Not really a racist learning the error of his ways, but a turning point about race in a family member’s life.

My grandfather grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. And when he was a kid in the late 30’s he and a friend of his were playing by a river and the friend fell in and started drowning. My grandfather couldn’t swim so he ran to the road to get help. Cars kept passing by and not stopping for a young boy crying for help, until finally a car pulled over. It was a young black couple and the man jumped in to save my grandfather’s friend. They were able to pull him out, but unfortunately the friend died. My grandfather told me that is why he doesn’t think any race is inferior or superior. Because this young black couple were the only ones to pull over and help a young white boy crying for help.

alexman420 Report

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My abuser who I lived with ages 6-14 was very racist, homophobic and sexist. I never hated black people or had any mean thoughts but I would still avoid them subconsciously on the street when walking the same way and didn't have any black or poc friends. Mind you the school I went to was very white and privileged.

At 15 I was able to escape my abuser and go live with my father in a lower class and very diverse neighborhood.

Over the years I just realized my own habits and misguided feelings on poc and black people.

Though one specific thing that stands out is a boy was harassing me in art class, sexually. Kept mentioning my boobs as I was a very busty 15 year old. He was also f**king with a girl at our table wearing a hijab, teasing her more and more aggressively.

She looked at me, I looked at her and we both got up and went to the pencils sharpener and she said I should go to the principal and report him, I said I was too scared and she said she'd come with me. I told her she should report him too but she said they wouldn't care about him being racist.

We went to the principles office and stayed with each other while we both wrote up reports and spoke to the vice principal about it.

mercyinreach Report

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I mean as good as all this is you really can’t just decide one day to not be racist, it’s a long continuous process of identifying prejudices and eliminating them. You can call yourself anti racist and still commit micro aggressions every day

PoopBandit420 Report

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First off, I never thought of myself as racist until I looked back on. But being raised in western ky where your surrounded by white people and a handful of POC will do that to you. My big aha moment was when I was in college. I had a black friend in my fraternity who just looked over at me one day and was like I got to get out of southern indiana. And I was like why? He was like dude it's just way to normal for people to racist around here. Me being the dumb naive 19yo that I was retorted with oh it's not that bad at least it's not ky. And he looked at me and said thats exactly the point. People don't even realize their racist including you. I was a bit taken a back by this and as is tradition was like I'm sitting here talking to you. His response to that was you have a conderate flag hanging in your apartment. That means alot to black person. The conversation went on for a while where he basically pointed out everything I did that was racist. After that conversation I did alot of soul searching and realized that while I didn't think I was racist and frankly didn't want to be thought of as racist, I kinda was. That conversation completely changed me as a person and for the better.

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My dad was/is pretty racist and I was just raised in that environment so I was too. An example I remember is being so excited to show him the first CD I ever bought, Gorillaz first album, and his reaction was, "so you like n-word(censored) music?"

The main catalyst however was him excitedly calling me into his room one night and wanting to show me a scene in a movie he was watching. That scene was the curb stomp from American History X. I was probably 8-10. Seeing his absolute glee at the f**king barbaric murder of the black people in the movie and praise on Edward Norton's Nazi character really shook me, and the idea that he thought I'd share in his delight.

I walked out of the room in kind of a daze and that's the moment I realized that wasn't the kind of person I wanted to be at allllll.

dagofin , gorillaz Report

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My husband grew up in a conservative racist white Christian area. He really didn't know better than to say the stuff racist say but didn't really believe anyone suffering was bad necessarily. He stopped repeating the racist stuff after he joined the marines, moved away from his one horse town and had his horizons broadened.

