From: krikket@meltdown.chi.il.us (D. 'krikket' Krick)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: Who cares
Date: 24 Jul 92 12:26:54 GMT
Organization: The Meltdown - A Team Star BBS

In article <2A6F1E0D.21361@noiro.acs.uci.edu>, cortese@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis
Maria Cortese) writes:
>In article <1ZgDoB3w164w@ailanth.UUCP> ailsa%ailanth.uucp@wang.com (Ailsa >N.T. Murphy) writes:

>>maybe you shou8ld check your attitude then, or actually try it.  i hAVE 
>>done that, had no troubloe, definitely left alive.  difference: i LIVE in 
>>the slums.  i may be white, but i am still one of the family, as it were.
>>
>>i think all this fear of black men is just another face of racism.
>>
>>                                            -ailsa

>Much as I hate to admit it (since I find myself doing it too), she's
>right.  I've heard black guys saying that sometimes they just get a kick
>out of how white people tense up around them automatically, so they play
>with it a little to let off some stress.

>I'VE fallen victim to this as well -- i.e. tensed up around black men or
>acted like they were time bombs.  It may be the single most irritating
>stupid thing I find myself doing.  But, just because I know it's dumb
>doesn't mean I can just suddenly say, "Oh, I'm a liberated and nonracist
>modern woman."  I STILL do it!  It's almost like a reflex.  I've been
>indoctrinated in the mindset that black men are dangerous and to be
>treated like nitroglycerin since I was a kid.  No noe just came up to me
>and said it; I saw it on TV and saw it in the way people acted towards
>one another.  I realize to some extent the problem, AND I STILL DO IT.
>And every time I do, I want to kick myself afterwards.

>This is why I'm mighty suspicious of men who say, "What do you mean I'm
>sexist?  I've read a Mary Daly book."  Come ON.  We're talking about
>undoing a LIFETIME of indoctrination.  It just ain't that easy.  From
>personal experience, I can see this.  Maybe someone is going to post and
>say something like, "Well, I'm sorry that you still have problems with
>racism, but *I* am totally liberated and unaffected by the racist and
>sexist signals of our time."

>Right.  Excuse me while I collapse in laughter.  Anyone who can, in a few
>years, fight off a mechanism that has been grinding away in western
>"civilization" for the last thousand years is really kidding
>themselves.  You can't do it.  No one can. 

Janis,

Allow me to collapse in laughter...  :)

I would agree with you so far as to say that no one can ever completely
overcome all prejudices within a year or two simply by allowing the fringes
of their exposure be exposed to the minorit(y/ies) in question, and thinking
"I'm not racist.  I'm not racist.  I'm not racist.  I'm not racist..."

But a person *CAN* overcome prejudices.  I have not been 100% successful as
of yet, but I am contstantly working on it.  Sometimes by forcing myself
to confront the issue in my mind, sometimes by confronting it directly.

It just takes a hell of a lot of time and work.  I got over prejudism against
blacks (that I didn't know I had) when I was about 10 or so, before it had a
chance to become rooted in my psyche.  (I was raised in an enviornment where
everyone was treated equal, but due to chance, it was a primarily white
community.)

Recently I was working at "K-mart Fashions"  (Yes, A K-mart Warehouse and
Union Shop, with all of the bad conotations, and none of the good) as a
security officer.  90%+ of the people employed there were black.  I am as
white as you can get.  At one point I was BSing with a few of the workers,
and I had to ask her to repeat what she said a number of times.  When asked
why I had to do this, when no one else was having a problem, I answered
honestly.  Namely that with the conveyor belts running (LOUD!), the 2-way
radio (that I had to wear, being the S/O), and her accent made it hard for me
to understand her.  Naturally I was labeled "RACIST"!  But I took that comment
seriously and proceeded to discuss that aspect with her, exploring my own
feelings (and getting suprisingly honest reactions from her) about the
issue.  The label was never taken back, or apologized for.  So I took it
seriously, and brooded for the rest of the day thinking, "AM I racist?  Can
I do anything to change it?" etc...  Then the simple truth dawned upon me.
Just because I'm not familiar with an accent (inner-city black accent in this
case) and have trouble making it out over loud noises doesn't make me a
racist.

But this is a typical reaction on my part, and part of what I CONSTANTLY do
to keep myself from becomming a racist of any sort what-so-ever.

I went through the same type of thing when dealing with my sexuality
(prodomently heterosexual, with some homosexual feelings mixed in) and a
friend was trying to get me to date him...  (No he didn't label me as
homophobic, and besides, he was a great kisser...)  But you get the idea.

Sometimes I have found myself guilty.  Then I proceed to undo whatever damage
I did, if I can, and attempt to change my behavior...

Krikket               ! krikket@meltdown.chi.il.us ! USnail:3 Danada Square E.
a.k.a Doug Krick      ! Team Star Charter Member   !        Suite 246
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