Remembering hearing wildly racist stuff from regular folks

[Bevo 13493]

21 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Never even knew that anti-Semitism was a thing until watching 90210 in college and hearing a couple of guys yell, "Jew" whenever Andrea popped up on the screen.  

Back in the late 80s, a friend of mine was speaking with a female UT student at a bar and she thought Jews literally had horns.

[Bevo 13493]

2 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

They all looked alike to me through my GDI eyes, but I did drink the free beer at some of their parties.

Yeah, I was in a frat but I wasn't very active. Some of the guys I liked and many of the guys I didn't like. I would go to the house every day for lunch and play basketball. I would go to some of the parties, but for the most part, I hung out with some friends who were in law school and some other friends who were engineering majors and some friends from high school. All of those people were very different from very different backgrounds.

[Poolflood 845]

One of my favorite stories my mom told.  She was about 16 (figure 1967) when she realized that the neighbors next door to her, their last name wasn't "Chink", as my grandparents always referred to them as "the Chinks next door".

[TwiceHorn 31184]

Did yall not have to read The Merchant of Venice?  Is there any way to read that without absorbing the concept of pre-Nazi anti-semitism?  We followed it up with The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, which was a really excellent book and also very revelatory about Jewish culture.

 

We also read Puddnhead Wilson, which I recall as the most in-your-face of the Twain books.  We discussed it as reflecting racist, Jim Crow ideas.  I guess we didn't counterbalance it with anything, because much of the black struggle was fairly self-evident (of course it's deeper and broader than slavery and the Civil War and Jim Crow, but that's probably beyond the ken of a lot of high schoolers).

Edited September 11, 2018 by TwiceHorn

[Armybrat 40678]

35 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Did yall not have to read The Merchant of Venice?  Is there any way to read that without absorbing the concept of pre-Nazi anti-semitism?  We followed it up with The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, which was a really excellent book and also very revelatory about Jewish culture.

 

We also read Puddnhead Wilson, which I recall as the most in-your-face of the Twain books.  We discussed it as reflecting racist, Jim Crow ideas.  I guess we didn't counterbalance it with anything, because much of the black struggle was fairly self-evident (of course it's deeper and broader than slavery and the Civil War and Jim Crow, but that's probably beyond the ken of a lot of high schoolers).

Maybe so, but I was always partial to this quote from Puddnhead.... at least he got that right. lol

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
- Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar"

[Bevo 13493]

39 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Did yall not have to read The Merchant of Venice?  Is there any way to read that without absorbing the concept of pre-Nazi anti-semitism?  We followed it up with The Chosen, by Chaim Potok, which was a really excellent book and also very revelatory about Jewish culture.

I was kind of partial to Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. You don't see blatant anti-semitism: It is kind of intimated. That is more what I've seen in real life.

[pacman 7309]

I grew up in East Texas, so...yeah

 

I find it funny how lewd this site is but you all draw the line at spelling out nigger

Edited September 11, 2018 by pacman

['stache 21743]

About 20 years ago the county passed a tax package for economic development that resulted primarily in building a 20,000 seat arena and concert venue downtown. To get the county voters to pass it they offered a chunk to the suburbs for their own projects. My suburb used it to clear our a historically black neighborhood abutting the main expressway for a big retail development. Found out later the locals used to refer to the area as “Brown Town” and “Monkey Island.” They spent the buyout money and demolition funds within a few years of passing. Twenty years later they got an IHOP and CVS built. The vast majority of it is just vacant land. You’ll never convince me there wasn’t a smoke filled room where they decided to use the money to get rid of the blacks. The n-word was probably used often in that meeting.

[Helobious 9477]

I like to think that every white girl I ever struck out with was racist. There's no other reason they could possibly not want this. 

[RollLeft 5039]

48 minutes ago, pacman said:

I grew up in East Texas, so...yeah

 

I find it funny how lewd this site is but you all draw the line at spelling out nigger

gay.gif

[RollLeft 5039]

9 minutes ago, Helobious said:

I like to think that every white girl I ever struck out with was racist. There's no other reason they could possibly not want this. 

Those speaking of Atlanta reminded me an incident a few years back.  I was in a hotel in Buckhead eating breakfast when i overheard, table directly in front of me with no fucks given, a blonde milf tell her two young girls that the "black" men serving them are the help and didn't stay there at the hotel like them.  Ok weird, but then added "we don't talk to black men".  Alrighty then.  My blonde wife gave me the let it go look.   

