Rasicm...

Racism..

I've never known true racism. Not how it used to be, where a white man or men would severely hate with an absolute intent, a black man. Where a simple act from a negro could cause the white man of their time to react with such vigor so as to beat that man down. Where white men wanted their own authority over anyone else to the oppression of all others. Where hate fuelled the fires of discontent and led to the ostrisation of all others. Where if you were not white, you were less.

I've never known racism like that.

BUT to me that is racism.

And today I still get callled a racist.

Not because I HATE someone, or want them lower than myself. But because I see the differences in us. I see that certian ethnic groups want that own separation. that membership of being alone, within a group, where others want to be superiour in their own right.

What has changed?

Is it "our" turn as some would have it? Or is it still racism?

Where I live, the sins of the father are not forgiven unto the child. And with that, as individuals we bare yet the inherent by birth right to express our own loyalty to our own. As each of us do, from every race and creed.

When do we learn if this is wrong?

If the cost of being white means baring the guilt of those who walked before me, I say Never.

When I am called a racist, it is not becuase I hate someone else, or because I want my own.. it is because I dare to submit that I have a right. A right to be who I am. A Right to a culture and a country. A country that is open to all, to come to and be a part of. A right to accept them for all their worth. But not at the expense of my own.

Some will say I Stole this land. To them I say, I was born here, where should I return? This earth is not given to us by people. It is adopted by them. And to them I will also say, what land are you on, who was on it before you? hypocrites.

I am caled a racist because I am, like them, someone proud of my fathers father, and so on into the heritage of my past.

I do not hate people. And I accept that others, like me, have in the past, done things I do not agree with. Yet I am called racist, simply for the colour of my skin.

Long gone are the days of what racism really meant.

I am what I am, and I cannot change that. Nor would I.

So racism... today, in this age... just how maleable is it that it continues to make ME the victim?

Blood? pain? suffering? what will change this fact?

I can no more be invisible to this world than I can take away the atrocities of the past.

I think people who call themselves african american are racist. Why? Its because if you were born in america your an AMERICAN. If you were born to africa and moved here and gained your citizenship rights then you can call yourself an african american. I don't say im Portuguese american because im not any part of that country. Im an american nothing more nothing less

Definition of RACISM: a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.

Surely a person is an amalgamation of both their parents? There for you wouldn't take your

'nationality' or your 'heritage' from the land or sea on which you are born. You get your gene's

from your mother and father [nationality] and they bring you up within 'their' culture and

'religion' and that is who you are! The land in which you live is like the home you rent, which has

rules and agreements of tenancy and to live there you abide by the tenancy agreements.


I think it's very sad that people don't always acknowledge with pride, and celebrate their

differences and cultures. Certain nationalities have obviously visible traits and when they

get citizenship of another country i find that hard to understand.


I also think that people settling in other countries should respect the 'host countries' laws

and culture and not expect to impose their's on it.

reply to post by eletheia


The problem is if we celebrate our culture and history, we automaticaly get called racist. Our history is not the best, and yet, i have to pay the price for it. I had nothing to do with it, yet i pay the price of the transgressions our forefathers made.

It has actually become so bad, that i would even call it reverse racism. I was born here, yet i feel like a stranger in my own country. I cannot express myself like i really want to either, because that might be perceived as being racist.

It is tough, but i cope, and have become use to it. That is not to say its fun at all.

vvv

reply to post by VreemdeVlieendeVoorwep





Those were only my own observations as i see things through my own history which

is possibly maybe not far off your's?

I define myself as British which because of my ancestors in the 18th and 19th centuary

were from England but lived and 'bred' abroad for two and a half centuaries, therefor over

that time there must have been 'inter racial breeding' I know i have in my gene's English,

Welsh, French, Armenian, Anglo-Indian?


I hear what you say but imo to be African you have to be 'black' i know in history Dutch

English and German's settled in Africa but they were only settlers and not Africans. And

the many things that happened in the PAST throughout the world in many cases thing's to

be ashamed of is NOT the fault of present generations we cannot appoligise for what we had

no control over! We cannot make up for it but can only strive to make a BETTER FUTURE

reply to post by eletheia

I hear what you say but imo to be African you have to be 'black'

I am sorry, but that is just not right. Although i am white, I am African as much as the other Africans here. This is the country of my birth, and the country i am a patriot for.

vvv

reply to post by VreemdeVlieendeVoorwep




Yes it maybe the country of your birth just as India was the country of my birth BUT

your genes came from your mother and father and from your grandparents and their

parents.............Where did they come from?......It is their genes that made you who you

are....................NOT WHERE you were born!!.......Africa is where you live!

reply to post by eletheia


I am not the first of my generation here, just as almost all other white people here. Africa flows in my blood, and in my genes, therefore i am African. This is where i grew up, this is where i have suffered and experienced joy, it is where i lost family and friends, it is part of my life, so this country is in me, and I am in this country.

