There's so much work to be done. Little progress in American towns.

[R_P_A_S]

I moved to California in 2003. Prior to that I grew up in Southern Florida.
It's been nearly 8 years since I moved away and nearly 5 years that I started to become interested in progressive/working class politics and more conscious. I wouldn't take it back. I seriously believe if I'd stay in Southern Florida I would had not been exposed to the issues and politics that drew me into "the struggle" in California and I'm very proud of the person Im becoming.

Seldom do I visit South Florida. It reminds me of who I was. I went out with some friends and met some of their new friends. I heard the words "Faggot, nig, spic and guat" during conversation as if they were saying "dude, man or homie".

"stop being a nig"
"you sound like a guat"
"u are acting like a faggot, shut up"
"thats niggnarence" (as in "ignorance")

I was like.. what the fuck is going on? I don't know if I was getting pissed off or just disappointed because in 8 years I've been gone people are still talking this way. I seriously was surprised. How is it that some of the shit I've been learning out in California has not reached southern florida?

I even met one of those guys who admit that the town in Pennsylvania where he is from people are openly racist and use typical stereotypes to make judgement about people of color.

oh and the famous line that I heard so much.. even I used to believe this when I was growing up here in South Florida during the 90's..

"there's black people and there's n*ggers." Now I hear that and It just pisses me off.

I just wanted to vent a little bit. I'll be going back to California in 2 days. I'm leaving Florida realizing how much work needs to be done and how much people need some serious working class consciousness to rid them selves of this bullshit mentality.

[Political_Chucky]

MMMMM yeah discrimination is pretty apparent in so-cal, whether people choose to believe it or not. What do you mean though by "some of the shit I've been learning out in California has not reached southern florida?"

[Sarah Palin]

It's just talking. I have friends who say things like that, and yeah it's annoying but they do not mean anything by it. It's just how they talk. As long as they aren't assaulting people and burning crosses in yards, I can empathize with your annoyance but I don't think it should be anything more than that.

[Raúl Duke]

"stop being a nig"
"you sound like a guat"
"thats niggnarence" (as in "ignorance")

What part of Florida are you from/went to? I never heard these 3 phrases...
or perhaps I don't hang out with people who would use them ever at all.

I bet it's some backwater place in Florida...in which case California also has some backwater places too which are similar?

[The Douche]

It's just talking. I have friends who say things like that, and yeah it's annoying but they do not mean anything by it. It's just how they talk. As long as they aren't assaulting people and burning crosses in yards, I can empathize with your annoyance but I don't think it should be anything more than that.

:sleep:

[Political_Chucky]

:sleep:

:sneaky:

[Os Cangaceiros]

I know people like that, too. And I'm a yankee, so it's definitely not a Southern/"white trash" (:rolleyes:) thing.

[synthesis]

I know people like that, too. And I'm a yankee, so it's definitely not a Southern/"white trash" (:rolleyes:) thing.

I think it's hard to deny that it is at least somewhat rooted in class, though. Then again - what isn't?

(I'm guessing "guat" is Guatemalan? I wasn't aware they had their own slur.)

[FreeFocus]

It's just talking. I have friends who say things like that, and yeah it's annoying but they do not mean anything by it. It's just how they talk. As long as they aren't assaulting people and burning crosses in yards, I can empathize with your annoyance but I don't think it should be anything more than that.

*sigh* It's not just talking. There's a thin line between rhetoric and action, and what will it take to push people who have latent racism to act on it? All of those slurs are dehumanizing and need to be challenged right when someone utters them.

[Jimmie Higgins]

I grew up in California and the high school I went to people said "Jew you down" all the time - and of course "that's so gay" was ubiquitous and it was one of the nicer uses of gay slurs where I grew up, the town that gave Rush Limbaugh his first radio show.

It's hard to deal with causal slurs - it's easier when people obviously mean it and you can argue about it. Of course when you call people on the casual shit, they just tell you to chill out or they say it was just a joke and you're just uptight. I think you just have to pick your battles - with close friends, you can bring it up to them later so it's not like you are calling them out to embarrass them - tell them that it pisses you off and you don't want to hear it - chances are not one has ever said anything to them about it and once they know it's not cool, they'll try and drop it (at least around you). Acquaintances or friends of friends are harder. Strangers are the best (for me) because I'll just argue with them and try and embarrass them. If they are smaller than you, tell them that you are gay/immigrant/Jewish and tell them to fuck off. If there are bigger, use your best judgment.:)

I worked in a liquor store around the time of 9/11 and even before that people would come in all the time and try and make jokes about Arab/Indian liquor store owners (I have white skin). This one white guy came in one time and joked "Where's the turbin? Where's your towel-head boss?" I just cold-stared him down but rather than mget the hint, he tried to explain the slur like I just didn't get the reference. "You know, cos those people own everything... um". Then I responded that my boss was white and then I leaned in real close and whispered... "Man, those ofey cracker motherfuckers run everything: the banks, the police, everything!"

I don't recommend using anti-white slurs as an open radical, but I think if you're at work or with friends you can be a little more divisive in a not very political way in order to make a point:D.

[Nolan]

I remember I would sometimes hear people say "don't be such a Jew" to someone who was being really demanding about something.

I was on xbox live playing Halo: Reach with a friend yesterday, and casual racism is more common than it was when I was last on there. That or I noticed it more. And this is from people who can't be older than 15* but think nothing of throwing the n word around. Obviously homophobia is there, but it's always been like that. Every other insult is 'faggot.'

*well the vast majority of them anyway. It is xbox live.