[Guest]

Yea the most racist people I know are from the upper crust in Atlanta suburbs. Something about having to live in such proximity (and be a minority in their own city) really drives them nuts. 

I remember hearing that the the butts of smoked cigars you’d see discarded in ashtrays were called n-word thumbs.

Also, I’ve heard the term “n-word fishing/hunting” which is when someone is having good success catching or shooting and someone else encroaches on their spot and basically fishes/hunts on top of them.

[GotThatFire 166]

I’ve never heard anyone but white people say something racist. Only white people are racist. Everybody else is innocent and angelic. 

[Hugh G. Rection 156]

I grew up in Atlanta and would hear someone say something racist on a rare occasion. The only time I heard the n-word really fly was during football games when one of our black players was dogging an opposing black player. That was brutal.

[Okie State 3775]

I'd say casual racism and jokes we're fairly common growing up in medium-small town Oklahoma during the 80's and 90's. It was 'normal' in many situations all the way up through college although mostly in a joking manner, if that makes it any better. Some of my family is still pretty bad about it. Sometimes I feel like they forget I'm married to a Hispanic woman and the majority of family I spend time with are also Hispanic.

 

Eventually I grew up, got away, and realized just how absurd a lot of it is/was. Not that I'm perfect, but I will do my best to make sure my kids do not grow up hearing that in our house. I can't control everything they will be exposed too, but I'm happy that our community and this city are much more diverse in culture than what I grew up with. I think that will do wonders for them.

 

[DigglerontheHoof 21022]

19 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Well, that's mighty white of ya, Pescado.

(Yeah, I just remembered that expression, too).

I still use this term, as sarcasm.  Love seeing the look on folks face when they do something asshole-ish.

[Guest]

Oh I forgot this old chestnut id hear sooooo much as justification from racist olds; “there is a difference between an n-word and a black man” 

[RollLeft 5039]

7 hours ago, GotThatFire said:

I’ve never heard anyone but white people say something racist. Only white people are racist. Everybody else is innocent and angelic. 

Maybe sharing with the group instead of being passive aggressive will help with that tinge of bitterness.

[pacman 7309]

My friends Hispanic, well educated and living in the white bread gated community use to refer to working class Hispanics as "darkies"

It was awkward really because my friend was actually fairly dark for a Hispanic and the favored family member was very light skinned. Seen that favoritism in more than one family too.

 

[BurdineBandit 808]

1 hour ago, RollLeft said:

Maybe sharing with the group instead of being passive aggressive will help with that tinge of bitterness.

Or he could just read the first two pages, where that exact point is discussed pretty openly on this thread on a few posts....

 

Edit: Shit there's another example right above this post.

I've heard a lot of racism from my extended family in the RGV. There's a special mix of being ignorant to any other people other than Brown/White down there, while also feeling the need to distinguish between "American" and Immigrant. Luckily my parents have always been good about that, but my sister's family lets the n-bombs and "wetbacks" flow freely over the holidays. Some people need someone else to shit on, or they'd have to realize they and their families aren't shit outside of their own little bubble.

Edited September 11, 2018 by BurdineBandit

[Armybrat 40678]

Well, to be fair, I heard more than my share of "gringo" when living south of the Rio Grande. Most of it was friendly, but some were not - especially with the "pinche" adjective. lol 

[WhatTheBuck 28700]

This is a tough subject to comment on because I feel like I could write a novel. There's so much to say that it's intimidating to even try. I'll try to refrain from addressing all the overlooked racist memes in popular culture from my youth like "n______ knocking" which we used and never even considered the racial context.

As recently as 2013 I heard a guy declare at a friend's cookout that the reason Michigan lost to PSU was because Michigan was playing a black QB instead of a white QB like PSU. PSU won 43-40 in four overtimes with NFL bust Christian Hackenberg leading them against QB-to-WR-turned-back-to-QB Devin Gardner. It wasn't that Hoke should've recruited just one QB during his four years as head coach at UM instead of relying on RichRod's guys, converting a player who could best help the team at WR back to QB because there was no better option at that position. No, it was because Devin Gardner was black. 

I've already typed and deleted pages. It's such a big subject and so depressing.

I grew up in two tiny, rural, all-white towns. I remember a song they taught us in Sunday school. It went like this:

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red, brown, yellow, black and white
They are precious in his sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

I took that literally. I guess that was my mistake.

