Quote:
Originally Posted by stomachmonkey
Maybe it would not be such a knee jerk reaction if when it happens to be actual discrimination the knee jerk defense mechanism is not "they are playing the victim card".
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I assume you have experienced racism; never welcomed, always perpetrated by lesser, angry souls who want to prove that there is someone in their worthless lives beneath them.
So have I. I have written here before that I am "Whitey McWhitey" on the outside but a happy, well adjusted minority on the inside.
California in the 60's was (and in many places still is) a very difficult place for Hispanic appearing people. I say "appearing" because there was no effort by Anglos to distinguish a Mexican from a Spaniard, a Chilean from a Honduran. Human nature to this day.
They/we were all Beaners.
My mother's side of the family, Spanish, was determined to succeed and has. Their view of racism (which they all faced) was a remarkable mix of tenacity, obdurance, and perhaps not surprisingly, racism.
Portuguese were a particular target. My Great Uncles all had ranches in the SFV and for some reason the Portuguese were viewed as lesser lights from Spaniards. While my mother marrying an Anglo was a bit of a scandal (they all loved my father except, in the beginning, the color of his skin) but had she brought a Portuguese home it would have been over.
All others, including whites (especially "nice whites"), were viewed as competitors. We were to compete and win. Education, family, honesty and diligence were not options, they were requirements.
Being black in America in 2018 only requires those same requirements for success. Nothing more, nothing less. My grandmother would have knocked me loopy if I came home and said some Barrista wasn't nice to me, racist.
I can hear her now: "Of course they are racist...all humans are. Now go start your homework."