Be Honest, How many of you had AntiRacist teaching at home from parents/family?

[DigitalOp]

For all the non black posters here.

How many of your parents actually gave you AntiRacist teaching/education at home? From talking to people, it seems that this breaks down in a few ways:


A. Basic Admission

"In the country's history, things haven't been equal and they continue to be for many people living here"

"We have to continue to do the work to stop racism"

"Here are some things, Let's watch o we can have a better understanding and you can ask if you have any question"


B. The Fairytale

"Once upon a time, America was racist. Black people were treated mean, it wasn't until man by the name of MLK, came down from the mountains and changed this entire country himself. Now we are racial harmony. Everyone loves each other. The End"


C. Scorn / Judgment

"Why are you playing that infernal rap music"

"I don't trust the blacks because etc"

"They always complain"


D. Absolutely Nothing

My parents actually said jack shit about race, neither positive nor negative.



The overwhelmingly vast majority of white people dont seem to get actual anti racist guidance from their parents. If they did, it often ends up as a footnote or a complete once over and rarely ever gets mentioned again until the TV gets political.

What type of teaching did you get at home?

BE HONEST

 

[The Real Abed]

I never even got the sex talk. I learned this stuff from school. And I went to a Christian school. (Though I didn't learn the sex stuff until high school when I went to public school)

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

Nothing, but my parents taught me to treat all people equal and golden rule stuff. I learned about slavery in Middle School/High School. I didnt have a black classmate until junior year in High School, so I lived in a predominantly white area. I thought people waving the confederate flag were morons when I was back in middle school, since I live in a Union state.

 

[Potterson]

None. But Im not from multicultural country so I guess that has something do to with it. I think I saw a person of colour for the first time in real life when I was 11 or 12 yo on a trip to Warsaw. Weird how countries can differ.

But I'm SJW leftist anyway because that's how my mom always rolled.

 

[Kthulhu]

Mix of B and C. Their idea is the passing of the civil rights act ended institutional racism and it's just an individual problem now.

Edit: most of my education comes from school, the internet, and PoC in real life.

 

[Deleted member 16657]

Scorn. My parents are immigrants and don't have the most progressive views, especially of race.

 

[DigitalOp]

I never even got the sex talk. I learned this stuff from school. And I went to a Christian school. (Though I didn't learn the sex stuff until high school when I went to public school)

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lol

I never got the sex talk either, it was funny as hell cuz my mom asked me one day when I was already way older and spazzed on my dad for being a loaf lol

The paradox of this thread unfortunately is a sad one. Because way more often than not, Black kids don't even get the chance to just be children before having to understand and deal with racism in their young age.

You will always end up in a scenario where you have to weigh wether it's worth a black kids inner peace to keep them a lil bit more ignorantly blissed about our reality

 

[TeenageFBI]

My parents were mostly very good about not expressing racist views but I can't remember them explicitly telling me not to be a racist asshole or anything like that. That stuff came from cartoons and sitcoms. Thankfully, my parents have been a lot more vocal about anti-racism since Obama was elected.

In related news, the rest of my family was pretty awful with racist comments at family parties. Many of them are still terrible. Fox News and Facebook aren't helping.

 

[steejee]

None, but to be fair I didn't really get a talk about much of anything. It came down to what I learned at school and on my own.

That being said my parents were open minded/accepting people and my school curriculum did an okay job of exposing us to the dark sides of American history, so I feel like that did a decent enough job of setting me up for really coming to grips with things as an adult.

I guess the hint I had when I was younger that I must have gotten something was in college when a friend who had grown up in Alabama said that there wasn't any racism any more in America and I basically told him he was a moron.

Lots of Trumpers in extended family, sadly.

 

[Deleted member 4874]

If I'm being honest, as a first-gen American with poor immigrant parents growing up in the bronx, this all sounds very suburban, middle-class nonsense

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

I'd say between A and B, so I voted B.

I'm older than the average Era poster, so the Civil Rights battles were still fresh in mind when I was a kid. I was raised that racism was really wrong, but I don't think my parents were necessarily aware of a lot of racism below the overt level.

They were pro Civil Rights Northern Republicans, something of an extinct breed now that the Southern Strategy has taken over wholely. We watched Roots on TV.

 

[Jenkins]

C with a side of heavy racism.
I'm from the south, so you know what we saw.
The general lee was just a normal part of day-to-day life.
Complaints about "welfare " even though we were literally on food stamps to survive.
Etc. Unfortunately, my parents never grew out of this.

 

[Robin64]

Almost nothing, aside from a few stereotypes that people perpetuated back in the 80s in the UK and my parents weren't really any different from others in that regard.

