6 signs of Racist-R-Us • 11.15.07
Racism is everywhere. Stereotypes are everywhere too. Racism and discrimination do not exist only to flow from the majority to the minority; even the minority discriminates against other minorities and majorities. Many people, if not almost everyone, is guilty of racism in one form or another. “Guilty” is an interesting word here; how can we know what is right or wrong when we do not even know what is right or wrong? On top of that, how can someone be guilty of something that is probably always disagreed upon by certain people?
Today I would like to show you 6 trends I am seeing in people that results in many people becoming full-time racists. Here are 6 practical signs that you may be discriminating, and that you may in turn be having a racist attitude towards someone or certain people. By racism, I am also referring to discriminating, hating, and having a stereotypical mentality against someone or a group of people.
6 signs you are a member of the Racist-R-Us group
- You doubt a complete group of people immediately while trusting the other one completely
Imagine me telling you that a certain group of people did something bad, and that you immediately come to the conclusion that those people are bad and that you should not expect anything better from them. Now imagine me telling you that some people from the groups that you associate with did something bad, and that you immediately say things along the lines of “Well, they must have had a reason” or “It was only them who did it” or “I am not sure, I need to know the whole story before I judge.” Chances are you discriminate against a certain group immediately, while thinking critically when it comes to judging your own group of people.
When you hear about some Jews acting bad, you immediately agree that they are bad. When you hear about some Muslims acting bad, you immediately make sure that you try to ask for more proof or verification of the story, or you try not to judgment, opposite to what you did in the case of the Jews. The exact opposite story, interchanging the Muslims with the Jews and vice versa is a similar example. No matter what side you may be supporting, you discriminate against the other instantly and start passing judgments as if your opinions are thought our critically.
When you hear about some militant groups in Africa molesting and raping young children in certain areas in order to spread more fear, you start concluding that they are less civilized. When you hear about some American soldiers molesting or raping girls in Japan and some other bases, you immediately start doubting the story, asking for more verification, and maybe even starting to pinpoint the bad things about the foreign country in which such reported incidents take place. You may call such a trait patriotism; in reality, it is racism and a form of stupidity thriving together.
- Your pro-country mentality result in you hating a certain country or group of people
This is a huge headache in many cases. Europeans hating the Americans, Americans hating the Europeans, Palestinians hating the Israelis, Israelis hating the Palestinians, Canadians hating Americans, Americans hating Canadians, Pakistanis hating Indians, Indians hating Pakistanis, Mexicans hating Americans, Americans hating Mexicans, North Koreans hating the Americans, Americans hating the North Koreans, Chinese hating Japanese, Japanese hating Chinese, Iranians hating the Americans, Americans hating the Iranians, etc etc etc. It is as if countries were built to hate each other. I realize they were.
A small group of people from some hurt your country, and you are going to start hating the entire group of people or the majority of some country that those people are from because of that? Take your racist, narrow-minded mentalities somewhere else. I do not care. Anytime you automatically stereotype a majority or all people associated with a group of people because of your love for your own country, stay away from me, and instead impose your racist views on your family or your poor do-not-have-a-future-because-of-racist-parents children. Every country in this world is suffering, and every country in this world is inflicting harm on some other weaker country. Having a full circle of hating one another because of that only spreads racism.
- Your pro-religion mentality results in you hating a certain country or group of people
Christians against the Muslims, Muslims against the Christians, Buddhists against other religions, other religions against atheism and Buddhism, etc. How many times, every week or every minute of the day, do we see ourselves or someone else, either in real life or on TV, stereotype against a certain religion or someone or a group of people who try to follow a certain religion, or who may be directly or indirectly associated with a certain religion.
If someone brings up something bad about a religion you do not know about, you agree that it is bad. If someone brings up something bad about your religion, you want to inquire more, you try to defend your religion, you try to criticize every critic of your religion. For you, reality does not revolve around what is happening. For you, reality revolves around your religion being right and you defending it. That mentality is the exact same as those people who go around the entire planet torturing innocent people because of religion: killing people in Middle East because of religion, burning mosques and churches in America, prosecuting all religious people in many countries, torturing non-religious people in several religious countries, etc. It is as if your religion exists in order to spread torture, and you exist in order to spread racism.
