03-23-2015, 07:47 PM
(03-23-2015, 12:41 PM)Clang McFly Wrote: In 5th grade, I called a black classmate "Raisin"
Embarassing and racist.
He smacked the racism out of me with hard rubber dodgeballs though.
I had a similar event when I was a young man in Vegas. I've never been racist to any extent and always thought it was pretty foolish to hate people who had even less than me. But as the offspring of southerners certain colloquialisms crept into my speech that I never really thought deeply about. Getting jewed down on a price tag, or somebody Japping out on a promise. Niggertoe Brazil nuts at Xmastime.
One day I was at a drive-up burger joint with a couple of my friends and a girl I was trying to impress. I had just won a little bit at the casino so I jumped out of the car and yelled, "Let's go eat, I'm nigger-rich and I'm buying!" just as I turned around and saw a black couple and their very young boy and girl, all dressed up from Sunday church, three feet behind me and staring. No way they didn't hear what I'd said, and the look on that little girl's face is one I won't ever forget. KInd of a mix of surprise and sadness. No real hate on any of their faces, even the dad/Granddad (it was an older couple). Just that resigned sadness and revulsion.
I knew pretty much instantly there was no way to gracefully back out of that or make it right, so I mumbled something vaguely apologetic and ran away from them. We didn't even stay to eat.
I have never been so mortified in my life before or since as that day looking at that little girl. And I have embarrassed myself a lot of fucking times. Never used that phrase again, either. If I could pinpoint it, that might have been the day I started to grow the fuck up already.