You're right ma'am, I failed to notice you because I'm a racist jerk

[MystyGlyttyr]

Again, I will put forth that I consider race to be such a poorly defined characteristic that I find it utterly useless as a classification. To me, "white man" or "black woman" or "Native American person" is just an adjective. If I say they're black, then they're black, that's all. It's just a visual tool. But then again, people like to put themselves into boxes and say "black" means all kinds of different things and "white" means all kinds of different things and whatever...which is the most extreme tomfoolery.

So far as the "I'm not racist, my best friends are _____!"...I'm actually not sure what colors my best friends are...most of them are online so I've never seen them before.

...I hope they're not Greys...EEP! Greys scare the hell out of me!

(For the unaware, "Greys" is a term for those freaky aliens with the big heads and big black eyes. I'm not kidding, those things make me want to crawl into bed with my mother like I was four...this was a very faint color joke.)

[XCashier]

White lady steps up and hisses at me, "I would expect you to know better than to do that, young lady."

Err....do what?

"Serve that n***** before me."

EXCUSE ME!?

"But then, what should I expect from white trash, you'd relate to THEM more anyway. Next time, know your betters and serve them FIRST!"

I just couldn't do anything at that point, I just shut my mouth and walked off to find a CSM. I was just too shocked by that to function.

You've got excellent restraint; I think I would've lost my temper and slapped that bitch. There are no "betters", we are all equal.

[Geek King]

You've got excellent restraint; I think I would've lost my temper and slapped that bitch. There are no "betters", we are all equal.

There certainly are betters, but that designation is not based on skin color. At least, I hope I'm better than that bigot, any child molester, or a wife-beater.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

XCashier, I was thinking it. I didn't say it, but I promise you I was thinking it.

[Raerlynn]

White lady steps up and hisses at me, "I would expect you to know better than to do that, young lady."

Err....do what?

"Serve that n***** before me."

EXCUSE ME!?

"But then, what should I expect from white trash, you'd relate to THEM more anyway. Next time, know your betters and serve them FIRST!"

I just couldn't do anything at that point, I just shut my mouth and walked off to find a CSM. I was just too shocked by that to function.

At this point in the conversation, my response is "You're intolerant of black people, and I'm intolerant of racist hicks. Go find someone else to serve you. Buh-bye"

[Cedophile]

At this point in the conversation, my response is "You're intolerant of black people, and I'm intolerant of racist hicks. Go find someone else to serve you. Buh-bye"

Excellent response. It'd really take me some time to come up with such a well-formed answer in this situation. Watch them try to get you in trouble w/ your manager for being anti-racist.

[Antisocial_Worker]

I have zero patience for racism, and never have. In fact, I can distinctly remember lecturing some other little kid (and I was 7 or 8 at the time myself) who was riding beside me on the tilt-a-whirl at the carnival when he started making remarks about the hispanic families that had also come to the carnival.

I've encountered racism in the workplace of course, but usually I'm not being actively accused of it. The one time I was though, I snapped.

I was working at the bookstore at the time, and got accused of being racist when I couldn't find a specific book that this one black man was searching for. If I'm remembering correctly he said, "You racist fucker. I bet if I was white you'd help me find it!"

(Fun facts: I'm a gay man, I'm white, and the only boyfriends I've ever had since I started dating have been black.)

I blew my stack, and I am not proud of what I said, but it really was the truth. I got within bad breath distance of his face and snarled, "Let me tell you something, bud -- I've sucked blacker than yours. Now get out of here."

And at that point, before it could come to blows, my friend Michelle was pushing me away from him, and the manager was escorting the customer out the door.

It was a dumb thing to do, but that is one thing you do not call me.

[DarthRetard]

Forgive me for this, and please no one be offended, for this is said in purely good taste and intention. Also keep in mind that I work in South Florida, and am the only non-hispanic employee at my Radioshack, and that a majority of my customers are truly foreign. I mean, straight from Central America, The Caribbeans, Europe and Africa(had a guy from Nigeria apply for a job while he's here for flight school.)

I must begin this with the fact that I served some time in our nation's military, strictly on the basis that I wanted to put myself in defense of our rights as people in the United States. However I DO believe that all men/women should have those rights, and they should not be infringed upon.

So I'm going to play "devil's advocate" here for a bit. Think about it, we do see racial prejudices in some wa or another, no matter who we are. How we control and thwart/influence those beliefs is another issue altogether, but they're there. I have to fight them all time....I think some people are genuinely insecure with who they are, and need to pull that race card, because they feel like somehow they're disadvantaged. So who's really the racist? The one's who think they're considered lower because of their skin color, if you ask me. This is really, in all actuality just demeaning your own entire race by saying that your whole race is subjected to inferior service and treatment, because of who you are.

