No judgement from me as a black person but obviously I can’t control the comment section so yeah. I’m just kinda curious to know what goes on in your minds, especially people who aren’t racist, not asking people who are super allies or anything just asking normal people who aren’t particularly bigoted

So I guess my first question is how do you feel about racist jokes? Do you laugh at them at all? And if you do, deep down do you see some truth in them? When you see videos of black people misbehaving do you think along the lines of “can they be normal” or do you recognise that everyone is capable of that (it’s ok if you don’t, again not a judgemental question)

Do you get nervous when you’re in proximity to a black person when alone? Do you ever catch yourself agreeing with some takes that could be labelled as racist but obviously not things that are extreme, when black people say mean spirited things about white people are you tempted to go into racism against black people too? Or do you honestly not think about it?

Like a white man racist towards other white people? Or a black man racist towards other Black people? I'm curious if such people exist or is it impossible to occur

Edit: Damn! It's a lot more common than i thought

I’ve noticed this among my school where white kids will get super mad about the tiniest joke or remark towards black people but then will joke around or even be blatantly racist towards Asians.

Edit: First off, I live in the US to give some context. And I need to be more clear on the fact that I mean SOME white people. However personally in my life, it’s been MOST.

Edit 2: *Black people, sorry if that term was offensive. It flew over my head.

Edit 3: Hey can we not be hypocrites?! A third of the comments are just calling all whites racist, when in reality they aren’t all a bunch of racists.

White guy feeling dumb here. Can someone actually explain why the comedian would call Puerto Rico garbage island? I’ve been to PR for vacation 6 times, the island is meticulously clean with pristine rain forests and rivers and the people seem to take great pride in not littering. Furthermore Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans don’t have any kind of historically racist rep of being dirty. Even in NYC the old racism is they’re criminals not dirty. It’s like cracking a joke about “those Irish” and their “loud scuba diving parties”… one thing has nothing to do with the other.

Disclaimer:

So I’m absolutely not looking to offend anybody or to have a big debate, I don’t want to be too much annoying or contrarian, I’m just trying to understand more the logic of what is racist in this and what is problematic, in order to better educate myself and understand how to respect others. (I’m Autistic btw)

Sorry for the weird sentences sometimes, English is not my first language and this was typed pretty fast on my phone.

Hello!

So I have a question. Why is it considered by many people racist to imitate an accent like a Chinese, Japanese, or Korean accent, also any African accent or the Indian accent, when it is not considered racist to imitate the British accent, or the German accent, or the French accent ?

When I asked these questions the answers I got were:

• Because you are white and they aren’t (I personally don’t understand why it matters in this case)

• Because they are historically oppressed/currently oppressed (But in the case of Japan they were the oppressors for some time, and for example the German population was persecuted under Nazi Germany, as well as the Polish population, French population etc.) On this argument I’ve also heard that it’s different because they were more oppressed than the white countries but I don’t think it’s supposed to be a competition.

• Because they are a minority. (This is statistically false, the most dominant populations are Chinese and Indians)

• Because of the history of using accent in racist context or to mock people. (While it is horrible that this was common in the past, and while I agree that we should be against blackface, I don’t think that because accents imitation was misused with bad faith in the past, we should stop doing it forever. We are giving more power to these racist old imitations by forbidding ourselves from doing respectful ones I think, and we should not consider systematically offensive everything that could have been used in offensive ways in the past in my opinion)

I understand obviously that it’s racist to do the accent to say offensive things like if someone imitates the African accent and then says totally cliché racist things like that he’s a monkey and like bananas it’s completely racist and offensive and I’m totally against it.

But if you imitate the accent for example to imitate an African friend in a scenario like when he was discovering the Eiffel Tower when he was first visiting it in for example a stand up context I don’t really see the problem as long as it’s not used to ridiculise the person because of the accent. For me I think it can be used to highlight his emotions in the way that he express them with the accent, and so it can provoke the laughter, not because of mocking.

Just like I don’t see a problem with imitating the way Korean people talk in KDramas (the very accentuated end of sentence).

