to make movies. /world domination plans

I saw it pointed out somewhere that for countries we've never been to, our entire perception of them - especially what they look like - is entirely shaped by the media. Like, when people mention random countries, I have pretty clear images of them in my head even though I haven't been to 90% of those, and most of those mental images come from fiction. It's unsettling, especially if I eventually end up there IRL. Like NYC - I was surprised by how many non-white people there were and just the sheer diversity of humans living there, because in the movies it's like this uber-white place. And then I realised that almost everything I knew was a lie.

(On a semi-related tangent, I've also read about a historical trend of movie / TV bad guys being presented as slightly effeminate (like Scar from The Lion King, which I never even noticed until it was pointed out) and/or being played by gay actors, and how it's led to this thing where visible gayness sometimes triggers those associations and creeps you out, or gives the sense that the other person is somehow 'bad' or a threat. Yesterday I was rewatching BBC Sherlock, and it really struck me with Moriarty (played by openly gay Andrew Scott). Also Zachary Quinto as Sylar, Ian McKellen as Magneto, and these are all terribly recent examples because it's late and my memory is limited.)

Derived Absurdity wrote:I have to admit I have a very America-centric view about all this, because, like most Americans, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about race relations in other parts of the world. And when you grow up in American schools, you get the rather strong general impression that racism basically died in the 60s and that there's there's no more racism nowadays except an odd group of Neo-Nazis here and there and maybe some hillbilly KKK members out in the backwoods of Alabama or something. Needless to say that's not true. But I really only found that out a few years ago.

From the people I've met who are Latinos and have lived in the U.S have told me that racism in the U.S is worse than racism over here. Which always strike me as weird since over here, they'd call you the n word to your face, make it your nickname and you'll like it bitch. But over there you have all these precautions and awareness. You have affirmative action and the such to try to ease it.

So it's funny for me how the dark skinned latinos feel more comfortable here where everyone calls them Black, than there, where people in theory wouldn't do that because it IS racist.

So I have no idea what the fuck is wrong with white countries. I mean, white people must be fucked up crazy racists. But I guess institutional racism works different depending in the context and it's not just "I can't call people names to their face anymore." But generally yes, if one thing my country has going for it, is that it can make you feel at home very quickly, regardless what you look. Too bad our home is shit.

Saying that, I do stare at black people whenever I see them. I stare at muslims too. I JUST DON'T SEE THEM OFTEN, OK! I'M SORRY!