One thing that he still had was prejudice against Muslims. Being from a strict Christian household and then going to war right after 9/11 didn't do him any favors in that aspect. A few years after we got married we ended up moving to a major US city. We lived in an apartment complex with a plethora of people from all walks of life, including a Muslim family. When school started one of our kids shared a class with one of their kids. The first time my husband saw the mother she had a bundle on her chest walking toward the bus stop with her kid. It was a fresh newborn baby. Now, my husband is an absolute sucker for babies. He loves them. He was taken by this tiny little black haired infant. I became friends with the mom and she invited us over for tea. We learned they were Muslim and they taught us so much. My husband spent hours talking to the dad and learning about their culture and beliefs. That was the turning point for him. These people were so kind and welcoming and were basically the opposite of everything my husband had been taught. It kind of threw him into sort of an existential crisis...but in a good way.

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I see race as a non-scientific category, however, I was raised to mistrust European-American people. My parents (African-American), all of my neighbors, and family friends, suffered deeply from the racism (1960’s - Los Angeles, Ca). I was in my late 30’s before I had my first inter-cultural friendship. That friendship did not survive because of extremely different views about pets (I have pet allergies) but I came from that friendship understanding that she was kind, fair, and knew how to be a great friend. That first intercultural friendship left me open to develop what has become my dearest friend, Stacy. We can talk about anything and maintain respect or set it aside and come back to it, if it’s a hot topic. We have made each other laugh to tears too many times to count. We trust each other. The internal work that my intercultural friendships demanded, improved every friendship in my life, including mine with family members. As I have aged and enjoyed friendships with many different cultures and ethnic groups, my heart has opened to accept and extend kindness to all human beings. Something I have also come to understand is that European-American Immigrants were also deeply damaged by African enslavement and European-American Immigrant Supremacist ideologies that are heavily woven into American culture. Untangling this damage will take time and much forgiveness but I’m hopeful and I know that it will be very much worth the effort as we move forward.

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I wasn't an actual racist per se but I definitely had a stereotypical idea of how a group of people is because of the action of the few or because what I have seen on the media. What made me change? Well, I saw a video of a writer named Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, she spoke about the dangers of the single story and that video changed my life and it opened my eyes. Check it out on youtube and write Chimamanda Ngozi: Dangers of a single story.

SubSahranCamelRider , TED Report

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Not me, but my first roommate out of college who grew up in rural PA told me that watching New Girl made her less racist. Her parents were super racist (and her brother was a literal neo-nazi convicted of a hate crime). But watching the show in her teens and seeing people of a bunch of different races have normal and positive interactions was mind-blowing because her parents literally taught her it was impossible. That opened her up to meeting all different types of people.

Then she went to college and met people from all different backgrounds and became good friends and formed relationships with them. She even ended up marrying a mixed-race man and they're quite happy with a baby. Her family does not speak to her, but I am certain she's better off.

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My immediate family was "we're not racists, but..." and my extended family was outright trailer trash racist. I was raised to kind of believe, "we're not racist. Just superior." In my teen years, the hypocrisy of it really started becoming apparent. Certain people were the way they were because it was just inherent of their culture, ours were the way they were because they were unlucky, didn't have the same opportunities, and it was understandable that they'd feel the urge for escapism or lashing out. Lol. My feelings on the subject really grew when I had kids of my own, and I just started thinking about how f**king random life- dictating details are. Where you're born. What color you are. Your gender. Sexual identity. And how I did nothing to make my kids white and male in the southern US. Life just happened that way. And then I started thinking, what if they weren't. What if they faced the same everyday bulls**t that millions of other people in this country do. What if I had to live with the real fear that they'd be walking to the bodega one day for an Arizona and some skittles, and were murdered by f**king cops. And I taught my kids to think, more than I was raised to.

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This will be buried, but I inherited a lot of poor opinions and behaviours from my Dad and his family. It took me way too long to break out of that way of thinking.

There's two key moments in my mind that were "Wait a second, this isn't right." sorta moment.

First, I was walking down the street in a nightlife/food area. A car drives past an Indonesian restaurant with a man hanging out the window who screams "GOOK!" at the workers. I remember thinking that it was just kinda f**ked up, they were just doing their thing.

