Is It Possible To Be a Liberal Racist?

[Placebo]

This girl I met in my Experiential Marketing class earlier in the year, she was from Ohio, and she appeared to be just that.

She hates Bush, she is as feminist and pro-choice as you can get, anti-war, liberal in every way you can imagine, except...she really made it obvious that she doesn't like people of colour, African Americans in particular, which came as a shock to me since...she always acted like a total liberal! She can make fun of Bush, and bash African Americans (she uses a less tasteful word for them) in a single sentence.

So, is this possible? How can these two competing ideologies co-exist in one person?

[hollywood926]

1. It is possible, but...

it's unusual that she would be so blatant about it. Most people (of all races) have racist feelings or thoughts now and then, but most liberals feel ashamed of those thoughts and try to correct them.

[NightTrain]

2. Oh god, is it posible!

Sad to say, I've known a lot of them. However, they tend to be more surreptitious about their bigotry and racism than the right-wingers are. And they often preface a racist remark with, "I'm not prejudiced. However...." :puke:

[Placebo]

3. Yea, she used to say stuff like...

"I don't hate black people, but..."

[jonnyblitz]

4. I have met them ALL! every wierd combo that doesn't make

sense. I have had GAY neo-nazi's instant message me when I had an aol account with profile a few years back because they saw my picture on my aol website and thought, because i had a shaved head and wore combat boots I might be a racist skinhead, a gay one at that. Nothing surprises me anymore. :shrug:

[Philostopher]

5. I don't know how they do it either ...

But I suspect it may have something to do with being an Ohioan. I've been one all my life, though I did live a few other places, and what you're describing isn't unheard of to me. I know people who seem to be racist, but they have non-white friends and never say anything inconsiderate about them, specifically. Their friends are somehow supposed to be excluded from the blanket assumptions they make about everybody else who's otherwise the same, but for the fact that they're not friends with the person making the racist assumptions.

I think Ohioans are capable of bearing up under a much heavier load of cognitive dissonance than people from any other place I've ever known. I also know people who have gay friends who are total homophobes ... except for their gay friends, who are different somehow from 'gay people' in general.

I'm not sure I understand Ohio attitudes myself, and I've lived here most of my life. I think my fellow Ohioans are, to a surprising extent (Buckeye State DUers excepted -- most of them make sense to me!), crazy as sh*thouse rats, especially those working class people I know who vote for Republicans who don't care a single bit about whether they're employed next week or not, but they love these 'Godly public servants' because they gush repeatedly about 'moral values' then go back to the office and plook their interns, or stick their hands into the till up to their elbows.

[yardwork]

9. Well, those are some pretty unfriendly generalizations about Ohioans

I was born and raised in Ohio, thank you, and I haven't noticed that Ohioan behavior is significantly different from that of others.

There are bigots and jerks all over the place. And plenty of very nice liberals in Ohio, I might add.

[Rowdyboy]

19. Everyone on DU loves to stereotype

As a southern white Christian you can trust me on that...

[Philostopher]

35. I live here, and I've seen plenty of the things I describe.

Maybe it's limited to the area I live in, but I'm not backing down -- I've seen plenty of it here. I don't think it qualifies as stereotyping if it matches personal experience -- though perhaps mine has been different from yours.

[Placebo]

10. That's really weird.

"I hate gay people but love my gay friends. :wtf:

[Philostopher]

38. I can't understand it, either.

I can actually hear the cognitive dissonance in some people ringing out loud in the room when I'm around them. I don't see how somebody can find worth and value in one person and write the rest of them off, but I do see it happen.

[salin]

6. yes. n/t

[karl meltdown]

23. at least she has no ...

anti-semite viewpoints, this might cost her more in the long run.

[yardwork]

7. I've met bigots who consider themselves to be super-liberals

I can think of one family in particular. They are extremely narrow-minded, hate all people of color, are nasty with anyone they consider not to be "liberal" enough - they are just pigs.

People like that give liberals bad names.

[Deja Q]

8. A friend of mine has a brother who would do me physical harm if he knew

I was gay.

My friend and his brother are African American. And Islamic.

My friend is tolerant with it, though understandably confused on the concept. His brother is otherwise a damn good person, but I was SHOCKED to hear the extremes he would go if he found out I was gay. :scared:

We're all people and we're all eventually going to have some irrational dislike.

[jellybelly]

12. the mistake...

liberals make is thinking because someone has dark skin, they are automatically liberal...especially muslims, sorry to say...muslims are more conservative than christians.

[hollywood926]

13. Funny you should say that...

Back when the whole "gays in the military" issue was all over the news, I met a black guy who was in the Army and he told me if he ever met a gay man in the Army, he would "shoot him in the back of the head."

Nice.

[jonnyblitz]

14. I was gay in the navy and that was a common sentiment

Unfortunately, with people of all races. :(

[jellybelly]

16. yep...

