Racism is still alive and well, as I was reminded on Sunday. What's your most troubling encounter with a racist? I'll start...

ravdg316 · 11 months

Indian here. Post 9/11 i was called Osama a few times through my early teens. Pre 9/11 race never really factored into my daily life.

But then Harold and Kumar came out so I became cool again.

Smoke_That_Shit · 11 months

I had some guy spit in my hair.

This is Georgia. I had just come out of a gas station and had sat down to tie my shoelace. Some white guy came out of the store and said the N word. I ignored it because who cares?

I did, when I felt and saw the loogie dripping down my forehead.

I washed my hair 3 times, never really getting out all the pain and embarrassment.

a-t-k · 11 months

In middle school, in a small town near Frankfurt, we had a neonazi who loved to play "Wolfenstein 3D" until we told him that in this game, the nazis were the bad guys, which rather spoiled the mood for him. I have yet to encounter an intelligent racist.

nikatnight · 11 months

I used to have a regular customer who had a set of swastikas tattooed all over his body. He had them on his wrists, neck, forehead, etc. He was a very cool dude, actually. I helped him occasionally but he would ask to be helped by my black coworker every time he came in. It turns out they are friends; drinking buddies. He stopped being a racist shit when he met a black women who said he would be cute without the stupid tattoos.

He's been long-term dating her and has since lost a lot of his former friends (racist dudes) and now he's pretty remorseful.

Nuts.

hypecat · 11 months

I have had to transfer out of a college in East Tennessee after receiving death threats that were issued against me because my roommate told everyone I was racist. She had found some literature in my room that I was using for a research project on hate crimes and assumed I had been distributing it, I guess. She never addressed the issue with me directly but instead spread rumors throughout the entire dorm that resulted in me being confronted by a gang of angry girls and having a bottle smashed over my head. I moved back to Memphis the next day.

hazelmon · 11 months

I live in germany.

A few streets away from our house lives a turkish couple with a few little kids. Someone burned "Scheiß Ausländer raus!" along the front wall of their house. They couldn't remove it for weeks and I always feel bad when I walk past and see these innocent kids playing in front of that curses...

Jesus_marley · 11 months

As a person who experiences racism regularly, I do have to point out that racism is not necessarily hate, as you suggest in your final line. I know it sounds weird coming from someone who experiences it, but while it in no way makes racism OK, sometimes it is just plain ignorance. It's like that old saying "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

The__Imp · 11 months

I have two that made me sad:

First: I live in New York City. I had traveled to a rural area several miles outside the city. I saw what looked to be a very nice black family parking in a public parking spot near a commercial center of a smallish town. As they parked, two police cars pulled up near them. One car stayed behind them and the other on the side. The police officers did not get out. They did not do anything. But they stared the family down for the short period I saw before I had passed the scene. I saw the young boy who was getting out of the car look at his father in confusion. He must have been maybe 6 years old. He looked sad and had an expression that seemed to ask "what did we do wrong?" It was a small thing but I was angry for days. From my experience, kids look up to police officers and respect their power. The idea of being "in trouble" with the police is terrifying at that age. And the fact that these officers made this kid feel the way he did is horrible in my mind.

The other was something that happened to me when I was in high school. I went to a preppy school in Manhattan but lived in an outer borough. The final leg of my commute was a bus ride to my house. One day I got caught up reading and missed my stop. I was close enough that I could walk home, so I did, even though I was in a somewhat worse area than I normally walk through. As I crossed the street, someone yelled out the window of their car "Go home, whitie." I was somewhat of a shy kid, and a around 14 it just really stuck out in my head.

Obviously, as racism goes, neither of these events were ver serious. Neither involved direct confrontation or any type of physical interaction. But both had an impact on me personally and have influenced me. I don't want anyone to feel hated because of how they were born.

MrF33 · 11 months

I don't know where this falls in the scheme of racism but I rescued my pit bull from a shelter in Pittsburgh about 5 years ago and would walk her all over the city. One day I was walking her through a poorer area of the city and I saw a group of black men standing on the corner roughly a block away. They all saw me and immediately dispersed an walked to the other side of the street and when I was near them quickly said things like "we're movin, you see we givin you space" and I thought it was strange and told them "Oh no, she's a peach and loves you"

As I'm walking away I see a old white man sitting behind a store who spits on the ground in front of me and says "He done mannered up that dog" with a look of disgust on his face. That old bastard was angry that my dog didn't hate black people.

I just wish I could train her to scare douche bags.

kororon · 11 months

I'm chinese, born and raised in indonesia. I've had native indonesian kids yell at me from across the street, a schoolmate call me rude for eating when he was fasting during ramadhan, and a teacher say that chinese people are narrowminded because they have slanty eyes.

Came to USA for college, I was talking to a fellow indonesian in indonesian (obviously), and a black man yelled at us saying "speak english!".

In san francisco, a couple of white guys started talking in mock chinese/japanese to me for no reason. I don't even speak chinese.