The second, my partner and I were having a little double date with some friends and we both cracked a tasteless/racist joke - can't remember what it was. My best friends wife turns to my girlfriend and says "I expect this from him, but not from you."

That was the real wake up call from me. That my behaviour was unacceptable, insulting and worst of all people just expected it from me. Since then I have worked hard to re-evaluate my behaviours and view them from a critical perspective. It's been tough but I think I'm better for it.

supergalacticcaptain Report

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As a WOC working in a highly technical field where there aren’t many POC or women, reading this, I am so touched.

I am left with the message that just being my own special self is perhaps breaking down long-held prejudices/dogma amongst my peers.

miss_micropipette Report

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Having my own children. And then seeing some old paintings/depictions of enslaved children being ripped from their mother’s arms and sold. Just imagining their pain.

pornistheworst83 Report

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I didn't fully understand the reason behind Black Lives Matter. To me, of course they mattered, so why did they need this protest to happen? I assumed it was just a group of whiny people who wanted more than what they originally asked for and I brushed their issues off.

It wasn't until I started really listening that I realized just how bad it was for them. The videos of them being beaten and arrested over something I'd only get a warning for. I didn't realize how much privilege I had and everything, all the pride protests and why they didn't want the police involved, it made sense.

1BoiledCabbage Report

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i’m half korean. White side of my family is a bunch of rednecks. Went through a phase as a teen where I was racist to other minorities. I think I became self-aware when we were watching college basketball and my dad pointed out that every conceivable ethnicity was on one team. My grandpa said “all n*****s to me”

That’s when it hit me. If i were not blood-related they would all view me the same.

AltruisticTrip Report

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Moving out of a prodominently white neighborhood and meeting people of differences races and back rounds. Realizing they are just people like you trying to live their lives.

aambro78 , pexels Report

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I live in an overall racist country, natives from here think we are not THAT racist, but sometimes...it's just...wow

My family also didn't help, comments about black, latino and romani people were constantly made and I also got some of that racism inside me when growing up.

My depression made me change in someways and I guess that's one way it changed me. I was in bed at 4am and I couldn't sleep, so my brain thought it was nice hour to think about these things for some reason, and I started asking to myself "Why".

Why do I consider myself better than a black person or a latino person or a romani person.

Why am I better than any of them.

Why are they less than me

And also "what"

What makes me good and what makes them bad

What do I get from all of this

What do we get from all of this

I guess the answers were simple

Also with therapy I learned that making you feel better by making others feel worse isn't a good antidepressant and that it's indeed, an assh*le move.

BladeRoler Report

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My dad was a Neo-nazi and raised me to believe anyone who wasn’t purely white is inferior. I lived in a very rural area and never met anyone who wasn’t white so I never had any reason to think he wasn’t right. As I grew up, my town diversified and gained a lot of people who weren’t white. I got to be friends with a lot of them and met their parents and realized my dad was absolutely full of sh*t. As I’ve grown I’ve realized he’s the most toxic individual I’ve ever met, for way more reasons than this, and have completely cut him out of my life. Im still pretty uneasy about it at times but I know it’s for the better. I still get called out as a racist every once in awhile and I guess it’s pretty deserved due to my upbringing and actions therefore, but I like to think I’ve drastically changed for the better and even though I catch myself falling back sometimes, I like to think I’m decently open-minded and definitely not stupid enough to think someone’s skin color defines their character.

SauceyStan Report

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I don't think I was ever really racist but I subconsciously would think that way. I have to stop and remind myself every now and then that I shouldn't think like that. I never thought I don't want to be friends with him because he's black but I would put people of different colors into stereotypes. I'm still struggling with it but I never make decisions based on it. I don't know if I can ever train myself to not think like that but I have trained myself to notice when I'm doing it and correct myself.

