So I know that a lot of people on here are either immigrants or come from immigrant families (I'm from Korea), and I was wondering how you guys deal with the fact that a lot of us know a few (or maybe a lot) of family members that are somewhere on the scale between mildly and extremely racist. This is mainly aimed at those that have family in the States. My parents are pretty much at a comic level of racism. They have an almost absolute inability to view people in a light beyond that of an extremely racist caricature. My dad has a thing now where he always pays cash when dealing with black/Hispanic cashiers because that allows him to count his change when the transaction is finished. He has a paranoia that for reasons unknown they are going to purposefully overcharge his credit card. Oh, and they also think that 9/11 happened because of homosexuality. I'm at the point to where sometimes I think I would enjoy not having to deal with them. Obviously isn't not really culturally acceptable to just ignore them, especially around this time of year when I will be having time off. Wondering if you guys had thoughts or ideas about dealing with this. TC- ~155k YOE- 1
Sounds like he was conditioned to always be in fear (controlled) I wonder if you keep asking "why" what the result would be: why do you pay on cash? Why do you think they will do that? Why do you think that... It's there any proof of that or is it an assumption, if there is proof, how big is the sample size?
My dad is also an Evangelical fundamentalist (surprisingly common among Koreans) so critical thinking isn't exactly a strong suit...
It's other immigrants that one should be careful of. The "trust me, we're both ____" types.
In my case some of my fam members from older generation are unknowingly racist because this was a thing that their society promoted. I did not fight that but I looked for every opportunity to expose them to different people and let them evolve their opinions on their own. Worked wonders for me. Good luck during the holidays.
They just need to get to know more people of other races. Once they see that other people are just like themselves in many ways, they will start to drop off their racist assumptions.
I come from an extremely racist family (I'm not white). I didn't have to do much. Just married outside my race and now I have much smaller family lol
Your right that is a little comical. I would let them know how wrong they are and then ignore it. You cannot change people like that. It’s built in them. Then you should start to date someone black lol. I’m black and the safe thing about it all is every race whether is some Asians are Indians will jump on the bandwagon against it. For example your parents being will go against blacks but blacks had nothing to do with anything that happened in Korea as far as the war, colonization, and mistreatment of the people. The British colonized Indian and considered dogs that could not walk on their own sidewalks. However today white is forgiven but somehow blacks are disliked. You cannot reason with these people.
While we have plenty of racists, us white people get a bad rap. I married into an Indian family. Biggest issue from my side were a few minor cultural misunderstandings...
Yep I dated an Indian women when I was younger. Her parents never knew about me.
Racist and paranoid are different things. The latter is a problem, the former is pretty much a norm
Make merry from their ignorant racist acts unless it's harmful. That is what I do listening to the US President.
You can’t change other people. Especially when racism is rooted in ignorance and ingrained. Just ignore their comments and be a better person, love and respect others.