okay, I’m not usually one for serious ranting but there’s just something that I wanted to address because it’s been pissing me off.

just because someone Grew up a certain way does not mean that their racism is excusable.

my mom constantly tries to drill this point home, but by condoning racism by attributing it to the way someone grew up is not okay.

I have an uncle who is white and is pretty Racist towards black people. he’s a nice enough guy but if you get him talking for a long enough period of time, the racist slurs and jokes start to come out and it’s personally very off-putting, but everyone else laughs along with him. it really bothered me.

so I talked to my mom about it and I was like “yo mom uncle steve is pretty racist, like that’s not cool” and she’s like “yeah, but it was just because of the way he grew up.”

and that just really pissed me off, not only because he’s blatantly racist and she chooses to ignore it, but because she’s condoning it because she’s attributing it to the time period in which he grew up.

but that’s not okay. racism isn’t okay, PERIOD. REGARDLESS OF THE TIME PERIOD IN WHICH SOMEONE GREW UP, RACISM IS NOT OKAY.

like for example, I’m currently growing up in a time period where there is a lot of illegal immigration of hispanics into America. does that mean that because I grew up in a time where there was a lot of resentment towards hispanics due to their illegal status in the US that it’s okay for me to be racist? NO, BECAUSE IF I’M A DECENT HUMAN BEING, I WILL REALIZE THAT NOT ALL HISPANICS ARE DRUG CARTELS OR SEX OFFENDERS LIKE SOME PEOPLE CLAIM AND ARE PROBABLY COMING HERE TO BETTER THEIR LIVES/THE LIVES OF THEIR CHILDREN. AND ON TOP OF THAT, NOT ALL HISPANICS IN THE USA ARE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, AND TO BE RACIST TOWARDS THEM WOULD NOT ONLY BE STUPID BUT UNJUST AND IGNORANT.

like it is truly INFURIATING to me that she just sweeps his blatant dislike for another race of people (that are still people just like everyone else on this fucking planet) under the rug just because it’s “the way he grew up.”

fyi, he grew up in a town a few miles away from me where there was a large black community at the time that he was in high School, and admittedly they were not the best neighbors to have in that school district or town. however, that still doesn’t make it ok.

BUT let’s take a look at a very similar situation with my grandmother (whom I adore) and my Aunt Marie (to whom we don’t speak anymore, let’s see if you can guess why.)

they both grew up in Newark, NJ in the 1950s and 60s after WWII. for those of you not familiar with Newark, it was a really beautiful and nice area during the earlier half of the 20th century, but after there were projects that were constructed there to combat homelessness, the black community there (that was the main population in the projects) took advantage of the governmental program and governmental property, and made Newark a not-so-nice place to live. to this day, Newark has one of the highest crime rates in the USA, and is demographically a mostly black city.

my grandma and my aunt marie both went to a school in Newark that, demographically speaking, was mostly comprised of black students. they were the minority. my grandma has told me stories before about the students in the school and how they were wild and like animals and how they destroyed everything that was given to them. they both had the same learning opportunities and the same experience in the school, but yet it’s interesting that despite those not-so-great experiences with my grandma’s and aunt marie’s black classmates, my grandma is not racist at all. on the other hand, my aunt marie is the most bitter and prejudiced person I have ever seen in my entire life (literally not one thing that comes out of her mouth isn’t racist.)

aunt marie is, without a doubt, racist because of her experience growing up in the mostly black school in Newark. however, does that make it okay that she is racist? NO. not only is it not okay to generalize an entire race just because of experiences that you’ve had, but the blatant ignorance to see beyond the experiences you had is completely unacceptable. just because someone grew up a certain way and had some bad experiences with a race DOES NOT mean that ALL members of that race are the same way.

it’s the same thing with muslim terrorists.

I am growing up in a time where there is a lot of terrorism coming from the middle east from muslim extremist groups. does that mean that I should hate all muslims or all middle easterners or all people wearing a turban on their head? NO, because I know that not all people that are muslim or middle eastern or wearing a turban are extremist terrorists!

so let’s stop using “the way someone grew up” as an excuse for being racist or discriminatory. not only does it condone blatant hatred for other human beings, but it is completely unacceptable, intolerable, and frankly, disgusting.

thanks for listening to my rant I hope you all have a wonderful evening.