Were your parents racist when you were a kid?

[Blue Skies]

let's try to keep it to the formative years, so before age 18 let's say

for the thread, just go off of how they were around you. Not what you suspected they were like away from you, but how they explicitly were around you.

Were they racist?
Did they claim to not care about being racists, or did they deny it, while still being racist?

 

[dark_prinny]

Gladly no.

 

[Blue Skies]

Gladly no.

Click to shrink...

Sadly, yes, for me.
they were always so casual about it, so it didnot stick, but my mom would literally scream at me: "Dont date a _____ girl, or I'll kill her"

my mom crazy

 

[rpm]

My mother used racial slurs and said other racist stuff while claiming to not be racist
My father has never said anything racist in my presence, but he sure as hell never challenged my mother about it. I'd guess he probably holds similar opinions, but you said to not speculate about how they act when they aren't in our presence

Gonna file this under "One was and the other just allowed it."

 

[Dream Machine]

Nope. But my mom seems to have a lot of people pushing racist or racist lite things on her after she started going to church in her later years. Surprise surprise

 

[Praxis]

My stepdad would've voted for Hitler and he'd probably bring the gas chambers back if he could.

 

[UltraMav]

I never heard much racist shit when I was younger, but my dad showed his true colors after Obama was elected. He is now actively racist and drops the N-word often (I assume; I don't see him every day).

My mother is more racist in the ignorant "racism is over so they should stop complaining" way. I try to talk to her about it but it usually just ends up in an argument.

 

[Reinhard]

My dad was and still is majorly racist to the nth degree towards minorities and muslims.... Can't seem to get him to even consider changing his mind. My mom isn't racist but she never challenges him either. Oh and my mom's church friends are very racist and Trump supporters, she can't believe some of things they have said.

 

[Jubbe]

Always been moderately racist and will deny it to this day.

They aren't "hate everybody that doesn't look like them racist". My mum is arabic decent and my dad white, so they were an interacial couple. My father has passed away, but my mother definitely still holds some racist views on Aboriginal Australians, despite my brother marrying and having two kids with one.

 

[Boy]

No, they taught me how to treat everyone equally, and my family is one big melting pot.

 

[Midnight Train]

I feel honestly so blessed my parents see people as equals, and taught me as much with a passion.

 

[electricblue]

My grandpas were. My mom is a social worker

 

[Acorn]

My mum is very left wing. So no.

 

[Rag]

Pretty much the whole extended family were, and still are to varying degrees, big old racists. I grew up in an environment where it was totally normal to hear my grandparents drop the n-word. My parents never used the language, but over the years, they've shown themselves to be polite, but very racist.

 

[Blue Skies]

Poll results are showing me that the phrase "people change"
Is utter bullshit lol
Scary

 

[Hollywood Duo]

Oddly my parents taught me not to be racists but somehow are racist themselves although it's more of a covert thing than some crazy MAGA shit.

 

[FaceHugger]

My father, not a lick. I don't recall him ever even mentioning someone's race. One of his best friends before he passed was black, his best friend today is white (pops is asian), and he plays cards with his Mexican neighbors most weekends.

My mom, on the other hand, well, she was pretty awful when I was young but she grew as a person and no longer seems racist. She wasn't going around like BBQ Becky or whatever, but she'd drop racist bombs about blacks or hispanics once in a blue moon that made everyone cringe.

 

[andymcc]

my grandfather was apparently mega-racist and that dissuaded my dad.

 

[mopinks]

I'd describe them as "lightly racist"

nothing really overt, but every so often they'll make some off-handed insensitive remark that stops me in my tracks

the rest of my family, though? hoooo boy

 

[Slim]

Nah, and I'm extremely happy they aren't racists. They were actually veeery strict about this stuff.

 

[Strangelove_77]

One of my parents would make assumptions about different races. Basic shit you've heard a million times about blacks, whites, Hispanics and how they all supposedly are like.

Thankfully none of that stuck with me.

 

[Mulciber]

I voted the "but they changed" option. My parents are much better, although I suppose I technically can't know how much of that is real change, and how much is them knowing not to say things around me.

