How Prevalent is Racism/Discrimination Where YOU Live?

[Kruul]

I live in brisbane and well I can easily generalize this to all of australia, Aboriginals are kept at arms length most of the time and this is due to *a lot* not all being very aggressive and or not having any concept of ownership (smashing in car windows when they are drunk) but in general ive met quite a few good aboriginals and i think the disdain for them is finally beginging to clear everythiing takes time. I hate every single indian cabby in brisbane not 1 has ever treated me or my friends with respect my most recent experience the cabby tried to drive about 1k down a side road to come down the main road which connects to mine instead of going straight then taking a left onto my road about 100m down he then tried to make me pay 30 dollars for what i know is a 18 dollar fare, I threatened to call up his work he shut up and didnt get 1 dollar .
I also particularly hate ANY ethnicity which comes to say australia and complain about religionous things i have a "get the fuck out if you dont like it" policy cause i know for a matter of fact I would be treated like shit in their country. Now i got quite a few mates who are muslim but all of them agree that the muslims who come to aus and complain / want to bring in sharia law should be instantly removed from our country. I think racism is a pretty ill defined term in this generation I dont think ive said anything racist what so ever.

[lol]

I live in a small suburb out side a large city, there is no racism or discrimination here at all, seems to be a good blind of cultures and everyone seems to get along, I couldn't live in an egocentric society, just annoying.

[Blackmarket]

I live in a very heavy liberal area, Southern California; very seldom do you come across racism/discrimination. Perhaps everyone has these types of feelings towards others, but its definitely not acceptable anywhere to voice them. As a Jewish member of society, I typically expect to face discrimination from bigots; but here I can actually feel safe about it.

[namelessone]

idd, i am so sick of having to say african american or african european when i want to say the color of someone's skin... Technically an egyptian is african... but if u say that people will become confused - i use the word black to say the color of a guys skin as i would say dark if its a guy with dark skin... It is not a determination of your value as a person... Im pretty tired of having to watch what i say because i was born with another skin color

"ive had acne for 5 years and im finally beginning to be white - can i be here too?" <- Famous danish comedian

Interesting fact: in russian, the word "negr" doesn't have racist undertones, it is used exclusively to describe appearance feature, like "blond". It is sometimes difficult for russian-speaking people to adjust to western "rules" and not use the n-word.
On the other hand by the way, the word for "black" in russian is actually derogatory, when applied to a person. It is usually used in a negative connotation in reference to ethnic groups from caucasus region.

[Catta]

Interesting fact: in russian, the word "negr" doesn't have racist undertones, it is used exclusively to describe appearance feature, like "blond". It is sometimes difficult for russian-speaking people to adjust to western "rules" and not use the n-word.
On the other hand by the way, the word for "black" in russian is actually derogatory, when applied to a person. It is usually used in a negative connotation in reference to ethnic groups from caucasus region.

well the word negro is latin for black... I can understand the derogatory use of a foreign language but when u start to apply it to an everydayword its a bit wrong

[Donkeypuncher]

< Lives in MS...pretty sure you can figure it out :P

[namelessone]

well the word negro is latin for black... I can understand the derogatory use of a foreign language but when u start to apply it to an everydayword its a bit wrong

Well, you don't see black people every day in Russia =)

[Catta]

Well, you don't see black people every day in Russia =)

neither do you do in denmark... well i pretty much do since theres ONE guy at my high school... Yes we have a very homogenious population

[Kalyyn]

Interesting fact: in russian, the word "negr" doesn't have racist undertones, it is used exclusively to describe appearance feature, like "blond". It is sometimes difficult for russian-speaking people to adjust to western "rules" and not use the n-word.
On the other hand by the way, the word for "black" in russian is actually derogatory, when applied to a person. It is usually used in a negative connotation in reference to ethnic groups from caucasus region.

The (few) black people I know actually get rather annoyed when you call them "African Americans", one having said to one of my high school teachers "Do I look like I'm from Africa to you? Do you think I have ever been to Africa?"

Best one though was when MSNBC (the communist carebear of American news) called a man "African American", despite his being a French citizen. The other news channels played the clip about a thousand times and laughed their asses off.

[artemishunter1]

Affirmative action actually pisses me off a lot. My school is under heavy criticism for being "too white". Really?! I guess I'm just fucking weird or something, but I think schools should be criticized for their quality of education and how they handle their budget, not how many non-whites they can fit in their student body. And don't get me started on admissions. Even playing field, no matter where.

You don't deserve a "push" because of your skin color. If employers are racist, then mandate that race be not included in any kind of application of any sort. A job application should merely be your credentials and a well-written resume, not some complicated mess of your heritage. Fuck that. Let your workers find out where you're from when you're hired and they're getting to know you in the workplace. Etc.

Hurrr. Got me all riled up.

This is where i disagree a bit. The old rule that, you should get hired based on your skill is just complete bull shit right now. Because skill is now overrated, in a modern society like this there are no debt of skilled people. what job you can do, can be done by dozens of other people at your ability. So, skill can not be the only requirement for job hiring. Thus, why not race play a factor. If you give job to a skilled minority, he or she can put his children to college or earn more money for himself. in both ways, he serves the state. either by being able to pay taxes or by his children becoming productive members of society and holding high paid and high taxed jobs.

