I’m sure she is a very clean, thoroughbred, white girl.
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Wasn’t that the lame excuse some woman tried to use to get out of getting a ticket, or something silly like that?
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Yup. The key, which was attached to the fob, which he buzzed himself in with, and which was in his hand the whole time.
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Don’t lay that at my feet.
It’s entirely reasonable to stop or at least question anyone who doesn’t appear to have a key to your building. That’s not to say she isn’t motivated by isn’t racist intent, but there is no clear way to know in this video. I’ve been hassled in buildings I’ve lived in in pretty much this exact way. (Turns out they just didn’t like renters in a mostly owner-occupied building - if I was black, it wouldn’t have been racist, but how would I ever know?)
It’s funny that I was midway through a reply to you saying that you had a good point: I was giving your post thoughts and was considering how strange to follow him to his suit. And even getting into the elevator with him showed she wasn’t afraid of him. So why hassle him so much? I was taking in your opinions and views with an open mind - because as I said in my first comment, maybe i missed something - until you told me I was too white to see racism.
"It’s hard to see racism when you’re white"
^^ Let that little pearl of wisdom settle in to your brain.
Now I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to know for sure what’s racist and what’s not. What a dilemma I’m in.
But if you see something, say something. Innocent people won’t mind the minor inconvenience of never entering their home again as the small price to pay so the terrorists don’t win.
[edited for spelling]
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Frankly, I’d suggest that you don’t put down what you’re not willing to pick back up.
The woman in question did much more than simply question someone whom she wasn’t sure belonged in her building.
If you’re not the target demographic of the ad, then there’s no need to take it personally; I merely posted it as part of the reality that I and other “minorities” live in.
Many White people don’t see racism, because it never has a noticeable negative effect on them personally, or because they simply don’t want to.
That’s an unfortunate fact.
You can choose to be part of the change or you can choose to take a general statement as a personal criticism.
Yes, I’m sure you’re just all torn up about it.
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Oh boo hoo for you.
It’s a simple fact, whether or not you know it, that whites generally have a much harder time seeing racism than those who run the risk every day of encountering it.
Come on dude, wake up and smell your whiteness.
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Oh come on.
If you recognize something as racism, it is probably racism, but just because you don’t recognize something as racism doesn’t mean it is not.
This is true for everyone, of course, but white people are going to look for other factors more often than people of color, because race will much more rarely come into play in a negative way for white people.
And before anyone makes the argument that therefore minorities are more likely to see racism where there isn’t any… I can’t remember who said it, and I won’t get the quote right, but someone said something along the lines of “you can always tell. Sometimes people are being a dick just because they are a dick, but you can always tell when they’re being a dick because they are a racist dick.”
People for whom race is a major factor in a large percentage or their interactions are going to have a good sense of the role that race is playing. White people, again, are going to have a harder time with accurately assessing the role of race in any given interaction.
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Yep. Which helps to totally expose as a canard the common white claim that POC like to run around “playing the race card.”
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There are some POC out there who do try to make everything racial even in circumstances when its not a factor, and who try to use racism as an excuse for everything bad that ever happens to them… BUT they’re not the vast majority; and their hyper-defensiveness in no way negates or even diminishes all the real racism and bigotry that occurs perpetually.
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When it comes to peeps, pretty much every rule has exceptions who only help to prove it.
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My wife’s cousin is like this. She’s hypersensitive to anything she perceives as anti-Hispanic to the point of exaggerating even mild slights into dramatic racist affronts. My wife calls her a “militant Chicana” and she can be very obnoxious and over the top with her rants.
(What’s funny is I’m the only white guy she likes…after 25 years of marriage and being part of the family I’m one of the only “good ones” to her.)
But this in no way diminishes the actual real racism that Latinos and other POCs experience on a regular basis.
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My favorite pop culture example is in the movie Boomerang; Tyler, one of the main character’s homies, has a serious chip on his shoulder and is always actively looking for something to be offended at, even the usage of the term “asparagus spears” by a waitress who’s just describing the lunch special.
But then, a little later in the movie, this happens:
Most of the time, most POC aren’t just “overreacting” or “being too sensitive.”
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His entire monologue on how racist billiards is…comedy gold.
And to comment about the detail we discussed earlier (estranged husband being mixed race). I wondered if that was put out as an explainer or excuse as to her apparent racism. “It wasn’t;t racism, she just was a woman scorned by a black man, so see…it was mis placed anger/rage.” Not the first time I’ve seen something like that thrown out as an excuse.
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All good points and I will take them in the spirit you meant them. I think your points about not seeing it are not without merit and let’s let it sit there.
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Of course! That’s why I joined the conversation.
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That’s my basic assessment of the whole movie.
Probably, and I have no problem calling it out for the bullshit justification that it is. I’m directly related to bigots in denial; I know all too well what it looks like.
Hell, I loved my Gram beyond measure, but I still acknowledge that when she was still alive, she was one of them.
Of course, I didn’t realize that until I’d started dating in my teens and she got very agitated when one date came to the door for me… and he happened to be a Black man.
Up until that point, I’d convinced myself that she’d ‘gotten over’ her prejudice out of her love for us, her biracial grandchildren. I was wrong; she’d merely made ‘special exceptions’ for us.
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I expect that it was being thrown around as “she couldn’t possibly be racist, she used to be married to a Black guy” bullshit.
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I hate to defend this insufferable woman, but it is unclear to me whether he opened the door or entered through a door that she had opened. If it is the latter, then I fully understand why she didn’t want to let him in. As a resident of a multi-unit apartment building, we have had numerous instances of thieves following a resident into the building. We are instructed to never open the door for strangers. Anytime I go to enter my building and there is another resident who has opened the door and who I perceive would be unsure whether I live there or not I either show them my key or wait for them to close the door and then unlock it myself. If someone I know tries to enter the building behind me using my key then if I am feeling brave I will try to stop them or ask if I can see their key.
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