I hate racism in any form.

[Ms. Matterhorn]

Trouble is, when I was growing up, and probably others on this board, the term GAY simply meant haveing a good and fun time. Even reflected in various songs and cartoons! 'The three gay caballeros" for one, and many other song lyrics.

"Don we now our gay apparel...fa la la la la la la la la!"

[Syndrome]

I grew up in Chicago in integrated neighborhoods so I never learned racism. It was a shock when I moved to the suburbs and went to work; I happened to mention one day that my husband and I had gone to work with a co-worker and his girlfriend, and the co-worker I told this to was like, "You went to dinner with HIM?!" I didn't know what she meant, and then it dawned on me...she was surprised because he's black. It just hadn't occurred to me to think about race...we were friends because we're compatible people.

My husband's mother wasn't invited to our wedding for various reasons, but he told me it was just as well because she would have freaked, since we were married by a black clergyman.

And now that we've moved to FL, it's rather scary to realize that this is "The South" and that racial attitudes are quite different once you get in the boonies here. Racism is something I just can't wrap my mind around...why do some people always have to try to find someone else to feel superior to, especially over something as stupid as skin color?

[February]

A few years ago Bono of U2 was accepting an award. He observed that many award winners thanked God for the award but God was looking down and thinking, "Please don't thank me. It really wasn't very good."

Yet another reason for me to add to my very looooong list of why I love Bono.

Very long list!!! I am completely bonkers for Bono.

Pirate- I didn't think that you'd have actually interviewed the girl in that case- just expressing my frustration in my usual muddled half . . .er. . .winged way.

I wonder if pixie dust exposure lowers IQ points cause sometimes I swear, I get dumber every day. . .LOL

Back on topic, I live in a very integrated city but used to work in one that was very exclusively pale and sickeningly proud of it.

I was working in an upscale department store (couldn't stand it- the old biddies who worked there drove me mad- and I have worked with a lot of cool elderly women- these chicks WERE biddies!) one day I was swamped while the rest of my department stood in the stock room and yes, actually did their nails. I apologized to a customer because she had to wait- and after the second time she decided I didn't want to wait on her because she was African American. This was totally untrue- I was just swamped.

Apparently she went to the store manager to lodge a complaint and he didn't even bring it to me. He talked to my department manager and told her that knowing me, he didn't believe it and wasn't even going to mention it to me. He just for the record mentioned it to my department manager- who was herself a vocally racist person- and she said to me "Anyone else in this store and it would've been a legitimate complaint- we wouldn't want to wait on her. But not you." Sad part was she didn't seem to feel at all ashamed of the fact :(

I felt so sorry for the guys newly hired in who worked unloading the trucks. I always talked and joked with them but they were treated as if every one was a potential mugger just because they weren't white :(

I got a GREAT laugh out of it when the entirely white group of people who had been heading up that department got fired for stealing off the trucks- and the wonderful African American minister gentleman who I had been joking with for months got promoted to head of the department! First thing he told his guys was that no one stacked my department's crates up high- they were to lay them all out nice and even so that I didn't have to do any heavy lifting. What a sweetie he was. His smile always brightened my day and was one of the reasons I lasted there as long as I did.

You should've heard the biddies freaking out that day he got promoted LOL. I just loved it. It was a thing of beauty and as such, a joy forever . :D:

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

A few years ago Bono of U2 was accepting an award. He observed that many award winners thanked God for the award but God was looking down and thinking, "Please don't thank me. It really wasn't very good."

I wish more of the stars would be like him!!

[Shorty82]

I grew up in Chicago in integrated neighborhoods so I never learned racism. It was a shock when I moved to the suburbs and went to work; I happened to mention one day that my husband and I had gone to work with a co-worker and his girlfriend, and the co-worker I told this to was like, "You went to dinner with HIM?!" I didn't know what she meant, and then it dawned on me...she was surprised because he's black. It just hadn't occurred to me to think about race...we were friends because we're compatible people.

My husband's mother wasn't invited to our wedding for various reasons, but he told me it was just as well because she would have freaked, since we were married by a black clergyman.

And now that we've moved to FL, it's rather scary to realize that this is "The South" and that racial attitudes are quite different once you get in the boonies here. Racism is something I just can't wrap my mind around...why do some people always have to try to find someone else to feel superior to, especially over something as stupid as skin color?

The highlighted portion is a very good point. Racism is not natural, it is learned. I don't believe anyone is born racist but if they grow up exposed to it then they too will become racist. That's why there is still so much racism in the world, kids learn it from their parents and their kids learn it from them.