[Deleted]

I live in Sweden and i never notice any discrimination in my private life at all, not even in school. (Except for "Fjortisar" they are a bit hated for their looks(same goes for Emos)

And it was all fine untill last years election. A group called "Sverigedemokraterna" (Sweden Democrats) got ~6% of the votes and got 20/349 votes in our government. What they stand for is pure racism. Of course they dont say that out loud but anyone with an IQ higer than 50 can easily see through thier "pretty words". For example, they want to stop the immigration.

I think its just horrible... I lost alot of respect for the people of Sweden that day...

The view on gays/bisexuals/transexuals on the other hand is accepted by many and more and more people are starting to accept this. We even have a big festival for people with different sexualites.
So im positive on this point atleast!

No, they're not racists. They just want to limit the number of immigrants so we can help those we already have problems with. You see, Rosengård is a ghetto. Do we want ghettos in Sweden? No, maybe you want. But I don't. Too many immigrants doesn't have jobs. They are living on our hard earned money. DO NOT. I repeat: DO NOT let ANYONE who can be seen as a threat to our country. I don't want any people who just scream "svennejävlar" all day long. I want respect from everyone. I believe Finland has a rule that every immigrant got aroudn 6 mounths to get a job. IOr else they're kicked out of the country. That's a good rule.

[Catta]

The (few) black people I know actually get rather annoyed when you call them "African Americans", one having said to one of my high school teachers "Do I look like I'm from Africa to you? Do you think I have ever been to Africa?"

Best one though was when MSNBC (the communist carebear of American news) called a man "African American", despite his being a French citizen. The other news channels played the clip about a thousand times and laughed their asses off.

1. Thats the problem im talking about - you dont know where they are from and why should u when your talking about their skin color
2. Thats... Not... Communist...

---------- Post added 2011-03-28 at 02:54 AM ----------

No, they're not racists. They just want to limit the number of immigrants so we can help those we already have problems with. You see, Rosengård is a ghetto. Do we want ghettos in Sweden? No, maybe you want. But I don't. Too many immigrants doesn't have jobs. They are living on our hard earned money. DO NOT. I repeat: DO NOT let ANYONE who can be seen as a threat to our country. I don't want any people who just scream "svennejävlar" all day long. I want respect from everyone. I believe Finland has a rule that every immigrant got aroudn 6 mounths to get a job. IOr else they're kicked out of the country. That's a good rule.

dammit now i cannot go to sweden anymore... Back over the bridge then

[Anakso]

It's people like that Muslim person that kinda ruin it for all other Muslims.

if for some reason I start going to school in another country where Christianity isn't the main religion I'm not going to demand christmas off, it's just ridiculous to expect another country to do that. it reminds me a lot of England, which has a lot of hate towards Muslims not due to terrorist worries or anything like that, it's because so many of them complain, basically that there religion and nationality isn't the main one of England and the government actually takes them seriously.

The biggest example I have is when one town ACTUALLY BANNED English football shirts from football stadiums because a Muslim group complained that it was racist towards them, as they weren't aloud to wear the garments that cover their whole face in a football stadium.

theres a lot of cases where some people just ruin it for an entire race, because of the few that complain many people just hate Muslims now, and maybe it could be all of them though I doubt it. similarly with aboriginals where I live now in Australia, before I worked in a shop the only ones I saw were hanging around at bus stops, begging for smokes, yelling, picking fights, not wearing shoes and usually drunk, now I see a lot of normal people that just happen to be aboriginal but still the general public view of them is the loud mouth trouble making poor bums with no home.

my views on racism is in most normal 1st world places, racism is only encouraged by the people it is towards, (i.e to put this into American terms when you say something completely none racist to a black man and they might mishear you and yell at you for being racist, that only breeds more racism) although it is only the few that encourage it normally, and not the entire race of people, but the entire race of people get blamed for ones actions (how long did some countries take to forgive Germany for hitler...)

[Powerogue]

I'd say racism is at an all time low, increased in areas that reinforce it, such as black ghettos. If people grow up around humans that reinforce a negative stereotype associated with race, the racism will get stronger, but eliminating it from media and having it be generally discouraged by society was a good step.

(Except for "Fjortisar" they are a bit hated for their looks(same goes for Emos)

.....what are those? judging from the black and white photo I'd say they're clown hookers? that must be what "fjortisar" means in swedish...

[Tragedia]

I live in Puerto Rico but I was born in Israel, so I have been exposed to an abundance of cultural diversity. In Puerto Rico there is a little bit of racism against Caucasians, but that might have a little to do with what I feel is a need from the Puerto Rican people to separate themselves from the US (as Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the US.) I would be a fool to openly declare that I am myself completely racism-free, being from Israel I do feel some frustration towards Arabs in general and feel like it can get to me; however I have plenty of muslim and arab friends who I try not to involve in my political beliefs.