I know plenty of black people who vote democratic but hate gays and are anti-abortion...Black Americans are very conservative, they go to church, believe in morals and family...They vote democratic ONLY because they believe (rightly or wrongly) that the republican party is killed with nazis.:shrug:

hee hee I said 'killed', I meant 'filled' with nazis...I have an evil mind:) :evilgrin:

[jellybelly]

11. there are plenty

but when she calls herself a liberal tell her she isn't. A liberal can't be racist...it comes before being pro-choice, a feminist, and anti-war...
If she's a racist it cancels out all the other issues. They should start a third party. I don't want ultra-lefty psychos and racist lefties associated with the democratic party.

[edzontar.]

41. Are you sure?

A liberal can't be racist...? You can if you hate whites and assuming whites are in power and have the dominant religion, etc. Then its justified...

[jellybelly]

42. no you can't

liberal racism can't be justified....:eyes:
then nazis could justify hating jews because the jews control everything...

[TeddyKGB]

15. We ALL have racist/sexist/classist tendencies, including me and you.

The liberal thing to do is to fight that instinct and learn to see people as people.

Wanna impress me? Be a liberal that sees conservatives as people, too.

Children, basically -- but yes, people.

[mark414]

17. isn't that sort of a rhetorical question?

why do you think we still have so many problems with race relations in this country? cause white people don't get it, liberal or otherwise...

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mark414]

22. did i say that?

no.

but why is it that so many white people find it so hard to believe the level of racism that still exists today?

white people have the power in this country, and not only in numbers. everyone has a lot of work to do to solve the problems we face no matter what color they are, but until white people wake the fuck up and realize what's going on we're not going to get anywhere because it's white people who create the agenda and it's white people who see it through.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jellybelly]

28. um....

'racism' isn't a word that just describes what white people feel about black people...it can describe how black people feel about gays, jews, and whites
Racism can describe how muslims feel towards christians, how christians feel towards Hindus.

I don't know how many white people find racism hard to believe since there are racists in EVERY COLOR AND CULTURE....... :eyes:

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jellybelly]

37. thanks

the BINGO is taken :D

[Radical Activist]

20. I have met many

most of them are in denial.

[RoyGBiv]

21. Yes ...

Racism has different forms. The most obvious is not necessarily the most common.

[EstimatedProphet]

25. Yes

I have met people (my PhD advisor among them) that are liberal in the same sense that the biblical hypocrites who pray in the streets are religious. They are far more concerned with whether people see them as liberal than what they really do stand for.

[Tweed]

26. George Wallace

[JohnKleeb]

30. He was a democrat but no liberal honest

He's an interesting historical figure, I hear he was quite tolerant as a judge but after running and losing as a candidiate for governor as a moderate, he ran as a segerationist so he would get votes.

[Beware the Beast Man]

27. Oh, absolutely.

In all the above examples. Some folks are products of their own environment, and never truly learn.

[DemGa]

29. She's young, she'll probably grow out of it.

[JohnKleeb]

31. Oh definely

[48pan]

32. I've met some liberals who really hate Jews.

So yes, it's possible.

[The Backlash Cometh]

33. Yes. All things are possible. I'm calling it the American a la carte

phenomena. Hell, I have even given into it. I really have no desire to go out of my way to meet Republicans nor (Non-American) Indians. Too many bad experiences.

[Aristus]

36. Well, don't go around saying people are complex;

You'll shock the right-wingers!

[WilliamPitt]

39. Come to Boston

I'll show you a few.

[catbert836]

40. Some liberals have a deep-seated racism

Racism dosn't come out easily, even if you're in a position where you shouldn't be one.

[Rabrrrrrr]

43. Sure. No one's perfect. It's a silly question.

Show me any liberal, and give me a few minutes with 'em, and I'll find something "wrong" and "totally unliberal" about them.

Doesn't mean they aren't liberal, it means they're human.

And the term "liberal" is so nebulous as to be undefinable anyway.

I'm a lifetime member of the NRA, and a member of Greenpeace and the ACLU. Does that make me liberal or not liberal? I think they all make me liberal. Others would classify my NRA membership as not liberal.

You can't litmus test on singular items.

There are liberals who are anti-abortion and anti-choice. There are liberals who are anti-union. There are liberals who are rich capitalists. And on and on. And there are liberals who hate republicans and/or freepers just as much as racists hate whatever race they hate - how is that any different?

I hope you are mature enough to realize that just because someone doesn't fit your definition of "liberal" by 100% that they can still be liberal.

And who's to say that being a racist is even anti-liberal? It all depends on how the racism comes out, doesn't it? I won't actively work against any race in this country - I want everyone to have a fair shake - but there are certain peoples I will never live near again, after 6 years of hell trying to be a trend-setting liberal in Harlem. Doesn't mean I hate them - I just don't want ever to live with them again.