The Official Thread of Systemic Racism

[Ghost_MH]

10 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

This shit is really bad up here, which is occasionally still, somehow, a surprise to people I know.

 

Yup. The issue with Boston isn't the average person commuting into it or all the college students. That's why it's easy to hide from simple tourists or the kids coming in for school. It's the old wealthy racists living in those brownstones in Back Bay that own everything and have Red Sox season tickets while being upset at how brown the team is these days and who can't name a Celtics player since Bird. That means it ends up hitting athletes coming into town, anyone actually looking it trying to live in the city, or even people just working in town.

[BloodyHell]

Imagine if the government took a bit of the defence budget and put it toward building more housing for the poor!

 

but that would be socialist, and we wouldn’t be able to continue our stockpiling of bombs to kill poors from other countries!

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

A Black Man Was Tortured and Killed in Denmark. The Police Insist It Wasn’t About Race. (New York Times)

Quote

A young Black man was tortured and killed on a remote island in Denmark by two white men with known far-right affiliations, one of them with a swastika tattoo on his leg, but the authorities are refusing to call it a hate crime.

 

Noting that the victim, Phillip Mbuji Johansen, and his attackers knew one another, the prosecutor, Benthe Pedersen Lund, told a local newspaper that the killing had nothing to do with “skin color” but with “a personal relationship that has gone wrong.”

 

Denmark adopted a hate crimes statute in 2004, but activists, friends and family members, citing the grisly circumstances of the killing, say the authorities are often too reluctant to acknowledge racially inspired violence.

 

“It took three days for the police inspector and state prosecutor to completely refute that it is racially motivated, despite all the evidence pointing toward it,” said Awa Konaté, a Danish-Ivorian activist who teaches African cultural awareness. “This shows this is a systemic issue.”

 

Just to drive the point home, this is one of the suspects:

 

[Kal-El814]

24 minutes ago, Emperor Diocletian II said:

I remember when a former user tried to convince us that Boston was TOTALLY NOT one of the most racist cities in the United States.

 

As someone who moved up to the Boston area in 2002 it took me an embarrassingly long time to accept the extent to which this is true. Coming from an area that was 95% white it was obviously more diverse than what I was used to. As a white guy who “didn’t have a reason” to go into the places that non-white people got redlined into more often, it just wasn’t “obvious” to me. The quotes here are to call out me being a dunce, not to question the reality of the statement.

 

21 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

Yup. The issue with Boston isn't the average person commuting into it or all the college students. That's why it's easy to hide from simple tourists or the kids coming in for school. It's the old wealthy racists living in those brownstones in Back Bay that own everything and have Red Sox season tickets while being upset at how brown the team is these days and who can't name a Celtics player since Bird. That means it ends up hitting athletes coming m in town, anyone actually looking it trying to live in the city or even people just working in town.

 

Exactly. It’s a weird scene. I bought a place in Somerville in 2008 and moved out last year. In that timer we saw a lot of people priced out of the neighborhood. We moved because we needed more space and WE were priced out of a spot where we lived, the manager of our condo association was slowly driving us insane, and the profit we made selling was too much to ignore, but moving 12 miles north of the city means we’re in Whitesville again.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

1 minute ago, Kal-El814 said:

As someone who moved up to the Boston area in 2002 it took me an embarrassingly long time to accept the extent to which this is true. Coming from an area that was 95% white it was obviously more diverse than what I was used to. As a white guy who “didn’t have a reason” to go into the places that non-white people got redlined into more often, it just wasn’t “obvious” to me. The quotes here are to call out me being a dunce, not to question the reality of the statement.

Trust me, I KNOW that you argued STRONGLY against what he was claiming vis-a-vis how racially "tolerant" Boston well and truly is.

[Chris-]

We should bring back prejudice toward the Irish to retaliate against Boston. 

[thewhyteboar]

Let's just make sure we are all prejudiced against Patriot fans.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

14 minutes ago, Chris- said:

We should bring back prejudice toward the Irish to retaliate against Boston. 

WAY AHEAD OF YOU!

[Uaarkson]

Anti-Irish is the best racism.

[Firewithin]

31 minutes ago, Chris- said:

We should bring back prejudice toward the Irish to retaliate against Boston. 

 

just let us drink ourselves to death in peace!

[Ghost_MH]

40 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

As someone who moved up to the Boston area in 2002 it took me an embarrassingly long time to accept the extent to which this is true. Coming from an area that was 95% white it was obviously more diverse than what I was used to. As a white guy who “didn’t have a reason” to go into the places that non-white people got redlined into more often, it just wasn’t “obvious” to me. The quotes here are to call out me being a dunce, not to question the reality of the statement.

