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Cigar
08-15-2013, 08:14 AM
Please try to first, read the article with an open mind before flatly rejecting it.

http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/screen_shot_2013-08-14_at_3.45.03_pm.png

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, which found that 40 percent of white people and 25 percent of nonwhite people have no friends of the opposite race, caused me to reflect deeply on the friendship segregation that has characterized my own life.

These days most of my close friends are black. No. Let me be honest. All my close friends are black. One of my BFFs likes to joke that all of my white friends were grandfathered in before 1998, the year I graduated high school.

In third grade, during the Presidential election of 1988, my grandmother asked me whom I was voting for. To her utter dismay, I proudly announced “Bush!” unsuspectingly mimicking the overwhelming choice that my young classmates had made during the class “election.” She looked at me, shook her head forcefully and said, “Naw, Girl! Dukakis!” It would be many years before I understood that the difference in political orientations was just one of the many substantive differences between me and my classmates.

I had only begun to have white friends the year prior when I found myself newly “tracked” into the higher-achieving second grade class based on superior reading ability. Scattered into a predominantly white classroom among only a handful of black students left me desperately wanting to culturally fit in and sound like my peers, especially since the vast majority of black children I knew stayed concentrated in the “B” and “C” tracks. My awkward attempts to fit in resulted in me being teased mercilessly by my black peers, who from then on through the better part of high school both accused and found me guilty of “talking too proper,” “acting white” and, perhaps most egregious of all, “thinking I was white.”

I was grateful for the friendship of a white girl in my class, Amanda. I’m not sure why we were drawn to each other, but more and more, we became each other’s primary playmates during recess. By fourth grade, Amanda and I were joined at the hip, so much so that our teacher, a Black lady named Mrs. Gaulden, still my all-time favorite teacher, called us Ebony and Ivory after the famous song. Amanda directed the classroom production of “Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott,” starring yours truly as Rosa Parks.


<snip>

I increasingly cultivated a certain degree of resolve to deal with classmates whose racial views evolved to reflect those of their parents with a disturbing degree of similarity. I remained friends (some to this day) with classmates who asked to touch my hair and then remarked with shock and surprise that it was “soft and didn’t feel like a brillo pad”; classmates who inquired about whether black people could see better in the dark, and even one who told me that “black people do drive down our property values,” when they move into the neighborhood.


Back then, folks who made these asinine remarks got a withering side eye from me, but their casual, everyday racism was not a deal-breaker for our friendships.
When I went off to college (a historically black institution), this changed. I made my first close black friendships. Those four years at Howard are actually the outlier in an educational background populated by predominantly white learning institutions. And yet, since leaving high school, I have not had many nor actively sought opportunities to make friends with white people.


When you are 9, or 12, or 17, it is easy to overlook racist comments. That your friends’ dad does not like black people has little to do with what your friend thinks, right? When you cannot yet vote, the fact that your friends’ parents are Republicans means little. With age, these things start to matter. At 25 or 32, it is harder to overlook the inevitable racially ignorant comment that will come, especially when you have had access to friendships where this is never an issue. At 30 or 35, the fact that your white friends now vote Republican alongside their parents strikes you as a choice that detrimentally impacts your material existence.
It is hard to stomach.


<snip>



This is why the Reuters poll is unsurprising. I have always been skeptical of white people who claim that “one of my best friends is black.” Internally my response has always been, “They may be your friend, but are you their friend?”


I believe deeply in the power of friendship to make us better human beings. But interracial friendships, especially in adulthood, require a level of risk and vulnerability that many of us would rather simply not deal with. And that is perhaps one of racism’s biggest casualties: Beyond the level of systemic havoc that racism wreaks on the material lives of people of color, in a million and one ways every day, it reduces the opportunity of all people to be more human.




http://www.alternet.org/why-i-find-it-hard-be-friends-white-people?page=0%2C1

I was always told my my grandfather ... people don't always see what they want to see, so keep that in mind when you chose your friends.

Mister D
08-15-2013, 08:20 AM
no worries. I don't associate with Negroes anyway.

Cigar
08-15-2013, 08:32 AM
What’s funnier than an old ignorant white racist?

