it's so painful having racist parents... i mean, i just don't understand it. every time i hear something hateful come out of their mouths, it makes my eyes water up.
my dad is very straight forward about his bias... he'll admit that he thinks arabs are scum (perhaps this - in conjuction with my need to rebel - would righly explain my fetish for middle easterners.) others, he won't proclaim his hatred for in such a blatant manner, but it's still there.
my mom, on the other hand, refuses to admit she that she feels this way toward anyone. she freaks out whenever she hears the word "nigger", even if it's in a song that has nothing to do with her (she had an office party spun by this salsa/merengue dj. at one point, he threw on a hip hop track, and upon hearing the magical werd, my momran up onto the platform and insisted that mr. dj turn it off and never paly anything like that again...) the funny part is that she likes this dave chappelle skit about this white family "the niggers" - she was telling me about "that one show... you know." and i was like, 'uh, i thought you hate that werd, mom?' she goes, "yeh, that's why i didn't say it."
i understand that it's all about context, but her mindset is so illogical that it makes me ill... she hates the werd so much that she doesn't want to hear it going from one black person to another (which is really none of her business anyway) but she's ok with this little twisted parody which mocks the outsider(in particular, white folk)'s racist perceptions of black people by spuing a ton of racist stereotypes addressed to a white person by the name of "nigger"...
to tell you the truth, i'm not really sure why my mom thinks that skit is funny. (i asked her after having wrote this, and she told me how it's ok for people to make fun of their own people - jews can make fun of jews, etc. that's when i had to break it down for her; dave wasn't mocking his people, he was mocking hers.)
anyway, they both like to make assumptions about certain individuals based on patterns they've observed in their past. having an idea is one thing, but sticking so firmly to this idea that you throw away the possibility of any other being true is another.
i told my mom that she shouldn't be so presumptuous to bash someone based on an assumption, because that just prepares you to be the asshole when it turns out you were wrong.
needless to say, my mother was wrong, but unfortunately, she didn't have enough regret to feel like the asshole i would've felt like if she'd been me.
my dad is very straight forward about his bias... he'll admit that he thinks arabs are scum (perhaps this - in conjuction with my need to rebel - would righly explain my fetish for middle easterners.) others, he won't proclaim his hatred for in such a blatant manner, but it's still there.
my mom, on the other hand, refuses to admit she that she feels this way toward anyone. she freaks out whenever she hears the word "nigger", even if it's in a song that has nothing to do with her (she had an office party spun by this salsa/merengue dj. at one point, he threw on a hip hop track, and upon hearing the magical werd, my momran up onto the platform and insisted that mr. dj turn it off and never paly anything like that again...) the funny part is that she likes this dave chappelle skit about this white family "the niggers" - she was telling me about "that one show... you know." and i was like, 'uh, i thought you hate that werd, mom?' she goes, "yeh, that's why i didn't say it."
i understand that it's all about context, but her mindset is so illogical that it makes me ill... she hates the werd so much that she doesn't want to hear it going from one black person to another (which is really none of her business anyway) but she's ok with this little twisted parody which mocks the outsider(in particular, white folk)'s racist perceptions of black people by spuing a ton of racist stereotypes addressed to a white person by the name of "nigger"...
to tell you the truth, i'm not really sure why my mom thinks that skit is funny. (i asked her after having wrote this, and she told me how it's ok for people to make fun of their own people - jews can make fun of jews, etc. that's when i had to break it down for her; dave wasn't mocking his people, he was mocking hers.)
anyway, they both like to make assumptions about certain individuals based on patterns they've observed in their past. having an idea is one thing, but sticking so firmly to this idea that you throw away the possibility of any other being true is another.
i told my mom that she shouldn't be so presumptuous to bash someone based on an assumption, because that just prepares you to be the asshole when it turns out you were wrong.
needless to say, my mother was wrong, but unfortunately, she didn't have enough regret to feel like the asshole i would've felt like if she'd been me.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
burne:
wow, sorry to hear your parents are like that. are you "distant" with them? I'm glad that none of that hatered rubbed off on you,but you're a much better person just for thinking on all sides instead of saying "this is this, and thats is that". take it easy! 
donnie_darko:
I have a couple friends like that.. drives me fucking insane. unfortunatly there really isn't much you can really do about it. like syndi said... just be glad that you have the intellegence so see beyond thier simple hateful belifs.