I do feel like I've helped a lot, though, because my parents aren't hateful. They're misinformed. Their biggest problem is that they are strong believers in the just world fallacy.

 

[Zombine]

Lots of diet racism. I had to pave my own way forward.

 

[Spinluck]

If you're white then it's very likely you have a racist in your family, let's keep it real.

 

[Spidey]

Only discovered my Dad was racist in adulthood, speaking to my Mum about it (they're divorced) he wasn't like it when he was younger.

 

[nullref]

My parents are small-town conservative white people that have spent most of their lives with limited exposure to other races and cultures. Though they're not overtly hateful and I'm sure they're generally kind and polite to people they have personal interactions with, I'm also sure they hold all sorts of unexamined negative stereotypes against other races and cultures, which pop out in conversation from time to time. No slurs or hateful invective or anything like that, but more the typical conservative views of immigrants, poor people, etc.

 

[jelly]

Not that I noticed. It's only recent times with politics that I've kinda noticed they drank a bit of the kool aid on immigration culture fears, my mum more so than my dad but she is a bit of a sucker for headlines than facts and her friends opinions who is a Mail reader, you can tell when she says things verbatim without conscious thought, my dad just makes assumptions to fit his narrative if a crime is committed which pisses me off. As for them both now, they seem to coming around to the hate and lies but it was quite upsetting to see that side of them even if it's just off handed commentary on current events.

 

[newmoneytrash]

I grew up in a small town with a high indigenous population and the n word was something that was used daily and extremely casually

 

[sven]

My father listened to Rush Limbaugh religiously. So yeah.....

 

[Atlagev]

Not growing up. But 9/11 pretty much turned my dad racist against Arabs and made him a hard-core Islamophobe.

 

[Eugene's Axe]

My mom's pretty racist and xenophobic. We're Hispanics.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

Nope. Mom is white, dad was black. My mother is very liberal and calls the racist shit she sees out in public every single day.

If I was white or grew up around racist parents and family members I sure as fuck would have called that shit out every single time a piece of shit parent espoused bigotry even as a child and I sure as fuck wouldn't have wanted to spend a single second around them or wanted to have anyone know I was related to such trash.

 

[Lunchbox]

My dad some questionable things but he was never full on racist I just think he isn't thoughtful, idk I try not to engage him in that way but my mother has never displayed any at all she's a very thoughtful person as a social worker.

 

[Sean]

My dad was outwardly racist until he died last year at 80 years old. He was an awful, terrible piece of shit and if he ever opened his mouth in my house I'd get in his face, tell him to fuck off, and kick him out.

Thankfully, he wasn't around much when I was younger and my parents divorced when I was like 8, around 1991.

 

[Van Bur3n]

My mother isn't overtly racist, but has a tendency to falter to stereotyping and she absolutely does not understand what stereotyping is no matter how many times I beat it her over her dumbass head. Having her inbred, white trash fiance around only makes it worse.

My father is pretty racist to just about everyone that isn't Vietnamese and sometimes white people. Dude doesn't like Chinese people and calls black people "belugas". I don't know why he uses that as a slur, but he does.

 

[Lashes.541]

It's hard to decide, I live in a small rural area of Oregon, my father was raised by super conservative hicks from Arkansas. Growing up he was kind of a racist, but he never used any slurs. He was pretty homophobic. My grandparents were really pissed that my older sister married someone Hispanic. But I only know this because my parents told me years later, they were like closet racist, did not like others that were not white but kept it to them selfs. I think my father just picked up the sentiment from them and living in a place that's 98% white. He could be a bigot but he also loved backpacking through South America by himself and had nothing but positive things to say about the people and the culture. And now that he is in his 70s he is a lot less bigoted I have noticed.

 

[RDreamer]

Fuuuuuuck yes. I didn't even realize it until later and remembered a lot of crap my dad did and said.

First off he wore confederate flag stuff and would constantly say the south would rise again. We're from Wisconsin....

He called people from the Middle East ragheads/towelheads with amazing regularity.

