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[Steeped in a Sea of Games]

So, back story here, I live in a very white suburb (when I moved here 10 years ago it was about 90% white) that has seen some upheaval in demographics thanks to the influx of a lot of H-2B visa workers coming in to the many medical tech companies around here. Now the city is about 75% white and I've been noticing a lot of white flight in the area as the city now has a much larger population of Indians and Somali's (nowadays it's not strange at all to see a lot of women walking around in a chador, hijab, or other tradiational clothing). The city's public services seem to really draw a lot of the more diverse population in and places like the community center and annual events have become increasingly more diverse.

ANYWAY, I go to the community center a couple times a week to exercise (mostly swimming), and while it's still mostly white people who go there, there's a good sized population of people of Western Asian descent there too. I've never seen anyone have a problem with it before and the added diversity has never been anything I've thought of as negative, but today as I was standing near a few people speaking a language I didn't recognize with my 2-year old daughter (I'm Irish, so my daughter and I are nearly translucently white), some lady comes wandering up to me and loudly proclaims in front of them, straight to my face, "WOW IT'S ALMOST LIKE A FOREIGN COUNTRY AROUND HERE".

I was pretty shocked as I've honestly never been face-to-face with such overt racism in my entire life despite always living in really non-diverse places. I looked at her like she was an alien and said back "So, what?" and she just kind of glared at me and walked away in a huff. I looked at the two Asian people who had stopped talking and were staring at me with a look of total bewilderment and I just sort of had to throw up my hands and went on my way. This whole incident really upset me because I wish I would have responded to the situation better and was overall pretty weird to experience first hand. Now I'm pretty much just sitting here feeling really pissed off that people can be such assholes.

TLDR: Had a crazy white lady talk to me like I'd be fine with her incredibly racist views loudly in front of migrants making me feel like a total co-conspirator in the act.

How often do you guys have to put up with shit like this?

 

[Indelible]

I was called a Nigger as a kid by a crazy woman just because I was walking with a group of my friends who were white. Didn't bother me but I never forgot it.

 

[Stoop Man]

My landlady assured us that the apartment complex was free from section 8 renters and "all Caucasian." Well, the former landlady. She had given ownership to her son and his wife who are, thankfully, much nicer.

Also, when my gf was the manager of a diner, the owners told her not to hire anymore black women than she already had because they're too loud and would disturb the customers.

 

[Disgraced]

Too many to mention. I've lived around fucked up people all my life. Because of them, I was a racist little shit for a while too. My grandfather didn't speak to my aunt for over a decade because she married and had a kid with a black man.

 

[The Wraith]

I was called spic a few times in High School, which ended up in me beating the shit out of a few people. Shouldn't have done that but as a 16 year old male at the time I didn't know any better.

 

[Username1198]

Let's see, so many to choose from:

Like my second or third day of college, I was walking towards campus and a car full of white dudes sped passsed me, one leaned out the window said

"go back to your country sand n*****." And threw a cup full of ice at me( he missed).

Felt horrible for awhile.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Family/relatives using the n-word

 

[LifEndz]

Took an American Literature class during my second year at the University of Miami. Class was taught by a young African American male. The syllabus listed all the material we would read during the class, and to my surprise most of it were the works of black and female poets and authors. After a week or so, a young White woman in the class raised her hand and threatened to complain to the dean that the material was inappropriate because the course was titled American Literature and not "African American" literature.

Second place was also during my college days. I worked at a Bank in South Miami and my primary duty was opening accounts for people. Sometimes I would be the only PBR there, and I don't speak Spanish well enough to help customers that only spoke Spanish. My manager informed me that someone complained about my inability to speak Spanish and said I should be fired. Not really racism, but it definitely bummed me out.

Pretty mild stuff, but living in NYC and Miami didn't really expose me to some of the truly harsh stuff others experienced.

 

[Bit-Bit]

My father in law is a cop. I was asking him where the term cop comes from and he told me it's history and what it stood for. (constable on patrol)

I segue from that into asking him what about the term popos and his reply....

"that's a nigger term"

I was so taken aback by such casual racism that I literally almost fell out of my chair.

 

[……forgetit]

That's a really long fucking list.

I had a bus full of white students chant "back of the bus" at me in a highschool field trip, I had guys make monkey noises at my finance for dating a black dude, I've been called a nigger on a multitude of occasions do I even have to say more?

