I definitely said a lot of racist & problematic things in the 90s
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Anonymous
I disagree. “Its” not ignorant to behave in a manner that is socially acceptable at the time. Societal norms evolve (thankfully!) and those who do not evolve with them are ignorant. |
Anonymous
| Maya Angelou comes to mind here: "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” |
Anonymous
| It's fine. |
Anonymous
| how did you play eanie meanie miney mo? |
Anonymous
+1. Just do better OP. Insist the people around you do better, too, and call them out on bad behavior. |
Anonymous
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This thread is everything that is wrong with liberals. There is zero space for education and/or growth. It doesn't matter in what decade OP said or did anything that may be misconstrued in today's era. The point is that she has reevaluated and learned. I always thought that was the ultimate goal. But no, for most liberals, its to burn everyone at the stake and come out on top in the self-congratulatory, woke Olympics.
OP, you're fine. Education, reformation and reevaluating our former selves should be the goal. The cancel loons are what is wrong with society. |
Anonymous
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I don’t think anyone is being cancelled for anything they did in middle or high school. That’s a ridiculous thing to say.
I was really ignorant, had racist parents, believed the “welfare queen myth”, used gay as an insult in middle school. Awful and I’m ashamed. But I am doing the work now, I’ve evolved. If I were a public figure and there were receipts of my ignorance out there I would apologize and hope people would accept it. |
Anonymous
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I am shocked at how naive I was (HS in early 90s - grew up in Ohio. I thought that the biracial students at my private school went there because they would have had bad experiences because of their race at the public schools. I definitely assumed that all black people were good singers. And that all Asians were super smart. I also assumed that the East Asian woman who lived in my group house in college was a bad driver because she had reduced peripheral vision. (She did crash into things a lot.) My personal favorite is when I was a swim instructor and I was teaching three black kids how to swim and one of the students had scraped their knee on the pool wall and the flesh was white. It was this huge revelation for me that we are, and I quote myself, "Basically all white underneath!" I don't remember saying or doing anything overtly racist or homophobic things - but I probably did.
But I'm not going to beat myself up about it - I was young, had limited exposure to people different than me, and a lot of the concepts that we discuss now weren't even acknowledged at that time (e.g. white privilege). I can't be held responsible for not knowing what no one knew. I didn't decide where to live so I wasn't responsible (as a kid) for my lack of exposure. These were just the circumstances I grew up in. The idea that anyone should have acted in the past in a way that understood future concepts is ludicrous. However, if I still believed and acted on those beliefs, there would be no excuse given that I have long lived in minority-majority neighborhoods most of my adult life and have had so many more experiences with people different than me. |
Anonymous
Barack Obama comes to mind here: "That's not activism. You should get over that quickly." https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/us/politics/obama-woke-cancel-culture.html |
Anonymous
OP the word "canceling" is fluid anyway. (When Republicans Attack 'Cancel Culture,' What Does It Mean? https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/965815679/is-cancel-culture-the-future-of-the-gop) What changed in your life that you don't say the same things you used to say? What about the kids you grew up with, did they change too? |
Anonymous
| POC here- yep, I went to school with people like OP- they were incredibly commonplace. I hope you’ve reflected on how horribly you treated others. |
Anonymous
Yeah, you probably did. Hope you don’t become a public figure and someone you bullied comes forward. |
Anonymous
Yes, this. As a person of color growing up in the 80s and 90s, I was acutely aware of all the casual racism and misogyny that white folks took as just part of pop culture. Obviously it affected me then. But if, in 2021, you continue to perpetuate that behavior, you really have no excuse. People who double down on their past behavior can no longer claim ignorance. |
Anonymous
+1000. I can’t believe this thread of white people patting themselves on the back looking for affirmation of their racist, ignorant bullying conduct. Hello- 2000 wasn’t 1950. |
Anonymous
I like this. No one is perfect and everyone can learn. I am virtually certain no one in this thread has never done something “not PC” now. |