A white racist who’s so old and ignorant that they think the word negro is somehow an insult to anyone.

:laugh:

jillian
08-15-2013, 08:32 AM
I was always told my my grandfather ... people don't always see what they want to see, so keep that in mind when you chose your friends.

you know. there will always be disingenuous people. but i think the person who wrote the article is as limited in their point of view as the smug responder to the o/p.

i can assure you that my friends who happen to be black are my friends and i am theirs and that was the case from the time i was a kid until now.

so there ya go.

Cigar
08-15-2013, 08:38 AM
you know. there will always be disingenuous people. but i think the person who wrote the article is as limited in their point of view as the smug responder to the o/p.

i can assure you that my friends who happen to be black are my friends and i am theirs and that was the case from the time i was a kid until now.

so there ya go.

One of my best friend from high school is white and a woman, she still is my best fried and she helped my wife plan our wedding.

jillian
08-15-2013, 08:57 AM
One of my best friend from high school is white and a woman, she still is my best fried and she helped my wife plan our wedding.

fair enough.

so how do you feel about the sentiments expressed in the article?

nic34
08-15-2013, 08:59 AM
My friends are all Injuns....just ask DEE.....

nic34
08-15-2013, 09:05 AM
My family going back to the FDR days have always been republican conservatives. Not once did I ever hear a racist remark from them growing up, in fact they were enthusiastic at the time 50 years ago when MLK had his dream speech. I am proud of them for that.

jillian
08-15-2013, 09:22 AM
My family going back to the FDR days have always been republican conservatives. Not once did I ever hear a racist remark from them growing up, in fact they were enthusiastic at the time 50 years ago when MLK had his dream speech. I am proud of them for that.

republicans then were not like republicans now.

true story.

Agravan
08-15-2013, 09:24 AM
republicans then were not like republicans now.

true story.
You're right, Republican today are Dem lites.

Mister D
08-15-2013, 09:25 AM
My friends are all Injuns....just ask DEE.....

It's amazing how many fake Injuns there are.

So how do you feel about the sentiments expressed in the article?

Mister D
08-15-2013, 09:31 AM
So....? Cigar nic34

Agravan
08-15-2013, 09:32 AM
I think this article gives the opposite message than what the author intended.
If you changed all the instances of white to black and vice-versa, our local libtards would be up in arms about how racist this author is. It truly is pathetic that there are people out there that think this way and that this kind of thought is not only promoted by liberals, but encouraged by them.

Mister D
08-15-2013, 09:37 AM
I think this article gives the opposite message than what the author intended.
If you changed all the instances of white to black and vice-versa, our local libtards would be up in arms about how racist this author is. It truly is pathetic that there are people out there that think this way and that this kind of thought is not only promoted by liberals, but encouraged by them.

Obviously, I find race meaningful but not so much on a personal level. Methinks the author is overly conscious of race in his day to day affairs. The fact that most of my friends are white doesn't have me soul searching. So what?

jillian
08-15-2013, 09:49 AM
You're right, Republican today are Dem lites.

no. republicans today are owned by their extremist rightwing "base". they used to actually be smart.

butwhatchagonnado

metheron
08-15-2013, 09:57 AM
Please try to first, read the article with an open mind before flatly rejecting it.

http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/screen_shot_2013-08-14_at_3.45.03_pm.png

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, which found that 40 percent of white people and 25 percent of nonwhite people have no friends of the opposite race, caused me to reflect deeply on the friendship segregation that has characterized my own life.

These days most of my close friends are black. No. Let me be honest. All my close friends are black. One of my BFFs likes to joke that all of my white friends were grandfathered in before 1998, the year I graduated high school.

In third grade, during the Presidential election of 1988, my grandmother asked me whom I was voting for. To her utter dismay, I proudly announced “Bush!” unsuspectingly mimicking the overwhelming choice that my young classmates had made during the class “election.” She looked at me, shook her head forcefully and said, “Naw, Girl! Dukakis!” It would be many years before I understood that the difference in political orientations was just one of the many substantive differences between me and my classmates.