Assholes are everywhere.

trose89 · 11 months

I saw a documentary a while back where a black guy and a white guy, both fluent in German tried to rent a flat. Apparently Germany is incredibly racist against blacks.

Sleipnoir · 11 months

I had an odd encounter recently and I'm still not sure what to make of it.

My boyfriend and I were at the zoo a couple weeks ago and in line ahead of us was a grandfather and his two grandsons, He was buying the "grandparent membership" which lets you go to the zoo with your grandkids an unlimited number of times for a year. I'm thinking to myself "Aww, that's really cool that he's buying that so he can spend time with them"

And then he starts telling the lady working the ticket booth that he keeps seeing Obama in the new part of the zoo, the African exhibit. Starts going on about how he keeps seeing him near the monkey exhibit.

At this point my bf and I are just looking at each other like ಠ_ಠ...but then we eventually make our way to the African exhibit. And I'll be fucking damned, there's a wooden cutout of a guy in a safari-esque outfit and he does in fact look like Obama. So I'm still not sure if the old guy was a racist, or just didn't think before he spoke.

koala_cookie · 11 months

I've gotten, "Why don't you go back to your country!" hollered at me before.

I may look asian, but I was born and raised in the States....

[deleted] · 11 months

Being on a bus with the entire top deck singing a racist chant at me (they'd just come back from a football match). I eventually stood up and looked at them and said "If you want to start something, come up here and start it."

They shut up after that, though.

homeboy5925 · 11 months

I was the only black kid at my elementary school and whenever we played Power Rangers they would always make me be the Black Ranger even though I wanted to be the Green Ranger and they would yell at me and tell me that because I was black I could only be the Black Ranger. Still stings to this day.

beefragafragious · 11 months

There was a new guy riding to a jobsite with me one day. We passed a gas station where there was a smokin' black girl walking to her car. I mentioned her hotness and the guy acted all taken aback. He told me that because I, a white man, was attracted to a black girl, that there was something wrong with me in the head.

It was the first time I had ever experienced such blatant racism.

ssav · 11 months

i (white) was walking to the train station in Oakland to go to work one day, and a black man and his 4'ish year old daughter were ahead of me. he pulled her abruptly to the side and leered at me as i walked past him, and he said specifically loud enough for me to hear, "baby, don't you EVER let a white man walk behind you. you never know what they'll do to you."

LittleMissP · 11 months

It seems to be particularly bad around football, I guess it's the mob mentality?

ctnguy · 11 months

I'm South African, so I need no reminding that racism still exists. What follows is the worst racist story I have.

My parents own a holiday house about three hours' drive outside Cape Town in a rural village surrounded by farms. We were chatting to a local farmer, who was complaining that things were so much better in the "old days", i.e. apartheid. That's nothing unusual, but then he told the story of how, when he was a young man, when they went to the beach they would send the "k*****s" (it's the SA equivalent of the n-word) out into the water first in case there were sharks around. To be clear, he wasn't telling this in a tone of "wasn't that ridiculous"; it was definitely "things were better back then".

We have pondered whether he was telling a tall story to see whether the gullible "Engelse" (English) from the city would believe it. But as far as we could tell, his tone was entirely serious, and it's consistent with the general attitude around there.

sillyhatday · 11 months

I have one from germany too. I was stationed there for a while when i was in the army. While out on a pass, some of us stopped at a Turkish gyro shop. As we walked in the staff looked at us very strangely. They lightened up some once they realized we were American. While we were eating on the patio, people on the sidewalk looked at us like we were sitting there raping kids. You could feel the hate.

I just went on a float trip in rural Missouri. My group of 14 was very mixed, consisting of blacks, whites, and asians. Some dipshit told me he'd dump his gf is she "fucked a black guy." I(white male) was standing with my black GF as he said this. same guy some other dipshit asks an asian girl in our group in she can teach him to eat hot dogs with chop stics, meanwhile he's making "asian eyes" with his fingers.

I grep up in a mostly black neighborhood, so here are my stories from childhood:

I love football more than anything so I was always getting in on games on the block. One day some kids were heckling another because he got tackled by the white kid(me). Angry and feeling the need to redeem himself, he kicked my ass.

I went to a friend's house in middle school for the first time. His mom came to the door as he invited me in. She asked who I was and he told her i was a friend from school. Her response was "if you play in the snow, you catch a cold." She didn't let me in. I didn't get that comment until a couple of years later.

some kid thought that I thought his sister was cute. He told she wasn't into white boys so to leave her alone. I didn't like his sister, so I argued with him. we got into a fight which he lost. He and some friends beat me up at the bus stop the next day.

when my gf and I are in public, young black men frequenly make snide, rude comments to us.

Edit: more stories

a black friend and I were drving through Iowa on the way to St. Paul, Min. I was driving way too fast so i got pulled over. The officer had us both get out of the car. He had my friend put in hands on the trunk, and proceeded to frisk him for a while. Then he asked a bunch of questions. I presumed he would then come do the same to me. Nope. He just asked to search the car, I declined, and he wrote the ticket and sent us on. My friend is 5'7 and dresses prep. He is the least threatening looking person imaginable.

