MelasZepheos said:
So every so often the dreaded topic of race will crop up on these forums, and I had an interesting idea.
Have you personally experienced racism? Have other people in your vicinity been racist around you? And what is the worst racism you have been witness, party or receiver to?
For me, it was while working in my local Waitrose supermarket, I was in the soup aisle, and an elderly couple were making their way down the aisle. The husband stopped the trolley to get some Ainsley Harriot soup, and the wife said (not making this up) in the middle of the aisle:
'We don't want any of that nasty ****** soup.'
We were alone in the aisle, but the casual way it was said, the throwaway use of a word I can barely even use when quoting someone else in context, the very normal setting. I have never been quite so shocked by something before. Quite a few of my year mates (I struggle to call them friends) were also very casually racist, but it was never quite the same as this.
I know my story is kind of tame to start it off but I'm a middle class white boy. So let's hear yours.
I feel ashamed to say this but some times racism is justified.
I live in Australia and there is a reputation over here aboriginals are a pack of drunk petrol sniffing morons.
Until recently I thought that was an incredibly unfair view. I now a few people of mixed aboriginal descent and there very friendly. Cocky as hell maybe but definitely good people.
So for, reasons irrelevant here, I had to go to Perth on the other side of Australia, this one time.
Now for the uneducated In Australia 90% of Australia population lives it on the east coast. the other five percent live on the southern and northern most coast, four percent can be found on the south west coast and the final one percent live in the middle of nowhere across the center of Australia.
In the middle of Australia you meet all sorts of nasty characters. like that movie wolf creek is only an exaggeration as to how creepy these people are. So I decided to be careful and planned my way through the larger community's as opposed to the more direct route. What I didn't find out where these where aboriginal community's.
The first town I pulled up to wasn't that bad. the second was pretty messed up. then after that the rest was like freaking deliverance. I was the only white person in any of them and in the English speaking minority.
I was glared at like I'd offended everyone. When I stopped to get petrol for my car the fridges in the gas stations served the regular milk and stuff. what I was surprised to see in them was methylated spirits. You know, alcohol used to clean surfaces. When I was lining up for the register (to pay for my gas) the aboriginal guy ahead of me bought milk and metho. He opened the milk and metho and mixed them both together in a different bottle. and then drank it as he walked out. and nobody glanced.
It was freaking crazy. By the end of this fucking nightmare trip I couldn't get the smell of vomit and alcohol out of my mind.
on the way back I thought screw it. That was terrible I'll just take the quick and direct route back and decided to stop for a hotel in Alice springs.
What I didn't know was that the government had decided in previous years to try and get the aboriginal community's in that area free of alcohol and banned the shipping of alcohol to those areas. They did however allow the shipping of alcohol to Alice springs and this forced every aboriginal alcoholic in the area to Alice springs for their grog. When I stopped in Alice springs for the night (a long freaking car trip) there was bleeding thousands of aboriginals sleeping on the streets, in tents at best. When I spent the night in a hotel. Some one broke into my car and stole the six pack of beer that was in the cooler on my back seat. Didn't take my cooler or my luggage, just the beer.
Now I'm not actually racist nor do I hold anything against aboriginals but the point is sometimes a reputation is earned. So while It's not entirely on par with what you're saying I feel It's worth mentioning.
I'm also not saying that the entire aboriginal population is addicted to booze but I have to say a large percent definitely is.
I'm not racist.