Have any of you white people experienced racism?

Question

i was just wondering if its a common thing, if yes, what happened to you?

Answer 1

I had a terrific learning experience years ago.

In the mid-1970's, I was attending a computer programming class through the Urban League of Los Angeles. I had chosen to do that rather than attend college right out of high school.

I was the only white person in the class. Which was just fine, and it was never a problem in class.

This was a three-month-long intensive training class, and we all got to know each other pretty well..

Some of my classmates, among whom I counted a couple as friends, used to go out to lunch together, and sometimes they went to a fish place and brought back lunch. After the first occasion when they offered to bring me back some and I had tasted it, I kept asking to go along. And they hemmed and hawed and just kept offering to bring back fish for me.

Finally, my one friend, Duane, said I could come, and we all went off to get fish for lunch.

It turned out that the fish place, Shabaz, was run by separatist black Muslims who refused to serve me...and, in fact, refused to serve the group as long as I was part of it.

I had never experienced any kind of racism before that, and my friends had never experienced being on the other end of it before. It was a watershed moment for all of us.

I hadn't really been subject to racism, myself, and it woke me up. I had thought that I understood how awful it was to be treated like that, but I didn't until it happened to me. And my friends had never understood how difficult it was to buck that kind of attitude, how difficult it was to protest my treatment when there was agreement from others about it beng OK.

I was really crushed when my friends decided that they were OK with me waiting outside for them while they ordered the food instead of them all walking out....and they were more than a little embarrassed that they were willing to see me treated like that without much protest, because they wanted to be able to keep getting the fish from Shabaz.

I truly wish that everyone of any ethnicity could have the opportunity to actually be in the other people's shoes. It changed my understanding of racism on a level that mere conversation never could, and it also changed my black friends' understanding of the "other side" of the experience.

Answer 2

I don't tan at all, I just burn. If I'm ever in mainland Europe (I'm British) I get a lot of negative comments about being so pale or pink from the more olive coloured folk.

But not proper racism really, can't say I've ever experienced it personally.

Answer 3

I can't say yes directly because nobody has ever told me in my face but in high school i got picked on a lot because i chose to sit with different cultures not just my own, and it was sad to see the backlash over something as trivial as having to seat with other races other than my own i.e branded traitor that kind of things but after a while you tend to let it slide. Life's already hard and short enough, why let somethings like race, religion, gender, sexuality get to you; that's just unnecessary stress.

Answer 4

No sweety, but I have experienced sexist attitudes and religious prejudice and even...political harrassment. I do know that in some areas that white people have felt "left out" but that would not really be racism to the extent that mostly African Americans have experienced.

dabunny

Answer 5

Yes, I once stood at the cosmetic counter in a mall in Miami that is mostly Hispanic and the Hispanic sales girls ignored me. I've also felt like I was glowing and everyone was starting at me when in certain areas of Miami with my husband (he's Hispanic and family lives in miami). I'm a white, redhead with freckles and blue eyes.

Answer 6

Yes. I applied for a job once and was called to arrange an appointment for an interview. The guy asked me if I was an Indian. I said no. They refused to interview me. It was a government job. I know of other who had the same experience.

Answer 7

Yes. I was denied help at one of the home improvement stores by where I work. Had things thrown at my truck while driving from the freeway to the shop where I work. Had a couple of teenagers threaten to "beat my honky ***" while sitting at a red light by where I work. My shop is not in the best of neighborhoods.

Answer 8

Of course whites have expierenced racism, its called political correctness. Its more acceptable for a minority to descriminate against whites.... and racial slurs are even thrown at the most well meaning whites. I've seen it, it happens to my ex constantly.

Answer 9

Uh, I get men all the time on myspace that say i have a nice figure "for a white girl".

Answer 10

Yes..