I took the Purple Line to the 720 to an art event on Sunday.
And this happened:
I was pouring myself some wine and a woman said, “That’s a beautiful dress you have on.â€Â I said thanks. She went on to say it was the first time she had been at this particular establishment on Wilshire Blvd. I told her I went to this particular establishment all of them time, well rather used to.
I said the place had lots of events. Art talks, poetry, jazz…she then stopped me.
“Oh I like jazz, but I don’t like rap music, sorry. I don’t like it.â€
She said three times in three different ways the reasons why she didn’t like rap music apologizing to me each time.
I didn’t remember saying I liked rap music or even that I was a big music fan, but apparently she noticed that I was different than everyone in the room being that I was the only black person there.
Sometimes I wonder am I like that African-American Republican woman who cried for 45 minutes after her colleagues sent this out:
H/T to Racialicioius
She then continued to lecture me on the evils of rap music and how it was making children disrespectful. I didn’t say anything. I just smiled. I was curious to see how far would this go. Not talking often encourages the ignorant to get more ignorant.
“I think for the children to get opportunities, they have to stop listening to this rap music,†said the woman.
I assumed she was talking about children who looked like me.
She then told me about her black friends all three of them, who didn’t seem so much like friends, but entertainment like people who she hired to entertain her at various functions.
I didn’t really know that people you paid to dance and sing for you counted as friends.
I guess it is kind of like how Sally Hemmings was Thomas Jefferson’s girlfriend.
At this point a friend of hers came up and sat in horror with her mouth open as this woman continued to bombard me with odd racially tinged rhetoric.
I thought this was sort of funny. It also sort of was making me remember why I haven’t really left the house in a purely artistic way in over three years.
She then told me this old German story about working hard, even through the bad, because it would pay off. She said that would be better than listening to rap music.
She then tried to make me agree with all of her comments by continually stating:
I’m right? Right?
I’m right, Right?
I feel that I am correct. Correct?
I just smiled and said, “You are very interesting, tell me more about your life.â€
At that point BusTard came up. He introduced me as his fiancé. She sort of got big eyed. I then left. After I left BusTard informed me that she had asked him if he were Jewish?
When he told her no, that he was of Scottish ancestry she then went on to discuss Wagner.
Yeah and people often accuse me of bringing up race too much.
by Browne Molyneux
This racist (yea tell it like it is), who thought she was an expert on rap music must have felt disappointed that your guy wasn’t Jewish, she probably wanted a reaction from him to Wagner (A Jew Hating SOB!).
If she ran into a Chicano she probably would have asked what they thought of the heroic Texas Rangers or the Alamo.
A while back as I was getting my hair cut at the Barber Shop, a white guy waiting started talking about how Mexican chicks just loved him for some reason (cause he was a white guy?), and then continued on about how the “illegal Mexicans” were changing the demographics of neighborhoods.
He finally pauses and looks at me and the Barber, who was a friend of mine, I guess for some kind of reaction. I didn’t want to just kick his ass because he was an old customer of Joe the Barber, my friend.
So I look this bigmouth right in the eye and tell him
“I don’t what to tell you man, you white people just aren’t F””’G enough, you produce “Beemer’s” but we Mexicans produce kids, Mexicans are going to take over the world man.
You could have cut the tension with a knife, the guy looked at me with a combination of hate and fear on his face. I just looked at him with a smile on my mug waiting for a reaction.
He turned all red in the face and got up and left.
Joe the Barber tells me “thanks you just lost a customer of mine” then we both laughed like hell.
“Oh I like jazz, but I don’t like rap music, sorry. I don’t like it.â€
I suppose jazz, known as the devil’s music when it erupted on the scene a century ago, handed the baton to rap and is now safe for white folk to appreciate.
If I had enough fingers on my hands to count how many times stupid shite like that happens to me I’d be the world’s greatest pianist and the most popular guy in junior highschool.
For some reason certain types of white people feel a need to make every convo with a non white about stuff directly related to race. it’s like they just can’t see you as a human, just as a member of a group.
it sounds like that lady needed a glass of wine WAY more then you did Browne.
I too like to let a-holes talk (except when they are young kids around who may not understand or when their talk harms others who are with in ear shot) – let everyone see what kind of jurks they are.