Even if i was of European decent, this is what i call home.

vvv

reply to post by VreemdeVlieendeVoorwep






Yes..................it is what you call home BUT.... it is NOT WHO YOU ARE



Don't get me wrong i fully understand you, i too have family and indeed my eldest brother is

burried in India, my family were there for two centuries and goodness knows how many

generations. Because i was born and bred there India 'calls to me' is in my blood but i am

not Indian...................although i do have Indian blood in my veins!

reply to post by eletheia


I take it then you don't live in India anymore. Maybe if you did, your whole live, you would understand better what i mean.

I do understand your angle on this matter however, and it does make sense to me. I just feel that where you are raised, situations around you, your experiences growing up, that forms you, and of course your genes plays a role, as to how you look etc.

However, your genes do not define you. Your experiences does, the way you think does.'

vvv

reply to post by VreemdeVlieendeVoorwep




Your'e right i don't live there any more but have been back several times. The opportunities

no longer existed there for my family so we left. I left the 'country of my birth' and took 'who

i am' elsewhere for better opportunities.


You said "However your genes do not define you, Your experiences does, the way you

think does"

Well i think the jury's still out on that one [nature or nurture?] The older i get the more i see

how my upbringing influenced me in life. [as a child god forbid me ever listening to or beleiving

'family'] And the old saying [for women that is] 'we all turn into our mothers' I would NEVER

have beleived it! but all you women out there you better believe it.............IT HAPPENS


Peoples religious beliefs usually go down the generations and if you are born into say a Catholic

or Jewish family in an Islamic country you aren't automatically Islamic?? And your 'experiences'

are very subtly 'family' led this can be noted when there have been adoption's and family's split

growing up with diffrent family's only to meet up when fully mature have nothing in common!!

reply to post by SonoraUndergroundLabs

Ethnicity and nationality are two different things! Example: "what's your nationality?" Me: "I'm an American". "What's your ethnicity?" Me: "I am of AFRICAN heritage".

damn I thought you was all disgusting worm babies from earth.

Originally posted by RedRebel5
Ethnicity and nationality are two different things! Example: "what's your nationality?" Me: "I'm an American". "What's your ethnicity?" Me: "I am of AFRICAN heritage".

Originally posted by RedRebel5
reply to post by SonoraUndergroundLabs

 

Ethnicity and nationality are two different things! Example: "what's your nationality?" Me: "I'm an American". "What's your ethnicity?" Me: "I am of AFRICAN heritage".

reply to post by 0rbital


Well actually you are right my friend. I don't see the problem with stating I'm an American...come to think about it your point is very valid! It made me reflect on when I fill out an application I choose "wish not to disclose" because I hate the fact of having to choose "african american" instead of just "African"

reply to post by RedRebel5




Well, I don't really know anything about your background but if you were born in America, raised in America and you have an American passport then you're American, despite your heritage. Why wouldn't you choose the 'american' option? Again, I'm trying to get the thinking behind this, I don't have an agenda.

reply to post by 0rbital


I believe its a way of gaining sympathy as if they are self concerned about themselves. They need a scapegoat to use for the pursuit of success.

Originally posted by Lysergic
damn I thought you was all disgusting worm babies from earth.

HEY!!! Those things are the dev.. wait.. No Ok. They are nice!!

Wow, I didn't feel I should revisit this thread because I considered I'd be lambasted. But I see some have understood what I mean, and the conversation was kept civil.

I am in total agreement with VVV. I think S.Africa and Aus have a lot in common, in that those of us born here have had no choice in who we were born to, nor where we were born.

And that is not a crime.

I can only speak from personal experience, but I've met many Nyungars in my state, and 90% of them are full of hate towards anything white. Some hide in politics, some as irrational protestors and some just outright say it.

And I know it is hard for me as white person to understand all of that hate, but none the less, we are all here together.

I have cousins who are half nyungar. They do not hate, they do not express absolute disgust at the white man. Ironically, Australia was made of a plethora of people from all nations in the early days, chinese, arabs, english... so ..

I only wanted to express that I as a person am not a racist. I am not guilty of the past. and I am allowed to be aware of my heritage. This should never be a crime. Not then, and not now. For ANYONE who calls themselves Australian.

Yet almost daily I am the sole focus - we are the sole focus - of an era gone by.

I suppose I refer to the recent Herrison Island Tend embassy, with the likes of a certain vocal nyungar, who is as it turns out, half scottish. She calls all us wetjalas every name under the sun.

Anyway, I wont bump the thread ad infinutum. I just wanted to rant about the simple fact. I am one person. I am not part of the whole, as it were. Yet, some people would create a situation where I would submit to a crime I did not commit.

It's an awkward situation here in Aus. But there are groups out there who scream racism and hate and get sympathy. Ha they even called a person who was from Malaysia, a Coconut, because he was part of the group who tried to settle the violence on Herrison island down... They saw him as dark skinned, and assumed he was of Aboriginal decent.

sadly, the further we go the farther away we get.