[QUOTE="mrbojangles25"] but who's fault is that? the so-called "racists" or the people fitting themselves to a stereotype?
I treat everyone equal, but like I said its hard to be anti-racists when every time you see a stereotype your assumptions are proven true.
My attitude is this...you have blacks, and you have n-words...you have whites, and you have bigots...you have asians, and you have ch****, g***s, etc....you have hispanics, and you have sp***.
I do my best to treat everyone equally, but I am not so naive to think that there are not people that do not fit into a stereotype. When I see a black person, I dont automatically think "n*****" I think "oh, its a person just like me". But when I see a black guy with pants down at his knees, a big poofy vest in 90 degree weather, I cant help but think he might be a n*****. When I see a black guy who looks down on his luck, but then hops into tricked out impala, and then that night on the news I see someone say how black people dont have money to send their kids to school, I feel depressed because I cant help but think a lot of these "poor" uneducated blacks are just too stupid to save their money for something that matters. But then I ask myself: "why do I feel guilty? they are the ones perpetuating the stereotype".
Tolerance and change lies in the hands of the persecuted as much as it does in the persecutors. This is especially true today. All minorities have to do is quit acting the part.
For you black-or-white thinkers our there (no pun intended) I realize my gray mindset might be difficult for you to grasp ("oh, any form of racism is wrong!" you might say) but that is just, from my 24 years on this earth, how the world works. I am not a practicing-racist; I dont automatically think of non-whites as inferior.
Fignewton50
It sounds like you're trying to justify the stereotypes you have because people continue to validate them for you, like it's somehow their fault that you think this way. This is a whole different topic, but the n-word is a very racist term that you throw around heedlessly.
You sound very intolerant, and saying that you'll stop thinking this way when minorities change is completely irresponsible. It's the people with these viewpoints that need to become more tolerant.
Racism isn't going to disappear because minorities all of a sudden start behaving the way we think they should and our stereotypes become inaccurate. It's our job to eliminate these stereotypes, and when people think the way you've described it only furthers the differences between us and perpetuates the problem itself.
Mark Twain used the "N" word relentless in what might be the greatest piece of literary work to come from an American writer. Was Mark Twain racist?
I think that his use of slurs isn't malicious. It's just the name that society has given the stereotype.
Now, I'm not saying that it's entirely up to the stereotype to change. That's like when your big brother used the old "quit hitting yourself" routine. That being said, there is a certain amount of validation. In fact it's been my experience that there is a great deal of social pressure for a person of any ethnicity to live up to the stereotype. It's not a new phenomenon either. House slaves were despised by the rest. They recieved special treatment, didn't do the same amount of physical labor, and generally had better lives.
There is resentment by those who feel persecuted when someone they think should also be persecuted succeeds regardless of how they came about this success.
The smartest girl I knew in highschool was black. She was constantly exiled by the other black kids because she was in "smart" classes. She was rarely invited to hang out with the white kids either. She spent long nights talking to people on the internet. Race is irrelevant there and people are all willing to listen.
So, let's not imagine that we can stop racism all by ourselves. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
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