But my larger family is super mixed, my nan (bless her) had a lot of kids with different men of various ethnicities when she was younger. So I'd go round one auntie's house as a kid and it would be Jamaican curry and reggae music, then another would be super white, got exposed to lots of things and it was/is awesome.

 

[Bonefish]

D, but I guess a little bit of C in the mix as well. Both my parents are immigrants though.

 

[Maximum Spider]

My dad's from Guatemala so I saw racism towards pretty clearly when I was young(especially when we lived in a small rural town) so it had to be explicitly contextualized to us. It also helped that my parents introduced us to a lot of different cultures at any early age so if we ever acted ignorant and disrespectful, they'd set us straight real quick. I'm really lucky; despite coming from conservative places and families, my parents have always been quite liberal.

 

[sphagnum]

Fairy tale combined with a Christian point of view ("We're all God's children and nobody should hate each other because of the way they look. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek etc.")

 

[DigitalOp]

If I'm being honest, as a first-gen American with poor immigrant parents growing up in the bronx, this all sounds very suburban, middle-class nonsense

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would you mind elaborating?

 

[jetpacks was yes]

I was actively taught that racism was one of the greatest ills of humanity, that everyone has some prejudice, and that it's a lifelong journey to help stamp out racism.

 

[tangeu]

White, middle class (lower end), midwest, growing up, I chose basic admission. My dad would work closely with contractors and had stories about how they were racists and how he confronted them (even kicked a few out of the shop), always ended with 'never treat someone different based on how they look' and to help those that are being treated like that.

 

[Narroo]

I never even got the sex talk. I learned this stuff from school. And I went to a Christian school. (Though I didn't learn the sex stuff until high school when I went to public school)

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That better than my "sex talk". My sex talk consistent of my Mom getting me to "guess" how sex worked when I was in 5th or 6th grade or so. Wonderful....

So no, I never had an anti-racist talk from my parents. Rather, learned about racism and why racism is bad from school.

 

[Deleted member 23212]

I never did, so D. Actually, one of my parents is the one who "hates" hearing about politics so he doesn't even like me mentioning/bringing up systematic racism.

 

[Deleted member 4874]

would you mind elaborating?

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Not really, but when people discuss these things, it rarely takes into account classism.

 

[hjort]

They didn't give me a teaching per se, but they did provide me with information closer to A over the years as they raised me.

 

[BossAttack]

Damn, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by those votes.

Meanwhile every black kid is giving "the talk" every damn day about this country's racism and how you have to work twice as hard as the white kid.

Not really, but when people discuss these things, it rarely takes into account classism.

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WTF are you talking about?

 

[Ultimate Bear Cub]

I had mostly (D) with splashes of (C) every third year or so. My only exposure to (A) was in late elementary when we saw videos of the Civil Rights protests. Various beatings by the police, inspiring events from protestors, and other dark moments that scarred me.

In retrospect, it was surprising what they shown uncensored to kids back then. News was more gruesome too.

 

[Mona]

no teaching, it was just understood and absorbed that skin color had no inherent bearing a person's character

 

[dyelawn91]

White, lower middle class. Was told that racism is bad, that you should never treat anyone differently because of race/sexuality etc. My dad would often tell me that white people were responsible for all of the problems in the world, which was some heavy shit for an eight year old to hear lol.

 

[AzVal]

Nothing, pretty diverse population where I initially went to school and my family was kinda mixed, even more now.

 

[C.Mongler]

Nothing. Race was never explicitly discussed in my household growing up, and the entire history of racism/race that I learned was through the public school system, which is to say it wasn't a lot and it certainly wasn't comprehensive. I really didn't consider what it meant to be white in America until later into college honestly.

 

[Wallace Wells]

None at all, stepdad was in the army so you can imagine the shit that came out of his mouth

 

[shnurgleton]

I'm white and grew up in a conservative family in a predominantly white area, so nothing. general disdain for rap was a thing

 

[BasilZero]

From India - neutral political/religious family but lower Income when growing up

Nothing was taught specifically about racial issues however did not like some of the hip hop music due to the language used

My parents taught me to treat people the same way I want to be treated basically

My parents really didn't teach me much about the world/history due to the fact that they didn't know much- both were school drop outs and had no degrees or anything

My parents mainly taught me how to handle a bank account/manage finances, documentation ,etc which helped me a lot especially in the last few years

Learned to drive at a early age (13) , stuff like that - I had to grow up fast to take care of the family - we learned together about things in the US when we moved here

From what I experienced (both classism and racism) - I've experienced more classism due to my family being a low income family compared to a lot of people we knew especially in Indian churches who were middle or higher class.

