Some racists are the nicest people you've ever met

[Dominus]

I live in the Indianapolis area. Next door is a retired couple. Nicest people you will ever meet if you meet them. She always brings over cookies, zucchini bread, etc. Stuff that she makes.

They fly Trump flag, which is perfectly fine.

I was over there earlier today talking to them and stuff. It's been really cold and today's temperature went all the way up to 32 so I was outside doing stuff and thought I'd go over there and socialize.

Told them about my ex employee who is serving time in a county south of here. He got sentenced to 5 years, 2 with good behavior. After that, he will get shipped to another county to face trial for another felony charge there. Then all that said and done they will ship him here where he will face trial for my case against him. Oh yeah, there's also a felony sexual assault charge against him now.

Out of the blue, the nice lady that always brings over baked stuff for us said, "Is he mexican? I bet he's Mexican isn't he."

I said no he's a native born white American.

Husband jumped in and changed the subject.

The media always portrays bigots as angry and mean. I don't know why. Because in my experience they are some of the nicest people around.

Edit. Both BF and I thought what a weird thing to say. And if she was comfortable saying that to a non family member like me, imagine what their private conversations sound like.

 

[cityboy-stl]

Racists are usually nice if you're not one of "them". Kind of surprised they don't seem to be racist toward you. Or homophobic. At least not to your face.

 

[rareboy]

They can go fuck themselves.

 

[Dominus]

Racists are usually nice if you're not one of "them". Kind of surprised they don't seem to be racist toward you. Or homophobic. At least not to your face.

It's not an all or nothing thing. One can be not racist against one race and be racist against another race. One can be gay friendly (or even be gay) and still be racist. It's more complicated than either you're a saint or the devil.

 

[HoodedRat]

Next door is a retired couple. Nicest people you will ever meet ...

They fly Trump flag, which is perfectly fine.

That flag immediately tells you that they are bigoted, hateful, stupid, ignorant, and selfish ... so, really not 'nice' people.

 

[LeicsDom]

That flag immediately tells you that they are bigoted, hateful, stupid, ignorant, and selfish ... so, really not 'nice' people.

I don't see why you can't be at least courteous to people who hold different views to yourself.
Here in the UK we had lots of examples of families split apart because one person voted for Brexit while another voted against.
A friend and I were on opposite sides of that vote but it didn't affect our friendship

 

[NotHardUp1]

For anyone to know whether or not your neighbor uttered racism would require us to know where you live and what the demographics of crime are in that area.

Street crime is typically committed by the lowest economic level of a society, and if you're area has been flooded with immigrants from Latin America, then there may indeed be a disproportionate Latino element in the data.

I lived in Albuquerque for a decade, and there is certainly not an anti-Latino or anti-Native bias there. If anything, it would be closer to a refuge city during all the perturbations that Arizona underwent with the illegal border crossings there. Car theft shot through the roof. Violent crimes increased and breakins became the norm.

As a result, I didn't see racism evident when I was there, even though minority (not a minority there) increased and was talked about everywhere.

Your neighbor would have been more convincing if she did more than ask. If there is an increase in Latino crime as a percentage of the whole, she may have only been revealing her bias about who is likely a criminal by profile, which is something quite different from racism.

JUB has its own history of bigotry, with members referring to heterosexuals as "breeders", accusing bisexuals of being "self-hating closeted" gays, equating GOP voting witth racists, and allowing anti-American cultural attacks while forbidding comments about the nationality of those attacking American culture. Bigotry sucks, but racism needs a little more than the discussion of race as a component of criminality. JUB is also a frequent source of depicting the right as foam-spitting rabid racists instead of the vast majority of voters who are in the center, and have no strong leanings, but have hot button issues like abortion, crime, sexualization of educational content, etc. Having a narrower view of society than those on the extremes just makes you nigh invisible in the media, and especially on JUB.

Just as some "activists" cite racial disparity in criminal statistics as "proof" of racism, many more cite the same data as proof of racial attitudes that follow poverty and culture to justify theft, drugs, and violence.