Zkenny13 Report

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As a child I remember not liking other children who weren’t white. It wasn’t taught by my parents, they were always accepting of everyone. Still not sure what was the root of it. If I had to guess it was either television or just ignorance. But before 7th grade I met a kid at my summer camp and we instantly became best friends. I think pretty much over night changed my mind on the matter. He taught me so much about black culture, and it really changed my point of view. We’re still best buds 17 years later.

foryourthowaway Report

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I'm not a racist, but I did change a racist guy's mind at a bar once (at least, I'd like to hope I did).

He was ranting on about minorities causing problems in America, using all kinds of racial slurs. The bartender repeatedly asked him to stop. I happened to be sitting next to him at the bar. Im a non-confrontational person, so I just kind of ignored his ramblings and watched the TV (there was a football game on I believe). He turned to me and said something along the lines of "can you believe this b***h?" when the bartender told him he needed to shut his mouth or leave.

Then I became a part of it.

I told him that his words were not appropriate and offensive to me. He asked me why does that matter to me as a "fellow white guy."

Full disclosure, I'm a first-generation American (my father is from Mexico), but I'm very light-skinned and so I do look 100% white. I informed him of this, as well as the fact that my niece is black, and his tone completely changed. He started calling me a sc, w**k, you name it. Told me he wanted to go outside and beat my a* in the parking lot. All because I informed him of my heritage.

I spent the next 20ish minutes trying to show him how flawed his logic was, how he was fine standing next to me, spewing racist crap, and even looked for me to back him up, until he found out that I wasn't really "white."

We talked for awhile before the bartender eventually threw him out. While I'm not sure if his mind was totally changed, he did offer an apology for what he said, and for judging me and calling me names. He also ended up buying me a drink as well. I'd like to think that he's changed for the better, but I never saw him at that bar again. I always wonder how people can just snap like that over skin color/race when the guy had no problem with me as a person when he thought I was just "white"

Whosdatguyma Report

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I'm not racist, but I used to be islamaphobic. I then met 2 of my friends and saw how Islam really was and changed

yxng_daniel12 Report

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I was in college and I thought racism was solved. I said that to a black girl in my major, and she just turned to me and said no it's not, you just don't see it, or something to that effect.

I guess I was well on my way to not being racist anymore by that point just by getting away from my tiny town I grew up in. But, the amount of embarrassment I had in that moment as a 20 year old kid, I will never forget it as long as I live.

To me, if someone who is black tells you racism isn't solved and still exists, you do a double take, and take stock of your view point.

It's been a gradual process over ten years for me to recognize the implicit bias and racist views society has taught me. But I try really hard to recognize it now and check myself.

IAmNotExperienced Report

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I was not raised by racist parents but you can't help growing up with racist messages all around society and tending to believe some of them. I had ideas about indigenous people, Muslim people, all sorts of poisonous ideas.

When I got into my early twenties I started to make good money and began traveling, and all of my racist notions disappeared with that. Nothing made me realize how similar human beings are regardless of race, than traveling.

JewsEatFruit Report

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I grew up in the South (Of the USA) and never realized that my family was racist. I knew that jokes were made and all but I thought they just made them to be funny.

In 6th grade I accidentally called a black girl a slave (I would joke that way with my brother) and had one of my first "Oh S***!" Moments. I still didn't think I was racist and just was more careful of what I said. I had black friends and things were a lot better after that.

As I got older I realized that I still has work to do and have been working on it for years.

One of the most helpful things for me was taking a college course that was entirely about race/ethnicity and human diversity. We spent a few weeks just learning and realizing that race/ethnicity is a purely social construct because homo sapiens are too young of a species to have enough diversity for it to matter.

Tldr: Science and realizing that my family was racist and it had influenced me.

Sithmobias1 Report

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Joined the military, left home and experienced cultures around the world. I wouldn’t say I was ever racist and thought I was better than anyone but I was severely lacking in cultural awareness due to growing up in a small town surrounded by openly racist people. Luckily, my children are able to grow in a completely different environment than the one I did.

Icy_Stretch5154 , unsplash Report

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I grew up!

