The Official Thread of Systemic Racism

[BloodyHell]

2 minutes ago, sexy_shapiro said:

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.

I imagine it is exactly the same. Its just that being gay, people can’t always immediately see it. Otherwise I have no doubt it would be every bit as bad. Im sure trans people are even worse off. 
Either way, don’t make excuses for it or feel you have no right to be angry because others might have it worst. it is harmful to everyone. 
 

with Indians (yes you can call us that), people think we’re offended by the wrong things. Like cultural appropriation. We don’t care if you aren’t trying to denigrate our culture. Wear a headdress, just don’t use it to belittle us, etc etc.
 

 

[skillzdadirecta]

3 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

I imagine it is exactly the same. Its just that being gay, people can’t always immediately see it. Otherwise I have no doubt it would be every bit as bad. Im sure trans people are even worse off. 
Either way, don’t make excuses for it or feel you have no right to be angry because others might have it worst. it is harmful to everyone. 
 

with Indians (yes you can call us that), people think we’re offended by the wrong things. Like cultural appropriation. We don’t care if you aren’t trying to denigrate our culture. Wear a headdress, just don’t use it to belittle us, etc etc.
 

 

Shit i can't imagine what it must be like to be an Indian/ Native American. I've always wanted to see more authentic representation of that experience in media and I always wanted to see more of your contemporary stories told.

[CitizenVectron]

47 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. 

 

A question: as a white guy, is it acceptable for me to call out an asshole in that situation (the African American ingenuity, etc)? Or is that overstepping bounds and being a "white saviour?"

 

Obviously I can safely get away with questioning someone's racism more easily since I have that privilege, but should I? In a situation where it's just white people the answer is simple: challenge that shit. But is condescending or overstepping to a minority friend/co-worker to do it if they are remaining silent?

[BloodyHell]

18 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Shit i can't imagine what it must be like to be an Indian/ Native American. I've always wanted to see more authentic representation of that experience in media and I always wanted to see more of your contemporary stories told.

Silly rabbit, America doesn’t want to see a realistic representation of their history . 
 

Hell, I’ve had white right wingers tell me there was no genocide of my people. I hate them only slightly more than those white liberals who tell me what should offend me.

[BloodyHell]

8 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

A question: as a white guy, is it acceptable for me to call out an asshole in that situation (the African American ingenuity, etc)? Or is that overstepping bounds and being a "white saviour?"

 

Obviously I can safely get away with questioning someone's racism more easily since I have that privilege, but should I?

It depends. If im the only minority in a group, id prefer not, because it just causes more friction. And half the group usually need to tell me the person “just didn’t know better, and we should understand that”. Its a minefield. Unless its outright racism, I would say leave it. Nobody learns anything when confronted and defensive. Better to speak to them in private and explain without the extra embarrassment of a callout.

[skillzdadirecta]

12 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

A question: as a white guy, is it acceptable for me to call out an asshole in that situation (the African American ingenuity, etc)? Or is that overstepping bounds and being a "white saviour?"

 

Obviously I can safely get away with questioning someone's racism more easily since I have that privilege, but should I? In a situation where it's just white people the answer is simple: challenge that shit. But is condescending or overstepping to a minority friend/co-worker to do it if they are remaining silent?

I say check racist white people whenever you can. In my opinion racist white people have become increasingly MORE racist publicly because "well meaning white people" give them the room to do so. Often times, I feel, it's because you guys have friends and loved ones that are racist and hold racist views and it's tough to see someone you love in that light.  You guys know far more racists personally than I do or ever will.  Auntie can explain it better than I can

 

 

[CitizenVectron]

Thanks for the responses. Obviously racism is different where I live .Less racism against black people (mainly because there are so few in western Canada) and more so against Indigenous people, but it's just as prevalent and I obviously don't want to put someone in a difficult position by talking over them...but I do feel like it's better to err on the side of caution and speak up against racist people.

 

26 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

Silly rabbit, America doesn’t want to see a realistic representation of their history . 
 

Hell, I’ve had white right wingers tell me there was no genocide of my people. I hate them only slightly more than those white liberals who tell me what should offend me.

