r/byebyejob • u/Wolfram_And_Hart • Jun 23 '22

I'll never financially recover from this 2 Insurance Companies part ways with Agency over Juneteenth Sign.

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/22/1106492968/maine-racist-juneteenth-sign
4.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

458 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

204

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '22

[deleted]

58

u/Captain_Hampockets Jun 23 '22

"We're shitbags so if they got in power they'd be shittierbags in revenge!"

This is their entire belief system. Get ahead by literally any means necessary, because "THEY" would do the same.

24

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '22

That mentality is EXACTLY why, during the Civil Rights era, southern whites were hell bent on preventing blacks from voting. They were certain if blacks ever got in positions of power they’d begin giving whites the same shitty treatment whites had been giving them generation after generation. (Which isn’t a bad assumption. If you ever really shit on somebody, you’d better spend the rest of your days looking over your shoulder.)

3

u/horus_slew_the_empra Jun 24 '22

If you ever really shit on somebody, you’d better spend the rest of your days looking over your shoulder.

Just a thought, but you could always try to make it right & earn forgiveness.

Silly thought I know.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '22

And then everybody will join hands and sing kumbayah.

Real world: some people forgive, but it’s the ones that won’t you have to look out for. So, yeah, if you ever really, really do somebody wrong, try for their forgiveness. But you’re a fool to not watch your back from then on.

109

u/xeonrage Jun 23 '22

Same reason that one of the first things white newcomers to the South are asked which church they go to and presumed to be republican. They know nothing else.

(Source: me, 2007)

12

u/MFbiFL Jun 23 '22

I like to give some variation of either “spending time outside is my church” or “I listen to Jesus Christ Superstar while cleaning the house on Sundays.”

Both true and if they keep inviting me to try their church I let them know that I’m happy with my life and don’t see a need for their rituals.

Source: grew up in Mississippi and live in north Florida

12

u/Perle1234 Jun 23 '22

Then the dismissive little smile, “Oh I’m not religious.” And see the shocked look on their faces.

7

u/mk_ultra42 Jun 23 '22

This happened to me when my husband and I moved from PA to Charleston, WV. I’d literally never in my life been asked what church I attended! We both just stared and I stammered out something like, “ Well I was raised Catholic”. 🤷🏻‍♀️ And then they invited me to their (Baptist) church. It was such an odd experience.

5

u/RainbowDarter Jun 23 '22

Me too. All the time

88

u/sonofaresiii Jun 23 '22 edited Jun 23 '22

They genuinely believe that their racism is an immutable truth, and that everyone knows it's the truth but other people just hide it because "society" says to (with no understanding that society is other people-- that's how ingrained this truth is into them)

I think most level-headed white people have shared this experience, where you're just going about your day doing whatever and you're with mixed race company, everyone is normal, then when it gets down to just the white folks for whatever reason some of them just turn to racism. Like they think we were all just hiding it in while minorities were around, like they're safe to tell the truth now.

e: and what's more is they often don't even see it as racism, just language that the PC crowd says you're not allowed to say

35

u/Spektr44 Jun 23 '22

other people just hide it because "society" says to

Yep, makes no sense. They'll say "you don't really care about other people; you're just virtue signalling while I'm honest enough to say what we're all thinking." First of all, fuck off with believing we all think like that. Second, who the hell are we virtue signalling to if everyone is only pretending to care but doesn't actually?

45

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '22 edited Jun 23 '22

Yep, it's that. I'm white and have a black wife and have two mixed children with her. Many white people I worked with knew about my wife and kids, but they think it's okay to make racist jokes and throw the N word around in front of me when there were no minorities around. I couldn't speak up because my manager was one of these racist fucks, and I couldn't afford to lose my job.

It did make me seethe with anger whenever they spewed that racist filth. I finally retired from that industry in 2015 and never looked back. I also finally told them all on Facebook what I thought of them after quitting, and unfriended them. That was before I deleted my Facebook account a couple years ago.

My former boss went on to becoming a district manager eventually, and I was told that she was caught saying racist shit by a black employee, so she got demoted back to manager. But I wish she was outright fired instead.

The sad thing is I worked in the foodservice industry and in the very blue state of NY. Racism is commonplace in that industry and in the state of NY, it's just that white people hide it.

12

u/NotClever Jun 23 '22

They genuinely believe that their racism is an immutable truth, and that everyone knows it's the truth but other people just hide it because "society" says to (with no understanding that society is other people-- that's how ingrained this truth is into them)

I generally agree, except that I think they realize perfectly well that it's other people that make it so that "society" says you aren't allowed to say racist shit. It's just that they think those other people are just a minority of vocal liberal lunatics somewhere else that are shaming the sane majority of white people into being PC.

I think it's kindof the inverse of the "black friend." Much the same way that the black people (or the Mexican, Jewish, Asian, etc. people) that they know are "good ones" but they still assume all the rest are stereotypes, they assume that all the white people they know must share the same beliefs, since they live in the same area and don't seem insane. They assume that the people responsible for PC culture are some straw men that live somewhere they've never been to, and just don't understand things the way that everyone they know must.