I had only begun to have white friends the year prior when I found myself newly “tracked” into the higher-achieving second grade class based on superior reading ability. Scattered into a predominantly white classroom among only a handful of black students left me desperately wanting to culturally fit in and sound like my peers, especially since the vast majority of black children I knew stayed concentrated in the “B” and “C” tracks. My awkward attempts to fit in resulted in me being teased mercilessly by my black peers, who from then on through the better part of high school both accused and found me guilty of “talking too proper,” “acting white” and, perhaps most egregious of all, “thinking I was white.”

I was grateful for the friendship of a white girl in my class, Amanda. I’m not sure why we were drawn to each other, but more and more, we became each other’s primary playmates during recess. By fourth grade, Amanda and I were joined at the hip, so much so that our teacher, a Black lady named Mrs. Gaulden, still my all-time favorite teacher, called us Ebony and Ivory after the famous song. Amanda directed the classroom production of “Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott,” starring yours truly as Rosa Parks.


<snip>

I increasingly cultivated a certain degree of resolve to deal with classmates whose racial views evolved to reflect those of their parents with a disturbing degree of similarity. I remained friends (some to this day) with classmates who asked to touch my hair and then remarked with shock and surprise that it was “soft and didn’t feel like a brillo pad”; classmates who inquired about whether black people could see better in the dark, and even one who told me that “black people do drive down our property values,” when they move into the neighborhood.


Back then, folks who made these asinine remarks got a withering side eye from me, but their casual, everyday racism was not a deal-breaker for our friendships.
When I went off to college (a historically black institution), this changed. I made my first close black friendships. Those four years at Howard are actually the outlier in an educational background populated by predominantly white learning institutions. And yet, since leaving high school, I have not had many nor actively sought opportunities to make friends with white people.


When you are 9, or 12, or 17, it is easy to overlook racist comments. That your friends’ dad does not like black people has little to do with what your friend thinks, right? When you cannot yet vote, the fact that your friends’ parents are Republicans means little. With age, these things start to matter. At 25 or 32, it is harder to overlook the inevitable racially ignorant comment that will come, especially when you have had access to friendships where this is never an issue. At 30 or 35, the fact that your white friends now vote Republican alongside their parents strikes you as a choice that detrimentally impacts your material existence.
It is hard to stomach.


<snip>



This is why the Reuters poll is unsurprising. I have always been skeptical of white people who claim that “one of my best friends is black.” Internally my response has always been, “They may be your friend, but are you their friend?”


I believe deeply in the power of friendship to make us better human beings. But interracial friendships, especially in adulthood, require a level of risk and vulnerability that many of us would rather simply not deal with. And that is perhaps one of racism’s biggest casualties: Beyond the level of systemic havoc that racism wreaks on the material lives of people of color, in a million and one ways every day, it reduces the opportunity of all people to be more human.




http://www.alternet.org/why-i-find-it-hard-be-friends-white-people?page=0%2C1

I was always told my my grandfather ... people don't always see what they want to see, so keep that in mind when you chose your friends.

The examples that I read in the article seem more like ignorance than racism to me. I get how they can be taken that way, but the examples were from teenagers and younger saying things that they had obviously learned from their parents.

To say that someone doesn't befriend white folks based on ignorant teens and pre-teens is pretty unfair in my book. It only hurts us a a whole when someone bases a whole gender on the ignorance of kids.

oceanloverOH
08-15-2013, 10:24 AM
I found that article quite interesting, well-written, and told from a not-always-popular point of view....thank you for posting it, Cigar, it is food for thought.

One of the advantages of growing up a military brat on base is that my parents had friends and co-workers of every color, heritage, and creed. My on-base neighborhood was as diverse as was possible. My first "boyfriend" (at age 5) was Andy McCoy who happened to be black (I was taught to use the term "colored", which was considered polite terminology in the 1950s). But I don't recall ever using that term as a child; I had never been exposed to racism so I didn't think anything more about the physical differences between our appearances that I did about Suzanne from next door, who was platinum blonde. Mrs. McCoy invited me to lunch with Andy frequently, as my Mom would do, making us both sticky peanut butter sandwiches....which looked just as comical smeared on a black face as it did on a white face.