I can't wait to get out of this area, there are so many racist redneck hicks around here. I'm very glad I don't see a lot of them in the places I go. I'm thinking that kind of person left those cards, I can see the KKK being appealing to them. At least the people who live in and around the city itself are not racist for the most part.

We were on a tropical vacation- and my mother and I were alone, sitting and talking as the sun came up over the ocean. From our balcony we could see a couple walking down the beach below, holding hands.

I smiled and stared at them- and my mother told me years later she wondered what I was thinking- because they were an interracial couple- (a term that digs at me btw, aren't we all the HUMAN race???)

She asked me "What do you think about that couple?" and I said, with all 10 year old sincerity, "They look like they're very much in love. I'm happy for them."

It never even occurred to me to think anything else than that. I've tried to raise my child in such a way as well.

That helps prove that racism is taught. I'm thinking your mother was raised in a time where interracial marriages were nearly unthinkable and because of that was shocked by the sight of that couple. She grew up seeing that kind of relationship as unacceptable so thought that way herself.

We watched the Oprah Winfrey MLK day special the other night- that was really well done- and my daughter was very effected by it. She was horrified to think that people could ever treat each other that way.

Sounds like you are raising your daughter right when it comes to people of different races.

Sadly the cards that the OP found show that some people still hold on to barbaric ideals :(
Bru

Sadly there's not much one can do about that either. Being told by the public racism is wrong helps only a little, being exposed to it by one's parents overrides that.

Racism is a thought process and you can't outlaw thoughts. I see no way of stamping out racism totally but I am proud of how far we have gone over the years. Segregation was the norm as recently as the beginning of the 1970's and there are still some forms of segregation, at least in people's minds, even today. I remember not that long ago the Coast Guard found nooses evidently being used to offend black crewmen on one of their boats. Thankfully things like that are no longer the norm and that most people are colorblind, at least to the outside world.

At least all I found were business cards and not graffiti or something even worse.

[February]

That helps prove that racism is taught. I'm thinking your mother was raised in a time where interracial marriages were nearly unthinkable and because of that was shocked by the sight of that couple. She grew up seeing that kind of relationship as unacceptable so thought that way herself.

Shorty- I didn't make my point clearly I guess- I want to clarify. My mother is many things but she has never been racist- she had just never even discussed the issue with me and so wondered if I would think there was anything 'different' about the couple on my own at that age.

She was actually assaulted with rocks in public during the sixties for working in the bible ministry with a black man. So of all the things she ever taught me- equality among all people is one of the best lessons and one I thank her for.

Bru

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

"Don we now our gay apparel...fa la la la la la la la la!"

Flintstones, meet the Flintstones
They're the modern stone-age family
From the town of Bedrock
They're a page right out of history
Some day, maybe Fred will win the fight
And that cat will stay out for the night
When you're with the Flintstones
Have a yabba-dabba-doo time
A dabba-doo time
You'll have a gay old time

[CMGUY89]

A stand up comedian made a comment about that once, he was doing a parody of a "rapper" who was thanking god for making his song "slap that **** in the ****" (self edited and censord!) I think that sums it up.

That was by far one of my favorite Ellen DeGeneres bits. She was talking about "meeting God". She described God as a "gorgeous black woman who was about 45". Wonderfully written.

I never understood racism either. My mom is first generation American from Italian parents and she never understood racism either. Then she worked in inner-city hospitals in Pittsburgh and Miami as a nurse and never ever feared for her life on the bus. Simply put, a gangster would never bother a nurse because they were the ones that took care of them when they got shot. I've had friends from every race, religion, background, and sexual preference. I think it really opens up your world and in the end makes you a better person.

[February]

I've had friends from every race, religion, background, and sexual preference. I think it really opens up your world and in the end makes you a better person.

CMGUY thank you for saying so succintly what I was trying to say with so much unnecessary verbage!

Bru

[Big Wallaby]

That was by far one of my favorite Ellen DeGeneres bits. She was talking about "meeting God". She described God as a "gorgeous black woman who was about 45".

Sorry, but I don't attach any gender to God, male, female or otherwise. There are so many things that, I go into a church, they make all these claims about God, and my response is something along the lines of, "Why does that matter?"

I don't see God being male, female, any one racial profile, etc. I use the term "He" to describe Him just because it is the historically used pronoun, not because it matters to me God's gender. Of course, maybe that means I stop using pronouns altogether. Except that that comes back to the whole issue of why it even matters. It's not one of those important things that affects my life in any way whatsoever. I don't need a mental image of God. Jesus was male, but if I go any farther into this, I am getting into areas of my belief system that:

• most people don't even care about.
• some people will think I am crazy.
• the rest will just be offended.

Doesn't need to be discussed. If you ever want to talk about it, feel free to take me to coffee or something.