Thankfully haven't experienced much of either recently - racism in earlier in my age due to my English not being good , nowadays don't experience much racism personally - grew up in a multicultural environment work and school wise

Classism issues ended few years ago after we went from a low income family to a middle class family

 

[Deleted member 6230]

Not really, but when people discuss these things, it rarely takes into account classism.

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Really interested in your perspective

 

[Deleted member 6263]

We immigrated from a brown country. My parents had no idea about black history, slavery, etc. They basically taught us to put our heads down and not bother people (i.e. be the anti-Karen even if makes you look like a pushover) because we were foreigners in a land we would never really understand.

 

[iksenpets]

I think it sort of warbled between A and B, depending on the moment, whether the focus was on progress made or on something bad happening now. It wasn't really an ideologically consistent thing. C only came up in the context of my mom's intense distaste for rap.

 

[TheAggroCraig]

C to the max.

"NBA finals ratings are down 60% this year." "It's because people are sick of seeing black lives matter all of the fucking place" - Conversation from yesterday between my dad and brother

And when I saw my grandfather last week "Did you hear what the blacks are trying to do now? They want to change the name of faneuil hall."

And arguing is just useless. White people are so goddamn fragile over the most trivial things.

 

[jml]

My parents are basically the types who think MLK ended racism. The only racial sensitivity they taught me growing up is "don't say racial slurs"

 

[DigitalOp]

Not really, but when people discuss these things, it rarely takes into account classism.

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Sure, Classism is a thing. But it's also directly tied into Racism. Those two systems are uniformly tied together in the US.

I was confused on your suburban nonsense label. What are you considering nonsense?

the anti racism teaching itself?

the idea parents should talk about racism within their family?

 

[Famassu]

Not sure which to pick, nothing or basic admission. I don't think they (or well, really, my mom) went as in-depth as to talk about how there has been and still is (systematic) racism or the history of it all, but I do think she had some talks about how we should all be treated equal no matter the colour of our skin, not to use racial slurs & things like that.

 

[Dan Thunder]

UK here and whilst I didn't receive any specific 'don't be racist' advice from my parents I was brought up by them to treat everyone with the same amount of respect and decency as you would expect for yourself. A persons colour, gender or religion was never something that affected how we viewed them.

However I would say that the town where I was brought up had a huge range of ethnic backgrounds and religions so it would have been pretty much impossible for us not to mix with a variety of people.

 

[Mona]

Was told that racism is bad, that you should never treat anyone differently because of race

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My dad would often tell me that white people were responsible for all of the problems in the world

Click to shrink...

 

[III-V]

I was born in the South but my mom was from NY. She would tell me stories of racial injustice, sit-ins, etc.

 

[Xater]

So I am not American but my mom always told me to be nice, respectful and tolerant towards people of different color, belief or sexuality. I am German but my parents came here from Poland.

 

[Deleted member 75819]

Every time a black woman was on TV, my dad would start talking about how he doesn't understand how anyone can be attracted to them, saying they all have mustaches and black men must be gay to be attracted to them. That's just one example of the constant barrage of racism I was exposed to growing up.

 

[DoubleTake]

Poll doesnt surprise me one bit. Meanwhile me and all the other black kids are learning how unfair life is and to fear the fucking police from age 8.

 

[Mona]

Every time a black woman was on TV, my dad would start talking about how he doesn't understand how anyone can be attracted to them, saying they all have mustaches and black men must be gay to be attracted to them. That's just one example of the constant barrage of racism I was exposed to growing up.

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holy shit

 

[Stop It]

My dad was quite clear.

Race is not the way to judge people and that the worst people they knew were white like us. Especially growing up in a council estate it was very true that those causing most problems were not those from BAME backgrounds.

 

[BigHatPaul]

C to the max.

"NBA finals ratings are down 60% this year." "It's because people are sick of seeing black lives matter all of the fucking place" - Conversation from yesterday between my dad and brother

And when I saw my grandfather last week "Did you hear what the blacks are trying to do now? They want to change the name of faneuil hall."

And arguing is just useless. White people are so goddamn fragile over the most trivial things.

Click to shrink...

This sounds so familiar.

 

[Enterprise1701]

None. I am from the UK and being born in the early 80's in the north east of England in what was one of the most white cities in the UK anti racist racist teachings was just not a thing, not even at my school did they care about such subjects.

 

[Rotobit]

Nada, living in a northern England town with an overwhelmingly white population (probably 95%, 90% at best) meant it didn't really come up.

I'm extremely glad I got admonished for saying something kinda racist by a subsitute teacher, of all people. Since then I've basically had to educate my parents on matters of race.