How much "Racism," is nothing more then a great big chip on the shoulder?

Blue Steel & Lace

A lot of it is.

Ahwell

Absolutely.

Forbidden

Yes, I think it is .. and your story, and the reaction of your Afro Caribbean colleagues, confirms this. It seems nowadays nobody can say anything to a person from an ethnic minority without being accused of being racist.

beautifulirishgirl

At least some of it is. I am so tired of colored people playing the race card that I could scream. The only way to overcome racism is to quit making race an issue.

essdee

Definitely you are right. If I tell a black person in the library to keep her kids quiet, it's apparently only becuase I am racist...!?
A white person would know that it is wrong to let their kids disturb the library - but these people think it is a free babysitting service!

arrestedamilliontimes

I'm a white person and I've visited countries where everyone is black and people on the street go out of their way to degrade and abuse Americans and white people. Why doesn't anyone cry "racism" then???? I bet if I went to an Afro Carribean country people would cat call me and treat me lousy but your so called friends wouldn't care!

Korky

You should put this question to all, not infer that most white people are racist, I have meet all sorts and there are racist from all colours and creeds if you think that different groups cling together just for protectinon think again feeling safe is only a small part of it.if anyone has a chip on there shoulder its not the white man.

stitched up

I think a massive proportion of it is, and we feed the emotion, i also think that we are no more racist at times than a lot of the immigrants living here.

Bear

Good question.

I think in a lot of cases then you are correct. As a police officer I've stopped countless ethnic minority groups for genuine reasons. The number of those that question whether I am racist is unbelievable.

This country has gone PC and racism mad. As a result its easy for a person of an ethnic minority to claim we are being racist. I think in a lot of cases this is just used to try and intimidate the officer(s).

Figures in relation to stop and searches tended to suggest that the police were stopping and searching ethnic minorities far more than white people. What it did not take into account was that officers were searching all sorts of people, mostly white. They didn't put in search forms for white people searched (should have but didnt) but did put search forms in for ethnic minorities, to show justifiaction for the search should the person make racist accusations. As a result the figures were misrepresented.

mike h

I totally agree, racism is used by too many people too much of the time, just because of political correctness.

I think there are two reasons for this,

firstly, yes, a lot of ethnic so called minorities do have a massive chip on their shoulder and know playing the race card s an instant way to get power.

secondly, a lot of the liberal left wing idiots are too quick to see racism where there is none just so they can make a big fuss and show they are so equal opportunities.

What about so called positive discrimination? which for me is a politically correct term for acceptable racism towards the white majority to pander to the rights of the minority. ThatÃ¤s racism too.

Drama Queen

I agree with you 100%

francis f

the problem we have in this country is that due to high profile cases on the telly and certain people high up in the government almost agreeing to let this continue, we will always be stereotyped as racists.
the problem with many different cultures is that there just not willing to abide by our laws and when they are caught exploiting them they immediatley reach for the race card so as to throw an obstacle in the way.
i do feel sorry for the police nowadays due to the reaction they get from other nationalities, its even got to the point were black officers are being called racist when they are dealing with black people, so i think its a national identity issue reallywere other races see themselves not above the law but able to manipulate it to their own way.

Doethineb

I live in a place where the racism operates the other way round. I think that the people who act towards me in a racist way are the ones with the chip on their shoulder.

I have seen the answer of Arrestedamilliontimes and agree with her. When white people are discriminated against in Afro-Caribbean countries they simply put up with it and smile sweetly. Nobody is ever going to take up the cudgels on their behalf.

I â™¥ Caydence

Racism is overly rated. It all depends on who youre saying it to or who it is being said to. One person will take offense to it, another will brush it off.

Sammy

I'm sorry, friend... But, a big van parked on the side of the road, even broke down, would be suspicious to me as well, and I can't say I'm racist at all, because I have people of color in my family.

Truth it, terror is a lot more frequent now, and it's just not fair to blame being considered "Suspicious" on the cops being racist. You have to blame them for doing their job and protecting the people.

Think about this... How easy would it be for you to have put a bomb in that van and placed your van in the same location as it was?

I think you'll find that if you were in the same situation, and you were the cop, you would have been suspicious and then tried to help the man next.

Curtis H

While racism can only cut from the majority to a minority by definition, the guilt of stereotyping can be shared equally by all. Your coworkers would have perceived racism because of the simple factor of it being a minority vs law enforcement scenario and profiling has been proven to occur. In that sense they are stereotyping the police behavior based possibly on previous experiences with police, but not necessarily those police officers specifically, which is frankly just a different twist on a person drawing conclusions about a person of color based on stereotypes or even actual previous experiences with people of color, just not those people. The fact that some people are responding to your quote by pointing the race and stereotype finger at you is epidemic of every discussion of race that occurs in open forums anymore. The fact that you asked a question, not made a statment, and actually attempted to research the question, no matter how good of a sampling, show that your focus was intended to be a matter of perceived racism vs. actual racism and is a valid question. Another question that would be interesting to explore is the one that asks... Is perception reality? In mass psychology it is possible to demonstrate that perception can mold reality, and if you are going to get rid of the bad trait, how do you change the perception? The fact that a very small percentage of people seem to be able to ascend to a level of intellectual detachment to solve a problem. Aristotle once said "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

joseph s

Racism is learned from those around you or from a bad experience.
It is also sometimes just pure ignorance.

I don't think you can know unless you are a likely victim of racial police victimisation, ie a visually obvious ethnic minority.

Whilst I think the police have improved there is still inherent racism in many police staff and for every one false cry of "racism" I imagine there are several rightly justfied ones.

Buttercup

A one-time occurrence for you is a multiple occurrence for others. The very fact that you make a sweeping statement about people of co lour having a chip on their shoulder is a racist remark, and you're clueless about it. A racial stereotype means you subscribe one characteristic for everyone in that perceived group, or simply assume it's more true than untrue, even though you have never been in their shoes.

Unbelievable.

The thing is, I don't understand how someone not part of a group can disparage the experience of that group. It's like my lacking physical challenges, rolling my eyes at the experiences of someone who has MS or in a wheelchair, etc.

Added later:
Well, Trouble, it's ironic that your first impulse after hearing the opinions of your Afro Caribbean colleagues was to assume they had a chip on their shoulder. Because it doesn't happen to you, it doesn't happen to anyone else, right?

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