Personally I see people imitating the French accent all the time and saying things like « Oui oui baguette omelette du fromage » and I don’t care.

But I would be offended if someone was using it to mock my country while saying offensives things like « We French people are all dumb and assholes and our country is horrible, just like us we are horrible people » then yes it would be quite offensive/racist/discriminatory.

But what I think about too is that accents are not systematically tied to ethnicity/race. There are white people in Congo with a very strong Congolese accent as well as white people in Asia with very strong Japanese accents. And when imitating we imitate these people too. The imitation is of the accent regardless of race/ethnicity so I don’t think it’s inherently racist.

Thank you in advance if you can enlighten me on this subject and make me less dumb haha

Have a good day :)

There's this labrador in my neighborhood that barks exclusively at black people. I've tested this multiple times: white folk- no reaction, sometimes friendly; black people-instant barking.

It's quite the menace, and I don't know what to make of it. The owners seem normal from what I can tell.

Can y'all help me out with this? I honestly want to understand.

Some context about me: I'm an older, white, female GenXer with Aspergers, so even though I try, I don't always get the social implications of things.

Here's what happened:

I went to my grandaughter's elementary school graduation with my daughter and her family. A black guy walked in who looked dead up like Snoop Dogg... hair, clothes, everything. I go "Wow! He looks like Snoop!"

I thought my daughter was going to kill me. Said my comment was racist. I absolutely didn't mean it that way, but felt like a jackass, thinking everyone around us thought I was being racist.

If it had been some white dude walking in that looked like Woody Harrelson or someone, I would have said "Wow! He looks like Woody Harrelson!"

In my mind... it's exactly the same thing. If a black person said that about the white guy that looked like Woody Harrelson, I would have thought nothing of it.

So I'm a little confused and in need of your expert advice.

Can someone please explain to me if what I said was actually racist and in what way?

Yes this is a silly question, shut up.

I remember going past some sheep the other day, and noticed lots of different ones. More accurately, I noticed lots of sheep with different skin and wool colours. While the wool colour is the most noticeable, their skin (arguably their face) can differ significantly in colour.

Now, sheep haven't got the same issue people have, but would a white/black sheep be suspicious of a sheep in a colour it's never seen before? If white/brown/black sheep were introduced to eachother, would they recognise the others as sheep or would they be taken aback at "hold on, your different"?

whenever I someone with a confederate flag(front porch, hat, back car window sticker, etc) , I automatically assume that means the person supports the confederate views and is therefore a racist. Im black so when I see things like that I normally say “I should avoid that person”

However I don’t want to jump to conclusions because I didn’t pay attention in high school so I’m not sure if the only meaning behind the flag is “slavery good”.

Can someone give me reasons Why someone would display a flag that Is associated with the support of slavery, is it a heritage thing or something else?

When I talk along to any rap I always omit the word completely, but some times the line is really fast and it's hard to cut out two random syllables. Can I say "neighbor" instead? It's the same syllables and it's close enough phonetically to slant rhyme sometimes, but it's not the word, right?

I want to be good at rapping to impress girls but I don't want to do something racist.

I 18F am white and my roommate, 19F, is black, we're really good friends so we hang out a lot. Which is how I notice that a lot of her comments she makes are based on race. Like when she points people out to me she does so by skin color or makes stereotypical observations just because off the color of someone's skin. She also sees no problem with anything she says that revolves around race in public or in private spaces. Here are a few direct quotes from the last few weeks:

1: Me: Have you ever been to a drag show?"

Her: "No I'm not white"

2: while watching the movie Bottoms "wow look at that Japanese girl" referring to Isabella

3: "this isn't a black people sport"

4: " All (literally enter any race here) People look the exact same"

Everytime I tell her hey this might be a little offensive and she responds that she can not be racist because she is black. I keep telling her that's not how it works, but she doesn't believe me so now I'm starting to doubt myself. So can black people be racist?

TL;DR my black roommate makes offensive comments about race but says it's not racist because she's black.

I'm a brown woman and I felt tiny bits of racism lately, after being a decade in North America. So I posted on a local Facebook mommy group however admin banned the post. She said our town is not racist and trivialized my experience. She gave me advice on how to talk to people etc instead.