 

[admiraltaftbar]

Once I took my dog to a PetsMart for grooming. I was reading a local paper in the waiting when the last next to me started chatting to me about the news asked if there was anything new. I told her there was mostly just an article about our police chief to which she replied, "he seems like an okay man shame he's a Muslim". I just sat there looking at her because out police chief at the time definitely wasn't Muslim.

I've heard way more gross things said by random people but that was a super WTF moment for me because what she said was out of left field and completely wrong.

 

[freeofgreed]

Took an American Literature class during my second year at the University of Miami. Class was taught by a young African American male. The syllabus listed all the material we would read during the class, and to my surprise most of it were the works of black and female poets and authors. After a week or so, a young White woman in the class raised her hand and threatened to complain to the dean that the material was inappropriate because the course was titled American Literature and not "African American" literature.

Second place was also during my college days. I worked at a Bank in South Miami and my primary duty was opening accounts for people. Sometimes I would be the only PBR there, and I don't speak Spanish well enough to help customers that only spoke Spanish. My manager informed me that someone complained about my inability to speak Spanish and said I should be fired.

Pretty mild stuff, but living in NYC and Miami didn't really expose me to some of the truly harsh stuff others experienced.

What did your teacher say?

 

[LifEndz]

What did your teacher say?

Very calmly stated something to the effect of African Americans are still Americans, but told her she could drop the course and take something else if she wanted.

That course was awesome btw. One of the few classes I actually enjoyed participating in class discussions.

 

[LosDaddie]

I've been told that I wasn't really Hispanic (by other Hispanics) because I didn't speak Spanish fluently, because I did well in school, and because I preferred to play basketball & football over soccer.

 

[OG Shaka Zulu]

Being called nigger on many occasions growing up

Police baselessly searching me for drugs and coming up empty handed, twice.

 

[Turin]

This guy I was forced to work with on delivery duty bragged about how he started a race war in high school.

My uncle once said about a news anchor, "Change the channel. I don't want to listen to this gook."

When walking to the movie theater with a friend of mine, these assholes drove by and started mockingly shouting stuff at him. I can't remember exactly what they said but I remember hearing "dawg" a lot.

 

[Voidwolf]

I was called a spic quite a few times in 7th grade by a black girl who was actually Honduran and a pale white ginger kid who was Cuban. Neither of them looked or sounded Hispanic. I traded insults with the girl and came close to beating the snot out of the guy in PE several times, he eventually backed off the last time I made it clear I wouldn't let it fly anymore.

 

[HylianTom]

I've told this story before..

In late October 2008, it was pretty clear that Obama was going to win, and win big. My husband and I were buying a plot of acreage in Mississippi. It'd either be for a home build, or as an investment (land in the area was a solid place to sink cash) - we weren't sure yet. When I went to close on the sale of the land, we went through all of the normal process. Sign on the dotted line. Initial here, here, and here. Sign the duplicate. Here's your copy, here's the bank's.

Everyone present in the room was white. The secretary, the buyers, the bank rep, the title company rep, myself. As everyone's getting up from the table at the end to exit, the bank rep says, "I need to get going. We have a lot of business to do before that n----- gets in and starts fucking things up." The others in the room smiled and laughed. I was outnumbered, so I remained stone-faced and bolted.

This weighed heavily on our decision regarding where we'd like to live in the future. We ended-up selling the land several years later. I've been present for other moments where people think it's "just us white folk" in the room and they feel like it's safe to remove their brain-to-mouth filters, but this was particularly egregious.

 

[TheOnlyOneHeEverFeared]

Someone who I vaguely know cos he sells cheap video games pointed to some black people and said 'shouldn't the apes be in the tree's eating bananas?' and then laughed, and routinely refers to them as 'N-words' and 'apes'

 

[Daffy Duck]

Two Indian kids when I was at school called me racist Indian names and insults constantly all the time at break times for several months and tried to threaten me with his Sikh knife he was able to carry (it was in the early 90's) in school.

No idea why they picked me. I ignored them and eventually they got bored with the fact they couldn't get a reaction out of me.

 

[louiedog]

A high school girlfriend's racist grandfather told me he was upset about school taxes because people shouldn't be "paying to teach n-words (not what he said) to play football."

This is in an overwhelming, like 99%, white area so singling out a group when making a statement like that is somehow extra racist.

 

[sn00zer]

Rural areas in the Midwest. Holy shit cant tell you the amount of times ive heard the nword be spoken in speech so comfortably and without flinching it barely registered as a bad word to people in the room.