 

[NotHardUp1]

I don't see why you can't be at least courteous to people who hold different views to yourself.
Here in the UK we had lots of examples of families split apart because one person voted for Brexit while another voted against.
A friend and I were on opposite sides of that vote but it didn't affect our friendship

No.

We need more posts like the OP's, so we can suspect every kind act by a neighbor bearing a loaf of banana bread to be a hellspawn from Rosemary's Baby, about to induct us into their coven of haters.

America isn't divided enough yet. We need more undermining from within and without. We haven't dissolved the Union completely, yet.

 

[NotHardUp1]

For anyone to know whether or not your neighbor uttered racism would require us to know where you live and what the demographics of crime are in that area.

I see I missed Indianapolis in the OP. Let's see what the FBI data shows.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Judging from this DOJ study, Indianapolis is a major drug hub for Chicago supply, and is connected with the Mexican cartels:

https://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs0/660/660p.pdf

And this IndyStar article, which is heavily pro-Latino/Latina, authored by an Hispanic surname, cites a 480% increase in the Latitno population over two decades:

IndyStar LaPlaza

So, with the influx of greater Latino numbers, and a rise in the drug hub activity, a Hoosier could be understandably under the impression the two data points are related.

That said, these are factoids. Creating any real demographic profile of changes in Indianapolis requires a lot of data to be sifted, vetted, and scoured. Lots of half-truths exist in brief summaries.

 

[NotHardUp1]

This article in the Utne Reader cites half the federal offenders as Latino, being either immigration violations or drugs. The publication is not some rightwing rag, but a digital independent magazine known for being an alternative source.

https://www.utne.com/community/latino-populations-ze0z1501zdeh/

Unsurprisingly, the same article cites that half of known gang members in the US are Latino, even if only a very small percentage of Latino youths ARE gang members.

The problem again is disproportionate representation. It's not that the majority of Indianapolis' Latinos are criminal, but there may well be a disproporationately high percentage of Indianapolis' criminals who are Latino. That would certainly give pause for Hoosiers to have bigotry against the growing population there. It doesn't make it right, but it should cause anyone discussing it to ask why.

In this case, why didn't our OP ask the neighbor why she said it, and get to the source of her comment rather than instantly assuming she hated all Mexicans? After all, if we are social justice warriors, wouldn't standing up for justice be our calling when encountering such open verbal bigotry? Or do we just become silent accomplices?

There's lots of focus on how comfortable she was speaking, but nothing about how comfortable the anti-racist was remaining silent about it.

 

[Alistair]

This whole thread is mind-boggling

 

[NotHardUp1]

This whole thread is mind-boggling

The premise implies a silent insidious presence of hate, when the more pertinent question would be why anyone would let a comment like that go unchallenged.

 

[unloadonme]

This article in the Utne Reader cites half the federal offenders as Latino, being either immigration violations or drugs. The publication is not some rightwing rag, but a digital independent magazine known for being an alternative source.

https://www.utne.com/community/latino-populations-ze0z1501zdeh/

Unsurprisingly, the same article cites that half of known gang members in the US are Latino, even if only a very small percentage of Latino youths ARE gang members.

The problem again is disproportionate representation. It's not that the majority of Indianapolis' Latinos are criminal, but there may well be a disproporationately high percentage of Indianapolis' criminals who are Latino. That would certainly give pause for Hoosiers to have bigotry against the growing population there. It doesn't make it right, but it should cause anyone discussing it to ask why.

In this case, why didn't our OP ask the neighbor why she said it, and get to the source of her comment rather than instantly assuming she hated all Mexicans? After all, if we are social justice warriors, wouldn't standing up for justice be our calling when encountering such open verbal bigotry? Or do we just become silent accomplices?

There's lots of focus on how comfortable she was speaking, but nothing about how comfortable the anti-racist was remaining silent about it.

There are similar issues in the UK. I've dug up the following statistics for murders in London in 2021:

Proportion of London population identifying as black - 13.5%
Proportion of murder victims in London who were black - 42%
Proportion of people charged with murder in London who were black - 58%

There are probably a number of explanations for this, but if the OP's old lady were to ask if a particular defendant was black she's probably going to be right.

https://www.met.police.uk/foi-ai/metropolitan-police/d/january-2022/murders-in-london-2021-by-age-gender-and-race/#:~:text=I%20have%20today%20decided%20to,when%20the%20homicide%20was%20recorded.