 

Exactly. It’s a weird scene. I bought a place in Somerville in 2008 and moved out last year. In that timer we saw a lot of people priced out of the neighborhood. We moved because we needed more space and WE were priced out of a spot where we lived, the manager of our condo association was slowly driving us insane, and the profit we made selling was too much to ignore, but moving 12 miles north of the city means we’re in Whitesville again.

 

2002 is about when I started commuting into Boston for work. As someone who grew up in Lawrence, I was hit with it pretty quickly. I'm the well spoken brown kid from Lawrence who should be very happy to make as much for "someone from Lawrence" even if it's not as much as the white folks with less experience than me. Oh, but I was assured it had nothing to do with race.

 

I've had white colleagues take an entire month long vacation to the middle of nowhere in Tibet with no email access to no batted eyes. Then when I take off two weeks because my wife has a miscarriage while still answering email and jumping in a few calls here and there, I'm not a team player for taking so much time off in one go.

 

Yeah, Boston is wildly racist, but it does a really good job of hiding the old racists that run the place from all the people just visiting.

[Jason]

10 hours ago, thewhyteboar said:

Braxton Bragg was a loser and massive fuck-up of a general. If the Cleveland Browns were a general, they would be Bragg. Bragg looks at the Detroit Lions 0-16 season and says "Damn. Only 16 defeats???? How'd they manage that?" He is to winning battles what Walter Mondale is to winning presidential elections. Trump has not cheated on his wife more often than Bragg has victories. The only reason to keep those names is to prop up white supremacy. Fuck the Confederacy and fuck the baby boys who look up to it.

 

Bragg was named for him before the Civil War doe. I think the main thing he was known for at that point was something in the Mexican-American War. 

[Joe]

I've only been to Boston a few times, but each time I've gone, I honestly couldnt believe how white that city was.

[Ghost_MH]

1 minute ago, Jose said:

I've only been to Boston a few times, but each time I've gone, I honestly couldnt believe how white that city was.

 

The people that live in Boston proper are incredibly white outside of the traditionally redlined districts. The people that can afford to commute in are usually very white and more middle/upper class. I was paying some $280 a month just to commute in on the train and that's cheaper than monthly parking. Parking in the city can easily run the cost of rent in some parts of the country. A huge number of jobs, especially white collar, especially STEM, are just off limits to those that can't afford the commute. When I first started working in Boston, it was rough. Luckily, I was still living with my parents at the time so that made things easier until I developed a large enough network to be able to make it on my own.

[skillzdadirecta]

2 hours ago, Emperor Diocletian II said:

I remember when a former user tried to convince us that Boston was TOTALLY NOT one of the most racist cities in the United States.

I think I remember that too!

[Uaarkson]

39 minutes ago, Jose said:

I've only been to Boston a few times, but each time I've gone, I honestly couldnt believe how white that city was.

 

This was exactly my experience too.

[Kal-El814]

49 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

The people that live in Boston proper are incredibly white outside of the traditionally redlined districts. The people that can afford to commute in are usually very white and more middle/upper class. I was paying some $280 a month just to commute in on the train and that's cheaper than monthly parking. Parking in the city can easily run the cost of rent in some parts of the country. A huge number of jobs, especially white collar, especially STEM, are just off limits to those that can't afford the commute. When I first started working in Boston, it was rough. Luckily, I was still living with my parents at the time so that made things easier until I developed a large enough network to be able to make it on my own.

 

When I moved up for grad school, I lived in Watertown with a few other buddies from college in a spot owned by a landlady who would routinely just come into our place when we weren’t around, accused the girl we were living with of having sex with us in exchange for rent, insisted our broken fridge worked because the light bulb turned on when the door opened, etc. I think we each paid something like $400 a month, and this was 18 years ago.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

The law allowing this came into effect today

[osxmatt]

13 hours ago, mclumber1 said:

Trump being a stubborn idiot about bases named after literal traitors.

 

 

I’ve said this for months, but I can’t believe the country and platforms aren’t outraged over this nickname. It’s disgusting.

 

I don’t want to make a false equivalency, so hold me accountable here, but I feel like it would be like saying Kamala “stereotypical black name” Harris.

[Guest]

I think a lot of people, even those who support racial justice, don’t grasp just how often black and brown people deal with ladies like the hotel employee.

