(07-18-2019, 09:28 AM)Caldrac Wrote:

(07-18-2019, 08:46 AM)B2hibry Wrote: You are but one person. Just like not ALL blacks have dealt with a race-related negative. This one-up race crap is what kills conversations. There are two specific people in this thread that are attempting to shut down discussion by stating in so many words that if you aren't black then don't bother replying. Ignorance at its finest. Anyways...

I'm white and grew up in Palm Beach County, specifically Riviera Beach and was bused to an H.S. Where I was part of the 2% white population. We moved on up my junior year to a place called Stacy Street which was a section 8 neighborhood where once again I was the minority. Blacks can, in fact, be racist, and I encountered hate many days until I tried out for the football team. Even then, it was a constant battle to protect my youngest brother, who was mentally challenged. He seemed to get jumped once a week. Even so, I didn't let it create hate towards any race, and most of my best friends were not white. Even to this day. In any case, the path you take is your choice alone, but self-induced generational issues in the black community provide challenges that most aren't willing to work beyond. To be clear, these issues aren't simply because they are black.

I got called Mexican slurs in high school by white kids and black kids all the time. And I am not even remotely near Mexican blood wise or heritage wise. I also got targeted growing up in the Arlington and University area just for being white. Got my [BLEEP] kicked so hard by a group of kids when I was 14 I pissed blood that night. Another friend of mine had his nose so badly broken he still can't breath through it properly till this day.

It's a two way street. It may not come across EVERYBODY on the color spectrum known as race but there's certainly room for racism in every culture that I know of. No race is innocent of this. Whether modern or historical. 

I agree with the "1 UP" mentality though. Chris Rock joked about it best years ago. "Who suffered more? Jewish people or Black people? And every race will reach deeeeeep in their historical archives to top the other's suffering". Then he said something that had a profound effect on me as a kid. 

"Nobody got it as bad as the Native Americans that were already here. When's the last time you saw a Native American family on a weeknight or weekend eating at Red Lobster?". That stung. But it's an ugly truth. The trail of tears. It's one thing to be taken from your land and placed elsewhere. It's a whole different thing to have it taken away from you and reduced by numbers decade after decade after decade. 

I feel for those people. All of them. Regardless of color. I have some Minorcan blood in my veins. Some of my ancestors were here long before the U.S was founded. And they were used to develop St. Augustine and Smyrna or New Smyrna I believe at that time. Some of them tried to flee and were bound by ball and chain. I don't beat on my chest or stand on a soap box holding past crimes against the descendants of those people who had a hand in it. 

Time's change. I try though. I really, really, really [BLEEP] try to put myself in other people's shoes. I try to give back when I can. I try to be as reasonable and sympathetic as I can. But people these days sure as hell make that HARD to do.