I definitely said a lot of racist & problematic things in the 90s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1

White, Jewish NYC male born in 1982

I don't think I was ever bigoted to someone's face, but I definitely said and encouraged some awful things when with friends.

Yeah, you probably did. Hope you don’t become a public figure and someone you bullied comes forward.

PP just said they never said anything to anyone's face... reading comprehension is important

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Please do show us one person cancelled for things they said as a middle schooler. Just one example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle class white female here.

I feel like, looking back at growing up in the 90s, I said a lot of cringeworthy, racist and homophobic things in middle school and probably high school (early 2000s). Thank god we didn't have social media before MySpace.
I'm politically liberal/progressive now (though not insanely woke as it is) and my parents were Democrats, but man.... the things that used to be acceptable back then would get us canceled these days.

I recall there was some presentation a group of us gave in history class where I was in the role of a Chinese person and made fake Asian eyes. I also remember a ton of offhand homophobic and trans-phobic comments people made. The word "gay" was an insult. And I remember there was some rumor that a celebrity was trans and people were aghast, and talked about them like they were some kind of zoo animal.

I grew up in a small town, a very Republican town in a blue state. Majority white, a lot of born-again Christians. We had maybe three Black kids in school and one LGBTQ person. Also, the movies we used to watch from the 90s and 80s would never be acceptable now. Not that this is a bad thing - I'm glad we've come a long way with being more inclusive and less bigoted, and we have a LONG way to go.

This all being said, I wonder what the statute of limitations is on canceling someone. I imagine there will be more and more Millennial politicians who will be excoriated for something posted on a defunct MySpace page.

Dude, that's so gay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I hope you do too. Maybe for you it was gays, maybe it was Jews, idk. But think about things you can learn from too. We all can learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle class white female here.

I feel like, looking back at growing up in the 90s, I said a lot of cringeworthy, racist and homophobic things in middle school and probably high school (early 2000s). Thank god we didn't have social media before MySpace.
I'm politically liberal/progressive now (though not insanely woke as it is) and my parents were Democrats, but man.... the things that used to be acceptable back then would get us canceled these days.

I recall there was some presentation a group of us gave in history class where I was in the role of a Chinese person and made fake Asian eyes. I also remember a ton of offhand homophobic and trans-phobic comments people made. The word "gay" was an insult. And I remember there was some rumor that a celebrity was trans and people were aghast, and talked about them like they were some kind of zoo animal.

I grew up in a small town, a very Republican town in a blue state. Majority white, a lot of born-again Christians. We had maybe three Black kids in school and one LGBTQ person. Also, the movies we used to watch from the 90s and 80s would never be acceptable now. Not that this is a bad thing - I'm glad we've come a long way with being more inclusive and less bigoted, and we have a LONG way to go.

This all being said, I wonder what the statute of limitations is on canceling someone. I imagine there will be more and more Millennial politicians who will be excoriated for something posted on a defunct MySpace page.

Dude, that's so gay.

I love you! (no homo)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I hope you do too. Maybe for you it was gays, maybe it was Jews, idk. But think about things you can learn from too. We all can learn.

I remember I had one of those Nokia phones with T9 for texting and I texted my sister something like "just throw the keys under the doormat" and it came out "just throw the Jews under the doormat"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't care what decade you grew up in. Its a choice to be ignorant.

Cool. Let's cancel everyone. That will help society.

It's VERY difficult to see beyond your community's values, especially as a child.

Not at all. I grew up in the same decade as OP. You know what we had? TV. Internet. Books.

I mean - OP is acting like she grew up in 1932 on a farm during the great depression.

Bill Clinton's Cabinet was filled with women, men, and people of all races. Bush Jr as well. Sesame Street and PBS - free for all kids before you start - was filled with diverse actors and actresses. Television was rife with color and ingenuity.

So yes -- a choice.

What area of the country did you grow up in? I grew up in the same timeframe in the Midwest. There was no diversity at all. I mean at all. Now living in an extremely diverse area but still having friends back “home”, I realize what a huge difference it makes. When you have that personal connection to people of a different culture/religion/race/whatever, it makes a tremendous difference.

The Southeast. I mean yes - I get it. Practically the only people who live in the Midwest (aside from Chicago) are white.

This is sarcasm, right? Or is it profound ignorance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't care what decade you grew up in. Its a choice to be ignorant.

Cool. Let's cancel everyone. That will help society.

It's VERY difficult to see beyond your community's values, especially as a child.

Yeah when did we start expecting children to make the correct choices every time, without the guidance of adults? That's unreasonable.

My parents weren't racist by any means, but present day racism was not something we talked about growing up, it was more in reference to the past. Paraphrasing, but they acted as if the Civil Rights era had made everyone colorblind or something. But I don't think that was uncommon for the time, and where we lived was not terribly diverse. I had a couple good friends in high school who were Asian but there were only a handful of AAs at our school. I think it's more diverse now.

But I was absolutely ignorant Catholic who was homophobic in high school (early-mid 90s), and didn't really see the light on that until I went away to college. Again, not something we ever talked about at home, and I plan to do better with my kids.

The correct choices for the moment. POC was the correct phrase, now it’s BIPOC. It was American Indian, now Native American, now maybe it’s back to American Indian? It’s all fluid and the woke police will come for you too if you aren’t up to the minute with the latest “correct” and approved phrase (which will change again in a few months or years). Bill Clinton certainly can’t be judged by today’s standards. Neither can Joe Biden.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But also many of us didn't behave like that in the early 2000s.

Yea, right! The 90's and 00's slang was full of homophobic language and you couldn't sing along to any popular rap song due to to quantity of nwords.

Watch Friends, where being gay is treated a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maya Angelou comes to mind here: "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

Words to live by.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't care what decade you grew up in. Its a choice to be ignorant.

I was watching a British special filmed in 2019 today and the racism jumped out straight away - its crazy. References to exotic 'Sinoise styles', the Oriental attendant at 6:28, and the harsh judgement of Chinese designs.

Does it make it 'acceptable' that this show was filmed and produced in 2019 + shown in 2020?

Haha, it’s not always a CHOICE to be ignorant! Why do you choose to have such an ignorant worldview?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sincerely believe people didn't take words so seriously then.

Have you asked people of color, LGBT people, differently abled people how they feel about the language that was commonplace just a couple of decades ago?

+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.

Actually it feel like it is! In these 20 years there have been huge changes in acceptable language, gender identity, ideas, education, equity and so on. Most Americans haven’t even caught on yet. Most of the changes are happening on an institutional level and in blue states/communities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But also many of us didn't behave like that in the early 2000s.

DP. I don't believe it. Being truly anti-racist requires honesty. You did not exist outside of culture.

Yeah, everyone who didn't act like you is a liar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But also many of us didn't behave like that in the early 2000s.

DP. I don't believe it. Being truly anti-racist requires honesty. You did not exist outside of culture.

Yeah, everyone who didn't act like you is a liar.

Nah - just not self aware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

What matters is cracking down on people TODAY who say or do racist things.

+1

I said and did ignorant, racist stuff in the 80s and 90s. I was wrong. I know better now. I would never do those things now. I'm also aware that I could say or do something ignorant now and I'm willing to listen and change if someone tells me my behavior is problematic. There's a long history of racism in US culture. We have to work together to get past it. If you're too busy defending past mistakes, rather than acknowledging them and working to do better, we're never going to get anywhere.