I was talking to a friend and my boss today about a family argument my maternal grandmother started over some stupid bullshit. My brother in law looked at her the wrong way, and she started yelling. My sister told her to calm the fuck down, and she went off again over "not properly respecting family". This is where race (or, more accurately, nationality and ethnicity) comes into it. On my mother's side of the family there is a lot of German blood. In the mid 19th century, that part of the family immigrated to the Americas from Germany and settled in Mexico. They lived there until the 1940s, when my great-grandmother's parents moved to California. My grandmother hates Mexicans, so she was never fully respectful of her mother. My sister brought this fact up, because it was clear hypocracy on her part. Given that the Mexican part of my family is ethnically German and all of the members died before I was born, and given that I did not have any family exposing me to Mexican culture growning up, I do not consider myself to be Mexican. I am, however, a big fan of Latin American culture, especially Mexican and Cuban. So, when I bring up this part of my family history, some people think I'm trying to pose as a Latina by bringing up Mexican lineage that means nothing, because there are a fair number of non-Latinas who do that around here. So, I am always very quick and clear clear to point out that I myself am not Mexican. My boss mentioned to me that he knows I don't mean that in a racist manner, but it definately comes off that way, in that I'm quick to say "No, I'm not a Mexican", which would sound like I thought it were a bad thing to be one if he didn't know me as well as he did. The other thing that irritated him is that I assumed he didn't know about the established German communities in Mexico (a lot of people, including second or third generation Mexicans, don't and give me weird looks). So, what about you guys? Have you ever accidentally sounded racist?
I think because it sounds like you're trying to distance yourself from the term and the population that it might come off that way to strangers, whereas if you added a warning, like, "I have Mexican ancestry from way back," they might get the point. You can also explain how you don't want to be mistaken for someone who claims to be Latina when they're not. It might not come off as racist, more along the lines of ignorant or insensitive, but I've said before that I'm "grateful" for the war in Vietnam, else I'd not have gotten to be friends with so many people who are from, or have parents who were from Southeast Asia, along with the restaurants, festivals, and entertainment that wouldn't be here if not for large waves of immigration.
I sometimes come off as racist to some people. Of course i try to be sensitive but sometimes i don't know that some things and words are already racist to certain people. Funny, coz i myself come from 3 different racial ancestries so being racist while being multiracial is kinda ironic lol
Pretty much everyone comes off as racist at one point or another in their life, even if they don't intend to. You can always be perfect, and even if you could, someone will always manage to twist your words around and get offended. The last time I can recall being called out as a racist was when I told a girl (whom I liked lol) that I didn't enjoy sushi I had from a Korean restaurant because the people who made it were Koreans and therefore used Korean spices which I hate. Apparently, my dislike for Korean spices renders me a racist. She called me out on it really loud in class lol, and wouldn't hear any explanations from my part. Let's just say that I cooled down considerably toward her after that.... Oh yeah, and she wasn't even remotely Korean herself, she just had some sort of love story with kimchi (another Korean food I despise).
I've been labelled as pc (politically correct) due to my support of equal rights and freedom of religion, but I'd much rather wear that label than being racist, homophobic, sexist etc.
Same here. Although I have once been accused of being racist just this past week. When I'm walking around on the street, there's mostly only one thing on my mind, and that's my destination. I ignore pretty much everyone else and walk by, and so I do tend to come off pretty rudely. But I mostly have no time to spare, and I still have some arguably futile dream of keeping my innocence. For context into the next part, I was robbed a few months ago. I was coerced into using my debit card to withdraw 150 dollars because the guy claimed to have kush. Alas, he had no kush, and I was left out 150 dollars. Which wasn't good for the next week. After that, I vowed to not talk to anybody who might try and get my attention that either wasn't somebody I knew or wasn't a legitimate cop. I'm not going to be the person to help you with your crimes. Which is also why I don't give people money on the CTA. So while I was walking in the wrong direction, looking to see if I could find the intersection my friend was at, a black guy tried getting my attention (this was after I barely made contact with a bunch of drunk white people outside of a bar). I kept my eyes forward and said no word. He kept trying to get my attention, I kept moving forward at the same pace. And then when my back was turned to him, he yelled something about "Oh, there's BLACK guys there! I bet they'd whoop your ass!" .... A couple blocks down was Lake Shore Drive, where rich people are all nice and snug and cozy in their condos.