Ah yes. “Guilty White Liberals” can be fun to watch.
By the way, I find it totally unbelievable the members of that Women’s Republican Club thought that there was nothing at all racist about the graphics on those “Obama Bucks”^. Can anyone be that insensitive or that out of touch in 2008? Apparently so.
I think the thing that was funny about the Obama bucks story is that the woman got upset with Obama for bringing up his race, but isn’t she bringing up her gender and bringing attention to it by being in the WOMAN’s Republican Club. It always amazes me how people like that think. I want to know what’s so offensive about being black or saying that you are?
And this woman I had the encounter with. I don’t know if she was racist or not. Her actions appeared to be racist, but was she racist? I don’t know. I try to be careful with using that word. She was definitely prejudiced.
Oddly I feel that my very delicate nonthreatening in person demeanor gives people who want to say very horrible things a space to say every horrible thing they ever wanted to say to a black person, but where too afraid to say to someone who wasn’t from Canada…lol…
I get this kind of thing on a daily basis, BusTard gets pretty amazed. I get the “a black girl beat me up story” alot. I also get the “why are black people so ******” thing. I get the “You just want everything for yourselves” thing. People will just randomly come up and start debating me about affirmative action at events that have nothing to do with that. The rap question, I don’t even know any rap songs…I got asked about rap so much I started looking people up so I could at least entertain myself with telling people that I liked the most heinous, offensive groups out there 🙂
I still get the OJ question. I never ever bring up anyone’s race in person. I never bring up my race in person, but yet well, it doesn’t matter. I guess people notice…lol…
For a long time I refused to notice certain things. I refused to acknowledge them, but then three years ago, this really horrible thing happened to me that I will not go into now. It was a true turning point in regards to me seeing the truth. It was so amazingly embarrassing that I just couldn’t ignore things anymore. I always knew you couldn’t behave racism away, but I really thought I could avoid certain problems if I just did everything right. I was very wrong, but I am my father’s daughter. My head knew that was stupid, but my heart wanted to believe that no one would really think horrible things about you just because you were a certain ethnicity. That’s crazy.
Deep down I still think that way. I always expect the best from people, but now if things happen I acknowledge that they happened and I truly was not like that before at least when it came to my experiences.
I would never minimize another person’s experience, but I would minimize my own. I thought I could be goddess like and rise above it all, but I am human…damn….
I was formerly the best accuse maker for the accidental racist.
“Not talking often encourages the ignorant to get more ignorant.”
This is very true. Sometimes even just acknowledging you heard their comment is interpreted as an agreement. Not that they would ever ask for your opinion, they just want to know you agree.
Truly though El Chavo. I was never very sure how to respond with these kinds of comments. I always want to say something smart and clever and biting, but usually I’m very uncomfortable for the other person. That’s my gut instinct. I don’t know what that is, but my gut instinct is embarrassment for the other person. I wish I would think about ME first.
There is a part of me that thinks it is funny, but there is another part of me that is deeply offended. I mean sometimes I just want to see if something is really happening or if I’m just imagining things, so I wait and wait and wait and hope that maybe I’m not getting it, maybe they mean something else and usually it’s not that.
Browne
“I get this kind of thing on a daily basis, BusTard gets pretty amazed. I get the “a black girl beat me up story†alot. I also get the “why are black people so ******†thing. I get the “You just want everything for yourselves†thing. People will just randomly come up and start debating me about affirmative action at events that have nothing to do with that.” ~ B
Why are people taking up their beefs with you ? it makes no sense.
Because mental illness is not a pretty thing.
that is so f*cked up. personally ive never experience racism up until a few years ago when I got a job on the westside. I remember one time I was attacked while at work by some crazy dude in the restroom claiming to be a “white supremicist”. long story short, just for punching back purely in self defense for my life I was fired on the spot by my boss. all the while the guy smirked at me when my boss fired me & told me to leave the store.
Damn, alex, that’s why *some* people like Sarah Palin, if you catch my drift. White privilege.
I liked it too, but didn’t believe a word of it.
The “obama” talk for mexicans is about the immigration issue, I empathize with you and anyone else who has to endure ignorance based on white privelege.