[Chuckie Finster 22583]

For a few months in high school (early '00s, Houston suburbs) the word "Jew" strangely became a hip derogatory label among my peers.  "Miss so-and-so is such a Jew for giving us all of that homework," etc.  The was no actual ill-will behind the saying, hell they're weren't enough Jews at my school for antisemitism to even be an issue.  It wasn't even a stereotypical joke about money.  It was just a word said by dumbass teens.  But I will never forget how it made me feel when I heard some of my friends use it.

I can't even imagine what it must be like to be African-American and hear the n-word, given the history. 

[Guest]

lol poor chuckie. Question that you can answer and I'll trust your response: my best friend is a Jew and I sometimes call him Jew. He doesnt mind, but is that offensive?

Edited September 11, 2018 by Guest

[Chuckie Finster 22583]

10 minutes ago, OatmealRaisinCookie said:

lol poor chuckie. Question that you can answer and I'll trust your response: my best friend is a Jew and I sometimes call him Jew. He doesnt mind, but is that offensive?

No, not at all.  And my friends do the same.  Hell, I make more Jew jokes than anyone.

I think, though, if he accidentally overheard you telling someone else "boy, those Longhorns sure played like a bunch of Jews last weekend" or whatever, then it would start get dicey. 

Edit: And I don't even know if offensive is the right word, because you wouldn't be saying something overtly antisemitic.  But I guess that's the point that I would say you could start running the risk of pissing him off.

Edited September 11, 2018 by Chuckie Finster

[Zepol87 9163]

Oh I forgot this old chestnut id hear sooooo much as justification from racist olds; “there is a difference between an n-word and a black man” 

Always heard this from the white side of my family.

[Okie State 3775]

Always heard this from the white side of my family.

Yep, that's a pretty common one I've heard.

[Brisketexan 104462]

45 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

I think, though, if he accidentally overheard you telling someone else "boy, those Longhorns sure played like a bunch of Jews last weekend" or whatever, then it would start get dicey. 

Need more info....are Jews generally incapable of running the zone read?  I'm not that familiar with Jewish athletic generalities.

[TwiceHorn 31184]

1 hour ago, Chuckie Finster said:

For a few months in high school (early '00s, Houston suburbs) the word "Jew" strangely became a hip derogatory label among my peers.  "Miss so-and-so is such a Jew for giving us all of that homework," etc.  The was no actual ill-will behind the saying, hell they're weren't enough Jews at my school for antisemitism to even be an issue.  It wasn't even a stereotypical joke about money.  It was just a word said by dumbass teens.  But I will never forget how it made me feel when I heard some of my friends use it.

I can't even imagine what it must be like to be African-American and hear the n-word, given the history. 

Yeah, that segment of sophomore English with Merchant of Venice and The Chosen set off a string of "hey Rabbi, can I borrow  . . ."  Fucking kids.

[TwiceHorn 31184]

1 hour ago, Chuckie Finster said:

No, not at all.  And my friends do the same.  Hell, I make more Jew jokes than anyone.

I think, though, if he accidentally overheard you telling someone else "boy, those Longhorns sure played like a bunch of Jews last weekend" or whatever, then it would start get dicey. 

Edit: And I don't even know if offensive is the right word, because you wouldn't be saying something overtly antisemitic.  But I guess that's the point that I would say you could start running the risk of pissing him off.

Funny thing. As alluded to upthread with "nigra" and variants, the sound of a word has some kind of psychological impact with me.  I had Jewish (see) friends growing up most of my life without any real consciousness of what it meant to some.  I think I was more aware of anti-semitism being a thing than your average kid when that "Jew-unit" rolled around in English class.  Still though, the term "Jew," was slung around quite a bit.  I know it's descriptive and not offensive, but I have a hard time saying anything but "Jewish" out loud.  Jew just sounds so pejorative and gets used that way.

 

Even saying Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jew Boys kind of makes me cringe internally.  The combination of Jew and boy really does it.  We had some neighbors in an apartment that were ZBTs that called themselves The Texas Jew Boys and had a tallit on a mounted buck's head.  I still couldn't call them Jews.

Edited September 11, 2018 by TwiceHorn

[strangulation! 1699]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Need more info....are Jews generally incapable of running the zone read?  I'm not that familiar with Jewish athletic generalities.

some have questioned whether or not Jesus Christ could hit a curveball.

[huge 3788]

7 hours ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

I still use this term, as sarcasm.  Love seeing the look on folks face when they do something asshole-ish.