 

[Raptomex]

My friend and I were in Cash Converters and some dude walks up to the bin my friend and I were looking through and after about of minute of searching he says "I'm looking for Madden and all they have is Tecmo Monkeyball".

 

[mrkgoo]

When I'm just walking down the street with my kid and people drive past and swear and shout racist insults for no reason.

It breaks my heart.

 

[LordKasual]

guy and his dad walks into my shop

(paraphrasing, but this is very close to actual dialogue)

"Man, did you hear those fucking muslims out there? I can't stand that fucking shit"

"This is america, why the fuck are they speaking muslim? (lul)"

"And they have the nerve to speak to me like i'm their fucking friend, I don't talk to people with terrorist religions"

"Like why the fuck do I have to pretend like they're good people? They should PROVE that they're good people, maybe we wouldn't have to pretend. And we're just letting them take over this country. God i hate this shit."


Context:

*Father taking his son in for some drug test*

*Foreigner owns the shop next to me. Pretty cool guy. Owner is typically outside talking with employees/friends, smoking. I've never actually asked where he's from, but i've met his wife and daughter.*

*Son is easily past 24-25 years old, though he was probably alot older. Unkept facial hair. Overweight. Glasses. Graphic T-shirt. Black color palette, shorts, ponytail.*

*Father is very obviously ashamed, but used to it. I raise my eyebrows up, finish up as if he never said anything, and they leave.*

 

[Linkura]

When I started a new job and one of my coworkers called the train line I used for work "The Conga Line," I guess because one end of the line is in a predominantly black neighborhood. All white people at that job, no minorities at all. I didn't last long there.

And I guess this isn't racism, more like anti-Semitism, unless you consider being Jewish a race. One of the best places I worked was a Jewish school, even though I wasn't Jewish. Only reason I left was because of a lack of growth opportunities. Anyway, I'm interviewing for a new position that might be a step up in my career, and my would-be boss notices my current position. I tell him it's a Jewish school and he tells me that while he "isn't racist," he "can understand why Hitler wanted to get rid of the Jews." I couldn't fucking believe it.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

My neighbors called the cops on me for walking to work past their house. Cops stopped me and my roommate on the way to the market after making an ID based on my skin color.

Same year, guys behind us in line at a sandwich shop got impatient and asked if we were going to order, and if we even spoke English.

When I was a kid in 2nd grade, I got jumped for being the only kid with my heritage at school. Got transferred out within 2 months of that event.

 

[Slayven]

As a kid a white friend of my grandmother use to call me Punjab and hadji.

When i was older, it didn't make no sense cause i am black

 

[sam12]

Moved to US in 4th grade, first day of school and playing basketball in gym, was open and some kids refused to pass the ball to me. When I questioned one about it, he said my skin was too dark, which is why he didn't pass to me.

 

[Mattlikewhoa]

House party while in HS. Granted it was out in the sticks, and I guess a few of the locals didn't like how the people I was with seemed to be the center of attention of a few girls. I rolled back from grabbing a drink (soda since I don't drink alcohol), and once I entered the room someone asked "who invited the hard R to this party?".

I didn't even get a chance to react to the comment because my good friend (white) knocked the guy out cold, and ask if anyone else had a issue with me or his other friends.

 

[……forgetit]

As a kid a white friend of my grandmother use to call me Punjab and hadji.

When i was older, it didn't make no sense cause i am black

The dude who played Punjab was from Trinidad, racist, but atleast that one makes sense. You got me on Hadji.

 

[Volimar]

Family/relatives using the n-word

Yep.

And then they try to cover it saying it doesn't mean black people, it means anyone to acts that way. You're not fooling anyone.

 

[GDGF]

Snuck into a frat party with a few friends during my senior year of high school. The band was dressed like KKK members.

There was one other black guy there and we exchanged "time to get the fuck out of here" looks from across the yard.

Here's another. Went to a slumber party at a friends house during sixth grade (a nice guy that got me into Tolkien) I was outside talking to his mom while she was tending to her plants. When she was done she said to me "Now my hands are as black as you.".

That one stung.

 

[TalonJH]

First place still goes to the time that I decided to get off the school bus(in middle School) one stop early and walk the rest of the way home. A random red pickup truck full of about five older boys/men pulled up next to me and followed me most of the way home while yelling nigger at me for what seemed like an eternity. "Where are you going nigger", what's the rush nigger", etc. They threw whatever trash they could find in their truck at me and finally peeled off still yelling. I didn't look directly at them the whole time and never said a thing back. I just kept walking. I never told my parents. I think I only told my wife last year around the same time I told a shorter version on GAF in someone thread.