 

Racism against Indigenous people in Canada is really bad, especially in the west, where I live. The one positive current thing is that our entire education system has been retooled to focus around colonialism in basically all subjects. Every public event acknowledges which treaty nation/homeland you are in, etc, and reconciliation is taken very seriously in schools. Obviously politicians only pay lip service and don't bring forward real solutions like actual reparations, or changes to the racist Indian Act (which prevents people living on reserves from owning their homes, etc), but I do have hope that the next generation of white kids will be far better educated on how Canada came to be (the subjugation and elimination of entire nations).

 

[BloodyHell]

7 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

Thanks for the responses. Obviously racism is different where I live .Less racism against black people (mainly because there are so few in western Canada) and more so against Indigenous people, but it's just as prevalent and I obviously don't want to put someone in a difficult position by talking over them...but I do feel like it's better to err on the side of caution and speak up against racist people.

 

 

Racism against Indigenous people in Canada is really bad, especially in the west, where I live. The one positive current thing is that our entire education system has been retooled to focus around colonialism in basically all subjects. Every public event acknowledges which treaty nation/homeland you are in, etc, and reconciliation is taken very seriously in schools. Obviously politicians only pay lip service and don't bring forward real solutions like actual reparations, or changes to the racist Indian Act (which prevents people living on reserves from owning their homes, etc), but I do have hope that the next generation of white kids will be far better educated on how Canada came to be (the subjugation and elimination of entire nations).

 

It doesn’t matter because so far all those teachings are forgotten soon after they are learned. Even with our own youth. 
 

There is a lot of shame tied up in the identities of the subjugated, and until we tackle that in our own community, we’ll never fix external issues. 

[Anathema-]

We need to give natives at least one whole-ass Dakota.

[Anathema-]

Well, give it back. 

[Bloodporne]

57 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

A question: as a white guy, is it acceptable for me to call out an asshole in that situation (the African American ingenuity, etc)? Or is that overstepping bounds and being a "white saviour?"

 

Obviously I can safely get away with questioning someone's racism more easily since I have that privilege, but should I? In a situation where it's just white people the answer is simple: challenge that shit. But is condescending or overstepping to a minority friend/co-worker to do it if they are remaining silent?

I can't imagine being a "white savior" if you're legitimately reacting to someone being an asshole from the gut and not just being condescending and self-aggrandizing to get those Liberal White Points in. I know you didn't ask another white person but that'd be my reaction. You wouldn't be acting like one of those wackos having a screaming guilt meltdown at a barista at Starbucks.  

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I had to google the term "African American Ingenuity." I'd never heard of it. Probably because people just say the non-PC term.

[Kal-El814]

5 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I had to google the term "African American Ingenuity." I'd never heard of it. Probably because people just say the non-PC term.

 

I had no idea what that was code for. Ugh.

[Anathema-]

2 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

I had no idea what that was code for. Ugh.

 

Same but I feel dumb for not getting it. 

[Bloodporne]

2 minutes ago, Anathema- said:

 

Same but feel dumb for not getting it. 

"Ingenuity" threw me for a loop, I forgot what that meant. Should've finished high school 

[marioandsonic]

Being a straight white male that grew up in a rural area, I've never really had to deal with rasicm growing up.  My school district was at least 90% white, so there weren't many minority kids in my school.  I don't really remember treating them any differently.  Sure, I knew they were different, but I never thought of them being inferior or anything like that.

 

Then again, I never really talked to them...or anyone else, really. I was always that shy kid that never really talked to anyone, usually sat alone during lunch, dreaded whenever we had to do group projects, and didn't participate in many extracurricular activities.

 

I also had autism, so I'm sure that didn't help with any of that (and probably drove people away from me).  Maybe something like would be something I would be bullied over, but I don't remember being made fun of specifically for that.

[skillzdadirecta]

21 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I had to google the term "African American Ingenuity." I'd never heard of it. Probably because people just say the non-PC term.

Ive never heard either

[CastlevaniaNut18]

There's been a lot of racial tension at work lately. We've had two major incidents between coworkers in the last couple weeks. First, two travel nurses got put on administrative leave for allegedly making racially insensitive comments. It sounds like the worst of what was alleged wasn't true, so they were allowed to come back. I wasn't there that night, so I don't know what was really said. But both denied using the slurs they were accused of.