He called rap music "unga bunga crap"

He most definitely called black athletes monkeys, in particular I remember him calling Magic Johnson an aids infested monkey quite a bit.

He's still racist but definitely not nearly as outward. He's a big Trump supporter.

My mom is/was harder to pin down. She wasn't out there saying this shit but she's with him and does parrot most of my dad's crap.

 

[Poppy]

they're both still pretty racist

mostly just comes up when they are watching television and make offhand remarks ranging from eyebrow raising to slurs

 

[Mammoth Jones]

My parents went out of their way to explain not all non-black people are cross burning bigots and that when they marched in the 60's there were plenty of them right beside them.

None of my family is racist. Thank God. I can't imagine having to do backflips to maintain relationships with people that think other people aren't people. Or are less people than them. Had to let go of an ex cause of that shit. Got tired of being her dark secret. Cause her parents would disown her if they knew she loved someone that looked like me.

 

[defaltoption]

I wouldn't say racist but there are things they say that once in a while that is definitely a product of growing up in the Bronx in the 80s and 90s. For sure they are not racist though.

One of my best friends ever family were closet racists, once in a blue moon he would say something similar to how they sound and I would always think to myself man its so crazy how much the family you grow up with changes how you think about everything. We aren't close anymore due to other reasons but our other friends and I challenged him anytime he would say something horrible, like I said it was very rare though.

 

[Speely]

Most of my family is/was, ranging from diet racist to Trump flags and saying things like "why don't we have White History Month" and "he's not a n*****, he's black... one of the good ones."

I come from half southern Baptists and half priv-lib New Englanders, all white as fuck. Grew up around lots of kids raised likewise, or similar, in Florida. The norm was, in retrospect, disturbingly fucked up.

My parents died racist, though they were pretty "diet" in comparison to some in my family. Still enough for it to hurt that I had to part with them knowing that they knew I hated how they thought (it was a source of conflict while I was still living with them, but we chilled once I moved out simply because I didn't see them v often.) The process of mourning in that kind of situation is really fucking weird, man.

Takes a lot to break free from that shit in your formative years. Luckily, I had some amazing friends who were full of wisdom I had not been passed by my fam, and I traveled a lot as soon as I got out on my own, so I expanded my worldview pretty swiftly.

 

[Deleted member 8860]

My mom was and still is the ignorant kind of racist, in that she thought/thinks different ethnicities/nationalities have different characteristics/expertise, like white people aren't as affected by cold, East Asians are physically delicate, and black people are naturally strong, but AFAIK she didn't use explicit slurs. She also had a grudge against a couple particular groups of people.

I don't recall my dad ever saying anything like that in my presence, but he was a doormat for my mom in so many ways. My mother contends that my father taught her to be racist, but she also blames everything upon him (and any other convenient target).

I just apologize to everyone after my mother talks to them. She's pretty much a hermit so I'm usually the only one who has to deal with her.

 

[lunarworks]

My dad? Yes.
My dad? Sort of, and he openly admits he's stuck in his ways and his views are flawed.

 

[Seesaw15]

Eh, kind of. Less malicious racism and more just broad stereotypes. Like not trusting white people in positions of authority or stating that Mexicans are hard workers.

My parents are black and grew up in California.

 

[sredgrin]

Grandparents were of the "he's one the good ones" types of racists. Would call people colored and whatnot. Parents nothing springs to mind really

 

[Landy828]

42% No's right now

 

[WereSalamander]

Dad, definitely. Mom not as vocally, but still yes. Dad has gotten more racist over the years.

 

[Stalker]

I don't think so I can't really remember too much but nope and they arn't now either

 

[Deleted member 8741]

Yes.

But my mom died 10 years ago at 49 and she was on a journey that I think wood have changed her. She was never hardcore racist, and was very concerned about justice. She was always compassionate, just needed some pushing outside of her bubble.

My dad would have followed her lead I think, but her death turned him into being more fearful and angry. I don't think there's coming back.

 

[Yourfawthaaa]

Coming from a black household, No.

Mother did put me on to the nonsense out in the world an at early age though.