Re: mighty white of you...I do too, almost always in a self deprecating way.

Is "white people problems" also problematic?

 

I think about 30% of what came out of my mouth at 15 would make my skin crawl now, racial or otherwise.  Getting to college and meeting actual racists seems to clear that up mighty quick, lest I be confused with assholes.  I did enough of that on my own.

[Jive Turkey 12562]

I grew up in Plano.  This would have been in the late 80s.  My buddy’s dad is from Georgia.  I always got along with the dad and the whole family.  I was hanging out with my buddy and his family and their friends on the Sunday before MLK Day, which was a brand new holiday, so no school on Monday.  We were probably watching NFL playoff games.  I remember my buddy’s dad saying something to the effect of, “If they’d have killed 4 more n-words, we’d have the whole week off.”  All their friends laughed.  I’m not sure I’d ever heard the n-word used in that context by somebody I knew.

[huge 3788]

7 minutes ago, Jive Turkey said:

I grew up in Plano.  This would have been in the late 80s.  My buddy’s dad is from Georgia.  I always got along with the dad and the whole family.  I was hanging out with my buddy and his family and their friends on the Sunday before MLK Day, which was a brand new holiday, so no school on Monday.  We were probably watching NFL playoff games.  I remember my buddy’s dad saying something to the effect of, “If they’d have killed 4 more n-words, we’d have the whole week off.”  All their friends laughed.  I’m not sure I’d ever heard the n-word used in that context by somebody I knew.

Avatar checks out...

[Art Vandelay 1710]

2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Need more info....are Jews generally incapable of running the zone read?  I'm not that familiar with Jewish athletic generalities.

How about this leaflet? "Famous Jewish sports legends."

[Prepuce of Doom 20969]

18 hours ago, pacman said:

I grew up in East Texas, so...yeah

 

I find it funny how lewd this site is but you all draw the line at spelling out nigger

Not trying to call you out here, and I can see the point you're trying to make, but the fact that this could appear incongruous or contradictory in any way is a good illustration of how subtle some of this can be. 

[Brisketexan 104462]

15 minutes ago, Art Vandelay said:

How about this leaflet? "Famous Jewish sports legends."

Went to 1st-8th grade with members of a family who were incredible athletes -- the boy a year above me and a year below both ended up starting on D-1 football programs.  And their family was pure-d Lithuanian Catholic.  One day, thumbing through the library, I found a...not very thick book.  It was on Famous Lithuanian Athletes.  I think there were 10 profiled.  3 were relatives of my friends.  I looked up front, and it had the "a donation from the X family" sticker.

First scrimmage play I ever ran, I was playing DL up against the younger one as an OL.  To say that I got embarrassed and punished would be an understatement.

Damned Lithuanians.

[baboso 6047]

57 minutes ago, Art Vandelay said:

How about this leaflet? "Famous Jewish sports legends."

Who is Sandy Koufax?

[hayden_horn 11360]

my dad was a soft-hearted racist. every single bigot word came out of his mouth, but when i'd point out some of his favorite athletes, etc, "he's one of the good ones." if he had any sort of personal attachment to a non-white person "they were one of the good ones."

regarding a timeline, i think this snl skit was a bit of a shocking bellwether of the shift occurring at the time it was released in 1975:

 

i think that's when things began to start to change from what brisket is describing.

[Huckleberry 32685]

Two instances always come to mind because they were both so over-the-top.  Both were from Hispanics, but they were “white” Hispanics, as the media would say.

Not this dumb shit again.

White Hispanic is a thing. Black Hispanic is a thing. The fact you don't know this just means you're not an American Hispanic. According to the United States government, white and black are races and Hispanic is an ethnicity. Every time you fill out a government form, if you're Hispanic you select that as your ethnicity AND ALSO white or black as your race. Although I suppose you could be an Asian Hispanic.

George Zimmerman is a white Hispanic. I am a white Hispanic. Marco Rubio is a white Hispanic.

David Ortiz is a black Hispanic. Pedro Martínez is a black Hispanic. Sammy Sosa was a black Hispanic.

This isn't difficult and was not made up by the media.

[Johnny Sack 8397]

I once was taking groceries out for a customer at my high school job in the mid 90s in Sugar Land.  He was a redneck, but one with some cash.  Brand been dually with dog kennel boxes on the flat bed.  He has a red bone hound in the kennel  

He says to me:

”See that dog?   You give him the choice between a T-bone steak or chasing a ni****, fuck the T-bone steak!”

