Grrrrrrrrrrr

You know,I'm thoroughly sickened by something that happened at work tonight. I work in a Central Florida town that's known for,let's say,it's racist past.At about 7pm tonight a frequent,quite awesome I might add,customer comes running in,bleeding from his head.I ask him what's wrong,he says a bunch of white guys are chasing him calling him a 'n-word' and to get the # out of their neighborhood. This man is an honest,hard working guy. He's mentioned to me in the past how that town isn't safe for him or his kids to live in but he refuses to move. I kind of admired him for that. Told him ya gotta do what ya gotta do. You can live where ever you want,this is America after all right?

So anyway I help him clean up his head..then the calvery comes. He was terrified.Started screaming that's them! Asked me to call the cops.I did. One of them comes in and I'm watching him closely. He says something like "We're waiting for you ni-ger". That set me off. I said you need to get the F'ck out of here.This little bastard said something like Why are you protecting the Ni'ger...I didn't have to say anything ..another customer stepped in..a much LARGER customer. Grabbed the dude by the neck and shoved him out the door.

that's the jist of it. It's sickening. As someone from the north,the amount of racism I see here disgusts me.I'm all for hating people because of what they do or how they act.But to hate someone because of skin color? That's disgusting.

It's sad that these things continue to happen. Look at little children of all colors playing in a playground, they don't care about the color of one's skin. They all get along and laugh and play and have a wonderful time together. Perhaps adults should be more like them.

reply to post by Night Star


Indeed they do. What I witnessed tonight though was PURE hatred that's been taught. It's ingrained in their mind. I've seen it a lot since I've lived here but tonight was just ridiculous. Literally a bunch of toothless backwoods rednecks chasing someone for NO reason other then skin color.

I find it funny that the people who are racist and promote racism usually have an excuse of 'They are all criminals', yet, these people are some of the most violent and criminally minded humans you will ever meet. I work for the NHS and a very multi-cultural office, two of my closest friends are middle eastern Muslims and I have several friends of African and Carribean origin. I have found these people to be some of the most kind hearted and hard working people I have ever met, My Muslim friend is very dedicated and any patient he deals with is lucky to have someone with his skill helping them. They all have come to, or are born in England and are probably more patriotic about England than I am!

There is just no evidence to back up any claims made by white-supremacists, except cases isolated, usually, to a particular area, which would make it a social problem rather than a race issue (which i think is a completely made up concept).

The big man in your store should be given a medal, any human being that puts themselves in the way of danger to protect another human being is honourable and unfortunately rather rare type of person.

EDIT: Of course I forgot, you should also recieve a medal for helping a human being in need and standing tall in the face of danger, Bravo!

reply to post by nightstalker78


I'm not a liberal, but it is easy to see that as far as hatred goes, there has got to be more at the bottom in those that have carried the brunt of the pain and misery over time than those at the top. Both sides, top and bottom, have made gigantic strides in my lifetime. Let us hope it continues.

reply to post by nightstalker78


God damn. Thats terrible nightstalker78. I hate that kind of crap.

There is only one societal group that I consistently discriminate against, and that is the group known as xenophobes.

They dress themselves up in different outfits dependent on where in the world they are from, they spout different excuses for their attitudes and behaviors, but the truth of the matter is that no matter which banner they hate under, they are all a disgrace to the human species.

What I say next may not make me any better than them, but it is how I feel. Personally, if you gave me a licence to do so, I would gladly walk out into the world, and kill the entire steaming mess of them. Nazis, fundamentalist radical religious organisations of every faith, supremacists of every colour, race haters, those who hate people simply based on musical preference (they are out there), whether they be white, black, brown, yellow, or politically speaking, blue, red, yellow.... I would make palace of bones and marrow out of the bastards, for FREE!

These people are literally killing the human race. Because of them, political discourse has to be so careful as to be ineffectual, communities and nations are held back decades, while sorting out the continuing struggle for "dominance", and personal trust between my fellow human beings, is at an all time bloody low.

My grandfathers fought for better than that, and their friends died in foreign lands, for better than that, and people ought to damned well respect those sacrifices enough to learn from that period in history.

Whether people learn to get along through becoming aware that being a racist, a xenophobe is bad for the whole species, or whether they learn to get along because they are terrified of the consequences to themselves if they do not, has ceased to be nearly as important to me, as the FACT that people NEED to get along, learn to live, love and work together in harmony and peace.

Without that peace and harmony our species is doomed to repeat its worst excesses, and never capitalise on our greatest successes. That cannot stand.

sounds like a hate crime. Does the store/place of business have video cameras (not that I'm a fan of the cameras) that captured these hateful people (I call them people for lack of a more appropriate word)?

I'm not a big fan of calling all sorts of incidents "hate crimes" -- it minimizes crimes against same race/religion/orientation etc. BUT sometimes it seems to be the right thing to do when pure, ugly hate is the motivation.

I can't imagine what that man went through. I can't imagine being chased and threatened for the color of my skin. I can't imagine going home and about my business in a town where this happened and may happen again to me or my family. This is America (well, this took place in America), and it saddens me. However, what is worse, is that it happens every day somewhere in this country, that we may or may not hear of on the news.

I am glad your place of work was a safe haven to come to, or a tragedy, a murder could have happened.

I'd carry around pepper spray.

I am a white male who grew up in the ghetto. I know what it's like to be hated because of your skin color, firsthand. I also know what what it's like to hate those of a given color. And feel justified doing so. Racism is a vicious mindset, and a boil on the backside of humanity. Unfortunately, our governments, and our media perpetuate it, because they love it. It is a useful tool for them to keep us all divided, and full of hate.