I told this story to a guy I worked with that had been a police officer, when he suggested that people just say cops are racist but can't provide any evidence. He responded that the officer that frisked my freind was correct because black commit most crimes. He was serious.

[deleted] · 11 months

I'm Southeast Asian and I was living in Iowa (conservative, Christian, very white) when 9/11 happened. I look Asian, not Arab, but I was still getting pretty dirty looks from everyone. Also, a poor Arab man was shot in my area. It was a very scary time and I was wary when I went to school.

Anzai · 11 months

My brother's wife is Vietnamese and he's caucasian and I've walked around with them in both England and Australia and had people yell out 'sucky sucky five dollar' more times than I can remember.

These morons aren't even original in their racism, they pretty much have all said that word for word. I always get worked up about it, but the saddest thing is she just looks at me about to say something and says 'leave it'. She's so used to people treating her like that in her own damn country she doesn't even care any more. It's disgusting.

tbe170 · 11 months

Walked into a bar in northern Wisconsin. There was a skinhead there, covered in neo-nazi tattoos going on and on about black people in what is clearly a very white part of the country.

He then regales us with a story about how he just got out of prison after nearly fatally stabbing his skinhead friend because he called him a "nigger lover" for having a couple female black friends. He blusters about how hard he is and how he can't wait to take out a black guy and head back in, yadda yadda, and he finally takes the hint that my friends and I aren't very receptive and leaves.

Now, at the time, this guy really bothered the hell out of me. In retrospect, he just seems so sad and full of hate for no reason. And he didn't take that out on a black guy minding his own business, he shanked his white friend for dare questioning his bullshit identity.

Kind of put things into perspective, both in actually meeting someone like that and in understanding where racism is at. I feel that liberal whites in particular toss the term racism around far too much without understanding the full weight of it's actual meaning.

Anna_Draconis · 11 months

TL;DR: Guy in my college class believes all blacks are slaves and that they just don't know it.

When I was in college there was this weird guy in my class no one liked, because he was creepy/weird/scary/etc. etc. I was indifferent, as I like to form my own opinions on people, until he asked me out over the school e-mail for like a lunch date. I accepted, figuring this would be an interesting opportunity to get to know him.

He went on and on over lunch about all sorts of crazy things - He told me he had a Masters in Psychology, was trying to get recruited by the Illuminati (Seriously), and that people called him a "snake-man" because of the shape of the bone structure of his face (Deep set eyes and protruding eyebrow ridges). He had an open Facebook account where he alternated his profile pic from being Jesus to the devil, and was basically looking to pick fights online over religion. Anyways...

The date ended awkwardly, didn't expect anything to come out of it anyways besides getting to know the weird guy in class. But we exchanged MSN information to chat further. This is where it got to be too much to handle for me; He continued talking about the crazy stuff, only more of it. He said at one point that his mother fucked off to Sweden to start a new family and pretended like he never existed. He also said that if given the opportunity and enough money he would fuck anything, saying specifically if a rich, fat guy paid him enough he would do it with him because he didn't care. This guy was just unbelievable in every aspect.

Then he got to the racist thing. He told me that he believed that "all blacks were born to be slaves", and that "they don't know it but they're all slaves right now."

I was appalled. I had to stop talking to him at that point, then sent him a long, nasty e-mail over the school e-mail, which he tried to get me expelled for. Hurt his own case when he didn't show up to class for two straight weeks and I got to talk to the Dean about it to explain what had happened. He comes back finally, we didn't say a word to each other or even look at each other. Finally, three weeks later he looks at me with tears in his eyes and says "I'm sorry." I said "Okay." No interaction with him since.

stimbus · 11 months

Because I'm from the South some people here in Oregon speak slowly and loud to me because they think I'm stupid. I've been asked stupid questions like if my Mom and Dad were related. Not long ago a guy asked me if I hate niggers. I've even had people point and laugh at my accent. They then ask me to say something like they are asking a dog to speak.

I'm treated like a second class citizen because of where I'm from. I find it ironic that some of these people hate racists but generalize all Southerners as being racist.

If I point out the pot kettle situation, then I'm instantly the bad guy too.

[deleted] · 11 months

There are a few racists at my work. While talking about Treyvon the racist piped up saying "he shouldn't have been in a white neighborhood". I just had to stand there and not say a damn word.

What the fuck is with these people. I can't respect racists that much.

