Upbringing and attitudes?

[Tom Halsey]

Witness Poker Boy in CC a few weeks back about female sports presenters.

Tbh I thought he was being widely misquoted. How I read it, he wasn't saying it was right or trying to justify it, he was just stating the fact that female commentators wouldn't be widely accepted in England. And I think he might have had a point - the fact that there actually aren't any in England to my knowledge means something. Obviously it's not right, but it's the way it is.

 

[Tomm NCCC]

I can honestly say, I have a partially racist family. But that, in no way shape or form, makes me racist. I know right from wrong, and racism is definitely wrong.

 

[open365]

Old habits die hard is really just an excuse, IMO. After a certain point in life you should really be able to determine the appropriateness of your parents' views pretty easily, and seperate yourself from them if necessary. Obviously the way your parents view the world will have an impact on you over time, but there's plenty of experiences in life that have nothing to do with your parents that you can base your own opinions on, for most people at least.

People who follow in their parents footsteps in that "it's just how I was brought up" way do so because they want to, whether it's related to racism or child raising or whatever. It's not like it's involuntary.

But couldn't you look at it in the way that although the person has the choice to change, he choses not to because of all the influences he had when he was a child?

 

[open365]

Beleg, could you give me an example of a context in which I could go up and call someone a nigger and it would be OK?

Don't black people refer to themselves as niggers sometimes?

They do on Coach Carter at any rate.

 

[silentstriker]

Don't black people refer to themselves as niggers sometimes?

They do on Coach Carter at any rate.

Irrelevent, if you're not black.

 

[Kweek]

as can be heard in the round table chat, i'm not racist at all.
my mom makes commants on rap music and wtf are they doing, and what a bunch of clowns and crappy music, but other then that no racism.
we got a lot of maroc people overhere, and they cop a fair amount of racism.

 

[Barney Rubble]

I actually had a discussion with my mum about this sort of thing recently, and the main complaint she had is that she has trouble keeping up with "what word you're supposed to use these days" to describe certain groups of people. She found it very strange that the vast majority of black people would prefer to be referred to as black as opposed to "coloured".

I guess this kind of thing is partly just because, as she admits, she's never really had a lot of contact with a lot of particularly diverse people, living in the small rural town that we do, but I think it's partly also her fault, in that she's just not that bothered about the language she uses unless there are any people in the room she thinks could be offended, i.e. any non-white people.

One thing that strikes me about older generations is that they can't understand why white people would ever care about them saying clearly rather offensive things about other races. I had to have a go at my mum in the middle of a McDonald's in London for telling a slightly racist joke once - she couldn't understand why I cared enough to point out that what she was saying was wrong.

It's often a lack of education and understanding of people who are different that causes this kind of thing, but in many cases it's also simply that the people concerned just aren't that bothered about having a stable attitude to race relations.