But we have a choice. We don't have to hate. We don't have to give them what they want. It's up to us.

reply to post by nightstalker78


Not very nice for you having to experience that. Feel for you.

You and the other customer were very kind and humane and handled the whole thing just right.

Sorry to hear that this part of Florida has these awful problems.

I even feel sorry for those silly people who are so racist and waste their lives with negative behaviour when there are so many pleasant things to do with our time.

reply to post by nightstalker78


Kudos to you my friend and the guy that grabbed that punk by the neck and threw him out of the store. It's sad how ignorant and evil some people are. You did the right thing, but if I were you, I would protect myself just in case these punks seek revenge on you for protecting him. Maybe you should carry a can of pepper spray or a stun gun with you. I would also recommend that to the guy who was attacked!

reply to post by nightstalker78


Control what you can control, let the rest be nothing more than lessons to you.

You and the customer did the right thing, you stepped in and protected someone in need from redneck a-holes. You controlled what you could, and made the world just a little bit better in the process.

spartacus699
I'd carry around pepper spray.

LOL, pepper spray.

Does that come in .40 cal?

If I was the bigger guy, I would have hog tied that nasty little piece of crap and
then when the cops came I would have testified against him.

He's caught on camera in the store threatening someone, right?
Couldn't he be arrested??

It's no different in the north; people are just more quiet about it. It's not just about brown and white either. It seems all colours seem to have their bigoted percentage of people.

Hushabye
It's no different in the north; people are just more quiet about it. It's not just about brown and white either. It seems all colours seem to have their bigoted percentage of people.

True,
The difference is that in the south it's the loud mouthed jackass who's screaming racial slurs.
Up north it's the guy next to you who's smiling at you one minute and then talking trash behind your back.

FlyersFan
If I was the bigger guy, I would have hog tied that nasty little piece of crap and
then when the cops came I would have testified against him.

He's caught on camera in the store threatening someone, right?
Couldn't he be arrested??

Yes,when I went into work today there was a cop reviewing the video with my boss.

I felt so bad.Spent about 45 minutes being asked about what happened.

This kind of thing is sickening. Something tells me he (my customer) is going to be terrified to press charges.

Understand this...the town i'm talking about is a small white town KNOWN for it's racist past. The cops pretend to care. It's not far from disney. You're smart enough to figure it out

Klassified
I am a white male who grew up in the ghetto. I know what it's like to be hated because of your skin color, firsthand. I also know what what it's like to hate those of a given color. And feel justified doing so. Racism is a vicious mindset, and a boil on the backside of humanity. Unfortunately, our governments, and our media perpetuate it, because they love it. It is a useful tool for them to keep us all divided, and full of hate.

But we have a choice. We don't have to hate. We don't have to give them what they want. It's up to us.

This has deeply affected me. I've seen other instances of racism. But what I witnessed horrified me. I've never EVER felt that way. To simply hate someone just because of the color of their skin? How do you justify that? I don't get it. Does it make them feel good inside? Make them somehow think they're better ?

reply to post by Night Star

That's so true,Night Star,here in Africa I see it all the time-even in the store when nipping in for bread+milk.I'd my son is with,the moment a child,of whatever race comes walking down the aisle with his/her mom-my kiddo and the other will smile ar interact in some way,in any public place like a restaurant,the kids of all races will gravitate towards each other+start interacting,and at my son's school its the same,the lil ones see nothing except another kid to have fun with,to play with.

But as my daughter has told me,that does not usually carry over into high-schools here,there kids of different races tend to stick to friends of their own race, with some exceptions.My daughter has a good friend,a lovely black girl,at whose house she has slept over quite a few times,but this girl is moving to a major city beginning 2014,to a school where she will get a scholarship for her excellence at playing squash,this girl+her dad are champs at squash.My daughter is very sad at losing her friend,but that is life.She is in the minority,as far as being good friends with a black girl goes,like I said,although there is mot much racial hostility at all between teens,the kids do tend to stick to their respective race groups for friendship,in this region, in most schools. In the cities like Cape Town or Johannesburg racially mixed friendships are far more the norm.At my son's school it is a given,there don't seem to even be a concept of different races.

So I have to conclude that something happens,in my country,between childhood+teenage years,something seeps in and interferes with the children's perception of "Oh hey,someone to play with!" Something causes older children here to make friends along racial lines,as opposed to just seeing a possible friend,no matter which races are involved.

Maybe it comes fom the parents,idk,but my youngest gal+son has always had good friends from other races,in primary school(grades 1-7) my daughter's best friend for years,was a Muslim girl.They never formally stopped being friends,it was a gradual drifting apart,as each got busier with their own lives,I guess.Either way,there is this pure and precious,and I believe divine/sacred connection that all very young children seem to feel, towards each other-a magick,almost,that is so beautiful and uplifting+precious beyond words-and then something happens as they get older,and divisions seep in-my country has a long way to go towards being a society where race is not an issue,especially with a government that is no help with trying to build bridges among people,instead actively encouraging divisionary tactics.

But everytime I see the the glee in the eyes of small kiddo's from different races,at having found a playmate where ever they happen to cross paths,,it lifts my spirits+gives me hope.

reply to post by nightstalker78

Good on you,nightstalker,for protecting this poor man-as I condemn the mostly racially motivated "knock-out game" and the racism towards white people in my country,that have lead to thousands of murders in the past 20 years,I condemn these white POS trash who would hurt an innocent person on the sole grounds of him being from adifferent race.Bloody cowardly disgusting excuses for human beings!