Then, when I was 8, Dad got orders in New Orleans and we moved. The neighborhood children taught me all kinds of new things. The first thing I learned was the word "nigger" (my dismayed mother washed my mouth out with soap the first time I said it to her) and the notion that black children were dirty, stupid, and not as good as us. I had to use their nasty words, and pretend to hate the blacks in order to fit in, but I never believed any of it. How could being black be bad? Andy wasn't bad, we still wrote back and forth. In 6th grade, my small Catholic school was "integrated" by a new law. One set of boy-girl twins, in my class. They built a separate water fountain for those two kids, they had to use an outhouse instead of the indoor bathrooms, and a table was set aside for their exclusive use in the lunchroom. Even at age 11, I was mortified. Why were Mildred and Robert treated like that? I decided I didn't care WHAT the other kids thought, and made it a point to get to know Mildred....who was quiet and pretty and got straight A's. I sat down at their table in the lunchroom one day to have lunch with Mildred......and promptly got taken to the principal and stood in a corner. My parents were outraged too, when I told them what had happened; but powerless to do anything back in 1964. When Dad got orders back to California, I was happy because I could be friends with whomever I wanted.

In California, the racism was piled on the Hispanics. By then, at age 12, I was big enough to stand my ground for what I believed. To me, racism was crap, and I made friends with whomever I wanted, and nobody punished me for it. I ignored the white people who (again) tried to tell me that the Hispanics were somehow lesser beings. Which I also ignored....and with my new friends, I discovered a whole new culture of spicy foods, a language different from my own (which I thought was terribly cool), and Saturday night neighborhood festivals with some catchy music that I had never heard before. I married a young man with Hispanic heritage. I remember my grandmother railing against my marriage....she said to me, "but your children will be (insert Hispanic racial epithet)"....I was shocked that anyone in my own family should think like that...and told Nana I didn't care if my kids were born green. I never got along with Nana after that. Once I joined the USAF, I never again saw racism to the extent that I saw it growing up. To this day, I have friends of every stripe....and I'm proud of that.

Anyway, my point in sharing all this is.......we are taught racism, discrimination, and prejudices from an early age. Taught by our well-meaning parents, teachers, peers, co-workers, and friends. I am just very thankful that I was not raised on a steady diet of this nasty thinking.

jillian
08-15-2013, 10:27 AM
I think this article gives the opposite message than what the author intended.
If you changed all the instances of white to black and vice-versa, our local libtards would be up in arms about how racist this author is. It truly is pathetic that there are people out there that think this way and that this kind of thought is not only promoted by liberals, but encouraged by them.

someone like you really shouldn't be calling anyone else "...tard".

Cigar
08-15-2013, 10:35 AM
fair enough.

so how do you feel about the sentiments expressed in the article?

I think and feel just like any white or black or whatever individual does.

Everyone has their own life experiences.

Just because this individual in Black and a Woman, doesn't mean she's now the national spokesperson for all Black People.

She simply documented "her" live experience ... with Millions of people on earth, it's quite possible other may have experienced the same thing.

Cigar
08-15-2013, 10:39 AM
I found that article quite interesting, well-written, and told from a not-always-popular point of view....thank you for posting it, Cigar, it is food for thought.

One of the advantages of growing up a military brat on base is that my parents had friends and co-workers of every color, heritage, and creed. My on-base neighborhood was as diverse as was possible. My first "boyfriend" (at age 5) was Andy McCoy who happened to be black (I was taught to use the term "colored", which was considered polite terminology in the 1950s). But I don't recall ever using that term as a child; I had never been exposed to racism so I didn't think anything more about the physical differences between our appearances that I did about Suzanne from next door, who was platinum blonde. Mrs. McCoy invited me to lunch with Andy frequently, as my Mom would do, making us both sticky peanut butter sandwiches....which looked just as comical smeared on a black face as it did on a white face.

