Are there any topics

[Karenina]

That you would avoid discussing if white friends or acquaintances are present?

[kwassa]

1. Does this mean I have to leave???

Not for me.

I tend to walk right into it, sometimes, as I live in both black and white worlds, so to speak. I do it in as natural way as possible, only if the situation presents itself and requires the information. There are many well-meaning whites that are simply not educated about racial relations subtleties, and I do my best to do so, in an easy non-confrontational way.

[Karenina]

2. My perspective is informed

from growing ip in an interracial, multicultural family in the 50's when such anomalies could get downright dangerous. My "identified-by-society-at-large-as-white" FAMILY can hear ANYTHING I have to say. THEY know the drill. Tiptoeing around the tulips of others is a survival technique, to which you also make reference. VEDDY INTERESTING!
Thanks for your response, Kwassa

[Brewman_Jax]

3. Most race-centered topics

I've heard white people whine that they're so "discriminated" against by those people. I've found my patience extremely short when they feel obligated to think that I'd agree with them. They don't like being reminded that they're white in a white-based society. Just look at GD; it's no different than real life.

[Karenina]

5. What sets me off

is when someone white condescends to "explain" to me what racism is not. That clarification most often includes some self-indemnification.

[Brewman_Jax]

6. Especially anyone who's Irish

they whine loudest of all. :nopity:

[kwassa]

7. and when they do that ....

or try to claim kinship with the sufferings of blacks, I remind them of the Draft Riots of 1863 in New York, where Irish immigrants caused much pain to the local black population.

[Brewman_Jax]

12. You've run into different ones than I

the ones I have had the misfortune of running into whine how much harder they had it than black people, and black people have no right to complain, they should be grateful, on and on channeling Rushd Limpballs. :puke:

I'll tell the next one that they can return to Ireland, find their relatives, and not have to put up black people here anymore.

I'll have to remind them about the 1863 NYC draft riots

[SemperEadem]

13. there ya go

they seem to want to forget their history in the processes.

All they need do is to read some of what Tim Wise has written, but then, they'll whine louder.

[mark414]

14. we might have helped build the railroads

but as soon as the rest of the country followed we had it pretty damn good...everybody wants to be irish on march 17 but nobody wants to be black in february

[Catherine Vincent]

15. That's so right on. Is that your creation?

Is it okay if I use that sometime? :hi:

Anyways, a co-worker of mine that was Irish had told me years ago how in the 1920s (or maybe later) how the Irish were treated like slaves. He said there were signs in business that said "No shoes, No dogs, No Irish!" I was quite young and didn't know the history of all that, in fact, I was shocked. I thought to myself, wtf? Isn't the Irish white people? But I guess he felt the need to tell me that the Irish had it bad in America...just like the Blacks.

[mark414]

16. use as freely as you like

and yeah they did have a lot of that stuff...many N.I.N.A. signs (No Irish Need Apply) but that was more just a nativist anti-immigrant approach - as soon as former slaves and their descendants started making their way north before and during the great migration the nativists got over their disdain for the irish pretty quick - we were white, so we were alright. my ancestors certainly went through some rough shit, as any immigrant would, but they got through it with comparative ease...and anyone tries to compare it again, tell em this irishman says nobody from mother eire ever got lynched

[Karenina]

9. Now, you behave!!!

:rofl::spank::rofl::spank::rofl:

[Brewman_Jax]

11. I see you've heard it, too

:P

[mark414]

17. keep playing that violin....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x216106

i'm not sure what the point of this is...

[Brewman_Jax]

18. I see your point

I don't get it, either. :shrug:

[Kerrytravelers]

4. I'm present now.

;-)


I understand not wanting to have certain discussions. Even the best of us can be completely ignorant. And, as white people, we don't deal with the issue of race the same as people who are non-white have to deal with on a daily basis. Often, it is this very fact that leads to the kind of responses we give (ok, not always, of course.) Because issues of race isn't something that we have to fight and educate others on in the same manner, we often forget it's importance and therefore fall into ignorance.

We have a lot to learn. Although discussions and conversation with people who can not even understand exactly your point of view can be tiresome, stress-inducing and downright sickening at times, I appreciate all that I have learned from my DU friends in this regard!

Sorry for the thread hike! Just wanted to toss in my compliments to the group! :hi:

[Karenina]

8. If you ever come to Germany

you have a standing invitation to join us at a family dinner in Hessen. We go to this castle where they serve "Bones." Torches light the room and it's totally Midieval! :hug:

[Kerrytravelers]

10. Wow! That sounds really cool.

Mr. kt took German in school and is always wanting to go there. If we ever make it to Germany, I'll definitely let you know! :hug:

[Chovexani]

19. Anything race-related with my (white) housemates

My one housemate, bless her rich white girl heart, has this deeply annoying habit of bringing up Irish slavery (?!) every time I so much as get offended by something on the news.

Have I mentioned I'm apartment hunting?

[Karenina]

20. It's awfully quiet around here.

:hide:

[Chovexani]

21. I think I just heard some crickets

Maybe. :)

[kwassa]

22. what Irish slavery?

Bring up the Draft Riots of 1863, where immigrant Irish gangs burned down a black orphanage, and attacked and killed blacks.

Something rather glossed over in the "Gangs of New York" movie.

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/317749.html

Near the docks, tensions that had been brewing since the mid-1850s between white longshoremen and black workers boiled over. As recently as March of 1863, white employers had hired blacks as longshoremen, with whom Irish men refused to work. An Irish mob then attacked two hundred blacks who were working on the docks, while other rioters went into the streets in search of "all the negro porters, cartmen and laborers . . . they could find."

[bliss_eternal]

24. Oh no she doesn't...

Irish slavery?

:wtf:

How's apt. hunting going? ;) :hug:

[NOLALady]

23. Nope.

Well, sometimes I will try to be careful around the young ones who hang around with my kids.