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Post by Tigress on Feb 5, 2005 2:42:34 GMT -5
I grew up in (and still reside in) a predominantly white, middle-class society. I can only recall one or two black students in all of my schooling years combined. Though there are quite a few Asians that I can remember. Most of their parents ran/run convenient stores in the area. That being said, I haven't really experienced or witnessed any racial discrimination in my community, though I'm sure it happens just north of us, in the city, as most of the races seem to be segregated for whatever reason. Basically, you can drive through the city and say, "Oh, this is the white people's part." (which includes some Asians). It's weird how so many Asians are about in our area, but not so many African Americans. It's kind of sad, really.
On the subject of age, I think everybody's been discriminated against because of their age. Some of the discrimination is necessary, however because...well...two-year-olds can't (or shouldn't!) drive cars, and twelve-year-olds don't need to be buying cigarettes.
In light of sexual orientation, I see non-heterosexuals being unfairly discriminated against almost every day. If not on the internet, then on the news, and also in the hallways of schools. I remember during my first year of high school when my cousin came out as gay...it was awful. Everybody was like, "You're cousin's a homosexual! omg!" *Sigh* And now the whole debate about same-sex marriage has the the majority of the right-wing all up in a huff. Unjustly discriminating like there's no tomorrow, just the same as they did back when interracial marriage was subject to debate. It's disgusting.
As for religious intolerance, I've personally only had a couple of encounters offline, but this is probably because I tend to keep to myself, unless asked specifically about what I believe.
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Post by PhantomsPandora on Feb 6, 2005 18:54:31 GMT -5
Well, alright, my aunt is the family historian, she's tracing back our ancestory.... on both sides of my family there's quite a bit of Native American..but because of white people and religion wiping out their culture, most o fthe time we may not have a name or just a picture. There's a lady that we only have a picture of her, it's a mystery for me, I wish I could solve it , but I probably never will.
I dont' know if it's racial discrimination, but I do want to know who a lot of them are, to see the places where they lived. Dunno if you've ever been to Oklahoma, but there's a lot of Reservations there, and I just get sad looking at it, it's so lonely, sad, not fit to grow a thing.
I've told Tara about the town where I lived as a little girl. Growing up, a lot like you Tiger, if we had black children come to school they never stayed very long. My parents wanted to protect us kids from the knowledge of what was going on, I suppose, but I didn't know about the KKK actually being there, some actually being on the police force. They used to post signs on people's doors saying "welcome to the neighborhood" and stuff like that.
I rudely awoke about the time we played this town in my high school years(I had moved away some years ago from there). During the football game(I was in band), we saw the other band have black baby dolls heads on their drumsticks,a nd they were chanting a word that I just don't want to put here. I don't think our football team saw it or the coaches, but us band members saw it. They even threw trash at some of the kids in the band when we tried to go get some food from the concession stands at halftime. Our band director didn't think to do anything about it because he didn't want fights on the grounds.. and come monday when a lot of us wanted to talk to the band director about it he still didn't want to do anything about it.
I left the band that year, for a lot of reasons. I was upset at my band director for not wanting to report it. That Friday night after I came home I just cried and cried about it, because I was pissed off. Those were kids I had went to school with when I was a small child.
I guess though, it's everywhere, no matter where you live, no matter the state. As long as it's tolerated, it's got some place to grow and live.
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Post by Tigress on Feb 6, 2005 20:21:59 GMT -5
That's why I'm glad I live in Canada. I mean, we have racists I'm sure, but the Government would never allow a group like the KKK to exist here.
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Post by littlepea on Feb 6, 2005 21:01:33 GMT -5
in britain, sadly, there's a political group called the BNP - British Nationalist Party - who are all for exporting foreigners and have all sorts of racist policies. it's a real political party and you can vote for it at national elections, if there's a candidate in your constituency. they have one seat, i think, somewhere in north england. there's been stuff on tv about how bad they are and they show pictures of their conferences - all the people that vote for them look like total thugs and skinheads and they're cheering like football hooligans when the BNP leader gets up on stage to speak. quite scary. this is their homepage: www.bnp.org.uk/have a look at their manifestos (under policies in the top left) - it's not good reading ... "Free London from the asylum tide" ... "Housing and Development - Development for our own needs only"
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Post by Tigress on Feb 7, 2005 1:00:09 GMT -5
I'm sorry, but even freedom of speech has (or should have!) it's limitations. There are prejudices that are logical, and there are prejudices that aren't. Discrimination based solely on race (which obviously exists : is an example of one that is not. We may look a little different on the outside, but isn't it what's on the inside that counts?
