General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm from the south. [View all]Tigress DEM
(7,887 posts)Let's pull back to a different kind of example. Specific behavior would be the 144 House Rethugs who voted NO on the final bill to put the government back to work. It's a group of people with a behavior that is showing their lack of commitment to restoring the government and getting back to work governing.
So a specific example of what you see liberals doing racist behavior would be talking about the specifics of a behavior you've seen when you came up north in your new neighborhood. What is it that you see from your unique perspective that we take for granted or have blinders to?
Right now your categories seem to cut a broad swath and sound accusatory, but what is done is done and I don't want the focus to be on that. I'd rather know what can we learn from your perspective to be better DEMs and less racist?
I can tell you this, that most might bristle a bit, but if you really have ideas about how people can improve themselves, it will be a value to many here on the board. The others fall into two categories, those that aren't ready to hear it and trolls. Still by planting a seed, it may get watered at another time and make more sense then.
I've seen stupid things like rolling up car windows in certain neighborhoods or talking in a condescending tone or making veiled references that we may be too dumb to realize are racist references....
Honestly, there are certain neighborhoods I do roll my windows up in and one of them is the one I live in. There's a lot of crime. Which race is in the lead? I don't know and I don't care, but the behavior is a cue to others to feel I'm judging them so I try to not do it when I'm near a person who might be offended.
I've heard people talk down to minorities as if it is their right as the white person in the room and I'm all over that, but I never think to myself that a liberal or progressive would do that. A libertarian maybe, but Greens and DEMs? Then again my husband is a solid DEM at the polls, but he's a product heritage wise of a culture that was pretty racist back in the 50s and grew up in Minneapolis when it was pretty much white bread and white neighborhoods. He says stupid stuff all the time that I have to explain to him are bad. But then I had to explain double entendres to him as well. He was a geek. Book smart and culture dumb.
I myself have said something I had no idea was racist until someone explained it to me. I rode the bus to work with several people I worked with and one lady got off the bus and walked so fast she left the rest of us in the dust. I said, "Wow, you must have been a race horse in another life. I can't believe how fast you took off."
Well, me a dumb ass in my 20's didn't realize (A) comparing a black person to ANY animal is code that people used to insinuate they were sub-human and (B) was disrespectful (to her way of thinking) to her faith and therefore somehow disputed her religious piety or conviction... still not 100% clear on that one...
But I was clear enough to apologize and put it on my list of things not to say to someone I don't know will take it in the way I intended it. I love the purity of animals and think that having their characteristics is a good thing. I am a Christian, but I've studied other religions including Eastern, Pagan and Native American philosophies. Irregardless, what was important was I hear what she had to say and took it to heart because I don't want to make ignorant racist comments when I spend a lot of my time and energy standing up for everyone's equality.
But your examples in the OP confuse me. I'm not sure what it is you actually see people doing from what you have described. I have a perception of how it makes you feel so frustrated, but I can't imagine exactly what you saw that brought it on. You have a part of what growing up in the South gives you and sensitizes you to things we may be honestly too dull to perceive without some better, less judgmental, more factual information.
Hope that helps you understand where I'm coming from and that I don't expect you to "out" someone on their specific behavior, although people will confront one another here. I've done it so much many years ago lots of people thought I was a black person. Ha. I took it as a complement.