That was number one. One detail I always remember about this sorry is that when they pulled off I specifically remember thinking, "I wish this was like GTA 3 where I could pull out a rocket launcher blow the truck up" At the time GTA3 was the big thing.

 

[MetatronM]

Family/relatives using the n-word

The jappier members of the Jewish side of my family tend to use the word Schwarze instead. It's a classic Yiddish way to be a racist shitbag among gentiles without them knowing it.

 

[Hopeford]

Girlfriend's dad's friend openly asked me "Why are you dating a Canadian girl instead of from where you're from?" I'm not sure if he was trying to offend me or was just legitimately asking. He seemed like, legit baffled.

Also teacher in high school accusing me of cheating in a writing contest because she assumed I couldn't have written the winning entry, presumably due to my accent. The exact sentence was "If you don't sound natural when you talk, it's hard to believe you can sound this natural when you write - no offense, of course." (School fortunately took my side and was like "What the hell" to the teacher)

 

[jeremy1456]

Once while having a bonfire at a beach my friends and I were enjoying a beer and out of the darkness creeps a homeless person.

She started berating us and calling us 'honkeys who work at mcdonalds' (She was African American, but I was the only white person among my friends) and then proceeds to call my African American friend 'a white ass corn eating honkey hippy bitch.'

We all laughed uncomfortably at the absurdity of it.

That's not the most racist stuff I've heard, but I felt like sharing that story because of the complete and utter surrealism of it. And no, the point wasn't that we were being called honkeys, it was that her calling my friend that made zero sense and was completely absurd.

 

[HiResDes]

A former friend of mine mine from high school sucker punched me and told me no one likes me because I'm a nigger. We had been friends for like six years prior and he simply got pissed over me fucking with him. See we had just got back from the bar and my other friend who is kind of a pothead suggested we smoke in the racists friend parking lot. Well one of his neighbors smells it and threatens to call the cops. Ten minutes later a cop pulls right behind our car blocking the exit, takes the pothead friends weed and car, I didn't even smoke yet lol. So anyway I end up telling the racist he needs to handle his neighbors better and telling him that shit wouldn't fly in my neighborhood, jokingly and he doesn't say shit. And then as we're walking away he just randomly hits me from the side and busts my lip open and then tells me the racist shit. The pothead who is also a black belt in Taekwondo restrains him and I just walk away in shock.

Some context we were in one of the richest whitest neighborhoods in Cincinnati.

 

[Slayven]

The dude who played Punjab was from Trinidad, racist, but atleast that one makes sense. You got me on Hadji.

I did not know this, this white dude was old south/

 

[Valhelm]

When I was 12 some kid (who was brown, for what it's worth) tried to get me to sign a petition to ban black history month because he thought black people get more than they deserve. He was one of those edgy kids who thought the n-word was funny as hell.

When I was 15 my barber said she always assumed my high school was shit because it's in a black neighborhood. It's one of the best in Florida.

Because my girlfriend is Asian, dozens of non-Asian guys have thought it would be really funny to make jokes about Thai prostitutes or sideways vaginas or mail-order brides.

Couple weeks ago at Starbucks this nice 20-something white girl start screaming on the phone about the "dumb greasy n-word" she works with.

The jappier members of the Jewish side of my family tend to use the word Schwarze instead. It's a classic Yiddish way to be a racist shitbag among gentiles without them knowing it.

In Miami a lot of old Hispanic ladies will rub their wrist when talking about a black person. Friend of mine saw potential jurors doing this in court while talking about the defendant.

 

[Akuun]

Family member: My grandpa passed away.
Former friend: Good! One less Chinese to deal with.

 

[ApharmdX]

I grew up part of the time in a small town where racism was normalized, and I've had too many racist experiences to count, but I'd probably say one of the worst ones was early in my freshman year of high school. I was walking home from school on the sidewalk, and a car full of four older students swerves at me. The one guy yells out the window "go back to Africa!" I gave them both middle fingers, a "fuck you", and keep walking. They turned around and, when I'm close to my house, damn near run their car on the curb, get out and chase me all the way to my front door. They would chase me whenever I was by myself for the rest of that year, until one of them pulled a rifle out and pointed it at me.

Another great incident I remember was during band class, would have been 8th grade or 7th maybe. One of the other students was out of the blue something like, "look at your hands, the lines in them, they're brown. i don't want your brown pigment rubbing off on me." Fucking ignorant bastard.