 

Even smaller stuff like the way people have assumed that my Mexican wife must be our daughter’s nanny since my daughter is a clone of my very fair skinned mother. Because that’s obviously the only explanation for a brown woman to have a white child with her.
 

It’s easy to let that stuff slide because it’s not “white power” chants, but it does wear on people.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

12 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

I think a lot of people, even those who support racial justice, don’t grasp just how often black and brown people deal with ladies like the hotel employee.

 

Even smaller stuff like the way people have assumed that my Mexican wife must be our daughter’s nanny since my daughter is a clone of my very fair skinned mother. Because that’s obviously the only explanation for a brown woman to have a white child with her.
 

It’s easy to let that stuff slide because it’s not “white power” chants, but it does wear on people.

Well you are Mr Moneybags. Obviously your kids would have a nanny. A poorer looking family they’d probably at least assume step mom. 

[Ghost_MH]

2 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Well you are Mr Moneybags. Obviously your kids would have a nanny. A poorer looking family they’d probably at least assume step mom. 

 

I've totally gotten the "are they yours" when some white folks meet my kids with the assumption that there are multiple baby mamas/dads in play.

[Kal-El814]

30 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

I think a lot of people, even those who support racial justice, don’t grasp just how often black and brown people deal with ladies like the hotel employee.

 

Even smaller stuff like the way people have assumed that my Mexican wife must be our daughter’s nanny since my daughter is a clone of my very fair skinned mother. Because that’s obviously the only explanation for a brown woman to have a white child with her.
 

It’s easy to let that stuff slide because it’s not “white power” chants, but it does wear on people.

 

As someone who’s been on the receiving end of something like this literally once in my entire life... I honestly have no idea how people cope. In my case it was “a mistake,” in that I was in Rehoboth Beach, DE (a town that’s been historically very gay friendly), with a buddy of mine, and when we didn’t move out of a parking spot quickly enough, a Karen looking to park called me a gay slur. I’m straight but I’ve got gay friends and relatives, I don’t tolerate that shit. I went off about how she shouldn’t talk like that in front of her kid, she’s lucky that she didn’t say it to someone who’d be willing to make an actual scene, blah blah blah. The only thing that cooled me off is that when I started to get verbally aggressive in response, she asked if I was going to hit her, and I assumed from her posture and reaction that it wouldn’t be the first time she’s been punched. It brought me from angry to sad real fast and I just walked away.

 

I’m the living embodiment of white privilege, am generally slow to anger, a borderline pacifist. I was seeing red and one more salty comment away from decking this woman in front of her son. After being on the shit end of the first and only aggression of my life. I truly don’t understand how people cope with a lifetime of micro aggressions, let alone active ones. And any white, cishet person who doesn’t think that their privilege is real should be launched into a mother fucking volcano.

[skillzdadirecta]

30 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

I think a lot of people, even those who support racial justice, don’t grasp just how often black and brown people deal with ladies like the hotel employee.

 

Even smaller stuff like the way people have assumed that my Mexican wife must be our daughter’s nanny since my daughter is a clone of my very fair skinned mother. Because that’s obviously the only explanation for a brown woman to have a white child with her.
 

It’s easy to let that stuff slide because it’s not “white power” chants, but it does wear on people.

BINGO. None of this stuff is new... it's just that now because of camera phones and social media it's so apparent, that even well-meaning white people can no longer deny or downplay how much this stuff happens. 

[BloodyHell]

36 minutes ago, osxmatt said:

I’ve said this for months, but I can’t believe the country and platforms aren’t outraged over this nickname. It’s disgusting.

 

I don’t want to make a false equivalency, so hold me accountable here, but I feel like it would be like saying Kamala “stereotypical black name” Harris.

The fact that its ok shows that at least half of America is ok with openly insulting my people. But that doesn’t surprise me even slightly.

[Guest]

Let me tell you another one, from just yesterday. My wife was at the grocery store pick up and the person delivering her order noticed some cilantro in the bag with some raw meat and said “I can go exchange that, but you’re Mexican, you won’t get sick from that” which goes to a nasty stereotype that Mexicans have some sort of stronger immune system because they are dirty eaters.

 

And the person said it like it was no big deal. My wife is legitimately the kindest person you’ll find and gives everybody the benefit of the doubt, and even she was like “WTF?!”

 

It just happens so much you kind of gloss over stuff lest you completely wear yourself out being pissed all the time.

