Is prejudice like this widespread?

You guys want to see how widespread prejudice is?

Here's how bad it is within the ST community, read through the comments section, (In know it's not specifically racial, but I'm pretty sure the basis for prejudice is universal, regardless of the target)



Cam Alft and Keego Bricks being particular highlights

 

If I recall correctly, they were originally brought to Jamestown by the Dutch. It was the Europeans who brought them here. There weren't even any real Americans yet unless you count Peregrine White who was born in Plymouth Colony in 1620. There was Virginia Dare of course, but we're still not sure what happened to her.

 

Presenting these relevant thoughts from this tweet stream, cleaned up for easier reading on a forum. (Note: I didn't write this but consider it spot-on.)

The other day, I heard an NPR podcast about politics where a white woman broke down in tears of joy and relief listening to Trump. She said she was crying because Trump was speaking out against political correctness - something she's been angry about for decades. I was stupefied to hear an adult woman crying tears of joy for an avowed misogynist... but she's a white woman, in post civil rights America.

What I understood, more deeply, is the reality of what it means to be a racist in the US after the civil war... and the civil rights movement. The reality is that white-male supremacy was the literal law of the land for centuries. It's the foundational core of the U.S. project.

The result is that we have generations of white people who were socialized to believe that what we now call "racism" is just "the way it is." These people, and their parents, grandparents before them, were taught by all of the nation's major institutions that whites are superior. Further: they inherited a culture that openly and proudly tortured & denigrated blacks for centuries. The word "openly" is important here. For centuries, the political and economic leadership of the U.S. was openly, explicitly and officially white-male supremacist, and while they were disadvantaged by certain aspects of white-male supremacy, white women also participated in the oppression of non-whites.

Except they weren't taught that slavery, lynching, Jim Crow or discrimination were "oppression". The nation framed these things as moral. The end of the Civil War highlighted the contrast between the nation's superficial racial liberalism and its ongoing white supremacy. The southern states that supported slavery were told - by the same nation that legalized slavery - their "way of life" was now "immoral". Meanwhile, the same nation that now claimed to be racially liberal by "ending" slavery actually perpetuated it through prisons. So you have this deeply hypocritical situation, in which the racist values of the nation were superficially disavowed but maintained in fact.

As all of this unfolds, white racial attitudes liberalize somewhat, but not drastically. And the power structure remains white supremacist. Social norms have shifted such that being "openly" racist is increasingly stigmatized -- but the nation remains systematically racist.

So, let's return to the white female Trump supporter who broke out in tears listening to him rage against "political correctness". She's emotionally reacting to a sense of betrayal by her country... a country that officially and proudly oppressed non-whites for centuries. She's reacting to the hypocrisy of white supremacist Democrats and liberal elites who blame poor and working class whites for racism. While she probably couldn't articulate it in these terms, she's crying because deep down she knows Trump really does represent this country. She's tired of hearing politicians pretend to not be the racists that they actually are. She's relieved to hear someone "tell it like it is."

Political correctness is the trope that allows white elites (liberal and conservative) to pretend to not oppress the people they oppress. While the woman surely had no critique of oppression, she knows intuitively that the language of political correctness doesn't match reality. The political reality Trump has so brazenly and successfully tapped into is that this country 1) is racist and 2) belongs to white people. Not to mention the associated truths -- that the nation is also fundamentally sexist and that it especially belongs to white men.

In any case, millions of white people are crying and raging because their country lied about itself when it pretended to liberalize. They feel betrayed by a nation that built its economy and culture on anti-black white supremacy but then progressively said "Nevermind." The reality is, you can't build a nation on white-supremacist ideology & violence for centuries, then turn around and say "Well, actually..."

This contrast between political correctness and political reality will continue to enrage - not only racists, but also victims of racism.

 

Also I want to mention that when politicians in U.S.A. claim to speak on half of Black People, they almost always say BlackHispanic, just like if Blacks And Hispanics were together all the time like RichAndAmy. Blacks have very unique problems that they face. It is almost if Blacks still have no freedoms while Hispanics are treated better. I am aware that some Hispanics have African or Afro-Carribean ancestors but many of them have ancestors from Europe, which also means that "White People" aren't the only ones that are Anti-Black. I have noticed Anti-Black Arabs as well. And when Politicians say BlackHispanic makes me think that the Politicians just can't being themselves to say "Black" because they do not want to talk about problems Blacks face yet they still want The Black Vote.

Donald Trump says he can unify the nation and also that he wants The Black Vote and at the same time he keeps saying that there is noting wrong with "Law & Order" (not the TV programme) and that we must be "All Lives Matter." or "Blue Lives Matter.". and also saying "You must be loyal to our hard working timid officers." and also saying that speaking against Excessive Force, Racial Profiling, and Unarmed Killings, and Cover-Ups, is being "Politically Correct."

Political Correctness is completely different. It is not being Politically Correct when you are fighting for your life against a system designed to kill you and designed to uproot the lives of your family.

 

Most of them are usually categorized as Latinos. I don't know why the term 'Hispanic' is used so much, to be honest.

 

It's used because of the Nixon administration, basically.

 

Hispanic covers both genders. Latino does not.

 

Latinx is the emerging gender neutral term on that front.

 

Thank you.

 

They might have native-American ancestors and that combined with the "One Drop" rule that a lot of people still apply to any non-Caucasian groups....

 

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic–Latino_naming_dispute:

While the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, "Hispanic" is a narrower term which only refers to persons of Spanish-speaking origin or ancestry, while "Latino" is more frequently used to refer more generally to anyone of Latin American origin or ancestry, including Portuguese and Portuguese-speaking Brazilians. "Hispanic" thus includes persons from Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin Americans but excludes Brazilians, while "Latino" excludes persons from Spain but includes Spanish-speaking Latin Americans and Brazilians.​

I always get the terms confused as well. Of course, as the article says, there's a lot more to it than that.

 

There is a bit of a culture clash with that one. I am 1/4 Cherokee and am considered a Cherokee...by the Cherokees. I'm a full-fledged member of the tribe. They don't care what you look like (I have a cousin who has red hair and what is amusing about that is he grew up on the reservation while I did not). It's usually white people who do the 'but you don't look an Indian' thing if a child of mixed Native/White parentage happens by genetic chance look like his or her white ancestors. I can't speak for other tribes.

 

This is where "passing" comes into play.

The one-drop rule only works where people know your ancestry, i.e. they know your family and know that, however you may look, you aren't "really" white.

If you move somewhere people don't know your family and heritage, if you can pass for white, then you get treated as white.

 

"Latin" already is an established gender neutral alternative, and it's shorter, too.

 

How is Latinx pronounced?

 

"Latin-ex."

 

As if you were talking about a Latin ex-girlfriend or -boyfriend.