Then, when I was 8, Dad got orders in New Orleans and we moved. The neighborhood children taught me all kinds of new things. The first thing I learned was the word "nigger" (my dismayed mother washed my mouth out with soap the first time I said it to her) and the notion that black children were dirty, stupid, and not as good as us. I had to use their nasty words, and pretend to hate the blacks in order to fit in, but I never believed any of it. How could being black be bad? Andy wasn't bad, we still wrote back and forth. In 6th grade, my small Catholic school was "integrated" by a new law. One set of boy-girl twins, in my class. They built a separate water fountain for those two kids, they had to use an outhouse instead of the indoor bathrooms, and a table was set aside for their exclusive use in the lunchroom. Even at age 11, I was mortified. Why were Mildred and Robert treated like that? I decided I didn't care WHAT the other kids thought, and made it a point to get to know Mildred....who was quiet and pretty and got straight A's. I sat down at their table in the lunchroom one day to have lunch with Mildred......and promptly got taken to the principal and stood in a corner. My parents were outraged too, when I told them what had happened; but powerless to do anything back in 1964. When Dad got orders back to California, I was happy because I could be friends with whomever I wanted.

In California, the racism was piled on the Hispanics. By then, at age 12, I was big enough to stand my ground for what I believed. To me, racism was crap, and I made friends with whomever I wanted, and nobody punished me for it. I ignored the white people who (again) tried to tell me that the Hispanics were somehow lesser beings. Which I also ignored....and with my new friends, I discovered a whole new culture of spicy foods, a language different from my own (which I thought was terribly cool), and Saturday night neighborhood festivals with some catchy music that I had never heard before. I married a young man with Hispanic heritage. I remember my grandmother railing against my marriage....she said to me, "but your children will be (insert Hispanic racial epithet)"....I was shocked that anyone in my own family should think like that...and told Nana I didn't care if my kids were born green. I never got along with Nana after that. Once I joined the USAF, I never again saw racism to the extent that I saw it growing up. To this day, I have friends of every stripe....and I'm proud of that.

Anyway, my point in sharing all this is.......we are taught racism, discrimination, and prejudices from an early age. Taught by our well-meaning parents, teachers, peers, co-workers, and friends. I am just very thankful that I was not raised on a steady diet of this nasty thinking.

Thanks ...

But isn't it amazing how some people can read this and their immediate reaction is to become angered ... I wonder why is that? :rollseyes:

Peter1469
08-15-2013, 10:42 AM
I had plenty of black friends in the Army. Anyone that could make it as an 11B in a light infantry or airborne unit was good to go; color didn't matter.

Kalkin
08-15-2013, 10:53 AM
My friends are all Injuns.
Elizabeth Warren?

jillian
08-15-2013, 11:16 AM
I had plenty of black friends in the Army. Anyone that could make it as an 11B in a light infantry or airborne unit was good to go; color didn't matter.

from what i understand, that's generally the case in the military. from what i've been told, if someone has your back and is responsible for your life, then color really is a non-sequitur.

Kabuki Joe
08-15-2013, 11:18 AM
Please try to first, read the article with an open mind before flatly rejecting it.

http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/screen_shot_2013-08-14_at_3.45.03_pm.png

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, which found that 40 percent of white people and 25 percent of nonwhite people have no friends of the opposite race, caused me to reflect deeply on the friendship segregation that has characterized my own life.

These days most of my close friends are black. No. Let me be honest. All my close friends are black. One of my BFFs likes to joke that all of my white friends were grandfathered in before 1998, the year I graduated high school.

In third grade, during the Presidential election of 1988, my grandmother asked me whom I was voting for. To her utter dismay, I proudly announced “Bush!” unsuspectingly mimicking the overwhelming choice that my young classmates had made during the class “election.” She looked at me, shook her head forcefully and said, “Naw, Girl! Dukakis!” It would be many years before I understood that the difference in political orientations was just one of the many substantive differences between me and my classmates.

I had only begun to have white friends the year prior when I found myself newly “tracked” into the higher-achieving second grade class based on superior reading ability. Scattered into a predominantly white classroom among only a handful of black students left me desperately wanting to culturally fit in and sound like my peers, especially since the vast majority of black children I knew stayed concentrated in the “B” and “C” tracks. My awkward attempts to fit in resulted in me being teased mercilessly by my black peers, who from then on through the better part of high school both accused and found me guilty of “talking too proper,” “acting white” and, perhaps most egregious of all, “thinking I was white.”

