The murder of George Floyd has shown me I work with a lot of racists

[NickB79]

I've been at my job 16 years now. Blue-collar factory guys, Teamsters, mostly high school educated. I've always known most of them were conservative (which is ironic as we're unionized and would be making half the salary and benefits we make if we weren't). But for the most part, they always seemed like genuinely good-hearted people when you got past politics.

But since the protests and riots? My God, I've heard shit I never imagined from their mouths. The fact we're only 30 miles from Minneapolis and 95% of the plant is white, in an exurb/rural area doesn't help. But holy shit, are they triggered like I've never seen before.

"Floyd was a piece of shit felon who deserved to die."
"What was so bad about the Confederacy?"
"I toured a plantation on vacation and they treated their slaves good."
"Protesters are going to blow up Mt Rushmore!"
"A good machine gun would clear up this whole problem."
"If I was that black jogger chased and killed in Georgia by white guys with shotguns, I would have just sat down and waited for the cops. It's his own fault he got shot."

I could go on. The list is loooonnnggg.

The plantation quote set me off today. I got in a shouting match in the break room with the guy. My wife and daughter have ancestors who were slaves, and that was my last fucking straw. I wasn't going to stand by and let him sugarcoat the ownership of human beings like livestock.

Anyone else dealing with this shit? I've passed the point of biting my tongue. In a few short years my biracial daughter will be a young woman, on her own with people like them. I won't be able to use my whiteness to protect her anymore and it's tearing me up inside.

As Andrew Burke famously said "The only thing required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

[Newest Reality]

1. While masks are being put on...

While masks are being put on physically for safety and out of necessity, other masks are coming off nationally and individually.

Person = persona = mask.

Circumstances can make it fall off or even pry it off. What's underneath can be anything from ho-hum to hideously disgusting.

The social dynamics tree is being shaken vigorously and the masks are peeling.

[bobbieinok]

8. Trump is unmasking the Evangelicals. Catholic church being unmasked by abuse scandal

I would go on to claim SCOTUS has been unmasked/severely damaged by the 2000 5-4 vote sElecting W

And the yr long blocking of Garland and the appointment of Kavanaugh. I realize it was the GOP senators who did those, but their actions severely damaged the court. It has been made crystal clear the the SCOTUS is first of all a political entity and only secondarily a legal entity.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Yah,

as a ex Shop Stew and Board Member. What you posted is spot on. Our Teamster Local was 100% DFL until the Nam Vets came on board.

I hear you,it was like herding cats,and the pissing and Moaning about people of Color was a never ending spew.

My Spouse always said,why do you do that thankless volunteer job. Well,because someone has to try and make conditions better for the Working People,Management is not going give out freebies like Pay Raises or first dollar Insurance Coverage.

Dare say,my shop was about 70% hard core Rethugs. Or as well called them,Joe Six Packs from Anoka County.

[onecaliberal]

3. Me too, and not only that but I live in their neighborhood.

[Midnight Writer]

16. My situation as well.

[bobbieinok]

4. O8 primary fights at DU---had no idea so many 'progressives/liberals' were sexist or racist!!

That really shocked me.

I had had no idea both are so deeply embedded in our world.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. I heard more racist language when I lived and worked in Rochester, MN

than when I was in Raleigh, NC. That was back in the 1980s when it was only 'safe' to say things when one believed they were in the company of like-minded folks. Corporation would have thrown a fit if that language had gone public.

[Maraya1969]

6. I have about 30 people banned on FB and most are because they are racists jerks. A lot of them

from the high school I went to.

And yes, it is the kids that were in the bottom of the class. The smart kids are not racist.

(Very small high school - 170 in my graduating class so everyone knew everyone else)

[sakabatou]

15. And here most of the people I've blocked are Trump and Jorgenson supporters

[kimbutgar]

7. My husband works for a major airline that is unionized and works with guys like that high school

Only education. Listens only to right wing radio and OANN. He no longer talks politics as he used to get in shouting matches. Now he reserves himself And only speaks out when he hears truly insane. And quite of few of them refuse to wear masks.

[live love laugh]

29. The education part: groups like Turning Point

Last edited Fri Jul 3, 2020, 06:26 PM - Edit history (1)

(aka TP-ToiletPaper AFAIC) ridicule higher education and blame unemployment on unemployability due to selecting the wrong college major. Are there individuals who take useless majors? Yes. But those people are few in light of today’s college costs. It’s just part of the Republican blame game.

They regularly advocate for trade school and trade jobs.

The point is both are options. College isn’t for everybody but it’s for a lot of people and shouldn’t be discouraged.

[kimbutgar]

30. They're nothing wrong with trade schools

But most of these people have never picked up or read a book since high school. I don’t get it that people think all they need to know they learned in high school and don’t want to learn new things.

One thing I have learned as I have grown older and learned more I realize I know jack shit. Everyday is a new learning experience to me. When I substitute teach I tell the students all the time I am a life long learner and the more you learn the better decisions you make in life.

[live love laugh]

31. Yes it's the discouragement towards higher education

that’s problematic—trade school is an valid option of course.

[qwlauren35]

39. Not sure why that's a bad thing.

We NEED people who can do trade work. Drive trucks, repair equipment, appliances. We would be lost without those people. I would never question someone who preferred trade school to college.

[dalton99a]

9. Racism is foundational to the white trash culture

Their white skin is the only thing they have going for them

[Grey]

13. I just printed this off and am putting it on the fridge for my sister to see.

Dog, I hate pious people.

[Dream Girl]

17. Mediocre white people. Their whiteness is the one thing they have "going" for them

Without their privilege, wat do they have. That’s why idea of fairness and equality freaks them out.