Caronoodles · 11 months

Long story so I’ll cut it short, there's a city that we pass through in order to get from my in laws to our place that is full of uppity white folk, we were leaving late one night and stopped to buy some coffee, it was late, and my fiancé myself and my niece were all in pj's and got multiple dirty stares from customers and the police men that were at the gas station, we didn't think anything of it. We get back on the road and soon we see those wonderful blue and red lights, soon two other patrol cars come as well and pretty much surround us. One of the officers comes up to our door being a complete dickhead while my niece is scared in the back; we asked why we were pulled over. He didn’t say anything we asked again he put his hand on his holster trying to scare us then his buddy came and with looked through our window with his flashlight, my niece started to cry, I was agitated and my fiancé was irritated, we were asking why we were pulled over no answer ordered us for our license’s and took off which made us more mad, the other guy demanded us to put our hands on the steering wheel and dashboard, asked if we had warrants. First policeman comes back shortly gave us our license's and left. Not another word was said. Why? I had just filed a police report 3 days ago when I was assaulted one evening, they saw that and noticed that we have absolutley nothing else on our record. The other cop stood there not knowing what to do, we jotted down his name, asked for the other cops name and all that good stuff. And told him he’d be reported for racial profiling.

dieflamingoes · 11 months

I am aboriginal, Canadian, and female. For about three years (grades 7 - 9) - the "cool" insult in the schools was "savage". They took it to mean "A dirty, slutty, or ugly girl." The boys would yell it at girls in the hall who had rejected them, or who they deemed to be 'uncool'. I heard it a lot, for both reasons. Everyone knows that 'savage' was the term used to demean and insult my people for many, many years... and yet, it seemed like the boys didn't even realize it was a racist term. I was one of the few aboriginal girls in my school, so it hit me the hardest when they started using it so casually. It was literally the "most popular" insult - you could hear it every few minutes in general conversation. It's the aboriginal equivalent of the 'n word' - so hearing it repeated over and over throughout the day, at such a young and tumultuous period of my life - really sucked ass.

I also had mouthwash confiscated from me on a school camping trip once, because there's a retarded stereotype that Aboriginal people are all poor, drunks - and will drink anything with an alcohol content (even mouthwash, rubbing alcohol, etc.) The teacher that took it singled me out, and only took my mouthwash - when I was in a group of eight other girls that all had mouthwash with them as well. The only difference that I could see, was that they were white... and I was not.

Similar to the last story, when I was a kid - my aunt, brother and I were walking to the park and my brother fell down and skinned his knee. He got a lot of dirt and dust into it, and we were right beside a pharmacy so we went in to buy band-aids and rubbing alcohol. The clerk at the counter refused to let my aunt purchase the rubbing alcohol - claiming that if he let her buy it, she would just drink it. She was holding my brother in her arms, with his very obviously skinned knee - and the clerk still wouldn't believe that she wasn't going to drink it. The worst part is that my aunt didn't even seem to be that bothered by the racism aspect of it, she was more just bothered that she wouldn't be able to sanitize my brother's knee. It was like she was "used" to that level of blatant racism.

My step-sister, who is white, was dating an aboriginal guy and got pregnant. One of our mutual friends showed up to the baby shower with a gift basket full of the little "mini" bottles of booze (like you can get in a hotel mini-bar). The card said - "For your little chug-to-be". It was supposed to be a "funny joke". My step-sister and I did not find it funny, and after the shower we cut ties with the mutual friend.

To clarify; I am only 1/4 aboriginal. The rest is scottish. Other than a round face, high cheekbones, and a lack of pink tones in my skin (I am still pale, but I have yellow tones instead of pink) - I don't look overtly aboriginal. I can pass as white, most days. I even have blue/green eyes. If it weren't for the fact that I am very proud of my heritage and participate in many cultural programs - most people wouldn't know I was aboriginal. When I first met my boyfriend, he thought I was some sort of Asian.... maybe Hawaiian. Anyways, my point is - I have experienced racism.... and I am not even (to an extent) a visual minority. I can't imagine how many more stories I would have, if I looked more aboriginal.

KidDynamo0 · 11 months

[deleted]

thatsamoral · 11 months

I am a white country boy from Wyoming, and I had never felt the effects of racism until I was seeing a black girl briefly. I have a rapport with hicks and hillbillies after growing up around them, even though my politics are typically diametrically opposed. I found it amazing how some people's opinions of me changed when a pretty black girl walked up to me and we embraced. Situations like at a gas station, I move out of the way of a pickup with Samtorum stickers all over it, give a friendly "sorry I was in your way" wave, and get an "it's okay, pal" wave back. Smiles all around, nod of the head, "Nice afternoon, isn't it?". Out walks a tall pretty black girl, walks up to me, hands me the gas station snacks, gives me a quick hug, it is clear that we are romantically involved in some way. Hop in the car, drive past the friendly republican and get a hell of "a hairy eyeball." Sneer, head shake, etc. Amazing.

Also, got called a "nigger lover" at a bar. Charming.

[deleted] · 11 months

I had a black girl in a white neighborhood. I saw her say good morning to the old white neighbor across the street as he was walking to his mailbox. He stared straight at her without an emotion, did a 180 and walked back up his driveway. It was emotionless yes, but without a doubt a look meant to be an unpleasant stare.