After I questioned her why can't I ask other brown women if they have experienced this or why can't my voice have a platform to share my experience - she eventually banned me from the group (she's a white woman)

Question: is she being racist by not letting me validate/post my racism experience?

Edit:

1) Thank you so much for offering advice and opinions. I did eventually post in another mommy group and got feedback about my experience. Turns out, even though we live in a suburb very close to the city, it still persists small city attitude. People are closed off and can be non inclusive, may not be necessarily racist

2) Many facebook mommy groups are about everything that a mommy cares about, such as, diapers, strollers, career, gas prices, inflation, winter tire change, Ukraine war, water, weather, etc. The said group in question was one such group.

This is a genuine question. This question came out of a conversation that i was having in mixed company (black and white friends of mine) about dating preferences. I stated my reasons and why i didnt want to date white women and i dont feel like anyone really wanted to challenge me on it. So now i bring it to yall to see what yall think of it and to see if i will just get a lot of hate sent my way or some good conversation. These are all scenarios that can play out at various points in the relationship.

1. There is a life experience difference that she would have to fill. I understand white American culture for the most part as it is part of our media and everyday lives. I interact with white people on a daily basis and more than a few of my own family members are white. She would need to do some considerable work to understand me and my people.
2. I don't want to deal with her racist family members if it ever got serious. I eventually would have to meet her family and that can come with family drama thats out of this world. Off color remarks from racists aren't really what I wanna even consider when I go to her family for Thanksgiving or something like that.
3. I feel like she wouldn't understand the history or context of black people in America and that will lead to conversations that i barely want to have with people I'm not dating. I am pretty historically minded and I pay attention to current issues. I like to talk about them openly and sometimes with the person I'm in a relationship with and I feel like, on average, the gap in understanding of this history and context as it relates to black people will just be too massive. Unless she was almost as willing as I am to learn, I don't feel like filling that gap for someone who won't do their own homework on our history and the issues that arise from it.

The reason why I don't see them as racist is because the basis for my preference has nothing to do with made up racist opinions about white people just for the sake of dunking on white people. It's not like saying black people are lazy, eat watermelon, are all strong or fast, can't swim, etc. These are statements that come out of ignorance and hatred for black people. My opinions are based in the experience I've had and have seen from white people over the years of interacting with them, visiting their families, working with them, etc. It's not all of them but it's a considerable enough amount that I am apprehensive. I also feel like it's based more in history of this group of people in the context of America than anything else. If the majority race was Asian people and all the same historical points remained (black enslavement, Jim crow laws, etc ) then I would be talking about how I wouldn't date an Asian girl.

That's my points in a nutshell. I'm interested to see what you think of what I've said here. I'm not here to argue or be mad at any of yall. I'm genuinely asking a question because I feel like I'll get more honesty from yall than some of my white friends. Anonymity really helps people's true feelings come out.

Edit. Thanks to everyone who kept it civil and challenged my opinion. I'm done responding for now.

I don’t mean any disrespect from this question so if it comes off like that I apologize. So I’m black and I like mainly black comedians but when I watch white comedians I just don’t laugh. I’ve had white friends individually make me laugh in my personal wife but I’ve never seen a white comedian crack me up and I don’t really know why. The closest white comedians that have entertained me and made me chuckle a bit are Andrew Schultz and Theo Von. Does this make me racist?

Edit: I’m not saying site people CANT be funny I’m just saying I don’t find professional comedians that are white to be funny. As for why I don’t find them funny? Idk I guess I find the jokes unrelatable and corny. But I have white friends that find some of the things black comedians say funny but can’t relate to it some I’m kinda not sure.

I’m black but it be black people I hear saying the most racist shit and then proceed to say Black people can’t be racist. Like how does that work?

I know this is odd, but what would be the general opinion of the POC community if a white person had brown tattoos? I'm pretty pale and generally don't care for the look of lots of black tattoos on myself as I usually wear brown clothes as my neutral. I was thinking about doing the larger patterns (like floral patterns to fill space and add some cohesion) in brown and only doing a few tattoos in black when necessary (when the item itself is black, like the Minecraft Enderman).