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Post by Tara on Feb 7, 2005 9:15:01 GMT -5
Interesting, yeah, I think you told us about the BNP, littlepea, on the other forum. I remember now. Pandora, my mom is doing our family history and we too have Native American. It does sadden me in a way that we still have reservations, I thought we were all humans? But anyway, my mom has been searching for Texas yearbooks seeing as a lot of my family is actually from there and I'd say it was the last two generations that actually grew up in the North. But my mom found this Texas yearbook from 1903 or something that had the KKK club. I found that interesting. lol And it's weird that so many of them of Christians...it never made any sense to me.
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Post by PhantomsPandora on Feb 8, 2005 2:12:45 GMT -5
And it's weird that so many of them of Christians...it never made any sense to me. It doesn't make a great lot of sense that the great damage that has been done has been made by a lot of Christianity. The only answer is that it wasn't to give them their God. It was to stretch out, to make an empire, to divide and conquer. Native Americans weren't allowed to practice their religion, go through rituals, anything. They were forced. Or, how about Hitler who used God as a free tactic to conquer most of Europe? And how about the civil war? I can almost forgive the women, for they were poorly educated, a great deal of them, and they were property. Play an instrument, host a party, have children , write nice letters. But they surely had to know what Christianity was-how could they sit there and hear about their people being freed from Egypt and not think of the connection? I used to love Gone with the Wind. I read the book last summer and when I read Rhett was part of the KKK, I couldn't read it anymore. I can't read Little House books anymore, because it mentions a bunch of men dressing up in black face to entertain people.(oh there's nothing that makes me more disgusted, I couldn't even watch a documentary on Broadway once , because it focused a bit about that). But like it or not, it's there. It's not to be ignored, or glossed over. You know another ugly thing I've learned? People are ashamed..you'll hear someone say there wasn't as many Jews killed, or some blacks actually liked slavery(no lie, someone tried to pass that off in a history book, I read that on a website just yesterday), ...I mean, the only reason they say it is because they're afraid of what they've done. Look at the wars here lately. At first it was a threat of weapons , now it's freeing someone. But I say don't let people erase what's happened by glossing it over. I agree that prejudices should not be allowed, but I don't know how we could ever make that a law. My uncle, who lives in Tennessee came down recently to visit-told me about the dirty side of his state. There is a guy, no lie, who openly worships the man who started the KKK. He has stuff all over the highway. Now why, dear god, would you worship that? But there's nothing they can really do unless he commits a crime.
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Post by Tara on Feb 8, 2005 9:28:40 GMT -5
Many people say they are worshipping God but really they worship the church and their pastors and other people. This is why I'm starting to get convinced that places of worship are simply dangerous if you don't have individuals in the right state of mind. And let me tell you, I don't know too many.
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Post by littlepea on Feb 8, 2005 14:49:32 GMT -5
Many people say they are worshipping God but really they worship the church and their pastors and other people. This is why I'm starting to get convinced that places of worship are simply dangerous if you don't have individuals in the right state of mind. And let me tell you, I don't know too many. that's why i always used to say "religion sucks". i'm still partially of that opinion - churches don't seem like the best way to get the bible across to people, but they do help some people, so it's probably better than nothing.
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Post by Tara on Feb 14, 2005 14:03:53 GMT -5
Here is a little scenario for you guys, just to get a taste at what I go through.
I'm feeling a little annoyed as well as sad because of comments I heard while trying to do work at school. There were a group of guys talking about some movie I don't remember the name of. And some were saying they didn't like the movie but others were saying they liked the movie because of tits. Fine. I have no problem with that. But thne someone mentions something about there being a "black chic". And someone was saying something like, "Man, who wants to see those?" and another person in the group is like, "I don't mind. Besides, tits are tits." and another person goes on to say, "Well, you must be pretty desperate to see those".
Absolutely no consideration for my being there whatsover.
What the hell do you say to someone when you overhear such a conversation? It's a good thing it was time for me to leave because I wasn't feeling very good. So on my way out, I let the teacher know about it and told him who it was. I know a lot of these kids I'm with are on drugs anyway. Only a few of us are there because we actually don't like/don't do well in traditional schooling such as I.
That's ridiculous. And how narrowminded. Why would you want to limit yourself like that anyway? I mean, if you have your preferences, that's fine, but is it not best to simply keep such comments to yourself?
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Post by littlepea on Feb 14, 2005 19:42:03 GMT -5
i can't imagine what it's like to hear that sort of crap, but that really stinks.
if i were there i'd have said something cos they should really be more considerate when there are other people around.
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