[Anathema-]

Holy Christ I would probably just have washed the cilantro at home if I hadn't noticed but let that guy say it in earshot of me. Look him dead in the eyes and say,  "Go replace it." He better pray for guidance to do anything other than just that. Fuck that pisses me off. 

[SimpleG]

5 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Let me tell you another one, from just yesterday. My wife was at the grocery store pick up and the person delivering her order noticed some cilantro in the bag with some raw meat and said “I can go exchange that, but you’re Mexican, you won’t get sick from that” which goes to a nasty stereotype that Mexicans have some sort of stronger immune system because they are dirty eaters.

 

And the person said it like it was no big deal. My wife is legitimately the kindest person you’ll find and gives everybody the benefit of the doubt, and even she was like “WTF?!”

 

It just happens so much you kind of gloss over stuff lest you completely wear yourself out being pissed all the time.

Once at a business lunch me and a black co worker are sitting together and a white co worker sits next to me, just us 3 at the table. The white co worker used the term "African American Ingenuity", my black co worker never faulted,flinched, eye twitch, absolutely nothing to the point I thought I misheard the guy. White guy gets up and leaves after a few , I said "Uhh.." and before I can finish my co worker says "Yes he fucking said it". When I asked why he didnt he say something, his response was " That our co worker was so dumb and so racist that to him saying something like that was as normal as shaking hands or saying hello and there was a good chance he didnt even realize what he said was wrong , that was him at his normal, sitting around kitchen table with family." " Punching him in the mouth will do nothing but get me fired and no argument will change our co workers mind that what he said was wrong"

[Guest]

The reality is that minorities often say nothing when people just toss out unambiguously racist things because our society does not took favorably at those who speak up when insulted like that. Every black man in America has been told they are being aggressive or “look angry” simply because they objected to something, even stuff that has nothing to do with race. The chilling effects of that are real, and it just becomes a calculation of the worth of sticking up for yourself vs just moving on with your day. 

[Joe]

I've never really experienced significant racism thanks to the color of my skin, but if people learn that my real name is Jose and not Joseph (my parents have called me Joseph since early on in my life to avoid this), they tell me I speak English with a Spanish accent. Not a huge deal, but I have a mini complex about it even though anyone that knows me tells me how fucking ridiculous that assertion is.

[BloodyHell]

My favourite is “i had nothing to do with the genocide of your people -and destruction of our culture- maybe you should get over it”

or “I had nothing to do with slavery”. 
 

ffs, nevermind. You will never understand.

[Joe]

38 minutes ago, Anathema- said:

Holy Christ I would probably just have washed the cilantro at home if I hadn't noticed but let that guy say it in earshot of me. Look him dead in the eyes and say,  "Go replace it." He better pray for guidance to do anything other than just that. Fuck that pisses me off. 

 

I would have been like " wtf I actually ordered Italian parsley" and made him exchange it.

[sexy_shapiro]

I don’t know what it’s like to be a racial minority but I can say that minor issues of homophobia/ignorance do add up over time. I’m not saying it’s the same, but I empathize because I know that being an “other” can be exhausting.
 

And yeah, for years I felt I had to be silent too. People like us when we’re sassy, witty, entertaining, life of the party, etc. Basically they like when we fill the roles that straight people have allowed us to exist in. But they don’t like when we call out behavior and speak our minds for once. Once I do I get called “dramatic”, sometimes by my own family. I’m just over it.

But if there’s an gift to what I’ve gone through, is it’s given me an unbelievable amount of empathy as a white man. I listen and always take into account the experiences of others. I try my best to never reflexively dismiss what someone shares to me. This is something a lot of white people struggle with, and even me at earlier stages in life.

[Ghost_MH]

19 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

The reality is that minorities often say nothing when people just toss out unambiguously racist things because our society does not took favorably at those who speak up when insulted like that. Every black man in America has been told they are being aggressive or “look angry” simply because they objected to something, even stuff that has nothing to do with race. The chilling effects of that are real, and it just becomes a calculation of the worth of sticking up for yourself vs just moving on with your day. 

 

Yup. Speak up and you get labeled as not a team player or being disruptive. On the whiter shoe, it's sticking up for your team or being a leader. I have a hard time staying shut or getting walked on, so my employment history is mired by 2-3 year stints at companies when I get to the point where I can't deal with the casual racism or I get fired for not playing the game well enough. I'm really bad at doing that calculus you're talking about here. Working in Boston and in a very white tech industry is fun. I can't imagine how much worse it must be for minority women in the same boat.

[johnny]

Do bears masturbate?