I am really happy btw with how, so far, this thread has remained troll free. It's refreshing to read without having to filter out the useless thoughts that burden these forums sometimes.

I'm from Puerto Rico as well. I was born here and i feel 100% Puerto Rican except my mother is from Honduras. I agree that there is a bit of racism against Caucasians mostly people from the USA because we do feel we are not part of the United States and some of us feel we shouldn't be a part of the US. In my case I study in the University of PR's high school and most of the teachers and personnel there are pro-independence. My previous school (elementary) was a private and they were mostly pro-statehood as in USA rules, USA big PR small they powerful we are weak. It is pretty confusing coming from one school to another were the education is entirely different. In high school I am being thought many things and there is racism, teachers are like "oh americans are so stupid they only came to take away our freedom and they we are a disguised colony". There is also some racism against dominicans. Since they migrate to Puerto Rico illegally in some cases we feel them like an inferior species and make stupid jokes on how "stupid" they are. Me being around in a middle to high class family friends and such are also pretty racist sometimes, again racism against dominicans and even black people seeing them and inferior only doing jobs poor people would do. Racism is pretty stupid in my opinion we are all brothers and sisters, you are not better than me and I am not better than you, we all have imperfections. I also can't say I'm racism free sometimes I like to joke about stereotypes and things with my friends but not seriously.

[Negrido]

I have more people that exhibit disdain or hatred when they find out I'm an atheist than they do because of my race.
That may be due to the fact that I'm biracial and as such people cant figure out what the hell I am or whether or not they have an opinion on the matter once I tell them.

Moved from Michigan to Virginia and its hella diverse here. What little racial tension I felt up there isnt here.
The closest I get is that since there are so many Hispanic people here, there are pretty major language issues sometimes. But thats more an issue of people being lazy than it is of race.

[Arshan]

Does it exist within my country? Yes.
Is that an issue? No, so long as it doesn't harm anyone.

Discrimination stems from the need for a group and as social creatures humans simply need groups.

And in practice the only groups that count are practical ones, school groups, sports groups, friend groups, but also religious groups, social groups and racially based groups.
Racism is simply embedded in the very foundation of western society, you can't remove it, but that's not always a bad thing, it's simply culture most of the times.

You could argue that discriminalisation is a bad thing in itself, but you'd quickly run into many problems, one of them being that people simply aren't alike, they are different and thank god they are, otherwise it'd be a bland world.

You could state that racism is bad in all it's forms, but you'd be neglecting some natural differences between races, after all the distinction was once made for a reason. (Cpt. Obvious: Reason being that there simply are differences, thus a different term is appropriate)

And regarding discriminalisation when it comes to religion: The reason the holidays fall on the same dates as Christian events stems from tradition, that's something which varies in every region of the world and is often appropriate for the season
.
The holidays simply aren't bound to religious events anymore, as such it's useless to argue that it's discrimination that we don't have islamitic holidays because you're basically argueing about why not everybody follows your belief, which will always be something that's pretty useless to argue about. (Cpt. Obvious: Due to lack of any real logic within religions it's useless to argue)

[namelessone]

I have more people that exhibit disdain or hatred when they find out I'm an atheists than they do because of my race.

GET PITCHFORKS! We got us one of 'em atheyists folk!
Is it really that bad in US? I heard stories about "bible belt" and such...
I don't think I've ever met a person who asked me about my religion.

[psdew1813]

to where its non existent but i live in a college town in CA so go figure.

[Regina Phalange]

Living in a small village in the Netherlands, I don't agree with this. We always lived happily with a few different nationalities, without even knowing the meaning of the word racism until a few years ago Muslims started to move to our village. The criminality rate increased, people got scared of them, life quality lowered, original Dutch villagers moved away; and at that point the racism here started, and it's going as far as that 30% of the people are voting for Geert Wilders' party now, when lets say 15 years ago noone voted for parties with those ideas.

Looking at these fairly objective observations in this case it looks like the Muslims moving here asked for it themselves, since the nationalities (Indonesian, Suriname) that came before never caused any issues.

THIS. Geert Wilders' party is winning for a reason. The majority of the Muslim population (90%) in the Netherlands are fucking this country up!
Violence, Crime, Bullying has all gone up since their arrival. When a news broadcast has a story on some old woman being mugged; or two friends beaten up for no apparent reason it's always the Muslims.

Also, on the topic of Muslims feeling discriminated against because of Christian holidays, this is actually very funny. You see, when I was still in high school, all Muslim children would receive the day off because of Suikerfeest (Sugarfest I guess?) whereas the rest would have to go to school. I recall asking why we couldn't have the day off also, to which I was told that it was because we weren't Muslim. I of course replied that our school had to open on Christmas days then, because surely, that is a Christian holiday, and the Muslims would have to attend. Argueing ensued and I was sent to detention, etc. (I never went to school on Sugarfest, mind, nor will my children.) ((Now that I think about it, all schools in the NL do this.))

So yeah, discrimination/racism happens in Europa, too.