We were in Hampton, Virginia if anyone is curious. Many public places you go, the HR area looks and feels segregated. Charleston, SC area wasn't much better either. Gotta love the south. :\

ThrowAwayDERP333 · 11 months

A few months after I graduated from college I started hanging out with and eventually dating a gorgeous Indian girl. We went out for a while and things started to get somewhat serious until one day when she called me crying and broke up with me. This was my first "serious" relationship so it was pretty devastating to hear that. She wouldn't tell me why and when I tried to call her back a guy answered and started yelling at me. The basic gist of the conversation was "Stay away from my daughter or I will kill you, you black bastard!" (The actual conversation was much more "colorful") I was so upset about losing my girl that I didn't really think about how racist the situation was until much later.

The worst part is that we worked together so I would see her every dreadful day. We both ended up leaving the job about a month after we split.

Whenever I'm not feeling depressed enough my brain likes to remind me about her. Bad Times.

ExponentiallyCJ · 11 months

If this includes religion I have one to share as well. As a young girl with split parents I was raised as both Jewish and Catholic, although I've always leaned towards the Jewish traditions and lifestyle more. This has been true since leaving home where I've ditched Catholicism completely. For my 18th birthday my grandma had gotten me a beautiful necklace with a star of David charm. And I wore it everywhere, I didn't think being Jewish was a relevant issue in the suburbs of Chicago. So one day I'm in line at the bank and there's a huge man in front of me, tattooed in swastikas and a huge red x through a star of David on the back of his bald head. Classy, right? So I'm disgusted and ignore him and just wait my turn. I finish at my teller before he does, so he ends up turning and I walk past him to leave. He gives me a once over before shouting, "YOU GET OUT OF MY WAY YOU FUCKING KYKE." I was literally in shock, I couldn't say anything so I just stood there looking stupid. For 19 years I've never felt like I'd been looked at differently for being Jewish. So security tells him to leave, and the entire walk out he's shouting, "I'M A FORMER MARINE. I DON'T WANT NO FUCKING KYKES AT ANY ESTABLISHMENT I GIVE MY BUSINESS TO. AMERICA IS BETTER THAN THIS SICK FUCK." Horrifying.

Dicktremain · 11 months

I was at the grocery store with my girlfriend and she asked if I wanted any potatoes. I'm Irish!

Can you believe how ignorant some people can be?

FlockofSeagulls · 11 months

back when i was a teenager a few friends and I were coming back from a festival and got into it with a few guys who made a few racist comments about one of our friends. Words turned into an all out battle royal, 5 on 5. I was locked up with this guy and i just happened to see oneof my frinds being chased by two of these guys down the street and you hear one of them yell out come here you nigger, even though I was in the middle of a fight I yelled out " he's Mexican you dumb ass !" least to say we kicked the shit out of them with a few bumps and bruises of our own but besides the lawn chair over a guys face and a grill cover to a guys head we whooped the shit out of them and hopefully taught them that being racist can get you an ass whoopin ..

politicaldan · 11 months

The former head of HR where I used to work is a Howard University graduate and explained that as a black person, she could never be racist. Only white people are capable of being racist. Why? Because only people in power can discriminate. Oppressed people can't discriminate because they have no power.

Any time she read the news, she would always sigh and say "fuckin' white people" but yet I'm the only one who's capable of being racist. ಠ_ಠ

Luminssence · 11 months

I'm Egyptian. I don't think me or any of my Arab brethren can go a day without hearing:

"LOL DO U LIV IN A pyramid?!" "SANNND NIGGUR HEAHA" "GO RIDE YOUR CAMEL LOL"

It doesn't bother me that much anymore, but Christ it's getting old.

StUltimate · 11 months

Walking down 7th ave around W34th in New York, see a large congregation of people (large even for New York on sat night) on a street corner, keep on walking and get into the middle of them before I realise that it's a group of 20-30 Black men and women spouting white hate. I put my head down and keep walking trying not to knock into any of them, get to the crossing and see a black woman just kinda standing around in the crowd as people cross the road. She purposely tries to knock into me (I assume to start a fight or some type of confrontation) I just manage to avoid her. Keep walking without stopping. First and only time I believe I've ever been targeted for the color of my skin. Might not sound much but it was pretty scary for a moment.

TheBlackWomb · 11 months

In Scotland it's not so much race as religion and religious hatred tends to centre around football - namely Celtic (Catholic) vs. Rangers (Protestant). As a life-long Atheist I've just never understood how such hatred can rise over something that, to me, seems to trivial. A friend of mine once inadvertently wore a green dress on the subway (Celtic colours) on the day of a big Rangers match and had a grown man spit in her face.

grabageman · 11 months

I've lived all over and I've seen hatred in every culture so let's not turn this into a bash the Germans thread.

A German friend once told me, "It's impossible to be prejudiced against a German."