Regional ethnic diversity

According to the 2021 Census, London was the most ethnically diverse region in England and Wales – 63.2% of residents identified with an ethnic minority group.

www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk

In the news at the moment are a series of gangs who have raped and sexually abused under-age (usually white) girls, mainly in working class towns in northern England. The people responsible are predominantly of Pakistani heritage. The government appears reluctant to agree to a comprehensive, judge-led enquiry and many suspect that that reluctance relates to not wanting to publicly reveal the full extent and racial background of the offending. Here are a couple of examples:

Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Rochdale child sex abuse ring - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Again, if the OP's little old lady were to ask if a particular grooming gang was British-Pakistani, once more she's probably going to be right. Would either question be racist? Given the statistics, it's hard in my view to say "yes".

 

[cityboy-stl]

It's not an all or nothing thing. One can be not racist against one race and be racist against another race. One can be gay friendly (or even be gay) and still be racist. It's more complicated than either you're a saint or the devil.

Only more complicated to you because you're accepting. To racists, it's pretty black and white, or Mexican and white, as the case may be. That's been my observation. But yeah, pick the race to hate has been seen as well. But I would say, if Trump started hating the French (for example), they would too.

 

[rareboy]

I live in the Indianapolis area. Next door is a retired couple. Nicest people you will ever meet if you meet them. She always brings over cookies, zucchini bread, etc. Stuff that she makes.

They fly Trump flag, which is perfectly fine.

I was over there earlier today talking to them and stuff. It's been really cold and today's temperature went all the way up to 32 so I was outside doing stuff and thought I'd go over there and socialize.

Told them about my ex employee who is serving time in a county south of here. He got sentenced to 5 years, 2 with good behavior. After that, he will get shipped to another county to face trial for another felony charge there. Then all that said and done they will ship him here where he will face trial for my case against him. Oh yeah, there's also a felony sexual assault charge against him now.

Out of the blue, the nice lady that always brings over baked stuff for us said, "Is he mexican? I bet he's Mexican isn't he."

I said no he's a native born white American.

Husband jumped in and changed the subject.

The media always portrays bigots as angry and mean. I don't know why. Because in my experience they are some of the nicest people around.

Edit. Both BF and I thought what a weird thing to say. And if she was comfortable saying that to a non family member like me, imagine what their private conversations sound like.

I am still trying to figure out why you think these are nice people and want to hang out with them.

Is it just because she bakes for you and treats you like a white person?

 

[rareboy]

Only a matter of time before all these 'nice people' start eating themselves. And Shapiro might want to review where he stands in the NAZI pecking order as well. But I'll bet whoever first posted the original meme that Benjamin responded to is also thought to be one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to grab a beer with.

 

[LeicsDom]

No.

We need more posts like the OP's, so we can suspect every kind act by a neighbor bearing a loaf of banana bread to be a hellspawn from Rosemary's Baby, about to induct us into their coven of haters.

America isn't divided enough yet. We need more undermining from within and without. We haven't dissolved the Union completely, yet.

Mods. Can we have a sarcasm Like?

 

[peeonme]

If they were truly racists, you would not be welcome on their porch.

 

[LeicsDom]

In the news at the moment are a series of gangs who have raped and sexually abused under-age (usually white) girls, mainly in working class towns in northern England. The people responsible are predominantly of Pakistani heritage. The government appears reluctant to agree to a comprehensive, judge-led enquiry and many suspect that that reluctance relates to not wanting to publicly reveal the full extent and racial background of the offending.

I think part of the reason for various UK Government bodies refusing to publicly admit the extent of immigrant offenders is because they are in thrall to the mainly Muslim populations in those areas and are reluctant to alienate them. This will, in the long term, be counter productive as it will inflame racism by tarring all Muslims with the same brush. Which, of course, is ridiculous.