 

[Painguy]

I was in highschool, and it was around 2007. I was a very nerdy and awkward middle eastern freshy. I had the glasses, the giant backpack, long shaggy unstyled hair, and a fairly thick jacket on most of the time. Anyway, I was walking around after class with my glasses case in my hand about to open it and put on my glasses. The case itself was capsule like and opaque. As I was about to open it I find myself surrounded by 3 cops, and the dean of the school. "Drop it!!!!" When I heard that I was like bruuuuuhhhhh. I tried to explain that it was just a case for my glasses, and offered to show them, but these racist ass fucks legit thought I had a bomb on me. They were yelling and shouting so finally i just dropped it. They took a look, and after they realized they were being fucking ass hats they didnt even apologize man. FUCK THAT HELL HOLE.

That's the most offensive memory I have, but I also get all the things u'd expect a middleeastern looking dude to get. "random screenings" at the airport, getting called a terrorist, etc etc. You cant really talk back or defend yourself either cuz then u get labeled as a terrorist sympathizer or some sort of conspiracy theorist or sum shit. I just have to blindly accept that all middle easterns are terrorists.To many fools these days watching stupid TV, and believing any dumb propaganda they see.

 

[Baron Doggystyle von Woof]

As a Dutch-Turkish guy growing up in the Netherlands.

When I wanted to play soccer:
"No you can't play soccer with us, nobody likes Turkish people"

When I got my first car cops stop me two times same night:
"where are you going? Home. Do you have something in your trunk?"

At work someone tells my boss:
"why would you hire a foreign guy when there are so many real Dutch people unemployed?"

So much more.

 

[Dynasty]

Family is Muslim, so they make anti-semetic jokes from time to time while with other family members. One time though my uncle went of on one but this time it was different, it wasnt a one of joke but instead a whole tirade of conspricacy theories, Jew controlling the media, the Jews caused the Holocaust so they could gain sympathy and gain Israel, the Holocaust was fake(not sure how this worked due to his other point) you could tell most of the room were thinking wtf, especially my cousins. He is in jail right now for distributing drugs(I think cocaine) so I guess he was on something that day.

 

[……forgetit]

I did not know this, this white dude was old south/

Yeah, old Southerners say some oddly racist stuff. My mom is a nurse at an old folks home in South Georgia, everyday she has a story about some old white person talking about "getting a group of niggers to move their furniture," or something like that.

 

[wandering]

One of my friends, who is an Asian guy dating a white girl, had some stranger tell him it was impossible for him to "satisfy" her.

 

[timshundo]

these arent the worst cuz i can take them in stride but most of the time i dont even have to leave my own house

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

these arent the worst cuz i can take them in stride but most of the time i dont even have to leave my own house

Is "i'm his wifes cousin, actually," the racist version of "my uncle works for Nintendo"

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Someone who I vaguely know cos he sells cheap video games pointed to some black people and said 'shouldn't the apes be in the tree's eating bananas?' and then laughed, and routinely refers to them as 'N-words' and 'apes'

Oh that reminds me of something I saw semi-recently. I was waiting with a friend for our martial arts class to start, basically waiting outside of the practice room to free up. A very douchey-looking gymbro (he seriously seemed straight out of Jersey Shore) and his black friend (?) walk by us. They see our uniforms and ask about the martial art we practice, so I tell them and we start making small talk, the black dude says he used to do karate and such. Then his buddy says something like this:

Gymbro: Are you guys are fine with people like him doing Japanese martial arts?
Me: Er, what do you mean "like him"...
Gymbro: 'Cause he's black as fuck!
Black dude: *chuckles*
Me: *very puzzled and a bit uncomfortable* Um, of course, why wouldn't we be? I mean we're white people practicing a Japanese art --
Gymbro: *interrupting with a goofy grin* Yeah, who knew these people aren't only good for eating bananas eh?
Black dude: *laughing even harder now*
Me: *even more uncomfortable* Hah... hah...?

Then they left shortly after, leaving me and my friend to look at each others in utter confusion. So I guess they were friends and the black dude was OK with him making racist jokes, or they were just trolling us, or... I have no idea. Unlike in your story I don't think the dude was being malicious, since his friend didn't seem to mind, but boy was it very awkward.

Family member: My grandpa passed away.
Former friend: Good! One less Chinese to deal with.

Jesus. :\ Former friend indeed....