NotTodayBitch · 11 months

I used to go to a Southern Baptist church. I had been going there since I was three years old and was raised on Southern Baptist beliefs and traditions. I never really noticed how my church was 100% white, nor did I see a big deal about it. About ten years ago we had a new preacher who was very...modern, I guess. He invited a guest preacher to come speak to the church who just happened to be black. My parents, grandparents and me and my sister didn't really think much of it and all really enjoyed his preaching. The church was even packed out...But a lot of the regular members of the church weren't there and I didn't find out until later that they all met for a different "normal" service without any body of race.

It floored me that they deliberately got together to have a white sermon instead of attending a great service with a black preacher. I stopped going to church soon after that.

Causarius · 11 months

On our eighth grade DC trip, we stopped at this huge mall for about an hour to eat and buy overpriced crap. We all lived in this small town in California - very republican, very white with what diversity there was being Mexicans and the rare black person. I had grown up in Sacramento so I was used to seeing anything but white people, but most of my schoolmates were awed by the amount of black people in DC. So we're trying to find an open table, and when we finally do there's not enough chairs. The table next to ours only had two girls, so I asked if I could snag a few. They said sure and everything was cool. Later one of the girls in our group asked me, "How did you do that? That was crazy!" I was utterly confused and asked her what she meant. She said, "You talked to those girls! You could've got hurt!" I was still confused and she said, "Well you saw their color, didn't you?" I asked if she meant they had gang colors on or something and she tells me, "No, they were black!" I was so dumbstruck that she thought that. I almost couldn't wrap my head around the fact that she thought these two black girls would attack me for no reason. Later my friend told me that it's not really her fault, but that her parents were very prejudiced as were her grandparents and so on. To this day I still can't fully comprehend racism.

Roberta04 · 11 months

I used to work as a lifeguard and there was this one fat obnoxious kid who always came to the pool and just constantly got into trouble. I am half Cree (Native American) and so was one of my coworkers. One time my coworker was sitting in the guard chair during a busy swim when this kid swims up to the chair and asks "Hey, are you Indian?" At first he's kind of annoyed since we are not "Indian" at all, but he just shrugs it off and asks him why he wants to know. The kid disregards him and asks again. Finally my coworker just says, "Half. Why?" Kid kind of takes it in and nods, staring at him the whole time when he says "Oh. Well I hate Indians." My coworker's does a sort of double take and is like "what did you just say?" Where the kid responds clearly and calmly, "I hate Indians." My coworker flips shit and sends him to the guard office where my boss yelled at him and kicked him out of the pool for 3 months.

Unfortunately/fortunately I missed all of this but I worked the next day and caught saw in the guard books that he was kicked out and asked a coworker what happened. She is explaining to me the situation when my other coworker interrupts her, and goes on a big rant about how he shouldn't have been kicked out at all, that what he did was free speech and not any sort of crime. My other coworker and I were shocked. Of course it wasn't a crime, but we still kick kids out for throwing balls at each other's heads and shit like that doesn't fly where I am from. Both of them started fighting about it while I just kind of slipped out of the room not even wanting to go there.

cheapreemsoup · 11 months

My fucking sister-in-law. My wife was cooking in the family home kitchen and my sister-in-law decides to anounce to the family that the house smelled like a "Cambodian refugee camp" from the fish my wife was cooking. My wife spent 20 years in a Thai/Cambodian border refugee camp.

ridethepiggy · 11 months

Hoo boy, I have a million stories. Some of my best friends and I call ourselves the rainbow coalition.

Between us, we have two Asians (one Korean, one Indian), a Puerto Rican, a black guy and a white guy who had several brain surgeries thus having a large scar across his head.

We've walked into restaurants and were greeted with complete silence, sans the sound of silverware dropping from people's hands.

My favorite story involves Best Buy and my buddy Waheed.

Waheed is a Hot Topic t-shirt wearing, raging alcoholic but otherwise generally happy, tolerant and friendly guy. We decide to walk into our local Best Buy and pick up a fax machine. He needed it for his work for days when he stays home.

No big deal right? Walk in, pick one, walk out.

We're doing good until we hop in line. There's not many patrons in the store and we make a move towards register 3. A blue-polo and smiling face greets us. Then the guy's face drops. He sees Waheed and immediately fires, "We don't serve your kind here".

And like I said eariler, Waheed is a tolerant guy. So am I. I assume he's going to move to a different register and move on but nope, I turn around to walk away and Waheed is already lifting his arms to chuck the fax machine (box and all) at the store worker.

This happens quickly. I spin back around and see Waheed leaping the counter (he's kind of a big guy, by the way) and throwing fists at this guy. The fight is broken up rather fast and the Best Buy manager is apologizing profusely.

Waheed, in his infinite wisdom, declines any apology, declines the offer for gift cards and demands the kid be fired. The kid was fired on the spot. I've never seen that actually happen before. I was amazed.

tanerdamaner · 11 months

If you are a girl, learn to kick ass. Nothing is more embarrassing to a racist than getting the shit beaten out of them by a black girl.

Neutroniks · 11 months

Once while living in China, I was running to catch a bus that was stopped. I ran up and was obviously the last person trying to board. The bus driver watched me walking up to the door, gave me a disgusted look and closed the doors and drove off.