I was grateful for the friendship of a white girl in my class, Amanda. I’m not sure why we were drawn to each other, but more and more, we became each other’s primary playmates during recess. By fourth grade, Amanda and I were joined at the hip, so much so that our teacher, a Black lady named Mrs. Gaulden, still my all-time favorite teacher, called us Ebony and Ivory after the famous song. Amanda directed the classroom production of “Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott,” starring yours truly as Rosa Parks.


<snip>

I increasingly cultivated a certain degree of resolve to deal with classmates whose racial views evolved to reflect those of their parents with a disturbing degree of similarity. I remained friends (some to this day) with classmates who asked to touch my hair and then remarked with shock and surprise that it was “soft and didn’t feel like a brillo pad”; classmates who inquired about whether black people could see better in the dark, and even one who told me that “black people do drive down our property values,” when they move into the neighborhood.


Back then, folks who made these asinine remarks got a withering side eye from me, but their casual, everyday racism was not a deal-breaker for our friendships.
When I went off to college (a historically black institution), this changed. I made my first close black friendships. Those four years at Howard are actually the outlier in an educational background populated by predominantly white learning institutions. And yet, since leaving high school, I have not had many nor actively sought opportunities to make friends with white people.


When you are 9, or 12, or 17, it is easy to overlook racist comments. That your friends’ dad does not like black people has little to do with what your friend thinks, right? When you cannot yet vote, the fact that your friends’ parents are Republicans means little. With age, these things start to matter. At 25 or 32, it is harder to overlook the inevitable racially ignorant comment that will come, especially when you have had access to friendships where this is never an issue. At 30 or 35, the fact that your white friends now vote Republican alongside their parents strikes you as a choice that detrimentally impacts your material existence.
It is hard to stomach.


<snip>



This is why the Reuters poll is unsurprising. I have always been skeptical of white people who claim that “one of my best friends is black.” Internally my response has always been, “They may be your friend, but are you their friend?”


I believe deeply in the power of friendship to make us better human beings. But interracial friendships, especially in adulthood, require a level of risk and vulnerability that many of us would rather simply not deal with. And that is perhaps one of racism’s biggest casualties: Beyond the level of systemic havoc that racism wreaks on the material lives of people of color, in a million and one ways every day, it reduces the opportunity of all people to be more human.




http://www.alternet.org/why-i-find-it-hard-be-friends-white-people?page=0%2C1

I was always told my my grandfather ... people don't always see what they want to see, so keep that in mind when you chose your friends.


...this goes for you too btw...

Libhater
08-15-2013, 11:19 AM
I had plenty of black friends in the Army. Anyone that could make it as an 11B in a light infantry or airborne unit was good to go; color didn't matter.

Perhaps color didn't matter to you because of your age and time of service, but to those of us Vietnam ARMY (101st Airborne) vets who had to put up with the racist black power nonsense of our cohorts in a combat setting during the late sixties and early seventies--I can assure you that very few WHITES had a black friend, and very few (if any) black soldiers (REMF's) had a WHITE friend.

Kabuki Joe
08-15-2013, 11:20 AM
One of my best friend from high school is white and a woman, she still is my best fried and she helped my wife plan our wedding.

...first you don't like whites and now one of your best friends is white...go figure...

nic34
08-15-2013, 11:21 AM
So who says there's been no progress?

Agravan
08-15-2013, 11:28 AM
someone like you really shouldn't be calling anyone else "...tard".
Really, Miss :cuckoo:?

Cigar
08-15-2013, 11:37 AM
from what i understand, that's generally the case in the military. from what i've been told, if someone has your back and is responsible for your life, then color really is a non-sequitur.

It also give you the opportunity to personally get to know someone outside of what the MSM experts and generations of expert bias and myths

Cigar
08-15-2013, 11:38 AM
So who says there's been no progress?