- Your pro-ethnic mentality results in you hating certain ethnicities while completely favoring some over the other
Try remembering the last time someone brought up some major ethnic discrimination event from years ago, in order to justify your own hatred or discrimination for others. Maybe try remembering the last time you yourself cited some major event of racism or hatred in order to justify your hatred against some group of people. Did you yourself suffer anything, literally, in person? How many Vietnamese people who complain about the Vietnam war were actually in the Vietnam and suffered in person, and are thus not enjoying life at all today? How many of the African American youth today which complains about being stereotyped were actually stereotyped and hurt in person in the 60’s and 70’s, since that is the era I keep hearing everyday from the mouth of many?
How many people have actually seen a Jewish person steal money, a French act stupid and drunk, an Arab blow up something, a Canadian act illiterate of the world events, an American molest females in army bases in other countries, a Mexican steal your job literally, a Cuban bring drugs in his shoes, a black man listen to rap music while robbing your neighbor, and a white person running around screaming out “KKK FOR ALL” at the top of his or her lungs? There can be hundreds of more examples along the lines of what I just said. A lot of these things have happened, and a lot of these things are not happening. How can we look at the example of a few and stereotype everyone? You are going to stereotype everyone or even a large group of people, people you know nothing about, simply based on what some specific people have done?
Your excuse of “I know not everyone is like that” is stupid, pathetic and immature, considering the fact that you are always stereotyping that certain ethnic group and that when you are cornered you resort to that defense. Most people who complain about discrimination against them, in order to justify their own discriminatory views, have not experienced any of the above, yet they will say “I know it has happened to others, so I know what is going on.” Really? If we used such mentality, then all the Chinese, Japanese, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Americans, Mexicans, Canadians, French, Europeans, Russians, Buddhists, and more would be hating everyone on this planet, because I know a lot of Japanese, Koreans, Muslims, Christians, Anti-semitic-yet-do-not-realize-it, Europeans, Americans, Russians, and other people who have suffered physically in reality and people who simply cry on the bandwagon because someone else in the distant suffered or their great great grandfathers suffered.
“Avoid saying such things which stereotype and hurt other people and their image“, I say. “Why don’t you mind your own god damn business or get lost.” Awesome mentality you have. Keep saying things that mingle with other people’s lives and business, but when others tell you to not say such things, you tell others to mind their own business. That is some amazing mature mentality you have.
Similarly, hating some ethnicity or feeling discriminated simply because your ancestors suffered does not mean you suffered. Suffering the after effects is one thing, and not suffering anything and being genetically linked to people who suffered, while enjoying life, is not equivalent to suffering yourself. There are many of us who have actually suffered in our lifetime more than you and your ancestors combined. Trying to attract the sympathy of others, by playing the victims game, in order to justify your own hatred when in reality you have suffered nothing is stupid. Such a logic does not equivilate to you being justified in hating others.
- You cannot help yourself from making certain ethnic or religious jokes which completely stereotype and hurt others, while you cannot make certain jokes about some ethnicities or religion
Ever hear the joke about the sex-addict and stupid French woman? Ever hear the joke about the terrorist Arab? Ever hear the joke about the miser Jew? Ever hear the joke about the stupid Japanese? Ever hear the joke about the illiterate American redneck? Chances are, you may have heard all of these jokes, but you may not be comfortable with all of them. If you do joke about some ethnicities but cannot joke about some other specific ethnicities, you may be racist. Simply joking about every ethnicity does not make you an anti-Racist; it just shows that you hate many more ethnicities than a typical racist person.
There is a difference between joking and not meaning things and realizing when it may hurt people and when it may only be a joke, and joking and hurting people and claiming that you did not intend to hurt anyone. If you are not good at realizing when it will hurt someone, stop joking.