I am glad that I have the friends I do, because we can really joke about our races with each other. I've got black friends, white friends, hispanic and chinese, I know one Filipino Jew, believe it or not. I grew up with diversity. Some people are not so fortunate or up to date. I have a grandfather who still refer's to blacks as "N" words, but he works with black people, and even spends his retirement time fishing with em or helping em with roof repairs and stuff.

I blame the ACLU, and groups like it, including the NAACP, who think there's still a national civil rights fight. In fact, I believe it's gotten so out of hand at this point, that it's turned the other way. I can't describe how many times I've been assaulted because I'm white, and work in a non-white neighborhood. Did anyone make a big deal about it? No, because if they did, blacks/latinos/etc would complain about not getting noticed, and complain about police brutality.....but is it a shame when a white male is assaulted for being a "honky cracker motherf---er"? I tell you, this is not a crime.

Why must we make it a habit of humanity to be so sensitive about races? Sure, I'm white, I can't rap for anything, I like bluegrass, and I can't roll my r's when I speak spanish. DO I get offended when a spanish customer calls me a gringo? No, I think it's hilarious, because they mean it in a good nature. Now, gringo, is still a racial slur....but it's fitting I guess. Those who assume racist activities against them occur, are in and of themselves racist, because they're assuming that all white people serve whites before blacks, just because of that.

I believe in freedom of speech, and personally, if you're told that you're being racist because of a certain action, well you tell them right then and there that there IS such a thing as a 1st amendment, and the rights in it are still good. It doesn't mean you get special treatment because of something that happened 200 years ago, there, homeslice. Equality, means, you're just like every other customer, and you'll wait like every other customer, because at my store, that's all you are to me, is a customer. So tough deal.

Don't play the back-off position if a customer calls you racist, folks. If possible, play it back on them. Make them answer why they think you're so racist. Ask them, "Well, are you just giving me a hard time because I'm -insert race-? Cause ma'am/sir, that'd be racist too you know."

I personally don't even let the race card sit. It doesnt play on my table, because I see everyone as the same, and if you don't then you're racist yourself. Every race tends to have it's quirks, I think we can all agree. I just think racism is a skewed claim, and a skewed attack, designed to just bring up old things from the past in order to gain special benefits that sometimes people will give into. I, myself, almost died for freedom of speech, and I will not let someone else infringe on my right, just because they think they're special. Jesse Jackson can jump in a lake. Al Sharpton? Bah. These people are the worst, because they play off of it. They make money off people who are genuinely convinced that racism is a national problem, and therefore exacerbate and make the problem worse themselves.

Sorry for the long rant. I'm very deeply interested in politics, and the such, and I get very testy on this subject. I do apologize. However, feel free to PM me to call me a douchebag or whatever else you can think of. Let the racism claims fly. See what kind of answers I give you too.

[Knightmare]

...I hope they're not Greys...EEP! Greys scare the hell out of me!

(For the unaware, "Greys" is a term for those freaky aliens with the big heads and big black eyes. I'm not kidding, those things make me want to crawl into bed with my mother like I was four...this was a very faint color joke.)

At one point, far into the future, it will come to that. All humans will be Greys. Or Browns. We'll keep mating with different races to produce off spring that aren't really any color. Yay! Too bad I won't be around by then.
It's like working with paint; if you mix up all the colors, what do you get? You don't get black or white or yellow. You get a greyish brown.
But then one could be accused of being a Shadist; "You aren't the same shade of Grey I am, therefore you are inferior."

Blah. Bigot bastiches.

[Knightmare]

I live in rural Oregon, aka whitey central. White to the point of my friend Reggie being used to letting little kids touch him because they literally have NEVER seen a black person before (he is such a sweetie). That's just the way it is, no racism or anything, just a fact of life in the area where I live.

