I find it amazing that so many of my colleagues can be extremely racist (I'm a nurse) I have worked in an environment where we have looked after indigenous patients and those seeking asylum and some of the comments have floored me, I've let people know I'm not ok with it and luckily have not had to take it further as yet but the fact that I encounter it so frequently at work was a real eye opener
I also have had to deal with homophobia in my personal life, my DH was raised in a very homophobic environment and when he met two of my close friends who are gay he made some really inappropriate comments which almost ended our relationship. Luckily he was willing to reconsider his views and apologised to my friends. His brother was grateful that my DH had the opportunity to reassess his views on homosexuality as my BIL finally felt able to be open about his sexuality with the family at 40 years of age and he said that DH's change In attitude made it much easier although the PIL are still homophobic but are slowly accepting BIL and his partner
I guess my point is gritting your teeth and putting up with it isn't going to change attitudes, sharing your views on racism may or may not change other people's views or how they go about voicing them but not sharing how you feel about racism means these people will continue to think their views and the way they express them are acceptable.
I havent noticed racist comments with my friends, but there is stereotyping about drug abuse, money, and stereotyping of groups of people according to their 'class'. If I know they are talking bs, then I will pull them up on it.
Racism in public, I let pass unless it is directed at me or if my children question it. Then I will make a comment about how wrong it is. More so though if we hear something out in public we will respond to the comment by teaching our children that what was heard. I do the same when waiting at the lights and someone walks on the red man; "Now we wait for the green man because that is the safest time to cross the road." that gets some looks, so with racism we say "now its not nice to call people names because it hurts their feelings, and we dont want hurt other's feelings. Also if we dont know what their outfit is called, then lets ask"
With family I set them right, but now my girls will tell people if they are being rude and offending them by saying nasty things.
Im not interested in changing strangers, I want to bring my girls up to not tolerate racism. My hope is that most of us, if not all of us will do this then the tide will change small steps, but a step in the right direction
I dont stand for it and I especially dont stand for it when things are said around my child! As you know, they are sponges and no way no how do I want her thinking that saying anything racist is ok. My stance on it, especially with family (dont fall into the friend catergory) is that if I make comment telling them it is not ok that eventually they will realise that everytime they say something so ridiculous I will be there to stop it and hopefully the will eventually think 'hey, cant be bothered going there'
We live in a small town with limited multiculturalism, its growing but still limited. So its been very difficult to explain to DD about differences in people. We were able to find a really lovely simple book though so that colour/ race/ religion can be talked about easily and on a daily basis
I'm a mix of races and have been at the receiving end of racist attitudes most of my life.
My family are all proud of our heritage and will pull people up on it. My niece even made an official complaint about some police officers over derogatory aboriginal comments directed to her on the way to school one day (we're not aboriginal but some of us do have olive skin).
As other's have said, it depends on the situation. It's also a very interesting subject for me because once upon a time I would never have considered myself racist, but looking back I can see that I did have some fairly racist views. I grew up in Western Sydney so the views I had weren't great. I certainly didn't discriminate against individual people, but I did have very opinionated views on certain ethnic groups. Moving to Adelaide resulted in me growing up a lot and realising how bad some of my views were. A big part of the change was realising that just cause it's in the media, doesn't make it true. I've learnt to actually find things out for myself and not to just think something because those around me think it.
Luckily, my friends don't seem to have racist views for the most part. One friend lives in an area that is largely an Asian community so there are many comments about Asian's when they have to leave the house, but they don't leave the house often so I don't often hear the comments. With her, it's easier to just ignore the comments and change the subject because she's always complaining about something. My family are very much like I used to be. Depending on the comment, I will ignore it. It's often just a fly away remark so I find it easier to deal with by letting it go, but then saying something supportive later in the conversation. My sisters in particular seem to like referring to certain races by derogatory terms (ie curry muncher) and I will pull them up on that and tell them it's not appropriate. With family, the comments I disapprove of the most tends to be around marriage equality which I also speak up about.
Once on the train there was a guy ranting and raving about how all the 'gooks' need to 'f*** off back where they came from' cause there were no room on the train. Mind you this guy had a bicycle with him during peak hour so was taking up far more room than any other single person on the train regardless of their ethnic background. I got sick of it after the 5th comment in 2 minutes, particularly with how many people were getting seriously uncomfortable with the comments, so I told him to pull his head in, there was no need for those comments. He stopped for a small amount of time, but then started up again at the next station so I said it again. He fired up at me a little, but luckily I was standing by a HUGE islander guy who smiled at me and positioned himself between me and this other guy so the comments to me stopped pretty quick. Looking back it could have actually ended pretty badly for me. I'm just making assumptions here, but I'm fairly certain he was under the influence of something. But I didn't feel right not saying something.
I don't have racist friends. I won't put up with that in my life. And if someone I know says something then I can usually just give the Look and they'll backtrack... although some people have had me asking pointed questions about why they feel the need to say XYZ.
Look of contempt and death to strangers who say something idiotic and abusive - has worked on occasion.
As for family... I grew up in a "not racist" family. When I moved away from them, I now categorise them as "not racist but" - as in, my father will treat all men as equal, no matter of skin colour, but put on strong, false accents if you mention the name of the country that is predominantly not-white. And there are only white people around, of course. Hilarious. I'm the only one who will tell him that it's not cool. And don't get my mother started on immigration! I have more respect for working immigrants and the majority of asylum seekers (there are one or two headliners that I don't care for, but asylum seekers who commit criminal acts here are by far the minority) than I do people who think the state owes them money because they were born here and don't lift a finger to try to work. But that's not how she will ever see the world. And I pull her up on it every time.
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