4 ms·
It's fair for you to say that you don't need that negativity in your life, but remember that your family members may have experienced racism in a different era
by sushid 9y ago
It's fair for you to say that you don't need that negativity in your life, but remember that your family members may have experienced racism in a different era even if they're only a few decades older than you. You'd be surprised how different your day to day life as a minority would be in a different socioeconomic ladder, city, or industry.
I spent my first first two years in the States bullied and called various ethnic slurs by classmates. My brother who attended the same school and grade only 6 years later never felt or received any of that, partly due to his knowledge of the English language, but also because blatant racism became totally unacceptable in grade school by that time.
Now, do I hold a grudge against an entire race for that? No, in fact, my first few friends even then were all caucasians. But I can certainly see someone who grew up 10 years before be harboring some resentment because I've also seen how rapidly racial remarks can fall out of favor.
- scarface74 9y agoMakes sense. But let's take that a step further. I was just talking about this in another thread on HN. How much racism is a proxy for just overall resentment? I think my parents' families serve as a perfect case study. My parents who are now in their 70s and have been married 50 years were high school sweet hearts. They both grew up and went to school together in the segregated South and both of their parents were poor but they did scrape by. All of my parents siblings went to the same segregated school. My mom and her four siblings all graduated from some type of post secondary school - teachers, nurses, and one that owns his own car repair business. Out of my dad's siblings, he was the only one to graduate from high school or college. One side, all of them beat the odds and experienced upward mobility and the other side for the most part didn't. So which side of the family do you think I'm referring to when I say I have to deal with some of them with a long handled spoon? My parents and more so my grandparents dealt with the brunt of the Jim Crow South. But my parents made sure that they balanced making me aware of our history without allowing me to use that as an excuse or be resentful. Of course they didn't tell me any of this while I was going to a predominantly White private school....
- convolvatron 9y agoor come back. it didn't take too many years between joking about illinois nazis and having one on the ballot.