You are comfortable at making fun of French or the Germans people but not the British? You are comfortable making fun of Buddhists or atheists but not the Christians? You are comfortable making fun of the Chinese or Koreans but not the Japanese? You are comfortable making fun of Muslims or the Arabs but not the Jews? You are comfortable making fun of Colombians or Cubans but not the Mexicans? You are comfortable making fun of people with light colored skins but not dark skin? You are comfortable making fun of anyone else except anything you try to associate with yourself or a group that the society around you tries to associate with? Poor you, you stereotypical racist moron. Your jokes are ways for you to be scared of being racist and be a racist at the same time, since your supposed-”it’s a joke“-disclaimer can probably make someone not beat you up for being stupid.
- You stereotype all the time, and you try to hide behind jokes or certain disclosures.
This is a trend that is slowly gaining more acceptance and ridicule at the same depending, depending on different people. Repeatedly making jokes about someone’s ethnicity, religion, lack of religion, lack of ethnicity, their background or anything else, which hurts someone, means you do not care about that person. That also means your jokes exist solely to make racist and discriminatory remarks, and that you are hiding behind your jokes to get away with your inability to not hate someone directly or indirectly because of things outside their control, like their background, as if someone was completely wrong with it in all situations.
When you know a joke can hurt or simply offend someone, as to why you are making that joke in context to someone who is involved in the conversation or joke with you, there is no point in saying “I’m sorry” afterwards. Why be sorry when you are continuously doing whatever you are doing anyhow?
Racism Rules! Literally.
These are the 6 signs that show the racism in you, me and others. These are also the 6 signs you can use to observe others around you and see whether or not someone exhibits some forms of hate or discrimination against some person or a group of people. Ideas and feelings of racism, without actually experiencing anything bad ourselves, are all around us. Even when we experience something ourselves directly, the idea of racism or hating a group of people only increases or takes turns. It can be very hard to simply keep such feelings inside of us.
I do not care what religion you have, what country you are from, what ethnicity you fantasize about, and what color you love blending in with. Treat me the way I act and am, and I will treat you in the same manner. Act racist around me, and I will simply realize that I wasted time around a loser like you. It’s your life; you can live in your small little racist bubble and feel all powerful and righteous. We both know what you really are. All I care about are actual actions, feelings and experiences in life.
Every point mentioned above can be observed as having different levels of dedication. Some people commit to some or all of the above points all the time, while others resort to it from time to time. Still, some people simply say some extreme things without actually being racist in order to make a point. However, if the listener or other people do not realize that you made a point, you have actually hurt the other person. What is the point of not being racist when your actions are hurting others as if you were racist? How about not being a racist and making sure whatever you do does not hurt others either?
Thank you for reading. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go to near an Indian owned 7-eleven to a Boba place owned by Koreans where only Asian workers are cashiers and only Mexicans make Boba in the back room, with the only non-Asian customers at night being white kids who read comics and where a black person will almost never be a customer. Or maybe I’ll go eat at Jack-in-the-Box next to it where I can focus more on getting curly fries than on the ethnic or background segregation of the drive-thru people or the people making the food. Who said fast food places were good for nothing?
