Re: Racism

I grew up in a household free of racism. My parents were natural born Germans who immigrated to the United States. My dad fought in WWII in the US Navy against the Germans.

Dad was an old country carpenter. He built houses from the ground up totally by himself. Of course our immediate family were his helpers. I grew up with a hammer in my hand. We ran into a different kind of racism because he was independent. Union racism. The local carpenter's Union actually threw my dad off the roof of a house he was building because he refused to hire Union helpers. Shoot, he didn't need them. Still, they hated him for that.

Today I work for Intel Corp., a true international company. The campus where I work has dozens of nationalities working together under one roof. We have folks from India, China, Russia, Mexico, Cambodia, Vietnam, Germany and too many more to remember. They all speak English, sort of, along with their native tongues. It's all very interesting.

Portland, Oregon is a melting pot of the world as well. Go anywhere in public and you see & hear folks from all over the world. It's kind of hard to be a racist is an area where you are the minority.

Re: Racism

My sentiments exactly, if someone is a fool etc, its their personality not race, although some races are more foolish than others....joke,joke, that was a joke.

Re: Racism

Don't think that is racist at all. I do it when I am walking the dogs and there are white kids hanging around - the hoodie brigade.

Re: Racism

Thanks, PPH, makes me feel a bit better about confessing that. An elderly woman regardless of race is no match for a bunch of yobs!!

Re: Racism

I would say lol or something, but this is serious. No one should feel intimidated. It's not a race thing. I sometimes wonder if it is perceived or real threat. I was driving to my allotment the other day and a bunch of kids were stood in the road and would not move. What should I do? Running them over is obviously not an option. So I had to drive around them. Now there isn't much that bothers me, and I can handle myself. But should I get out of the car and do something about it? That is not an option either. So I gave them a piece of my mind. I feel for you dandysmom - no one should feel threatened like that. As I get older, I guess I could feel more threatened with that sort of behaviour, and I despair that there is a lack of respect from some kids for their elders. But I try to keep at the back of my mind that not all kids are like that. I know my nephews and nieces are good kids. I wish the same were true of all kids, but we need to look to their upbringing for the cause of their behaviour.

Re: Racism

I live in the quadrant of the City that the papers always refer to as "White, affluent Ward 3", this is not a problem that happens often, except by the subway exits where hordes of teens are pouring off at school closing time; some of the groups are really quite scary. But I've never actually had any problem at all, although the mere fact that it does happen to others has made me perhaps unnecessarily cautious.

You're lucky that telling them off didn't escalate things! Crowd mentality; people will do things in groups that they'd never dream of otherwise.

Re: Racism

I remember when I first moved here and started taking Rocky for a walk in the old railway track.. there was a bunch of teenagers (about 20-30) drinking and being loud and I thought to myself 'oh gawd they're going to start teasing Rocky now' - he was only a pup at the time... however they were really friendly and asked if I wanted a puff on their spliff I politely declined but they always said hello afterwards and never once gave us any problems. (The railway track is now a road! Pah! We loved our walks there, nice and quiet!)

Re: Racism

Thanks for posting that! Could have been unpleasant but wasn't. We do jump to conclusions too readily sometimes.

Re: Racism

Better be safe than sorry tho - kids hanging around street corners drinking booze and being loud/anti-social is not on..

Re: Racism

Trust your gut feelings: if it feels iffy, don't take chances.