I was born in Europe and when we came to America I clearly remember the first time I was touched by a Negro child. I must have been about four years old at the most and I went completely hysterical. My mother was forced to give me a bath because I was so sure that the brown would rub off on me that she couldn't convince me otherwise! True story!
I can honestly say that I don't like being touched by them even though I have worked with them and have rubbed shoulders with them socially where I've had to shake their hands. There are some who are intelligent and well-behaved but there is still something innate in me that is repulsed at the thought of touching them. The same goes for their babies. I can't think of anything uglier and the last thing I could imagine doing is cuddling one of them. I personally think it's natural to feel that way and anything else is the work of social conditioning.
23 comments
good thing brendan rizzo never read that, he'd have spouted something about europe throwing their idiots across the pond.
now, onto this post, my guess is cultural xenophobia. i doubt kids are born racist. indoctrinated by parents to be racist? that may be more likely
From europe and believed that? Not surprised.*
* - I don't mean that as blind anti-europe xenophobia, I just mean that, especially back when this happened they were probably even less enlightened about racism.
I think you should explore why you're so terrified of physical contact with non-whites (hint: it's cause your parents/friends were racists, Blanca, and it rubbed off on you), and learn to overcome it. I also think Stormfront is the wrong place to do that.
@Rabbit of Caerbannog
Spaniards are white. Not even "swarthy" whites like Italians or Greeks, either; Spaniards are the kind of white that WNs would consistently consider white. Remember; Spain is where the term "blue-blood" came from, in reference to some Spanish noblemen around the Reconquista lifting up their arms to show their blue veins and pasty complexions, to prove their ancestors didn't bang any Moors or Jews.
@#1505104 - Maybe with the royals but it's not like that for every average person in Spain walking around. I've seen plenty of pictures of Spain and plenty of movies and documentaries from Spain...and I gotta say....a lot of the common folks walking around in Spain aren't that pale and pasty. XD A lot of white people in Spain are olive-toned and more of them seem to have dark hair and dark eyes than people in, say, Germany or Denmark. Of course there are plenty of pale people in Spain too but the people in Spain don't look too much different on average than common scenes in Italy and Greece (the latter 2 countries I actually visited in person). Part of the reason nobles in Spain had the "blue blood" test was to differentiate themselves from commoners in Spain who were more likely to be descendants of someone who HAD banged some Moors, Arabs or Jews. They wanted to prove their (inbred) "purity".
It made it kind of funny seeing racists and white nationalists in Spain telling Arabs to "go home" and calling them ethnic slurs while some of the white people saying that looked like they would pass for Lebanese or Syrian. XD
Some kids are frightened of anything and anyone new and different. You should have seen my niece the first time she went to my parents' house. She was about two at the time. My dad is bald and the first time she saw him he was wearing a hat. When he took his hat off, she freaked out and started screaming bloody murder because she'd never seen anyone with no hair.
Now imagine going through life with those close to you reinforcing the idea that bald people are somehow lesser humans.
Actually, this one reminds me of that submission from the racist mom whose kid thought she was calling her a nigger because the mom said she was dirty and was always saying "dirty niggers." I can't help but think that kid is going to turn out exactly like this.
"The same goes for their babies. I can't think of anything uglier and the last thing I could imagine doing is cuddling one of them."
Oh yeah? Well...
The same goes for their babies. I can't think of anything CUTER and the FIRST thing I could imagine doing is cuddling one of them.
Any child-of-color seems to have extra-cute factor, in my opinion!
I blame this person's mother for encouraging their stupidity instead of correcting it. It sounds like they're still afraid the brown will rub off on them. But if their mother had explained that some people have darker skin than others, and it won't "rub off," then perhaps this person would have grown up intelligent and there'd be one less racist in the world.
Spuki, you're right. Long decades ago, I was at the Jackson/Byron's in downtown Miami and saw a couple of old white Southern ladies, doubtless insisting on their separate fountains while dealing with adults, going bananas over a tiny, precious black toddler with yellow bows in her hair. Not so long ago, I saw the identical scene repeated in the local Publix with a little toddler boy in rompers.
Spaniards occupy a weird place in the racist continuum. For the hard core white pride folks, they don't pass, but then, so few do. My favorite example is H. P. Lovecraft who, in his younger and WAY more racist days, suffered an almost crippling crisis of identity when he found out one grandmother was Welsh, unlike the rest of his pure Anglo-Saxon relations. On the other hand, Spaniards have a pretty good history of being not only white-seeming, but also western and racist themselves against Moors, Arabs and Jews. There's a reason the Sephardim became underground worshippers and invented clever ways to be Jewish that would not draw attention. They saw what Aragonese-Castillanos did to their Umayyad rulers.
These days it expresses itself in a kind of arrogant pride, that Spaniards are better than all other Spanish-Speaking peoples. Even if they live in those nations they look down on those without direct Spanish blood. Like the chilangos of Mexico City, the white-looking Mexicans with lots of hereditary money. The best part is there can be some false positives that throw flks for a loop. Like in Hidalgo there are pale-skinned, red-headed Mexicans. They're not Spanish, though. They're of a line of Cornish tin miners who settled in the area and got all interpersonal with the local Mexican peasant population, probably with more than a few mestizos and criollos in there. English peasants plus Mexican peasants equals descenders that could pass for tanned Irishmen.
And I know all this because Hispanic racial ideas are on my mind now and then. I'm Hispanic but with a racial mix that adds a lot of ambiguity. Usually I get Greek or Southern Italian but the funniest one was when my boss' family, some from-Pakistan Pakistanis saw my ample body hair and lush mustache and tanned skin and wanted to know if I was Pakistani. I should have said yes, gotten extra point withthe boss.
" I personally think it's natural to feel that way and anything else is the work of social conditioning."
Oh, so close!
This sounds less like bigotry and more like an actual PHOBIA. The hell?
And Dale, if white supremacy was REALLY moving forward, why did a mulatto guy get elected, twice?
Maybe the sweet little black child had a "boogie" on it's finger. Relax, Blanca, all tykes do that. You probably did it, too.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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