Does Racism Exist for Middle-Upper/Upper Class Americans?

[Anonymous]

How timely. Yes I think UMC Americans continue to harbor racist thoughts because I had one yesterday. I am so ashamed of myself.

A car that I assumed to be casing my street and the adjacent streets in upper NW DC was actually just a bit lost and looking for an address. There were a lot of details about the way the vehicle was moving that pointed toward "up to no good," (slow, using alleys when no one here uses alleys, etc), but -- and this is the shameful part -- the clincher for me was the passenger. I made an assumption based on his appearance.

[Anonymous]

I have had the experience of being mistaken for a secretary at meetings. I have previously posted on DCUM that I have also been mistaken for my children's nanny more than once in fair and friendly Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AA mom here. Do DH and I have multiple Ivy league degrees, a lovely house in a majority white neighborhood, and great credit? Sure. Do I sometimes walk into meetings and have white men think I am there to take the meeting minutes? You bet. It is teh subtle assumptions that don't go away, no matter how successful you are.

I'm white and that happens to me. I think that is sexism not necessarily racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AA mom here. Do DH and I have multiple Ivy league degrees, a lovely house in a majority white neighborhood, and great credit? Sure. Do I sometimes walk into meetings and have white men think I am there to take the meeting minutes? You bet. It is teh subtle assumptions that don't go away, no matter how successful you are.

I'm white and that happens to me. I think that is sexism not necessarily racism.

Because you're white, you can be assured that it's not due to your race. Sexism is bad, too, but there's no way of knowing which one it is - though it could be both.

[Anonymous]

i feel for the nice black people in the country because they get lumped in with the bad black people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i feel for the nice black people in the country because they get lumped in with the bad black people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about for Asians or light-colored Hispanics? Are they in a different category of racism?

I agree that racism against blacks in this country is quantifiable, but what about "model minority" Asians?

There is a discussion in the political forum about a woman who feels that DC campaign volunteers frequently solicit her white husband but do not try to talk to her because she is asian.

Absolutely, without a doubt. The whole "model minority" myth exists to perpetuate racism, and is racism in itself. The idea is to pit Asians against black and hispanics. "Oh, look how successful Indian people are, and they've only been here a couple generations, but those black people can't get their act together!" In reality, some of the poorest ethnic groups in the country are Asian/Pacific Islanders, but the problems in those communities (drug abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence, unemployment) don't get attention because we need perpetuate the myth that Asians are "good" minorities, unlike those black people.

I'm Indian. I felt that I was sheltered from racism due to my class and education. (My parents grew up very poor, but had some lucky breaks and worked their way into a middle-class existence.) With generous financial aid, I went to a prestigious liberal arts college and a top ten law school . I truly didn't think that being a person of color would hold me back, since I felt that I had top credentials and access to networks.

As a summer associate, I was criticized behind my back for having an "unprofessional" appearance, though she the partner "couldn't quite put her finger on what it was." Every person of color in my summer class had the same experience. Not a single woman of color (three of us from a class of 20, all from top ten law schools) received an offer from the firm for full time employment. Each of us went on to better firms or to prestigious positions in government, and did very well. Several of my white law school classmates told me that they didn't really believe that racism really existed today until they saw what I went through.

Does your DH have any close friends that aren't white? He should ask them. Your DH probably doesn't think much about race and likely is not himself a racist, which is why he doesn't think that racism exists. I have plenty of friends who were in this boat as well; I don't think less of them for it, but I am jealous that they had an upbringing that allows them to think that racism is no longer a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i feel for the nice black people in the country because they get lumped in with the bad black people.

I feel bad for the nice white people in this country because they get lumped in with the teabaggers. There are some nice whites out there.

[Anonymous]

I feel bad for people called tea baggers because that's just unfortunate.

[Anonymous]

I don't feel bad for the tea baggers because they are bringing it on themselves by being ignorant, stupid or both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A staggering number of Americans think Barack Obama is not a real American citizen and that he's a Muslim! Would those idiocies persist if he were a white guy? Hell, no.

Indeed. If the president's father were an Irish guy named O'Brien instead of a Kenyan guy named Obama, this citizenship nonsense would not be given tacit support from so much of the Republican establishment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i feel for the nice black people in the country because they get lumped in with the bad black people.

I feel sorry for the nice women and men in this country, because they get lumped in with the bad men and women.

[Anonymous]

All the money in the world does not lessen the sting, moreover, the violence, of bigotry. I grew up white and working class and attended public schools with a mix of working, middle, and upper middle class AA and white students (very small numbers of Asian Pacific Americans and Latinos). Some of the top students in my class were AA, went on to great schools, and have had fabulous careers (we had our 25th reunion last year). But even their parents' high incomes and their academic successes did not preclude a handful of fellow classmates from making racist remarks during our school years. And some have talked to me about needing to be three times as good lest their one little mistake get magnified three times.

Here in DC, I have AA friends who had to sue a realtor who lied about the availability of a house in NW DC - I saw all the court docs, so this is not hearsay. I've also been walking through a hotel lobby with these same friends and witness a white guy mistake my friend for the valet - "It's the silver Beemer with Maryland tags."

So if white folks from a range of SE backgrounds commit these overt and insidious racist acts in social settings, I am fairly confident they commit them in the workplace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:just look up the term 'driving while black.' cops may see the skin color and don't care about the JD, MBA, PhD, etc. yes, this even happens to women because cops don't understand how they could drive such a nice car unless they stole it.

there are so many subtle ways, too, like being seated in the least desirable part of the restaurant, or hearing a store clerk greet everyone except you or wondering why your child (even at a prestigious school, and especially your male child) is labeled slow or mouthy or just not as smart as the rest.

your husband has to be a special kind of stupid to think money always trumps race. does he have any well-to-do friends of color? I am guessing not because they would have clued him in long ago.

Ha -- brings back memories! I'm an AA woman with a string of degrees. Bought my fancy German sportscar with my own $$, but when the (German/Arab) salesman handed me the temp registration and I absentmindedly shoved it in the bottom of my bag, he said "No, you need to put that in a safe place. Because you will get stopped."

And I was.

Cop's first question: "Whose car is this?"
Things like this never happened when I was driving a Toyota.

[Anonymous]

I'm Asian and have had my fair share of racism from all different races and ethnicities. In my experience, white liberals can be pretty racist themselves.