 

This past weekend, there was a blow up where a nurse informed a patient's daughter(black) visiting hours were over and she'd have to leave. Daughter refused, started calling the nurse a racist, and recording. Security was called to escort her out and six Barney Fifes showed up, which was way overkill and both charge nurses were appalled and apologetic by that overshow of force. The daughter started screaming, claiming we were putting her life in danger, blah blah. While six guys was way overkill, I mean what I said about them being Barney Fifes. A couple of our officers and wannabe tough dudes, but the rest are pretty dopey. They carry no weapons, not even a taser. The daughter was most definitely in no physical danger. She claimed she had 27 minutes of video and she's going to the local news station to expose how racist the hospital is.

 

While that was most certainly overblown and ridiculous(I'd dealt with this daughter when I'd admitted the patient a few nights before and she was definitely a piece of work), what happened after, wasn't great. The primary nurse involved was recounting a story about her daughter as a child saying the n-word and she used the actual word. In front of a black nurse. The black nurse proceeded to respond to a fucking group text from our boss from a week or so ago asking for help one night to inform a bunch of random coworkers that this nurse was racist, said that word, and she refused to work with racism and it was illegal. I  was literally sitting at home at midnight, playing TLOU, when I get this text from a number I don't know. I don't know how dumb you have to be to respond to a prior group text with this allegation, but this girl is pretty fuckin' dumb. So now, we've got one nurse going to HR filing complaints of racism and we have another nurse going to HR to file a complaint of defamation of character.

 

So, yeah, a lot of tension.

 

But there's been a long time culture of insensitivity at my job for a while. I work with some really great nurses, but being fucking Arkansas, a lot of them have bigoted views. I've constantly heard racially insensitive statements, anti-Muslim rants, jokes and rude comments about LGBT people, etc. I think it's just finally coming to a head. Our manager is in a relationship with a woman, and when she came to our hospital, some people were making derogatory comments about her personal life, calling her a "lezzy come lately" because she was married to a man and had kids from that marriage. I've wrestled with saying something for a long time and after these recent incidents, I finally stepped up and expressed concerns, giving examples of the kind of behavior I'm talking about. Stuff like "I identify as a cat today, bring me a litterbox for my preferred bathroom." I hope something will be done. I know these peoples' minds aren't going to change after decades of holding shitty views and I didn't name names because I don't want to fuck with peoples' livelihoods, but maybe they need to keep their shitty views to themselves at work.

[Guest]

I’m on the @skillzdadirecta train of thought that you call it out, every time, with vigor. Racism should result in shame and embarrassment for the perpetrator and right now it most often results in shame and embarrassment for the victim. 

[BloodyHell]

36 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

There's been a lot of racial tension at work lately. We've had two major incidents between coworkers in the last couple weeks. First, two travel nurses got put on administrative leave for allegedly making racially insensitive comments. It sounds like the worst of what was alleged wasn't true, so they were allowed to come back. I wasn't there that night, so I don't know what was really said. But both denied using the slurs they were accused of.

 

This past weekend, there was a blow up where a nurse informed a patient's daughter(black) visiting hours were over and she'd have to leave. Daughter refused, started calling the nurse a racist, and recording. Security was called to escort her out and six Barney Fifes showed up, which was way overkill and both charge nurses were appalled and apologetic by that overshow of force. The daughter started screaming, claiming we were putting her life in danger, blah blah. While six guys was way overkill, I mean what I said about them being Barney Fifes. A couple of our officers and wannabe tough dudes, but the rest are pretty dopey. They carry no weapons, not even a taser. The daughter was most definitely in no physical danger. She claimed she had 27 minutes of video and she's going to the local news station to expose how racist the hospital is.

 

While that was most certainly overblown and ridiculous(I'd dealt with this daughter when I'd admitted the patient a few nights before and she was definitely a piece of work), what happened after, wasn't great. The primary nurse involved was recounting a story about her daughter as a child saying the n-word and she used the actual word. In front of a black nurse. The black nurse proceeded to respond to a fucking group text from our boss from a week or so ago asking for help one night to inform a bunch of random coworkers that this nurse was racist, said that word, and she refused to work with racism and it was illegal. I  was literally sitting at home at midnight, playing TLOU, when I get this text from a number I don't know. I don't know how dumb you have to be to respond to a prior group text with this allegation, but this girl is pretty fuckin' dumb. So now, we've got one nurse going to HR filing complaints of racism and we have another nurse going to HR to file a complaint of defamation of character.

 

So, yeah, a lot of tension.