Personally I think that's exactly what a lot of people are afraid of ... progress and change.

roadmaster
08-15-2013, 11:43 AM
Well I actually do have one best friend that is black. It's not about race it's about the person. She was there when I needed her and I was there when she needed me. I don't hate blacks but don't like all of them just like any race. It's not necessary to have a friend just because of race to prove you are not racist, if you have one like that are you really friends? I don't care what people think. I like who I like and would be there for her like a sister.

RosieS
08-15-2013, 11:46 AM
Around here Pop Warner football integrates everyone....kids and parents alike. Girls also get to play and boy can cheerlead. I found the unisex play to be novel!

My mostly white son did a ton of offensive blocking for the black girl who lives on our street. She made lots of touchdowns.

My Hubs coached them both and her Dad coached them both. Both families are good friends, both kids rode the bus every day from the same bus stop and graduated HS together last June.

Community sports is a place where color barriers are not obstacles.

Regards from Rosie

Venus
08-15-2013, 11:46 AM
someone like you really shouldn't be calling anyone else "...tard".

Someone like you really shouldn't be calling anyone out.

Hypocrite

Cigar
08-15-2013, 11:47 AM
Well I actually do have one best friend that is black. It's not about race it's about the person. She was there when I needed her and I was there when she needed me. I don't hate blacks but don't like all of them just like any race. It's not necessary to have a friend just because of race to prove you are not racist, if you have one like that are you really friends? I don't care what people think. I like who I like and would be there for her like a sister.

... and that's the way it should always be.

No one gets to pick their Mothers and Fathers, but they can chose how they interact with other people.

bladimz
08-15-2013, 11:49 AM
Perhaps color didn't matter to you because of your age and time of service, but to those of us Vietnam ARMY (101st Airborne) vets who had to put up with the racist black power nonsense of our cohorts in a combat setting during the late sixties and early seventies--I can assure you that very few WHITES had a black friend, and very few (if any) black soldiers (REMF's) had a WHITE friend.Extremely unfortunate for both.

Cigar
08-15-2013, 11:54 AM
Extremely unfortunate for both.

It amazing me how some people can go through life always so angry and bitter ... that has to be a heavy weight to carry around all the time.

Peter1469
08-15-2013, 12:15 PM
Perhaps color didn't matter to you because of your age and time of service, but to those of us Vietnam ARMY (101st Airborne) vets who had to put up with the racist black power nonsense of our cohorts in a combat setting during the late sixties and early seventies--I can assure you that very few WHITES had a black friend, and very few (if any) black soldiers (REMF's) had a WHITE friend.

Yes I was much later. 87-95 as an 11B with a combat tour in Desert Storm. Later I was an officer with another Iraq tour. Race relations in the army have changed a lot since Vietnam.

Kabuki Joe
08-15-2013, 12:15 PM
I had plenty of black friends in the Army. Anyone that could make it as an 11B in a light infantry or airborne unit was good to go; color didn't matter.

...I think the problem is in definition...I had more then a few black associates in the military but I need to ask myself were they friends or just associates?...associates...do I have black friends?...a couple...do I have white friends?...a couple...Hispanic?...a couple...Asian?...a couple...I think we try to exaggerate association to friendship when it's really only association...my oldest friendship is with a black guy I met when I worked in a tropical fish store when I was 10...we have been friends for 40+ years and he's my daughters godfather...he been to my house for dinner and I've been to his...he knows my wife and daughter and I know his wife and sons...association and friendship are quite different...

Kabuki Joe
08-15-2013, 12:19 PM
It amazing me how some people can go through life always so angry and bitter ... that has to be a heavy weight to carry around all the time.

...I can't believe you are posting this BS...

bladimz
08-15-2013, 12:19 PM
I'll always remember this as a kid; my parents reminded me of it often:
As a kid, we lived in a small town in SE PA, maybe about 4-5,000 in population. Of that, i'd say that no more than 20 people were black. I didn't realize this at the time (5 years old), but they were definitely purposefully removed from the general population. I don't remember ever seeing outside of school, ever.