Yeah, actually. It was when I was a kid and this neighbor girl and I were playing and giving ourselves makeovers. What I said never sounded remotely racist. She wanted my opinion on an eyeshadow or something, and I said I didn't think that was her colour, meaning the colour didn't suit her. According to this neighbor girl, that was something offensive. The girl was black. And of course, in late elementary school, the most popular insult was to call someone racist, regardless of the context or what was said. That was a very confusing time for me.
I have. I once had a schnauzer puppy named "BiBi" that HATED people who were male and/or black and she'd FLIP THE FUCK OUT whenever she saw them. One time, the door bell rang and I was afraid to get it. I knew if the person was a man and/or black she'd start barking like CRAZY and chase after the poor guy. I kept asking my mom to check the door and see if the person was male/black, but she was busy, so I just ignored it. Turns out that person was a black neighbor of mine trying to give my grandma a birthday present, and she heard EVERY WORD I SAID. I died of embarassment...
My entire life I've been exposed to racial humor. My grandmother was Japanese but due to my sister and I being primarily white you can't really tell. My sister looks more Hispanic and I look pure white. Because of this racial confusion she and I have always made jokes about race because of how our lineage got confused. Most of our friends when we make jokes about their race are okay as we know how to not go too far. I forget though. Sometimes I forget that most people aren't aware of this backstory. So while I never say anything horrible or mean, I've definitely made a room full of people uncomfortable as shit.
Yes and I've also been accused of being sexist or homophobic. Mostly by my overly politically correct sister.
Well, it's technically your dog that's racist, so I think you're good. ---------- Post added 26th Mar 2014 at 01:53 PM ---------- Ugh, I can't stand overly PC people who take it upon themselves to correct everyone else. Now, I'm not saying one should run around and say horrific things to/about various people, but when you can't have a normal conversation with someone without stepping on eggshells because they make out every other sentence as being evidence of your deep-seated racism, it ain't fun anymore...
I live in a town that is majority Mexican. Very close to the border. While I am *not* racist, sometimes I know I come off as such when I get frustrated at non-English-speaking customer service workers. My mom says "you live here, you speak English", which is not my view, but I have trouble learning Spanish and when the language barrier makes it difficult to shop, it can be frustrating...
I was at Whataburger with my dad and sister and the lady came over with our order and asked if we wanted ketchup. I said, "sure I'll take the black one." Now, mind you, they have two types of ketchup, the red label which is the regular one, and the black label one which is spicy. Unfortunately, the lady was black and so my dad quickly went into damage control mode (that's his nature) and quickly said, "Oh, we love the ketchup" and started chatting her up. He later told me of my faux pas and said to be careful because I could have been misconstrued.
Part of bringing the snark since 1987 means making politically incorrect jokes...luckily my friends know me well enough to know that I don't mean any of what I say. But if someone were to overhear me? Ohhhhh shit...
I think everyone has been accused of it at some point, whether justified or not, but in general I've been coined as the equality freak/civil rights activist/politically correct one. I have friends that will throw racial or sexist jokes out around me solely because they think it's hilarious to watch me squirm and grimace.
No, I try to be polite. I think it's in my personality to value fairness and egalitarianism such that I pay attention to my words. Being a visible minority and having experienced moderate racism (mostly very ignorant people who think brown skin = Muslim) probably is a big factor. I also get a lot of questions about me because I am an Indian-American (not the same as American Indian!), and I have kind of a standard phrase that I use when people inevitably ask where I'm from. First I'll tell them I'm from Oklahoma and let that sink in, lol. Then I say my parents are from India, but I was born and raised in the US. That's usually enough for most people (if necessary I go into the whole spiel that no, I am not Hindu or Muslim but Catholic), but it does get tiring after awhile.
In one of his most famous speeches in the 1960's, the great civil rights campaigner, Dr Martin Luther King made reference to the Negro people. Today, the term Negro is considered unacceptable and racist though. I doubt anybody would look back in history and say that Dr King was, in fact, a racist man. But times change and culture changes too - if you embrace change (including language change) and try to make the world a more diverse and tolerant place for all people, you'll find yourself labelled as PC. I think it's rather unfair. For me, the greatest unfairness is the resistance to, and fear of change, that is at the heart of many levels of prejudice.
