Can black people get racially insulted by other blacks?

Over 20 years ago, when I was working in New Orleans, I was on friendly terms with a group of women in the office. They were black. We'd joke around (they thought I was funny as hell) and we'd also have serious discussions. I'd help them out when they had problems with the Admin, who was a major biatch and the Office Manager who was a strict disciplinarian and intolerant of things like tardiness, regardless of the excuse. Every day these ladies gathered in the lunch room to watch a particular soap opera. One day I asked them why they were so into a show about a bunch of rich white people. BOOM. None of them ever spoke to me again. I was a pariah. Apologies fell on deaf ears. I didn't even know what I had done and none of them bothered to explain it to me.
I think my offhand remark indicated to them that they had suddenly been reduced to "my black friends" as opposed to simply being "my friends". I learned from that and have since avoided thinking about, or referring to, people as anything other than that...people. Presently I travel extensively and work with people of all ethnicities and religions including, Chinese, Japanese, Pakistani, etc. I never bring up their race because it's dangerous ground if you are with the wrong person. If they bring it up, fine. My point is that a lot of people are sensitive and don't want to be thought of as "different" (or think they are being thought of as different). If you want to get along with everybody, just treat them as a person and ignore whatever it is about them that is different from you. You would be surprised at how similar we all are.

 

SabanFan, that is an excellent post in every regard. The city I live in is heavily multi-cultural, and the area of the city in which I live is half Asian (be it Chinese, Japanese, Indian.) The cultural differences are much larger than between whites and blacks. Now, my daughter gets along with everybody, but she has begun mentioning some things about the Asian kids.

"Max says I'm stupid, and my handwriting is bad." Max is Asian.

"Kendra ALWAYS wins the Science Fair." Kendra is Asian (also funny was the ALWAYS; they were in 1st grade...)

"Katherine goes to Chinese school on the weekend. What is that, and can I go?"

I try to re-direct her comments, but I suppose it's just natural that we notice differences in each other.

One of my best friends is Indian. I met her in Plano 11 years ago, but she divorced and moved back to India (where she had her own house, complete with 50 servants--let's not be naive; they are slaves.) She now is one of 4 female CEO's in India, having taken over her father's automobile factory.

Hyundai invited MR. Sriram to Taiwan to tour their facilities. They revoked the invitation when they found out she was a woman.

Racial and sexual discrimination is not an American phenomenon; it's a human one. That being said, we can all learn from SabanFan's experience and treat people as people and leave it at that.

Who cares if Mastermind is a black poster? He's a good poster. I understand why he would be offended by the "n" word. I get offended when people in Texas call Louisiana Lousy-anna. I just can't help it. Neither can Mastermind. Think about it.

My husband's best friend from high school is black. He's an incredible guy, highly successful. A few years back, he was driving his Lexus through a white neighborhood (because he lived there), and the police stopped him, made him get out of his car, made him prove it was HIS car, and interrogated him on why he was driving there.

Please tell me why this professional MAN with two degrees from Rice University had to put up with that nonsense. My husband drives a Lexus and lives in a nice neighborhood. The police won't be stopping him and pulling him out of his car.

 

Do white people do all the same things? Yes, of course they do. They're called white trash & nobody likes them either.[/QUOTE]

I DO !!!!!!!!!!!

If someone were to call me "white trash", I would probably laugh and say "PAPA WAS TOO".

Mastermind-------the "PAPA WAS TOO" quote was from an old Motown song. Ever heard it?

 

One night, I was supervising four or five ladies at work. We really had a rough night and they all worked extremely hard. As we were leaving that night, I made a statement something like this.....Night ladies. You sure earned your money tonight....................all I meant was that they had worked really hard. I thought I was giving them a compliment. The next day, they filed a grievence against me. They took the statement to mean that I thought they "normally" didn't work hard enough to "earn" their money.:nope:

 

You ask him about Motown because he's black? Whites don't know Motown?

Papa Was Too was by Joe Tex. Not sure that was Motown though. Let's ask a redneck.

 

I really don't give a rat's a$$ what his race is. I really enjoyed the soul music of the late 60's. After I posted this, I got to thinking that it really might not be Motown. But it was considered soul music. I loved it..made you want to hold your lady......nowdays, their music makes you want to lay anybody's old lady.

 

Ole Miss fans are a different breed... white trash is actually a compliment over there because it's still a step up from most of the fan base. :grin:

 

WHAT? WHAT? I'm calling the mods out right now.....Parso has insulted me. I take offense to being lumped in with any one group. Parso, you done done it now.:sob:

 

Oh my lordy.