Anyway, like many others, we used a coal furnace. Every few months, a few more tons were delivered. Down through the front cellar window, the coal slide went, into the coalroom. (I loved that room for some strange reason.) Remember that i was about 5 when this happened... One of the guys making the delivery was black. So black that to me he appeared to be blue. Not being exposed to blacks at all, this guy fascinated me. As he went through the house and down into the cellar to do what needed to be done, i watched him and made some kind of comment like "Mom, where'd the blue man go?" She was embarrassed, but the black guy, he heard it too, and laughed hard and long. As he moved back and forth up and down the steps, i continued to stare at him, and as he passed me, he'd just look at me with a huge smile.

Mom and Dad taught all six of us that blacks were people just us whites and that they deserved the same respect. Of course, like Ocean said in her post, each of us, as we started school, would hear the word "nigger" from others and bring it home and present it to the family. Soap was served up nice and quick. My parents were not racists; other people in church were, some of my dad's friends from work were... But as far as i know, none of us kids developed a disdain for blacks.

I continued to live in white surroundings for most of my life. I worked with few as a young kid out of school, and once i began my own print shop, all of my employees were white, but only because i never recieved any applications from blacks. We did have one guy who lived on the streets in Philly. One of our customers asked if we'd give him a job doing something that anyone could do. We gave him a shot. He was soon given the moniker "No-Hustle Russell". It fit, but it wasn't because he was black. He soon left the shop and went back to Philly and the streets. That was his home and that's where he was most comfortable.

I don't have any close black friends. But then i don't have many true white friends, either. Friends are friends.

The End.

Libhater
08-15-2013, 12:21 PM
It amazing me how some people can go through life always so angry and bitter ... that has to be a heavy weight to carry around all the time.

Yeah, that has been my experience in watching and listening to black people whine and blame WHITEY for all of their perceived problems. Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton come to mind when gleaning on to that angry and bitter description and personification of blacks in general. The only thing that I as a WHITE man might be angry and bitter about is in watching Obama destroy the American dream and that shining city upon the hill that our greatest president Reagan often spoke of.

Cigar
08-15-2013, 12:41 PM
Yeah, that has been my experience in watching and listening to black people whine and blame WHITEY for all of their perceived problems. Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton come to mind when gleaning on to that angry and bitter description and personification of blacks in general. The only thing that I as a WHITE man might be angry and bitter about is in watching Obama destroy the American dream and that shining city upon the hill that our greatest president Reagan often spoke of.

My advice to you; stop watching and listening to black people whine and blame WHITEY ... in other words, turn off Fox News.

Jessie Jackson Al Sharpton have their one websites ... if you're watching them, then stop bitching about hearing ... so tell them your problems.

As for Reagan, learn your history ... in my opinion, he's the one who gave away the keys to the Kingdom. In the 60s and 70s, how many foreign companies were building and manufacturing in the US. But starting in the 80's until now ... anyone can make money here ... and take it away elsewhere. The middle class was thriving with living wages ... but you can thank Union busting Ron for putting an end to that party.

Or you can always leave the country ...

jillian
08-15-2013, 12:43 PM
Really, Miss :cuckoo:?

yeah, really.

Agravan
08-15-2013, 12:49 PM
yeah, really.
So, you're not just a hypocrite, you're an ignorant hypocrite.

RosieS
08-15-2013, 01:54 PM
So, you're not just a hypocrite, you're an ignorant hypocrite.

Where is Chris? He should be complaining about the horrible personal insult here....

....but I won't hold my breath.


Regards from Rosie

GrassrootsConservative
08-15-2013, 02:00 PM
The last black person I tried to be friends with stole my MP3 player.

Cigar
08-15-2013, 02:03 PM
The last black person I tried to be friends with stole my MP3 player.

Don't be such a pussy ... tell them I said give it back by noon tomorrow or ............

http://data.boomerang.nl/t/toettoet/image/im-gonna-get-medieval-on-your-ass/s600/im-gonna-get-medieval-on-your-ass.png#pulp%20fiction%20go%20medievil%20on%20your %20ass

Peter1469
08-15-2013, 03:09 PM
Don't be such a pussy ... tell them I said give it back by noon tomorrow or ............



Stop the vulgar language