As a child, I lived in the southern US and my parents - and the whole society - was racist. The only Black people I came in contact with were maids, gardeners, janitors. Schools were segregated. The only Asians I knew owned Chinese restaurants and we didn't socialize with "them."

As a child, I figured that adults must know something about these Black people that I didn't know because they seemed OK to me. When I grew up, married and left the South, it was HOLY S**T! WTH had I been living with?!

So when I read about racist parents producing racist kids... I think... "Not necessarily...."

NoBSforGma , pexels Report

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I was raised by racist grandparents so a lot of that was ingrained in me early on, but I also got out of it super quick. I became friends with a black boy back in 4th grade and I immediately had a lot of questions for my family. Their answers didn’t make sense to me even at that age so I pretty quickly learned that all the racism was completely made up bulls**t.

Don’t talk to my family much anymore.

Jackmace Report

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I wasn't the sort of racist that you think of when you think"racist," but I did do things that were driven by negative racial stereotypes, mostly the idea that racialized people are somehow fundamentally different from me. For example, I never watched TV shows with predominately Black casts because I assumed I wasn't like "them" and wouldn't enjoy or understand the show. I assumed their lives and experience must be so different than mine that I wouldn't "get" the show.

I don't really know where the idea came from, to be honest. Maybe just the world's tendency to turn people who look different into "others." I grew up in a small town with literally two non-white families, and that attitude of racialized people being different was pretty prevalent, in subtle and overt ways.

It was just a matter of getting older and recognizing that racism in myself. I learned to notice when I was subtly shying away from something, and understand that a) it's super sh*tty to assume that I don't have anything in common with someone because their race or culture is different than mine, and b) distancing myself from them is a sh*tty solution to my sh*tty assumptions.

ThievingRock Report

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As you mature, you sometimes come to understand that things you once thought were badass, were actually pretty dumb-assed.

stjhnstv Report

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I moved away from my one-horse hometown and got away from my extremely prejudiced family.

CannaKingdom0705 Report

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I grew up in a hugely diverse group of relatives and friends so racism wasn’t a thing I even knew existed until I hit 12 ish and it honestly baffled me. People are f**king stupid.

notyurfuxkingwoman Report

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Not an ex-racist, actually I'm black and know a COD youtuber named Drift0r. Been watching him since the Modern Warfare 2 days and he's very open on the fact that he used to be on some racist s**t as a kid. But like any ex-racist, his world view opened up and you can see the difference (because he even brought his own evidence of it). At first I thought it'd turn me off from his content but he clearly regrets it first off, second off, he's an example that people are redeemable from past perspectives as long as they find themselves in headspace and time where they begin to see the world for what it really is, or supposed to be.

VICELORD-INDIGO Report

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I read ”The People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn. Two chapters in and I could feel neural pathways start to change in my brain, and I haven’t stopped challenging my bulls**t since.

werewilf Report

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I grew up in a small midwest town with only white people and parroted a lot of the dumb bulls**t I heard despite never actually meeting a person of color until college. Luckily my dad is a easy going guy who loves everyone and as soon as I left the small toxic town what I learned from him kicked in and when I actually met people unlike me all of my preconceived notions faded away. I ended up being friends with people of all colors and creeds. Literally all it took was exposure to a different environment and I quickly loved people for people no matter their appearances or backgrounds.

baun_diesel Report

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I grew up in a very tiny farm community where:

1) My parents were racists 2) My friends were racists 3) My friend’s parents were racists 4) Most of the teachers in our tiny K-12 public school grew up in our town and as a result were racists 5) Even the priest was racist 6) Every other possible role model was racist.

But worst of all

7) There were exactly ZERO non-white people around.

As a result, I grew up believing what everyone around me said about black people being an inferior race.

What changed my mind? After I got to my teenage years I started to expand my social circle to include people not from my home town. This caused me to become exposed to people of color for the first time, and it didn’t take me long to realize that there wasn’t much difference, outside of cultural differences. But even then, my family from the city had cultural differences, and they were white like me, so race had little to do with it.