No one in my family uses the word.  I think most people have some racist tendencies. One way or the other.  But people who might have some racist tendencies won’t use the n bomb because it is outing yourself as racist and trashy.  

[Anastasis 23375]

14 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Not this dumb shit again.

White Hispanic is a thing. Black Hispanic is a thing. The fact you don't know this just means you're not an American Hispanic. According to the United States government, white and black are races and Hispanic is an ethnicity. Every time you fill out a government form, if you're Hispanic you select that as your ethnicity AND ALSO white or black as your race. Although I suppose you could be an Asian Hispanic.

George Zimmerman is a white Hispanic. I am a white Hispanic. Marco Rubio is a white Hispanic.

David Ortiz is a black Hispanic. Pedro Martínez is a black Hispanic. Sammy Sosa was a black Hispanic.

This isn't difficult and was not made up by the media.

 

Race vs ethnicity is hard. 

[Johnny Sack 8397]

4 hours ago, Zepol87 said:

 

Always heard this from the white side of my family.

 

And Chris Rock

[Huckleberry 32685]

Anyway, the most recent example I have is from about 10 years ago in Houston O&G. I think I've told it before on shaggy. A not very bright customer inspector looked at my nameplate and says "LAST NAME. What is that, wop?"

My last name is of German origin and doesn't end in a vowel. His racist guess didn't even make sense.

[ImissWallyPryor 9045]

54 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

 

Not this dumb shit again.

White Hispanic is a thing. Black Hispanic is a thing. The fact you don't know this just means you're not an American Hispanic. According to the United States government, white and black are races and Hispanic is an ethnicity. Every time you fill out a government form, if you're Hispanic you select that as your ethnicity AND ALSO white or black as your race. Although I suppose you could be an Asian Hispanic.

George Zimmerman is a white Hispanic. I am a white Hispanic. Marco Rubio is a white Hispanic.

David Ortiz is a black Hispanic. Pedro Martínez is a black Hispanic. Sammy Sosa was a black Hispanic.

This isn't difficult and was not made up by the media.

 

Lighten up, Francois.  I am well aware of the difference between race and ethnicity.   I was taking a jab at the media who (as in the Travon Martin case) wish to portray something as racially motivated, only to find out that the "white" guy isn't what they thought he was.

[ImissWallyPryor 9045]

Perhaps I was being too subtle.

I wasn't thinking of this at the time, but there was a riot in Florida back in the 90s (80s?) when a "white cop" killed a black guy.  After the media found out he was of Cuban decent, the story stopped being front page.  I think his name was Spanish, but I think the press read the rioters signs before they read the police reports.  

Edited September 11, 2018 by ImissWallyPryor

[David Dennison 18603]

Growing up in Houston in the 70s and 80s, the amount of casual and overt racism was downright absurd.

Most of the adults I knew as a child were unapologetic racists. The conversations behind closed doors among white people are almost unbelievable.

Every father knew the latest racist joke and used the most degrading epithets. Every mother was terrified of "the blacks."

These people were raising children.

[Art Vandelay 1710]

Who is Sandy Koufax?

Just in case some of y'all ain't getting the reference, as I suspect.

[TwiceHorn 31184]

2 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Race vs ethnicity is hard. 

And Hispanic is kind of a dumb ethnicity.  European Spaniards and Portuguese are  technically Hispanic and have little to do with American Hispanics.  There are, of course Mexicans and other Latin Americans of solely, or nearly solely, European descent.  They frequently tend to look down on their darker brethren, whether racially white or black.

Actually, it will be kind of nice when all this race/ethnicity crap blends together so it is just as arbitrary as it often seems.  The same psychologists that track whites' subconcious or primal preference for similar skintones (and the converse), also report that just about everyone finds people of mixed race more attractive than people of single races.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

And Hispanic is kind of a dumb ethnicity.  European Spaniards and Portuguese are  technically Hispanic and have little to do with American Hispanics.  There are, of course Mexicans and other Latin Americans of solely, or nearly solely, European descent.  They frequently tend to look down on their darker brethren, whether racially white or black.

Actually, it will be kind of nice when all this race/ethnicity crap blends together so it is just as arbitrary as it often seems.  The same psychologists that track whites' subconcious or primal preference for similar skintones (and the converse), also report that just about everyone finds people of mixed race more attractive than people of single races.

Who doesn't like coffee with cream.....