Have you personally experienced racism against you?

In the interval since my thought about satire, I did a quick cram on the subject.

Wow! America has so much satire on every subject - like it's a national pass time! I suddenly get it that taking the piss (Aussie for ridicule disguised as humour) is the dominant form of humour in the States. And the history of taking the piss on racism goes back to Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn! If a writer as great as Twain can't make a difference, who can?

I found a PBS interview with Greg Kalleres about his play, "Honky." It touches on how touchy many of us are at trying to avoid saying anything racist, and actually being racist in the process. It contains layers and layers of backflips in logic that are dizzying.

If I'm ever going to manage satire it's going to have to be about racism in Australia - because I can get close enough to the issues here to get a handle on them. We have one television channel that produces shows for, about and by Aboriginal people from all lifestyles across the country. It's full of black humour that's so quirky and odd that it makes me do double takes listening. I'm realising I have a long journey ahead of me. I'm going to have to start with recognising that I'm a hell of a lot more ignorant than I realised. ...

lol at your comment about not being able to swim !

Poor guy must have been utterly flummoxed! :D

Racism is an idiotic way to differentiate between people - it takes no account of character, natural ability, or levels of skill and experience.

I honour you for raising your kids without racism.

Where you live is renowned throughout the world for non-racism and progressive social policies --

and yet just recently, news has filtered out that with recent intakes of huge numbers of refugees,

there is now an alarming increase in the number of rapes and a sudden turning of attitudes, with hostilities rapidly rising.

Is this so?

Interesting comment.

Logically it makes perfect sense.

And yet I think people do sometimes mix up ideologies with race.

They mix up Arabs with Islam, Jews with Judaism, North-Vietnamese with Communism and so on.

For instance, the Chinese are often referred to as "Jews of the East" -  an epithet that refers to the perception that Chinese are mercenary to the point of putting profits ahead of people or morals. The term is simultaneously racist against both Jews and the Chinese. Confucian ideology promotes, among other things the ethics of commerce. In Jewish law - The Mishnah - has a great deal of religious interpretation of Mosaic laws for practise in business, with the result being a highly rigorous code of ethics which also happens to be economically potent. But when a particular ethnic group is seen or imagined to prosper in connection with their faith or ideology it causes others to feel resentment and or hatred, e.g. the portrayal of Shylock in "Merchant of Venice" which denied the realities of Jews of the day.

I may be wrong in my thoughts, however, and I'm very open to hearing the alternative arguments.

How do we change those misconceptions?

Could it be done with TV and film?

Could show and tell classes in schools help?

Should we create systems in which more people of different races work together and have better opportunities to get to know each other?

Can sport and art help?

Being in a minority is hard.

I was in a minority of one in a school of 899 kids - because I arrived at age five using three and four syllable words as easily as peeling a mandarine. They thought I was making up words and putting on airs. But the way I spoke had been drummed into me since my earliest words - so the experience at school was a total shock and it took far too long before I realised what the problem actually was. It made me very lonely, and I am still socially inadequate on many levels. I don't trust easily.

One can change a behaviour but not a skin colour.

Kids between 6 and 12 have very concrete, basic ideas about what should be - how a girl or a boy should behave. They don't fully understand variety or individuality. It's a cognitive developmental phase, organic as well as cultural in origin. They often pick up the prejudices of their parents, and scream them out openly, revealing what their parents really think.

Did your experience cause you to feel racism towards other races? Or to feel fear of their racism?

I confess to feeling scared of gangsters.

In our area, that means gangs of bikies with tattoos who make and deal in drugs. They don't live here, but they cruise through to do their deals. I don't even dare look at one, let alone speak to them.

Do you choose to look like a ganster in order to keep yourself safe?

Does it ever cause some people to come spoiling for a fight just for the thrill of it?

Or do you obviously out match them all?

I'm impressed at the advances of your aborigenies, it has only taken them  250 years to get their own channel.  The American Indian, Native American , I mean,  not from India, you know?, They don't even have that here.