I have a 2 year old daughter now, and hope to raise her in such a way that she has exposure to different cultures, races, ideologies. I think that goes a long way to making people more compationate and kind.

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Parents were old white people so they'd make chinamen jokes,a or complain about bad Asian drivers. Nothing obscene but still racist.

Growing up kids my age were racist bigots who bullied everything they could. This was the real tragedy. I think kids these days are less lkke they were in my day. Tool me a few years to adjust to today's views. In still not entirely there despite being liberal in a lot of ways.

KyleGG Report

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When I was a teenager, sitting in a room with a bisexual half-black half-Jewish man and a straight all Jewish white man...

We’d sit around telling the most god-awful racist jokes you can imagine. Including both Black and Jewish jokes. The same session would include dead baby jokes and Quadriplegic jokes.

Today (39yo), I’d still tell the others, but I’ll be damned if I retell those old race jokes. That sh*t is not okay.

I think there’s a realization you have one day where jokes are the sandbox for actual racism to grow up in. It’s kind of a “safe space” for racism. An incubator.

Just nip that s**t in the bud right away. And be the kind of person who shoots your friends down when they wanna engage with that.

“It’s only jokin’ man.”

I get it. But you never know who is germinating seeds in their soul with this stuff ya know?

wyverndarkblood Report

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I had a really bad roommate who was a recent immigrant from a specific country, and he was the only person from that country I had yet met. After moving out, when I'd meet people from that country I'd notice myself thinking derogatory things about them for no reason. Getting to know a wider variety of people helped, and therapy (CBT) helped, but I still occasionally slip into old habits. It gets easier every day, but it takes work every day.

SirThatsCuba Report

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Just getting older and realizing they aren't (all) like that. I wasn't raised to hate anyone particularly, but life experiences and nearly getting dragged into gang bullsh*t- and the behavior I was exposed to as a result- gave me a deeper hatred of blacks than anything else.

Now that I'm older, I don't hate anyone for their skin color. What was it MLK said? Something about judging by the content of their character? I can't remember the specific words, only the sentiment.

I still loathe those behaviors more than words can describe though.

ordinarymagician_ Report

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I grew up thinking I was not a racist. I didn’t think badly of blacks or Hispanics. But racist jokes didn’t hurt anyone. Then I moved to an area with about a 90% Hispanic population. The little things that weren’t racist, were. The “How many Mexican” type jokes were hurtful and I felt bad. So I stopped. The easy same thing with blacks , Asians etc, etc. was about the same time.

Sir-Toppemhat Report

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Its simple really, I was raised in a racist family. Growing up I was kinda racist.... when I actually spent time with people of different races I quickly realized how stupid that is.

ape-with-keyboard Report

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my dad used to make awful racist jokes, I just grew up and realized he sucked.

DonnieMostDefinitely Report

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As a young kid, being raised by my old school grandparents who still called black people Ne**os and looked down upon native people, I thought that was normal as a kid. One day for a school field trip though, we went to a native reserve, went to a giant log house and watched a traditional native ceremony of some sort. It was actually really interesting to see in person and made me realize that they werent all drunks and gang members as my grandparents had portrayed them to be. This experience made me think different about all races, and I one day confronted my grandparents on it. They stopped using the N word after that so I hope I made some impression on them.

Nowadays, racism makes me cringe, I hate it. As a white guy, ive only ever experienced against me a handful of times, but those few times made me appreciate the much worse things many others go through simply because they are born a certain color.

Youpunyhumans Report

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I was raised with a very racist mother. She would make comments about how you had to "keep the races pure" and that mixed race families were disgusting and against god. I was also told that homosexuality was a carnal sin and just sick deprived behavior.

I grew up believing what my parents told me, but I rewrote the book on all my beliefs by my early to mid 20s. I completely support gay rights and have many gay friends, and I take strong stands against racism whenever it comes up. I look at my beliefs back then, and I couldn't have been more wrong.