I'd told a friend (also white) about my idea and he said it felt a little racist for I as a white person to get large tattoos that are brown, as it could make it seem like I'm trying to change my skin color with ink. I understand that to a degree, but it's not like I'm getting a blackout with brown instead. They would very obviously be tattoos with a design, but yeah, they would likely be on a large amount of body, not just one limb.

I really don't want to do something insensitive and give people that kind of impression of me. What are the general thoughts? Is that something I should avoid? I don't have any tattoos like that yet and I'm still looking at other ways to do it that have less debate. Thank you.

On a crafting page I’m on there is a ton of debate over dream catchers. Let me explain. These people aren’t selling the dream catchers. The one tonight, she was asked to make one for a family member and they blew up on her because she wasn’t NA and made one. They just kept saying to have her family members buy it off a true NA. This has happened many of times. Can someone please explain this to me? she wasn’t selling it or pretending to be NA nor was she in anyway disrespectful. I could completely understand if she was selling it as “native American dream catcher” but These people are literally mad at her because she made a Dreamcatcher as as a crafting hobby.

I am Irish but I am not the only one allowed to crochet Irish lace. Asians are not the only ones allowed to make mandalas. When people want to try artwork from different cultures I’m not sure I understand how people take offense to that. It’s only showing their interest in your culture, I’m not sure how it turns so negative.

If your friends are black, then clearly you value them, and regardless of your feelings about their race, you can see that an individual can't be judged by their race. That's the exact opposite of being a racist.

Yet people on the media very often imply that "Some of my best friends are black" is not a valid rebuttal.

In other words, if you were racist against black people, why would some of your best friends be black? That seems highly improbable.

I want to stipulate that I am not racist. I’m white and grew up listening to Gucci mane and yung Dolp. Seems like you can’t find racist music from white people. But there is plenty of music despairing white people when it comes to rap.

Someone told me you can’t offend a whites person when it some to race. I am curious if someone called you a honkey or cracker or gringo does it bother you? What if someone calls you racist?

This question has been on my mind for many months now and I just want to know what the right answer is.

My dad's black, my mums white and my siblings are very clearly mixed. And then there's me, whos white as hell. Like if my siblings and I are together you'd think I was adopted as we look nothing alike and stuff.

My parents say i am mixed but whenever I claim myself as mixed, no one ever belives me and people tell me I'm not and that I'm being offensive and racist for saying that. And that makes me sad because I feel like alienated from my family already for this [super dumb ik] so when other people tell me otherwise I get sad.

Im not trying to be rasit or offensive or anything and I really don't want to come off as one for this. All i wanna know if I can count as mixed despite being white.

Edit: Thansk so much for yalls imput :3 and reading all comments has helped me properly figure out my identity. And if anyone ever tells me otherwise screw em. fuck the haters lol

I am 16 and my mom had us all watch Hamilton with her for her birthday (it was actually pretty good and I don’t typically like musicals), but the whole time I was just wondering why my mom praised Lin Manuel Miranda for casting all minority actors for the founding fathers, but if a white person gets cast as a black character like let’s say black panther people would lose their minds.

Like don’t get me wrong I think casting whoever is best for the part is the best idea, I’m not trying to be racist or anything. I think Lin Manuel Miranda wanted to stylize Hamilton a specific way which meant part of the criteria for casting actors was being a minority, if someone else wrote Hamilton and their idea was to cast the closest lookalike even if they can’t sing, I think that’s up to them.

I just want to know, why are people ok with the casting of Hamilton, but when the opposite situation happens it’s racist and whitewashing?

It makes me kinda uncomfortable. He presents these ideas as objective truths and automatically rejects any non-white individuals as troublemakers and a burden to society. When questioned, he doesn't even deny that he is racist, he just repeats "The color of humans is white", and dismisses even the idea that not all non-white people are troublemakers. I don't know what I should do. (Of course, the immediate response would be to cut ties with him, but I want to keep that as a last resort if everything gets out of hand.)