funny story.
Talking to my daughter about her track team. Asked her the asian girls name, she looked at me like im crazy. I said the really fast asian girl.
She looks at me and says shes american not asian.
That's a great story and good on you and your wife.
There have been some very insightful and outstanding posts in this thread.
I have two stories that aren't nearly as uplifting as Big Red Rage's.
My upbringing was such that we were told not to be racist and that all people are equal but that wasn't necessarily how all my friends and other relatives felt.
I was in 8th or 9th grade and my family had just moved to another county in Mo. This was the first time I was at a school that had a substantial number of black students. In science class we sat in groups of 4 at a table. One of our group was black and we all had a good time and "great" relationship. One day a member of our group used the N word and the tension was incredible.
The offender truly felt horrible and tried to explain that when he used the N word it meant someone who was a jerk etc. and nothing to do with the color of ones skin. The rest of us chimed in that makes sense and agreed with this thought, including our black companion.
Thing is you could see how hurt he was and how embarrassed the offender was because we all truly like each other and got along well. I often thought about the impact it had on our black friend. Did this blind side him? If we all got along so well and he had trust in the offender and this hate comes out of his mouth how many white people feel the same way.
Next story, I'm at Home Depot and one of their employees is helping a couple of white customers. He's explaining how they can use something and says something like " you can afro engineer it or you can do it right. The look on the customers face was a bit of shock and mild amusement. Now I'm not sure if they agree with the term afro engineer or they are thinking can you believe he said that. As of today I'm not sure if he actually said afro engineer or ****** rig. To me it's basically the same thing.
I sought out a manager and relayed what I had heard. The look on the managers face was priceless. The color drained from her face and if you took a snap shot and asked people to caption this pic most would reply that she just heard her dog had been run over and killed. I took this reaction and her stumbling apology as a true sign that she would correct this and truly felt embarrassed one of her employee's would say such a thing.
I rarely complain as a customer. In fact I am the worst kind of customer because I don't give companies a chance to keep my business. I have a lousy experience and typically they lose my business. No chance to correct it because I don't complain, I just stop giving them my money. This comment by an employee was a tipping point for me and I couldn't simply ignore it.
Maybe the most disconcerting piece of this was that the employee used this phrase with zero hesitation and acted like he has said "have a nice day" instead. Obviously a term he used with ease and regularity as if it's true meaning wasn't based in hatred.
Apologize for the lengthy post but this topic is something I live everyday. My 4 grandkids have black and white blood. They currently live with my wife, myself and the father of two of the kids. Our daughter is bipolar so she isn't capable of being a fulltime mother. Well she would be if she would allow herself to be medicated etc. but that's a different story.
I'm I disappointed in Riley Cooper for his comments, absolutely. I'm not surprised or shocked. Racism is still a huge issue for the human race. Mulli's post with a link to JW's article says it all for me.