That's the main reason I am strongly against cancel culture. Not everyone had perfectly progressive parents that educated them correctly so they wouldn't make an ill-advised tweet 15 years ago that prevents them from getting a job today. My parents taught me religion, homeopathy, homophobia, and racism. I unilaterally reject all four of those now, but I only knew what I had been taught when I was 18 years old. It takes time to re-educate yourself, and you aren't born being correct. The first time I heard about people getting in trouble for blackface in a Halloween costume, I couldn't understand the issue. It's a Halloween costume. People wear makeup and dress as other people right? Then someone had to explain to me the history of it, and it made sense that it was a very offensive thing to do. Without that knowledge, I could have been at a Halloween party with a picture of me with makeup on that would prevent me from getting a job today, 20 years later. (For the record, I never did blackface, but I didn't even know it was bad until about 10 years ago)

IMHO cancel culture is just elitism. You had good parents, and you punish everyone who didn't.

SvenTropics Report

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My dad has some pretty xenophobic points of view and that definitely rubbed off on me when I was younger. Meeting actual PoC through my teenage years made me realise I was being dumb.

BustyNat Report

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I wouldn't have classified myself as racist, but I definitely had some racist ideas about native people in my city growing up. There are a lot of native addicts and vagrants but it's very much a result of a system that's rigged against those communities.

I didn't know any of that growing up so when I saw a group of drunk, native people in the park or something, I was generally unimpressed or even frightened. And I definitely applied those feelings to all the native people I came across. It's hard to change those reactions but we can all identify the bad reactions and try to curb them.

Nillabeans Report

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Meeting and working with black people and hispanics.

I was raised by racists, grew up in an all white suburb, went to all white private schools.

_barack_ Report

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When I was in kindergarten I had a crush on a friend of mine who was black, my parents would tell me to be careful around him and not to get attached bc he would probably grow up to be a criminal because he was black. I remember being confused, bc nothing seemed to justify that. Even stranger is that thinking back on it, he never looked down on anybody for it per se, it was more like a fact. Like "I respect you, but it sucks this is all you'll ever amount to". (His reasoning from statistics he found or something idk) My dad loved his dad though and I think called him an exception, his dad was the gym teacher at the middle school my dad wanted me to attend.

Anyway he'd said this often enough and repeated the jail statistic that I was wary of most (specifically black) men I'd see by the age of 8 for no good reason. Years later I was maybe 13 and I'd checked in with the same kid from kindergarten and he was the same super sweet kid I remembered and I realized I didn't feel any different about him. I was never scared of him, and honestly thought if anyone was going to grow up to be a super successful guy it would be him. (Another thing my dad told me was that he would be stuck below the poverty line, a yucky thing to say)

It sucked to realize I'd seen every black man I encountered as a criminal or future criminal, and my friend was the exception. It still really sucks to think I'd been gripped by that mindset. Anyway it took a bit to let go of the irrational fear, but by that point I knew it was irrational which made it so much easier. On a lighter note, when I first met him I immediately assumed everybody was made of chocolate. For instance, I was white chocolate, and tbh I was jealous at first bc I liked milk and dark chocolate better and assumed he got the better end of the bargain. He is, also, still a super snazzy guy.

IINoAssociationII Report

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I was never knowingly or intentionally racist, but when I was going into college I was ignorant, bitter, and certainly not on a good path. I had a roommate in college who was a person of color, who really helped me understand and put into context a lot that I had been ignorant about.

AverageFilingCabinet Report

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Grew up in a town that was 99% white.
Wasn't any more racist than 1980s television.

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Joined army to escape home town.
Became rather racist due to quite unfair treatment of the three white guys in my unit.

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Left army.
Met a bunch of people who weren't from the worst possible home and economic situations. Learned that it's not color or race, but behavior... and 1980s TV was actually quite racist, it was just invisible until you see it. kinda like bad kerning

Festernd Report

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I realized white people today aren't responsible for slavery.

Lookatitlikethis Report

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