05-21-2008, 03:01 PM | #1 |
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Racist family members
My uncle lives in rural Indiana. He's sucessfully run a farm his whole life. He's been a bishop.
But he's racist. When the FLDS thing broke, he went out of his way to mention that the woman who made the fake calls was a "negroe." He's told me that the blacks in the Church are OK, but "you usually can't trust them otherwise." I've challenged him on it some, but he gives me a look like--"when you grow up, you'll know better." Do you have racist family members? How do you handle things?
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05-21-2008, 03:14 PM | #2 | |
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As Indy said, it's all about your interactions. It's easy for me, from my background, to sit back and call him racist. I'd be much more impressed with someone who grew up in the reservation and still emerged without racist attitudes. |
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05-21-2008, 03:19 PM | #3 | |
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For the most part my statement in another thread governs my good relatives, which I'll quote just to praise my relatives:
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My experience were with him in the run down part of town inner city where he lived. He was on a fixed Social Security income and could not afford to move. The area was bleak, dangerous and depressing. The police patrolled his street four abreast during the day and at night with helicopters, gun shots rang out at night and occasionally during the day. My last visit to him, saw me in high school but from a middle class neighborhood where the sights and sounds were completely alien and unknown to me. Some how he was left physically untouched by the violence, but otherwise imprisoned by his own poverty, ignorance and lack of options. His days consisted of sitting in front of the tv, chain-smoking and doing odd jobs for the neighbors, usually for free. When we left his run down apartment, we did so, only to have him chain smoke, drive to the store and hear him rant, "Wow look at those N. Where did they all come from?" What could I do, but shrug my shoulders and feel sad for him. Perhaps I should have spoken up, but would it have made a difference? The utter futility of his life stopped me from driving one more nail into his coffin. I suspect the best we can do is to alert our relatives, we don't feel that way and that those expressions we'd prefer not to hear.
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05-21-2008, 03:25 PM | #4 |
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I can't think of any. My father grew up in Brigham City back in the days the Indian School was there. I would go visit my grandparents and there were Indians dropping by all the time. My grandparents loved the Indians.
My grandfather didn't have a prejudice bone in his body. We would listen to Dodger games together and cheer for Campanella, Newcombe, Gilliam, and Amaros. My Dad always spoke highly of blacks he was in the Army with and those he would encounter in his business dealings. He was quite appalled at the attitude I came back from my mission with. |
05-21-2008, 03:26 PM | #5 |
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My father is in the KKK. He doesn't attend meetings anymore, because he says they are boring. He does talk about maybe getting to some lynchings eventually, if he has the time, and can round up some friends. But he had a tough life, so I refuse to judge him. You try growing up where he did, how he did, and not end up in the KKK. I would say something against it, but I fear I would come across as judgmental and self-righteous. So I have occasionally participated in rallies myself with the hood and robe. But I am not racist. I just do it for the bonding. One time I asked if they could just leave the cross there in the yard and not put gasoline on it, as there was a burn-ban in my county, and I thought there was a minor risk of a fire hazard. But one of the other members said he had talked already to the fire marshal, and it was ok.
Yeah, it's a tough world. Things aren't always right. I doubt any of you would have handled my situation differently. |
05-21-2008, 03:28 PM | #6 | |
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Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster |
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05-21-2008, 03:29 PM | #7 | |
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05-21-2008, 03:47 PM | #8 |
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My brother developed a bigoted attitude on his mission in Kentucky. With time he has softened and has shed his racist views. This is largely due to his employment of hispanic workers who have been considerably more reliable and trustworth than their white American counterparts.
Other than that, the only time I have heard an extended family member say something racist was after 9/11 and it was about Arabs. This was by my grandmother, who was pretty old, lonely and unhappy at that point. I'm certain she didn't mean it. |
05-21-2008, 04:02 PM | #9 |
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All of you except SIEQ are full of it. There's a lot of racism among Mormons from the Korean War generation and back. Evan Mecham was not exceptional. There is less among younger generations but it is still prevalent. I come from a big Mormon family on both sides, and at family reunions, etc. you hear offhanded comments that embarrass and shame you. My family is very typical, I'm sure. Such people may not necessarily mean ill, often don't even realize stuff they say is racist. But they're racist all the same. Sometimes I hear comments and the speaker should know better and these are the comments that make my blood boil. I remember when I was at Georgetown an uncle (who holds a master's degree form BYU and is a wild eyed BYU football fan) used to badger me saying racist stuff about Patrick Ewing.
Most people in the older and probably the younger generations still believe blacks bear the mark of Caine for that matter. Why wouldn't they because no one has told them otherwise. Many white Mormons of course would more than arch their eyebrows if a close family member brought home an AA date. When I was a kid growing up in Sandy we learned an AA family would move in behind us, and there was hand wringing all over the neighborhood. Ultimately, I think the AA family was probably inundated with casseroles when they moved in. Still, they were victims of an insidious form of racism. They didn't stay long. We lived in a neighborhood with young Mormon families and most of those people are still alive. For that matter, I've seen racism here every now and then among college educated elites. I don't think the fact that Mormons don't have a monopoly on racism is a mitigating factor (despite Waters' view to the contrary) but I will add that the kind of racism I describe above is alive and well all over rural America, especially in the South, and also in the cities but to a lesser extent.
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Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster Last edited by SeattleUte; 05-21-2008 at 04:05 PM. |
05-21-2008, 04:03 PM | #10 |
Demiurge
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Missions are a good antidote to racism, as many missionaries go to foreign countries and work with people of other races.
Even in countries that are predominately white like the USA and European countries, often it is only the non-white poor folks who will listen to the missionaries and convert. |
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