How Were Racial Stereotypes Discussed In Your Household?

[Mr-Brooding]

It's hot as hell and the dewing buds of red ratchets are blooming. It must be race-related thread season!

How were racial stereotypes expressed in your household? And do you believe in them now? Do you catch yourself joking about them or do the thoughts appear in your head sometimes?

In my household, my dad never really talked about anything more than sports so he was tuned out for the most part. My mother... She has her beliefs, many of which are from experience, other are passed down assumptions that she has heard from older family members and seen in the media. At one point, I would began to call her out on it and she would give me a look that was supposed to mean I was just ignorant and young. I have experienced life a little bit more since those days and my mind has not shifted. I don't know if she still believes the things she once did, but she doesn't say anything derogatory about people based on race anymore...for the most part.

I don't believe in ANY of the things that others would spew about other races. The thoughts do, however, appear when someone acts in accordance to my parent's beliefs.

My inspiration for this post was derived from the another thread on here that presented a chart that suggested that blacks were the least likely to get responses on OkCupid accounts. It made me wonder why black people are considered so unattractive around the world... was it all physical or something else?

 

[Mr-Brooding]

I'm deathly afraid of Asian women drivers to be honest.

Did your parents warn you about female Asian drivers themselves???

 

[Mr-Brooding]

****I FORGOT TO ADD***** That you really don't need to be specific in the stereotypes or anything!

 

[G-Lexington]

I mainly tecall my parents dismissing racial stereotypes. In fact, I grew up not even knowing several of the more common ones. I remember saying one guy was kind of cheap, anda friend said "You're only saying that because he's Scottish.". I didn't have any idea what she was talking about.

Lex

 

[DigitalFudge]

My entire family is educated so nothing was really brought up outside of making a joke about a situation.



Edited to not sound as baiting

 

[MissAnne]

My parents were pretty progressive and didnt normally speak on stereotypes. Though I have heard my Dad say something like 'Jewish people like to save money'. Never really saying cheap, but I know thats what he's getting at. Im just like 'Really ? Dad"

 

[refujiunderground]

well, both of my parents have warned me about not eating at restaurants where indian people are workers because they say that they tend to be unsanitary with the handling of food and about white people being racist. my mom has also said negative things about black people being ignorant, having attitude problems, and being fucked up. my father has too with the whole "i don't want you to be like those other young (black) kids on the street up to no good". smh.

not to put my parents out on front street though.

as for whether i believe them or not, i used to when i was a kid because i didn't know anybody and i didn't have much interaction besides dealing with black people. nowadays, looking back at my experiences and all, i just think people are fucked up in general until proven otherwise-i don't trust anybody. i try to keep an open mind but from my experiences dealing with others regardless of who they are (man, woman, black, white, straight, gay etc), i've found more people to be assholes than to be good people. i just come as myself and see what that person is all about. if we click, then cool. if we don't then i guess we're not cool. as for my parents, they're just ignorant.

 

[BFizzle]

I'm sitting here trying to recall something, anything, but I can't. It wasn't really something that was talked about in my house, which I guess in it's own indirect way led me to believe that all people are equal.

My first best friend in elementary school was a black girl and our respective races shunned us. That was the first time I realized something was up.

 

[gsdx]

As far as I can recall, they were never discussed.

 

[Daximus]

Besides my dad calling my cousin a homo on a rare occasion, it wasn't talked about. Although, his random comment made me feel very unwelcome in my own family. It's no wonder I was a closet case for so long.

 

[G-Lexington]

You hid your race from your family? That must have been tough to do.

Lex

 

[palbert]

Racial stereotypes not discussed because there were we (WASPs) and then others. Not much room for discussion.

 

[w4rr10r]

Latino family here. No real racial stereotypes growing up.

I may say ridiculous shit on here, but it's all in jest. I have friends of every race and I think every race has good people and bad people. I don't believe one race is lower or superior to another.

In regards to the "black people being unattractive", I don't get it. I think black men are hot as hell.

 

[Centipede]

My parents were heavily racist. Especially towards black people.

The least-awful thing I feel comfortable posting here is this: My mom always said she'd beat me blue if I ever married a black woman; "To hell with you if I have to touch that disgusting hair and do corn-rolls to your daughters for the rest of my senior life."