[Political_Chucky]

I have a question that kinda fits my strategy with dealing with people without making them too defensive on the problem. I honestly hate when people start using racial slurs and homophobic type of language and years ago when I first started to recognize how idiotic I sounded by repeating "that's gay" or "faggot" I stopped using them completely. The problem is, at least here in so-cal that I know of, its like a rampant fever that everyone uses these terms to insult or discredit. My strategy? I start acting gay lol. And not in some flamboyant stereo-typical sense, i'll just play with peoples minds. One example, if someone I know is totally homophobic(like using the words a lot by calling people faggots and what not), I would go behind them, pull up their shirt from their back, knowing that they are going to call me gay.Then I keep fucking with them. After a while I notice them not using those words anymore or start toning down. Maybe just because I'm around then? lol

I honestly don't know if its really counter-productive to do so in the rational sense, but I personally think if you put yourself out there, I've noticed that people start becoming more accepting of things like homosexuality and the taboo. I'm really not gay, but I feel like people need to be more accepting of people that are because I do have friends and family that are and just telling people that using those words aren't right is only going to get into so many peoples mind. Sometimes I think it takes people who don't really need to, to do something.

I'm sure some people will disagree, but I'm saying this because, I'm not really sure by doing this whether its counter-productive or not, or if it really matters.

[An archist]

*sigh* It's not just talking. There's a thin line between rhetoric and action, and what will it take to push people who have latent racism to act on it? All of those slurs are dehumanizing and need to be challenged right when someone utters them.

Well, I'd say it all depends on the context really.
There's friend groups where it's quite normal to call the black people 'nigger', the chinese are 'chinks' and the gays call other people 'faggots'.
But when someone from outside that group calls you any these things, everyone's rightly pissed off.

[Il Medico]

I've never heard Guat or nig. I live in an area slowly growing out of back waterdom so obvious racist slurs are on a down turn "nigger' 'Spic' etc. However, anti-semetic slurs are still quite common. Even people who are quite liberal use slurs like 'You're such a fucking Jew" (referencing cheapness). More racist areas to the north have 'Coon' as their preferred anti-black slur. They also call raccoons this. (I'm not sure if they are calling black people raccoons or how that would makes any sense either.) All an all, racism, homophobia, sexism, et al are so fucking casual down here it isn't even funny.

I was in my creative writing class back before the semester ended and I was telling some of my friends about my looming unemployment. Everyone in in my friend group in that class is queer in one way or another, and everyone in that class knows this (due to the fact that we don't exactly hide it) and one guys turned to me and said "Shit man that's fucking gay. Hope you find work". Now I know he didn't mean anything by it, and he didn't even realize he said something offensive, but what I found more shocking was neither did any of my friends. Nobody but me batted an eye at the fact he had just used our sexuality to describe something as shitty as getting laid off. Its pretty sad when prejudiced is so ingrained in your community that people who are being slurred don't even realize it.

[synthesis]

More racist areas to the north have 'Coon' as their preferred anti-black slur. They also call raccoons this. I'm not sure if they are calling black people raccoons or how that would makes any sense either.

This never made sense to me at all.

[John "Eh" MacDonald]

It's the same in Canadian towns. If your a Jew you either rip someone of or your greedy. Nigger is used for so many things its stupid, such as a "nigger job" is doing something illegal for quick cash.

[R_P_A_S]

I guess is more of a big city thing and a small town more than a state thing.. i.e California vs Florida. I know that I can go to Kern county in Cali and find racist assholes everywhere. "rednecks" or whatever.

But this is a place where there is lot of beach, resorts and multi-cultural.

This is the type of place where 9 out of 10 people see a black person and automatically assume that they will get mugged or that they probably are on their way to mug someone else. I kid you not. It's like.. we can't pass a couple black guys on the street corner and one of my buddies saying.."those nigs prob fucking dealing drugs"

I also feel that blacks in the south are very aware of this sentiments against them and probably just use it to their advantage and by that I mean.. they purposely "come off over the top" and walk around "with a chip on their shoulder".. like the have something to proof. Because they are getting the stares and people can tell they are being talked about. They are not stupid.

they are reacting to years of discrimination.. both closet type racism or in your face type discrimination. I don't blame them.

I'm probably not making sense nor sounding "politically correct" for most of you. I'm just making observations and asking my self questions.

[Jack]

niggnarence


I hate to say I lol'd.

I've lived in cow towns, cities, and now a college campus and these things are still prevalent. "Nigger" (well, "nigga") is used alot on campus, but it isn't meant as racist. In the small town I grew up in, there's alot of that "Well there's black people, and then there's niggers" shit.

"Jewing" someone out of something, calling someone a Jew for being cheap/greedy is still common, but most times nothing is really meant by it. Some of my cousin's friends make fun of him by calling him Jewish, etc.

[Tablo]

When I hear my roommates or friends use any slurs I immediately call them out on it and accuse them of being racist and or homophobic. It makes me seem like a complete dick to them, but at least they stop saying that shit around me.

[John "Eh" MacDonald]

When I hear my roommates or friends use any slurs I immediately call them out on it and accuse them of being racist and or homophobic. It makes me seem like a complete dick to them, but at least they stop saying that shit around me.

When I call my some of friends out on it the tell me to stop being a fag/call me a fag lover. Luckily some of my friends are open minded and respect my views.

Recently one friend stopped talking to me because I "stand up for queers".

[Tablo]

When I call my some of friends out on it the tell me to stop being a fag/call me a fag lover. Luckily some of my friends are open minded and respect my views.

Recently one friend stopped talking to me because I "stand up for queers".
Wow, that's messed up.