Being from a small country town in Canada, this was was first run in with racism.

d23b · 11 months

We had an exchange student from Korea in our class when I was younger. The boys in my class used to throw uncooked rice at her.

Kitten_herpes · 11 months

I live in east texas with a racist for a father. Every day is an encounter.

11 months

[deleted]

HandyAndy136 · 11 months

Australians can be pretty awful with immigrants and the like. I've noticed a surprising trend with those in the armed forces (Army, Navy, etc.) having a particular fondness for racial intolerance.

[deleted] · 11 months

My brothers Graduation last month I sat infront of a very racist person, I had a few classes with the Seniors that graduate and my friend Elias was first when he got his diploma the guy behind me was like "Look at this sand nigger, how the fuck is he graduating?" He did the for everyone a few black people graduated and I would always here him call them Niggers. Etc Etc. It was ridiculous. But some guy did yell at the racist idiot

pemble · 11 months

A few years ago my wife and I went to visit my grandma in kansas. She goes to church several times a week and we went along too. After the sunday night service, my grandma and all of her elderly friends always go to Wendys. So we are sitting in Wendys and an old guy, probably in his 80's, loudly says, "Remember when those boys drug that nigger around in texas?" my wife and I just froze as there were several black people around. Another guy at the table sees our shock and says, "uh you mean that colored man."

Kyna_Ireland · 11 months

After my freshmen year of high school in Tennessee, I'm white and don't hate blacks, I relocated to New Mexico. Anyone can attest that whites are the minority there, not a big deal for me. However, my very first day of school there, I walked into class, cheerful as always, and I was informed by a Hispanic/Mexican girl that I was white, and Southern, therefore, I was racist. I was stunned, and rather hurt, so I obviously denied it. She laughed and told me to go find the other Nazi-fans. As I got older, I was there for 8 years, I grew to really dislike New Mexico. People are always so convinced that whites are racist, and can't be trusted. They call racism against whites 'reverse racism'. There's nothing reversed about it. It's racism, flat out. Bigotry has never been exclusively white. TL:DR I moved to New Mexico from the South, told I was racist because I was white.

chrisma08 · 11 months

Was there really any doubt that racism was still alive and well?

DarrenEdwards · 11 months

While relating something I witnessed to a distance relative, while visiting Kentucky:

"That wasn't one of our niggers, 'cause our niggers is behaved."

I was floored. The ownership bothers me more than the implied violence or the use of nigger.

listen_hooker · 11 months

Moved to a small town in BC, I'm white - the town is mainly comprised of 65% Natives and the rest Whites and Asians. When I was working, I'd say almost none of the Natives would acknowledge my greetings or engage in small talk. Just stare or pretend I didn't exist until they wanted something.

It really sucked and made me feel really small. Unfortunately that's just the way the town runs and will be running for a long time as you see this attitude reflected in the younger generations too.

juggleknob · 11 months

a few of my mates and i we waiting outside of a bottle shop for another friend of ours, of the four of us i was the only "Aussie" in the group with two others being Vietnamese and another Mauritian. As we were waiting e random guy who was walking past yelled out at me "couldn't you get any white friends?" to which i promptly called him a cunt as he hurried off. This was in a predominantly Asian suburb of Melbourne as well

Awesomebedhead · 11 months

I'm Asian and I was standing with my dad and aunt in the corner of a gas station. My dad and aunt were chatting and I was just standing around. In walks this man. He stops in front of us and stares at use like we were from outer space. My aunt and dad then stop talking and just looks at the man. Then when he snaps out of his weird staring state he... Bows at us? I was like huh? Then he walked away laughing loudly to the cashier like he heard something super hilarious. We just stood there with a wtf look on our faces. Then he walked pass us still laughing and shook his head. I was like WTF.

mrscurlypaws · 11 months

Me and my husband got turned down for a rental in a nice part of town. He makes good money, but the Realtor wasn't to keen of his skin tone :(( racism hurts.

meowkittycat7 · 11 months

I was dating someone who was Indian and my father threatened to kill the two of us because he was Indian and because I was dating him. I was in high school.

mrpopenfresh · 11 months

I have a friend who is styled as a racist and will do Hitler salutes and shit. I'm still not quite sure if he's serious or it's a semi serious joke. Either way I chalk it up to ignorance and misplaced agression. His best friend is an arab, but he willfully blocks that fact from his mind.

[deleted] · 11 months

Living in Angola as a white person...worst time of my life. I've blocked most experiences it was so harsh.