They also disliked Asians and anyone remotely dark-skinned. She raised my brother and I to be terrified of the sun and be ashamed if we ever tanned and got slightly darker. I didn't find out much later in life (26) that I tan beautifully, great skin is one of the rare few things my parents passed down to my brother and I, I get a real good bronze color and since then I've loved laying in the sun once every few months because I love that color. I love dark skin. I was so pale for so long due to the way I was brought up and I couldn't break out of that until much later.

 

[yeahright1991]

Grab some tea.

My mother and I talk about people. (ESPECIALLY BAD FASHION). But we will DISCUSS if we see people exhibiting stereotypes - I don't want to list off what stereotypes we clock ANY time we see it because I don't want to offend anyone. But if we see it...we talk about it. This does not mean that either of us have issues with any ethnic background, race, sexual orientation, religion, gender, etc etc. but if it fits/exhibits a common stereotype...we generally get laughs from it.

There is one example I will give though: My mother on finding out that my ex was now dating an Asian guy (My ex was like very serious about being a top even though he was probably two- two.five inches smaller than me downstairs) - Mom: "well I guess he doesn't have to feel bad about that manhood of his in comparison now does he?"

(In case y'all didn't know...Mom and I share a lot).

 

[Mr-Brooding]

My parents were heavily racist. Especially towards black people.

The least-awful thing I feel comfortable posting here is this: My mom always said she'd beat me blue if I ever married a black woman; "To hell with you if I have to touch that disgusting hair and do corn-rolls to your daughters for the rest of my senior life."

They also disliked Asians and anyone remotely dark-skinned. She raised my brother and I to be terrified of the sun and be ashamed if we ever tanned and got slightly darker. I didn't find out much later in life (26) that I tan beautifully, great skin is one of the rare few things my parents passed down to my brother and I, I get a real good bronze color and since then I've loved laying in the sun once every few months because I love that color. I love dark skin. I was so pale for so long due to the way I was brought up and I couldn't break out of that until much later.

Don't forget about those faces you and brother have! You guys are gorgeous.

My parents weren't necessarily racists , but they did make jokes about how I'd probably end up with an Asian wife...whatever that meant.

 

[80KGold]

My dad is a bigot (Sorry, daddy). He's black but doesn't like black people. He doesn't like white people. He doesn't like gay people. He doesn't like people. I remember going to a new school for 5th grade. That was my first time going to a school where the students were predominantly white; I was one of twenty blacks in the entire school (of hundreds). Anyhow, for about the first two weeks, I was terrified (I ain't even playing) to talk to or even look at a white kid, because my dad had spent that entire summer 'preparing' me for school there by telling my how dangerous white people were (I won't bother to specify all of the details of that description).

My mom respects everybody, and that respect is implicit in all of her messages to me about people of other ethnicities and races. She just always told me to keep my mind open, but to be very careful. Her concern was that I'd be emotionally and/or physically hurt by people who don't like blacks.

Nowadays, I'm mostly my own filter (I don't think that I or anybody can think completely independently of societal and familial influence). My own experiences away from home and after my parents divorced have allowed me to temper whatever negative messages I received.

 

[MoufOfKhaos]

They weren't. Parents weren't racist or even segregationist in nature - the most I'd hear of racial stereotyping came from grade school, the media, and the comedians I grew up listening to and laughing with.

 

[AlmondMilk]

I remember being in elementary school and asking my mom how come black people aren't called brown and white people weren't Crayola peach or light tan. My brother, who's five years older than I am, then yelled out "You're racist!!!" Then I was upset because I didn't know what I said.

And when my brother was in kindergarten, he had to fill out a form or something? I'm not sure. The story was probably altered through the years. But he had to fill out something. It asked what his race was. Well, the two options were white and black. He knew he wasn't white :/

I never really noticed any racism from my parents, but I noticed a lot of it from my aunt (mom's sister) and grandmother (mom's mom). My aunt's was a bit more extreme. Just these subtle remarks like when watching tv. She'd say something like, "Look at her hair..." or "Look at her nose..." Then again, all of the remarks she'd make at people on tv were actually a reflection upon herself. But yeah. racism was never really discussed in my house.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

You hid your race from your family? That must have been tough to do.

Lex

Jewish is a race too btw.