2 ms·
The same is often true of any bigot; they're not usually the frothing skinheads so many seem to expect. I have a friend who's in his late 60's, extremely bright
by M_Grey 10y ago
The same is often true of any bigot; they're not usually the frothing skinheads so many seem to expect. I have a friend who's in his late 60's, extremely bright man, friendly, funny, and I would have said not racist. Then one day after I've gotten to really know him, and we're driving to a restaurant and the conversation turned to (then first term) Pres. Obama. He said something that I'll never forget, because it was said without a hint of malice, almost sad regret.
"You know those jungle-bunnies aren't like you and me."
That's what he really thought. I've seen him interact with people of all races and he's open and friendly and sociable, but at the end of the day, that's how he sees black people.
In my experience, a lot of bigotry is just that; you get to know someone to the point where they feel comfortable with you, and then you find out what they really think of people. The exception of course is that when "everyone knows" something, you don't even need to get to know that person well.
In large swathes of the world, and Europe in particular, "Everyone knows all about" the Roma. Dig a bit deeper and they "know all about" the Jews.
- ddorian43 10y agoThat's with ~most old people (not just the black thing, but also similar stuff that you have to create a new hn account in fear of downvotes).
- nicolas_t 10y agoWhile I've seen a lot of racism against Romas and Muslims, it seems to me that at least in France they're not racist against Jews... Not that that excuses racism whatsoever, just an observation that the new hated minority that's used as scapegoat is not the Jews anymore but instead the Muslims. But, yes I've heard equally horrifying things from people who seem otherwise smart and friendly. Just go to Japan and listen to when people talk about black people... Go to Europe or the US and listen to what people say about muslims... Racism is everywhere and it's not only frothing skinheads, it's normal respectable members of the society and that's what scary. As to the Roma, well, I haven't had much experience but there was a Roma kid in school for a few months and I got along well with him... So, at least anecdote-wise on my side, I haven't had bad experience with Romas. Now, it's been my experience that while different groups have differences in cultures, the difference between individuals of a given group is bigger than the cultural differences due to belonging to a given group. So, for example, after living in both Japan and China for a while, I have certain heuristics that let me expect certain behaviours from a Japanese person compared to a Chinese person. But, those are heuristics, they are not absolute truths and they are often wrong for a given person. So, even if Japanese people tend to be more polite than Chinese people, I've met quite a few rude people in Japan and I've met quite a few very polite people in China...