A Bit Of A Gripe

[poliphilo]

I understand that racists are not necessarily bad people- just frightened ones- afraid of difference, afraid of the unfamiliar. 

This doesn't mitigate the fact that racism is profoundly stupid- and destructive of civil society.

You have racist views.  Fine.  Please keep them to yourself.

But if you talk to me in ways that assume that I share your views don't be surprised if I take it as a personal  insult.

Comments

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I think back to some of the elderly in my family. Many of them had unusually tolerant views, given the times in which they were raised. I had a whole contingent of aunties of my great-grandmother's generation (born in the 1860s and 1870s) who stayed in their neighborhood through several successive migrations -- from German to eastern European various, to eastern European Jewish, to African Americans -- and for whom proximity had bred acceptance. They looked after their neighbors, who in turn looked after them.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

In practice my in-laws are quite liberal. For example, they've been very good with our friends from Cameroon. It's just their views that are appalling.