Antbutter · 11 months

Some guys i know from the gym were bragging about giving s middle eastern muslin man bacon and telling him it was beef. Not surd if this is exactly racism, but its a goddamn dick move..

elementality22 · 11 months

I'm a young black guy who lives in milwaukee, which has a large black population. The winters here are cold and I wanted a good jacket so after some research I settled on a certain The Northface jacket, which as many know aren't the cheapest coats, found the store closest to my house that sold them and went to get it. The store is Laacke and Joys, only a few locations in Wisconsin, I would've gone to a Sports Authority or something else but this was closer. I get in and start looking around, no one asks if I need help and that's fine since I didn't, I go look at the coats and they don't have the exact one I want so I try on some different ones see one I like and see if they have it in a bigger size, an older white guy, probably in his 70s, is working the counter, doesn't seem pleased that I'm fingering the coats and is pretty short with me, tells me there are no more of that coat unless I go to another store and get it. Asks me in a very condescending way if I know where to put the coat back or does he have to do it. I said no, took it back and grabbed the one I finally decided on, took it up to the counter and he asks did I want layaway or paying in full, I didn't even answer and just pulled out my debit card to pay and promptly left. I assume they don't get a lot of black people in but I didn't come in pants sagging with a du rag on.

TL;DR- Hassled for buying an expensive coat while black.

siphontheenigma · 11 months

I was bullied in middle school and the teaxhers/counselors/vice principal were ineffective at dealing with it when I went to them. When it finally escalated to the principal, I was immediately suspended without even getting the chance to tell my side if the story. Apparently I was the one bullying him, even though four teachers, a guidance counselor and the vice principal backed me up and had documentation of my attempts to get this guy to stop. What it boiled down to was the fact that the principal and the bully were black, the other adults and I were white. Racism goes both ways, but if it's black on white there is no way to fight it.

B1enji · 11 months

It's bad in England too, there will always be morons. It's improved but there will always be racist people bring up ignorant little racist children.

RoboNinjaPirate · 11 months

The fact that some of my kids could grow up with the same home environment as one another, have the same exact grades, extracurricular activities, etc. but will be treated differently when applying for College, or for jobs, based on the colors of their skin.

(Note: Some of my kids are Adopted, and of a different race than my wife and I.)

Thatoneguythatsnot · 11 months

Racism works both ways. I think those people were total assholes, but I have been the victim of reverse racism. My family had just moved to a new state and their was an event going on down town. We didn't know what it was but thought it might be nice to check it out. It was some kind of a black expo thing. We're not racist so it didn't both us. The kids thought some of the people's outfits were pretty outlandish, but that's kids for you. As the day progressed we kept getting stopped by the cops asking us if we were alright. I was ok with this. They just knew we were some of the only white people around the event. Well we went to a place to get a drink and when we finally got to the front of the line the lady (black) walked away and refused to come back and serve us. We could see her standing off a ways waiting for us to walk away. I was stubborn though and wouldn't leave. Finally she made someone else come over and take the 2 minutes to get us all a coke and send us on our way.

Edit: messed up some words

TL:DR; Black person refused to serve me and my white family during a black expo like event.

politicaldan · 11 months

This guy

BinderStapleTape · 11 months

Canada. Female asian. On the subway.

As I get off, and am squished with tons of other people walking up the stairs, I accidentally nudged the briefcase of a man in front of me. He glares at me. I shrug.

I got pushed from behind and stumbled, again, knocking slightly into his briefcase.

he goes OFF. Telling me he's "watching me" and all that. Bad start to the morning already so I also lost it. Yelled right back "OKAY SO WATCH ME. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?!"

He gets to the top of the stairs and walks away and yells "CHINK" several times as I walk in the other direction.

I was late to work already so i just brushed it off and walked away.

CalamityJane1852 · 11 months

I was standing in line for the bathrooms before a parade started. An older (affluent) couple didn't see the long line until someone pointed it out. This old white guy in front of me chuckled and said, "They don't bother me- it's those Asians I can't stand." I was so surprised that I had no response.

mrpopenfresh · 11 months

I dated a tunisian in Montreal. Some lady cursed her out because she was sitting in the metro. It's not like she wasn't giving up her seat for an old lady standing up, it was the fact that she had the luxury of sitting down that didn't go well with the lady.

marissaaa · 11 months

I'm half-Jewish, meaning my last name is Jewish, the relatives on my father's side are Jewish, and we celebrate the Jew holidays in addition to the Christian ones. I do not consider it a race, nor do I consider it a religion. I consider it the way I was raised, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to experience both sides.

That being said, I get constant criticism, mainly because my last name is a full out legit Jew one. I don't look Jewish, but my name is as Hebe as you can get. I tutor at my school, and one freshman called out in front of everyone that they "didn't want help from some dirty Jew."

Another time, during a book talk in my English class, a girl had read a book about the Holocaust. I casually asked if she enjoyed the book, because I find it interesting to read about that topic, and she goes, "No, I think the whole thing's stupid. Who cares about them? I think the world would be a better place if all the Jews were gassed to death. Problem solved."

PaniAnna · 11 months

I'm a white girl. My hispanic coworkers refused to be nice to me for months because they believed that I'd be just like the last white girl that worked there.

We're all good now, and I can't stand racism.

you'll need to login or register to do that

create a new account

privacy philosophy

login