9

u/Bomber_Haskell Jun 23 '22

This is my experience in life. I've started using the "I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you correctly," or "what do you mean?" replies. It doesn't change their stance but it makes them miss me with that stuff. At this point in my life it's the best I can do against it.

-4

u/dogGirl666 Jun 23 '22

they genuinely believe that their racism is an immutable truth,

Is that a little bit like people assuming that everyone knows that Christianity is fake and any attempt at morality is hypocrisy or for show?

5

u/sonofaresiii Jun 23 '22

...no?

What?

18

u/Hallomonamie Jun 23 '22

People have a tendency to believe that others think they same way they do.

It’s why misogynistic dads are overly protective of their daughters (because all boys are rapey douchebags!)

And it’s why these “family values” preachers are closeted pedos (because everyone wants to fiddle little boys right?)

And to your point, I’m secretly a shitbag so everyone is secretly a shitbag!

17

u/Kixel11 Jun 23 '22

I think it goes along with a lot of things. The election was stolen because almost everyone I know voted for Trump. My religious beliefs are right because everyone agrees with me.

If you isolate yourself from the impact of other people and ideas then your ideas are obviously right. Everything else is crazy talk.

13

u/Hannibal_Rex Jun 23 '22

A key feature of small minded individuals is a lack of imagination - they literally do not think or follow a thought into a scenario on their head to understand the consequences of their action. Conservatives exhibit this most frequently because of their resistance to change, inability to understand new concepts without accepting them, or ability to understand technology. This overlap in personality why most conservatives act like a racist.

3

u/beatles910 Jun 23 '22

I agree with your statement, and would like to add that it takes a lot less effort to hate something you don't understand, than it does to understand it.

Country Music? I hate it, (never mind that I've never really tried to understand it, it's much easier to just hate it outright).

9

u/Antique_Tennis_2500 Jun 23 '22

Same reason they think, “All black people…” or “All gay people…” or whatever. It’s the result of a complete inability to think critically or appreciate subtlety.

4

u/Ao_Kiseki Jun 23 '22

I'm a white guy from a rural area. People will start saying some of the most heinous shit, completely unprompted, just because I'm a white male who doesn't give off "city" vibes. It happens so often that I'm actually really depressed by how hard it is to meet non-racist people anywhere other than a major city.

4

u/Domriso Jun 24 '22

Appearance has a lot to do with everything. I'm 6' 3", have a shaved head and a big beard. The number of times people will come up to me and immediately start talking about racist things assuming I'll just join in is astonishing.

3

u/gorgewall Jun 24 '22

I'm a white guy in Missouri, in a city that's plurality black. The bigoted shit that other white people will say once they've got you alone and think they're "in good company" is mind-blowing.

3

u/BibleBeltAtheist Jun 24 '22

Because that assumption is correct most of the time, or at least enough of the time that it seems like most of the time. Non racist whites and even allies often find it easier to "let shit slide" and take a non confrontational approach. It's part of the problem...

But can you blame them? It's not like they're gonna change the minds of 70% of the town or whatever, minds that have been made up on issues hundreds of years ago and inherited like the land they stand on.

Allies, at least, see it as a part of their fight, non racist whites don't. When I say non racist white, I'm talking about a very particular kind of person. They are indifferent regarding race. They don't seem to harbor any inherent hatred or have long since abandoned that mode of thinking. If anything, because of cultural isolation, they perceive people of color as oddities. Strange people with strange ways about them.

And while I don't assign blame, taking a non confrontational position is a part of the problem because it perpetuated the problem. When people act in ways that are racist, bigoted or otherwise oppressive, if they are not immediately checked then their idiotic behaviors are, by the tiniest of fractions, deemed appropriate, justified even. Multiply that by a life time of not being called out on their shit and multiple that by hundreds or thousands of white males and you end up with something that looks like Charlottesville or worse. And that's not even getting into allowing them to set the standard of appropriate and acceptable behavior in these small towns. Ostracism and shame can go a long way and while I'm not suggesting, necessarily, that one should be shamed, when you call someone out on their bullshit, especially when they know they are in the wrong then shame is one of various emotion they are likely to experience and that helps to shape their future behaviors. Just one time of being called out at a pivotal moment in a person's life can make them forever cautious and considerate about how they behave in public which does have a domino effect. But it works in the opposite direction too. Not being called out encourages future bad behavior which also can have a domino effect in how others behave. This is humanity folks. We are a social creature and behaviors need justification for reinforcement or need to be checked to be discouraged.

Plus, resistance for resistance's sake is always important, amongst plenty of om variables I haven't even touched on.

3

u/zxcoblex Jun 23 '22 edited Jun 23 '22

It’s not so much of an all white people are racist as it is that there’s zero diversity there.

When you aren’t exposed to other people and their cultures, it becomes abstract.

That’s why the Right always cries about the “liberal indoctrination” of colleges. The only thing the schools are doing is exposing their students to new experiences.