I grew up in rural northern Michigan. For about 18 years, growing up, I didn't see a black person. I had no experience with them at all, unless you count watching them on television. I watched "The Cosby Show" a lot. That was about my only experience with blacks. I also had a racist grandfather; he wasn't in the KKK or anything, but he refered to black people as "N******"
Then I went to college in Kalamazoo. A VERY diverse city; a major university, many smaller colleges, and people from every race, color, religion, creed. What an eye opener! What an experience! I LOVED IT!
Getting back to my original statement of "Why do they always say 'my best friend is black/white, etc..' I used to say that. In college, I became an "unofficial" member of an all black fraternity. My 3 best friends were black guys from Detroit. We'd hang out every day, ever weekend. I've been to their houses. They didn't have much experience with white guys, either. Personally, I mean. I remember one evening after classes we were sitting in a dorm room. We were watching "Malcolm X" as it just came out on video. And all of their other black friends came in to watch it. So here I am, the only white guy in a room full of black men, watching "Malcom X." I didn't think anything of it, amazingly. You would think I would have been uncomfortable.
Afterward, we sat around discussing the movie and racism. I was asked if being called a "honky" or "cracker" upset me. It didn't. Never has, never will. Then I was asked if I ever used the "N" word. Nope. Never did. They asked me to say it. I couldn't. I really couldn't. They urged me to use it in a sentence. I look around, noticing about 12 black guys in the room. Then I fire one off. Silence. "Uh oh" I think, "Not good." Then laughter. Everyone laughed. "Knightmare, that was funny. That just sounded so cracker from you." After that, we watched "Dolomite." (For those of you not familar with that "Blaxploitation" film, I highly recommend it, just for the camp value.)
Sadly, I lost touch with my 3 best friends. I've tried internet searches, calling their old phone numbers, just about everything. I would love to get together with them again. I miss them. They were the best friends I've ever had.

[Mildew]

I hope I'm not the Filipino Jew you're talking about, DarthRetard. Cause I'm not Filipino. But I am a dirty Jew

Edit: And by dirty, I mean I haven't showered in a few days.

[AFpheonix]

I do think there's still a problem with racism in this country, although it clothes itself in more socially acceptable ways to make it easier to swallow. I especially see it around here where white communities come in contact with hispanic ones.

More to the point, I think there's becoming a huge problem with classism in this country too. But.....that's a discussion for fratching....

[Captain Trips]

At one point, far into the future, it will come to that. All humans will be Greys. Or Browns. We'll keep mating with different races to produce off spring that aren't really any color. Yay! Too bad I won't be around by then.
It's like working with paint; if you mix up all the colors, what do you get? You don't get black or white or yellow. You get a greyish brown.
But then one could be accused of being a Shadist; "You aren't the same shade of Grey I am, therefore you are inferior."

Blah. Bigot bastiches.

Reminds me of the old Star Trek episode, "Let That be Your Last Battlefield"

"He's black on the RIGHT side. I'm black on the LEFT side. All his people are black on the RIGHT SIDE! [Can't you see that makes them inferior?]"

[ArenaBoy]

I have zero patience for racism, and never have.

Neither do I, same goes for homophobics. Here's a little tidbit: My barber is Iraqi and he is gay. Since 9/11 happened, he often got remarks about him being a terrorist and still does just not as much. He's an awesome person and a good friend of my mom who's been cutting her hair before I was even born. I've known him my whole life and he came here from Iraq and he loves it here.

A hilarious incident involving my work and race was during the summer, Mary J. Blige was playing at the party venue and M was working because he couldn't get tickets. M is my age and he's black and he knew that people were going to try and use him to get into VIP as that was where he was stationed because they think that because he is black he'll help them. M decided to switch name tags and have a little fun at their expense. For the day, M went as J and went to his post. The humor value in this was awesome, anyone would go "Hey, that guy is *insert family member* and M would ask what his name was. Said person would read his name tag, M would respond with 'Nope, go that way please." End result: Shocked looks on their face and a touch of humuliation. He got quite a laugh out of this.

HauntedHeadNC had said: I got within bad breath distance of his face and snarled, "Let me tell you something, bud -- I've sucked blacker than yours. Now get out of here."

Great comeback to that guy's claims. Bet that guy had a nice look of shock on his face.

[Eireann]

I had an interesting experience once. I was sitting in my favorite bookstore, perusing a book. The store had nice, comfy armchairs, and patrons were allowed to sit and read as long as they liked.

Suddenly, this guy came along and crouched next to my chair, leaning on the arm, well within my personal space. "How's it going?" he asked, with a smug smile on his face.

This had me very confused; he pulled me out of a good book, and... what was going on? Who was this guy? Did I know him? No. What was he doing here?

"I would like to meet you," he said, still looking smug.

"I didn't come here to meet anybody," I explained. "I'm reading."

Simple, right? Not insulting, is it? I don't think it's insulting. He did. He called me a racist and a fascist. I told him that calling me a racist and a fascist is a real turn-off, that it wouldn't make me want to get to know him; it would, in fact, only make me angry. To this day, I can't believe I kept my temper; I was so astounded by this self-pitying jerk playing the race card simply because I didn't find him attractive. Skin color be damned; the guy was an out-and-out asshole, which I don't find attractive.

He called me a fascist once again, then stormed out. I heard from other women that they'd encountered him too, always with the same result - he tried to pick them up, they weren't interested, he called them racist and fascist.

It really pisses me off that with all the real racism out there, some people are willing to scream that they're victims of racism when they aren't. A jerk is a jerk is a jerk.