 

But there's been a long time culture of insensitivity at my job for a while. I work with some really great nurses, but being fucking Arkansas, a lot of them have bigoted views. I've constantly heard racially insensitive statements, anti-Muslim rants, jokes and rude comments about LGBT people, etc. I think it's just finally coming to a head. Our manager is in a relationship with a woman, and when she came to us, some people were making derogatory comments about her personal life, calling her a "lezzy come lately" because she was married to a man and had kids from that marriage. I've wrestled with saying something for a long time and after these recent incidents, I finally stepped up and expressed concerns, giving examples of the kind of behavior I'm talking about. Stuff like "I identify as a cat today, bring me a litterbox for my preferred bathroom." I hope something will be done. I know these peoples' minds aren't going to change after decades of holding shitty views and I didn't name names because I don't want to fuck with peoples' livelihoods, but maybe they need to keep their shitty views to themselves at work.

If they think its ok to express those views at work (or anywhere, but especially at work) probably need to have their worlds shaken. 
 

I’ve let racism towards me pass at work because I had the ridiculous, “but their livelihoods!” View. But thats more respect for their jobs than they had ever shown for my humanity. 
 

Now, fuck it. I would report and be very clear with them who reported it. 

[osxmatt]

Just another accident, I’m sure..

 

 

[BloodyHell]

18 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

I’m on the @skillzdadirecta train of thought that you call it out, every time, with vigor. Racism should result in shame and embarrassment for the perpetrator and right now it most often results in shame and embarrassment for the victim. 

Thats the problem, when you’re the only minority in a group, the group mentality always takes over. “They didn’t mean it”, “They didn’t know!”, almost as though you’re the one who should be sorry for misinterpreting it.

[BloodyHell]

2 minutes ago, osxmatt said:

Just another accident, I’m sure..

 

 

Nothing matters anymore.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

17 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

If they think its ok to express those views at work (or anywhere, but especially at work) probably need to have their worlds shaken. 
 

I’ve let racism towards me pass at work because I had the ridiculous, “but their livelihoods!” View. But thats more respect for their jobs than they had ever shown for my humanity. 
 

Now, fuck it. I would report and be very clear with them who reported it. 

I prefer not to name half the people I work with as bigots. They’ll keep their jobs, at least initially, and my work life will be even more hell. My job is hard enough as it is without half my team against me.
 

I think the appropriate first step is to let management know there’s a problem and it’s widespread. That way, some action can be taken so everyone knows the behavior isn’t appropriate. If it continues, then I can start naming names. 
 

But no need to make it harder right off the bat. 

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

Thats the problem, when you’re the only minority in a group, the group mentality always takes over. “They didn’t mean it”, “They didn’t know!”, almost as though you’re the one who should be sorry for misinterpreting it.

No doubt, that’s why it matters for white people to be the ones to shut that non-sense down and not just the victim of the bigotry. Harder to flip things around when it is somebody from the in-group calling it out.

[SimpleG]

2 hours ago, osxmatt said:

Just another accident, I’m sure..

 

 

A bit of a stretch

 

 

Its a pretty unoriginal Team America design 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

The horizonal wings though

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

The "aquila" has been a symbol for 2,000 years and has been used by practically every major world power in one form or another.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Yeah, uh, I think some of y’all are reaching a bit. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

If this were a one-off thing I'd agree. But it's not, it fits a deliberate pattern and gives them enough room for plausible deniability just like the "ok" symbol

[Ghost_MH]

8 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

If this were a one-off thing I'd agree. But it's not, it fits a deliberate pattern and gives them enough room for plausible deniability just like the "ok" symbol

 

This is my bigger problem. Pair this with his latching onto America First at the same time is just a bit too much to ignore. Anything coming out of the campaign is mostly fine in a vacuum.

 

 

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

Yeah, uh, I think some of y’all are reaching a bit. 

Like, there are so many actual blatantly racist things from this man, his campaign, and administration that I don’t get the obsession with finding the secret racist stuff.

[PaladinSolo]

I mean the America First part is all you really need.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

It's not like these people aren't obsessed with iconography or anything and hiding it in plain sight.

[Ghost_MH]

15 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Like, there are so many actual blatantly racist things from this man, his campaign, and administration that I don’t get the obsession with finding the secret racist stuff.

 

In all fairness, when Trump is no longer president in 2028 this will be the stuff people will write books about.