I guess what gets me is that I can be called
whitey or honkey and that's okay, but if a white
person refers to a person of another race by a
descriptive term such as that it is on the news.
I recently went to NYC and on the subway
there were two women fighting. One was
black, the other was white. In the fight the
white woman was called a "white b--ch". As I
listened to them argue it occured to me that if
the tables were turned and the white woman
had called the other woman the equivilent, it
would have been a huge racial incident.
What's good for the goose, is good for the
gander, don't you think? I know it probably
sounds like it, but I'm not racist in any way. I
went shopping in the Bronx and was the only
white person around that I saw and never
once felt scared, intimidated or anything. I look
at people as people and react to them as they
act towards me. All I wish is that there could
be some consistency in what is acceptable
and what is not.


> >>The problem is, redneck is used to
describe
> an entire region and is used to describe a
> group of people that many have never
> encountered. I was a little defensive when I
> first posted today, but it was just because I
> was at my wits end. I'm so tired of hearing
> about hate crimes and racial tensions. The
> problem, though, is that everyone engages
in
> prejudiced, stereotype speech and until we
all
> recognize our differences, accept them and
> understand that nothing that happened over
a
> hundred years ago can be changed we'll be
> stuck in this cycle. I don't really take myself
> seriously, I was just angry earlier. I get on a
> soap box and lose my point sometimes.
> Anyway, I'm as tired of being labeled as
stupid
> because I have a drawl as African
Americans
> are of being labeled as dangerous when 2
or
> more are walking down a Southern street.
I'm
> tired of terms like "us" and "them" when
> referring to racial groups.
>
> >
> > Brunnen-"around here we call rednecks
Westies"G
>
> It's the same general perception on the
West Coast. Most everyone I've talked to
thinks accents are cool, albeit sometimes
hard to understand in the case of heavy
Southern and Texan ones.
>
> As for derogatory terms, they hardly exist
here. Oregon is still an almost homogenous
culture. My little town of Sutherlin has (to my
knowledge) only one African American family,
several Korean families, and a fair percentage
of Latinos. The rest are whites of some type.
But there is no "us" or "them." People live
wherever they want. Most all the kids grew up
here, so they're just Denny, James, or
Jennifer, not the birthplaces of their
grandparents. Being in high school, I've
certainly heard derogatory things about them
(and everyone else), but it's never been
centered on their color. People just kind of
agree that it's immaterial.
>
> I wandered a bit there, but part of my point is
that those terms are common, but not
derogatory. People regularly use them of
themselves, in fact. If someone calls me a
whitey or a gringo, that's fine--I'm white. It has
no bad connotation. If I'm trying to
communicate who a particular person is, and
he or she happens to be of a minority flesh
color, why shouldn't I say that he or she's the
black freshman? No one would object to
being called pale or tan, and skin tone caused
by ethnic descent isn't considered any
different here.
>
> I'm quite aware it's not like this in all parts of
the country. In northern Washington, there
was some not-insignificant general
annoyance with the local Indian population.
Some friends of mine (who are extremely
pale) moved to Arkansas into a black
neighborhood. Each and every neighbor had
refused to even speak to them. People tried to
run over them. They left the situation after a
month or so. Certainly all the people in
Arkansas aren't that way, but few reports
otherwise reach our ears here.
>
> Hmm. This ranged a little farther than I'd
planned, so I'd better quit while I'm a head.
>
> gab"Sorry about the RBJ reference. Those
things probably shouldn't be alluded to, so
people can more easily forget them."by