To you that are older, I just wonder how childhood was for you when/if your parents and grandparents were involved and perpetrating heinous crimes on Black ppl...world round...did they ever teach you to be like them? Did you ever ask if they were involved? Did you take heed? Are you still that way? If you were and had an awakening, what's your reason?
For me, it's hard to act like we're praying to the same person in the church while you wish me dead outside of it. That was a huge reason for me not to be religious. I never met a white religious person who wasn't also racist or who didn't hold very racist beliefs. Every major religion has a racist arm to it and I've studied several. I'm cool on your god if somehow that means I'm not to be treated right bc of my skin or lack of belief in your fantasies.
I'm Hispanic and my family are all different races, I have African Americans, Asians, German's, and other's. Whenever we would go to California to visit our relatives, it was just a big party of diversity, I'm happy for this!
I do remember the girl's who lived across the street from us here in El Paso, TX. would call my brother and I spiks, and wet back's, that was when I learned about racism.
I was lucky to grow up in a city that was large enough to have black, Latino and white people living all around me. My high school was a good mix of all three. The biggest problem at that time seemed to be between Catholics and Jewish students. The Jewish students were picked on relentlessly. The Catholics called them, “Jew Bagels.” I could never understand if that was derogatory or what? I think it was. But there was no racism among the colors.
I thought everything about both of my parents and their thoughts and backgrounds were racist and vile and I left home the first chance I had to get out.
I was a child who nearly choked on the dread in my throat walking home from the bus nearly every damn day of my life.
I grew up in Sweden and it was not an issue there. Hardly anyone cares about your religion besides when I grew up there were no black, brown or brindle people there.
@EchelonGrey Yes, people could not understand how they could be so cruelly treated in the US.
Grew up in Dallas and whereas Texas can be very racist, Dallas was more cosmopolitan and it was a mixed bag there. My grandmother had a salad dressing business and took on a black woman as partner. My grandmother didn't trust her husband with the recipe (for good reason) so her partner was the only other person who had the recipe. The family often hired blacks for help with gatherings and I never saw anyone being uncivil.
@EchelonGrey Sorry about the miscommunication. What I saw was about childhood memories. One thing we all learn from interactions with others and on this site, communication is not an exact science and people often read into a post things that were not intended.
@EchelonGrey ?? One thing about this site is about common courtesy. Direct accusations and finger pointing are bad form and often lead to bad feelings. For me, once it is done I will ignore everything else from that person. We all make mistakes and no one is immune.
I’m old, I grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland and I doubt if either of my parents ever saw a black person except in a newspaper or on newsreel at the cinema.
I am 63, I grew up in a small city in Iowa, where there were almost no colored people. Six black families total and maybe about the same number of Hispanic families. I would guess that my parents and grandparents were mostly oblivious to colored people in their community and mostly just saw them as different and not people to be socially involved with thru any initiative. If they did end up interacting with colored people, they would appear to treat them fairly and positively. But I don't think they wanted any of their children to become close or personal friends with any of them. It was just something unspoken that I sensed with them. My parents were Catholic and one set of grandparents were Methodist.
I'm 55, I grew up in Alabama. I'm white. I could never understand the hate between people because of skin color. I had black people in school that was racist to me. I moved to Arizona when I was 15. I encountered racism from brown people, didn't understand it, so I treated them as they treated me. Now I have no racist beliefs. I believe we are all just humans with different skin colors.
@EchelonGrey My bad. I was a christian from the age of 5 to 15. Reading the bible made me stop being a christian. Then I became a pagan for 23 + years, paganism had no guilt of sin and fear of hell. Then I became an agnostic for a few years. Then I became an atheist. Now I'm an agnostic atheist.