[Marcuse]

32. Lyndon Johnson of Texas said it best.

[Roc2020]

19. I have seen it...that is what makes many racists lose their minds

because if a black person is unashamed and proud to be black, some insecure white person that is less well off than that black person in society may get very angry. because all they have is their whiteness. And in the 21st century many blacks may thumb their nose at their whiteness...drives racists nuts. Insecurity is a killer.

[Locrian]

24. thats the reality

that they cannot bear. That they are not the rugged individual, 2 seconds away from making it big and being as rich as they "deserve to be".

When they dont have the "at least Im not (black, Asian, native American, whatever, etc)" they lose their mind.

[Roc2020]

36. Perfect!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

26. Racism is foundational to the United States as a whole.

And "white trash" is a classist term, as well as racist -- and not in the "reverse racism" way. It was originally used to describe white people who don't "act like white people."

[shanti]

28. You hit the nail on the head

They have nothing else.

[LittleGirl]

10. You're going to be labeled

a dirty bleeding heart liberal and So What!
Fuck them. They are why blacks are still struggling.
Just fuck them. Hugs xx

[Lanius]

12. I'm from rural Wyoming and have grown up around people who would never associate with Nazis

But who are your 1950s type of garden-variety racist. I'm glad I left that state.

[JI7]

14. majority of white people voted for trump

[PurgedVoter]

18. I am an retired and live in the South

The majority of my childhood classmates who could not understand why the Germans put up with Hitler are now solidly against Antifa. My people suck. Statistically, we old southern white men are racist idiots.

Since I am retired I don't have to see them or work with them. Worse yet, growing up and living in the South, I learned the language of the South. I have no idea how many stupid horrible wrong words have escaped my own lips without my knowing what I was saying.

[KentuckyWoman]

27. Hey.

I understand. My family has always stuck out as far as racism. We didn't hold to it. My father lost jobs over it in a time when no one could afford to lose a job. But in a society with a wide and deep a racist footprint it sinks in regardless. I've had to be schooled a few times myself because I had no idea of the background of certain things. I still work at it. So I understand.

[Ilsa]

20. A family member tried to convince me that any POC have

lower IQs than caucasians. I told her she was full of shit and had to hang up on her.

[LeftInTX]

21. I used to have a boyfriend who was "trouble" -

We lived in NE Wisconsin, not far from Green Bay.

My dad was constantly trying to break us up.

One time, he got me in trouble with the law with curfew and alcohol etc.
My dad then gets in a shouting match with him and says, "Why don't you get a job. Move to Milwaukee, there are plenty of jobs there".

Boyfriend says, "I'll never live anywhere that N's are living..." He said this over and over...
It was flabbergasted.

This was 1973.

[KentuckyWoman]

22. I've heard similar.

I've always made a habit of calling people out on this sort of idiocy. Used to make some attempt to be polite about it but not so much anymore. I just let them have it.

I hope by the time your daughter no longer lives in your home, this current round of wakening produces some tangible results - at least as far the police and judicial system. Changing attitudes basically takes generations dying out. In the meantime, we can attempt to control how these hateful people behave in public - in jobs, government etc - through laws, voting etc.

I have found shunning doesn't help, they just retreat to a smaller group of like minded haters.

[benld74]

23. Agree totally

45th HS reunion last summer. The vile crap coming outta some mouths amazed me.

[Bev54]

25. I have learned who are racist by

my FB page, I am Canadian and have a closed page so these are people I know and never had a clue they were either racist or so friggen stupid they do not know any better what they are posting. Such ignorance is appalling.

[safeinOhio]

33. Strange place this country and even stranger people.

I worked 30 years in a Detroit auto plant. Lots of every kind of people worked there. Everyone got along pretty good, at least at work.
Moved back to Michigan a while back and it seems more tribal up here in the Northern part of the state. Funny that I'd say that because I now live within the boundary of the Reservation and I don't see a lot of interaction between the Whites and Indians. Hear a few comments about the Indians, but more about African Americans.

[qwlauren35]

37. I expect

That some of this will go back into the closet.

I have learned that many racists only "come out" when they feel safe, and you being white, and being in 95% white space makes them feel safe.

Yes, your daughter will encounter racism. She has no white privilege unless she is light enough to pass as Italian, etc. Teach her to be strong. Let your wife lead on teaching, nod a lot. You think of your daughter as biracial, but the world sees her, and will treat her as black. Please get used to it. It's the truth. Unless she goes around saying "Wait, I have a white father. Half of me is one of you..." I hope you see how ridiculous that is. It's just not how the game is played.

When Obama ran as president, HE did not go around saying "Wait, I have a white mother. Half of me is one of you...", it's something some white people came up with to soften the blow. No one said "Our first biracial president". They said "Our first black president" because that's what they SAW. Seeing is believing.

Teach her to be strong, teach her to be proud of both sides of her heritage. If she is strong, she will survive. I'm sure her mother did. Many of us are very strong people. There is not a lot of choice in this.

[djacq]

38. Got singled out because I'm Black amongst White coworkers.

Coworker called Floyd a dirtbag.

I defended Floyd.

Coworker Challenged to agree that Floyd was a dirtbag.

I disagreed.

Coworker told me, in front of other White coworkers, "You disagree because YOU'RE BLACK".

Reported coworker to the company.

Company response;

NO CORRECTIVE ACTION.
NO EXPLANATION

Prepare your daughter...

[PurgedVoter]

40. Keep it documented

It may not help you, but someday a brother might have a case in the place you work. Someday your notes of correspondence may be needed evidence of a toxic work environment.