And yeah. HAHA we all know about that quirky black humor.

)

I would love to watch films by, about and for American Indians, about all aspects of their experience past and present.

What little we know in the rest of the world is highly filtered through various points of view of white eyes.

You know I was being sarcastic right?

There's not much I can add to that. I agree with all.

No. Something didn't gel.

What you said about quirky black humour -

I didn't make myself clear.

Aboriginal humour is quirky and it is black in the sense of emotionally dark,

but it's nothing like the humour of American black comedies.

What Aboriginal people produce for and about themselves is totally different to anything else in the world. It turns everything upside down and inside out like you've never seen it before. It's brilliant.

I have back in the 90's. People looked odd at me and my date when we were dating in public (other race than me and the most living in my country). A relative telling me "yeah, I did hear you were seeing such one" at a family get together. I felt outrage, embarrassment. Not for myself but on behalf of my date. I was angry with my relative and felt shame towards my date having such relatives. It has made me aware of racism and that it goes in lots of ways. I keep it in mind and I have raced my kids to be tolerant and not looking at race, colour, religion or other stuff. We are all living individuals and should be treated as such. I would ask others to live by the values I have raised my kids.

Hello h:

Well, not racism, but antisemitism..  Wanna hear about that??? 

Well, of course, the world STILL doesn't like Jews very much.  You can find antisemitism on this very day, right here on THIS very website.  But, the FIRST time it happened was when I was about 7.  I'm riding my bike down the sidewalk, and when I got Frankies house, his dad was on the lawn, and he called me a filthy Jew and to get off his property..  So, I told my dad about it.  He went out to talk to him.  My dad just came back from WW II where he OBSERVED remnants of the holocaust up close and personal, so he didn't take kindly to his remarks..  I wasn't privy to what my dad said, but the guy RAN into his house and sent his wife out..

How did I feel at 7??  I felt kinda bad and kinda special at the same time..

excon

Years ago I was told to go back where I came from. I am of Spanish descent and my family can be traced to the part of the US we live, for over 500 years. However some people consider me an illegal Mexican because of my dark hair and eyes.  Because I know some of my family's history it didn't bother me. I smiled, laughed and told the person I was too large to go back into the womb.

Yeah, I wasn't nice.  I make no apologies for it either.  ;)

No.  I can't say that I have .   

I have had people hate me because I was a hippy in the 60's.  That's as close as I came to prejudice.    I have hung with gay people and was hated for it, that was kind of like that. 

Our family is a mix of different races and heritages/cultures. My mother and ffather taught me the same values you are teaching your kids.

You are a great example of what we all need to consider. I thank you.

You must admit that the word anti-Semitism gets thrown about way too liberally, like racist. Anybody disagreeing with certain views on international matters gets immediately labeled an anti Semite.

I am of Spanish descent living in the South. Yes, theres been more than one mouth punched in my times. That's how l dealt with it then.

I was a minority at the elementary school I attended and I was regularly called "honky", "cracker", or "white boy". Unfortunately, racism towards whites is socially acceptable in this country, so the teachers ignored it and there was nothing I could really do about it.

It didn't really negatively affect me, but it did help me to recognize the glaringly obvious double standards our society exhibits.

I'm too short to reach their mouths, so when necessary I aim for their shin. 

I've been called a wetback, a spic amongst other names. I use my mouth and my wit to make them look foolish. 

I wish I could do that. I'm afraid I'm not as witty. Some people don't understand words tho.

I experienced that too Paynuts. It's not considered racist if it's white people being attacked.

I have. They run and hide and say bad things about me. They look at me in disgust, or ignore me. A much harder time looking for work.

Well, my heritage goes across parts of Europe. I am not aware of Spanish however. I believe everyone of us, maybe except original tribes a few places will be a mix. We tend to forget there was a time where people moved around and there were no boarders. What unites all us is we all look alike, we are human beings with a heart, lungs, brain, blood etc. Thank you.