Posted in Generalwith 47 Comments →
An association with the text can happen in many ways, including using a picture or a set of words or letters. In the concept of association using a set of words or letters, I am referring to cases where a person who may have a hard time seeing may be reading the site through a browser that reads text out loud, and thus that person may associate some group of words with the article in question. For example, the picture of a person with a tattoo on his back, as shown in this paragraph, can become an association for people who can see the picture. For people who may have a hard time seeing for various reasons, I try to make available the “alt” description in the html coding or the very text itself, which in this example says “picture of a male with colorful tattoo on his back“, as an association with the text and article in question. The “alt” text exists to show a text in case the picture does not load. I like to use it so that it can be used to explain pictures to people who cannot see the pictures for other reasons also. I like using the image “alt” text area to explain an image in as much detail as possible so that everyone who comes across the image in almost any manner knows what is going on and can create an association if they wish. Most browsers allow you to hover over the image with your mouse and see what the “alt” text is, if you leave the mouse on the image for a second or two. [
For example, for many people, a guy having long, untied or wavy, hair may imply weirdness and unprofessionalism, as guys are usually expected to have short or neatly tied hair. Similarly, a lady having short, typically-man-style hair or having a clean, shaved head usually results in people not knowing how to treat that lady the same way they would respect a lady who has long hair. Bruce Willis shaving his shaven head is all right, but Britney Spears shaving her head is not; many people will not even ask why she shaved her head before criticizing her for being a fool for shaving her head. Having long hair can result in people stereotyping about you even outside the realm of professionalism.
There was a day when tattoos were considered to be signs of thugs and bike riders, as if they were both exactly the same type of people. Well, tattoos are still the original trademarks of these two groups of people, though today more and more people are getting tattoos as it can make someone feel better and more important in many cases. On Ronald’s site, 
Your attire includes your clothes, shoes and your watch. I give this a separate category as this is what most people usually see when they see you. If your clothes are wrinkled or dirty or old, you usually do not show any signs of professionalism in the eyes of many. Similarly, your shoes must be new or polished, and your watch must be something to drool over. Try scoring good points in every other stereotypical point listed here except the shoes, and wear torn out shoes. See how people react.
In today’s world, for many people this can be the most important factor in figuring out the level of professionalism in you. Your job status and the kind of job you may have makes other people judge you a lot. You do not have a job? Your professionalism points went down by 30%. No, make that 50%. 
3:30 am. My phone is ringing. The famous Cingular ringtone is playing, and I start wondering about things. It is someone with a relationship issue on the other line; someone I met last week in class. “Ok, tell me in detail what she did.” It is someone called Bes, and he is complaining to me. His story goes on for hours, but the alarm clock says it’s 3:30 am. Is the clock not working?
Sure, he entertains others, he can keep on talking. But no one knows him personally. No one knows whether he is single or not. Most don’t know where he lives. No one knows about his childhood, about his life, about his current situation. Most don’t know why he does things, or what he does most of the time. Most don’t know his birthday. Most don’t even know his real name. Do you?
People say he is funny and a nice guy; however, very rarely does anyone inquire much about Bes the way he inquires about others. He shows real interest in other people because he has real interest in other people, and he revolves his current life and everything around almost any person he hangs out with. I come back to my senses and look at the clock; it still says 3:30 am. “You want someone else out there like your own self?” I ask. It can be pretty hard to ask Bes any personal questions, for he is a master of detours and can easily answer things to your satisfaction without revealing anything about himself, even if he wanted to. “Heh“, he sighs heavily in a cheerful mood and then becomes quiet. 
“When I was in the hospital last year,” Bes said, “the hospital sent a student nurse or a psychologist-in-training for 2 nights straight to allow me to talk to her so I don’t feel depressed or anything because of being stabbed. Usually, people who get stabbed get someone to talk to them afterwards to make sure they are ok. This was 2 days after I gained consciousness. After 2 nights of her coming and not being able to get me to talk about anything personal, I spent the next 8 days listening to her problems, her cries and her issues and told her what I thought was right or wrong. 
Sure, businesses love that, the very thing Bes has become on the outside, as he can work perfectly and do miracles even when his personal life is in chaos, for he rarely loses his cool, he rarely shows his weak point, he rarely shows his inner self. He never wants to show anything personal to anyone who does not care a full 100%, and thus he rarely feels the need to express himself to any individual most of the time. But Bes, himself, knows that such a thing, even though it is alive and well, can maybe go through a change. What kind of a change? Who knows. I wonder if he knows what kind of a change he wants. I do know that he is tired of being only a listener in all personal situations. In businesses, he is more than comfortable in almost anything, so that is not part of the topic here.
