Racist family members

[marsupial]

My brother and his wife live in Wyoming and are extremely racist. A few years ago my parents wanted to take all of us on a trip to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. My dad had first suggested Mexico. My brother said no way. Then my dad suggested San Diego. Again, my brother said no way (because, as he said, San Diego has even more Mexicans than Mexico).

Normally when he brings up "illegals" and Mexicans, I just change the subject. He doesn't have anything to say about it that I want to hear and vice versa. There's no point arguing about it.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by FarrahWaters

My mother did not grow up Mormon, but she grew up in a culture which I believed fostered racism. She is Japanese, and this is what she thought (until fairly recently) about her fellow Asian race.

Koreans: cheap, no qualms about cheating, and dishonest in business dealings
Chinese: rude, and basically inferior to the Japanese

Since she has moved to the states, she also things that blacks are criminals, all Hispanics are poor, dirty, and uneducated, and Russians (there is a large immigrant population where she lives) are rude and not to be trusted. She does live in SW Washington, which is mostly white.

She came to one of my indoor soccer games last Christmas, and was appalled by all the Hispanics there. It was like "being in another country". When my brother pointed out that she wasn't exactly white, she just ignored him.

It's all very ironic, since for years she suffered from discrimination by her mother-in-law, who did not want her only son to marry a Japanese woman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNXsRJgOTmk

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

All of you except SIEQ are full of it. There's a lot of racism among Mormons from the Korean War generation and back. Evan Mecham was not exceptional. There is less among younger generations but it is still prevalent. I come from a big Mormon family on both sides, and at family reunions, etc. you hear offhanded comments that embarrass and shame you. My family is very typical, I'm sure. Such people may not necessarily mean ill, often don't even realize stuff they say is racist. But they're racist all the same. Sometimes I hear comments and the speaker should know better and these are the comments that make my blood boil. I remember when I was at Georgetown an uncle (who holds a master's degree form BYU and is a wild eyed BYU football fan) used to badger me saying racist stuff about Patrick Ewing.

Most people in the older and probably the younger generations still believe blacks bear the mark of Caine for that matter. Why wouldn't they because no one has told them otherwise. Many white Mormons of course would more than arch their eyebrows if a close family member brought home an AA date. When I was a kid growing up in Sandy we learned an AA family would move in behind us, and there was hand wringing all over the neighborhood. Ultimately, I think the AA family was probably inundated with casseroles when they moved in. Still, they were victims of an insidious form of racism. They didn't stay long. We lived in a neighborhood with young Mormon families and most of those people are still alive.

For that matter, I've seen racism here every now and then among college educated elites.

I don't think the fact that Mormons don't have a monopoly on racism is a mitigating factor (despite Waters' view to the contrary) but I will add that the kind of racism I describe above is alive and well all over rural America, especially in the South, and also in the cities but to a lesser extent.

Who made you the arbiter of racism? Liking the Ivory Tower a bit too much do we?

So all except SEIQ are full of it? What about convert or mixed race families which are represented here? There are plenty of people in and out of the Church who are not and never were raving lunatic KKK racists.

And perhaps in your social circles racism and sexism are the only social sins worth noting, but I wager the social sins of your friends and colleagues are just as great as those of the Mormons you so cavalierly throw to the fires.

Mormonism had and has sadly residues of racism, but the people are improving and are trying. Mormons are part of society and the cultural conditions are such that Mormons of today and tomorrow will be much different in race attitudes than those of the 1900s.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Who made you the arbiter of racism? Liking the Ivory Tower a bit too much do we?

So all except SEIQ are full of it? What about convert or mixed race families which are represented here? There are plenty of people in and out of the Church who are not and never were raving lunatic KKK racists.

And perhaps in your social circles racism and sexism are the only social sins worth noting, but I wager the social sins of your friends and colleagues are just as great as those of the Mormons you so cavalierly throw to the fires.

Mormonism had and has sadly residues of racism, but the people are improving and are trying. Mormons are part of society and the cultural conditions are such that Mormons of today and tomorrow will be much different in race attitudes than those of the 1900s.

I'm not the self-appointed arbiter. What's racist is part of our public ethos or virtue and I think I'm aware of that.

I'm simply quite sure that anyone who is from a big Mormon family that's been Mormon for generations and claims there are no or few racists in their family is incorrect. Manifestly incorrect.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

I'm not the self-appointed arbiter. What's racist is part of our public ethos or virtue and I think I'm aware of that.

I'm simply quite sure that anyone who is from a big Mormon family that's been Mormon for generations and claims there are no or few racists in their family is incorrect. Manifestly incorrect.

But your post started off as a dandy, claiming everybody but SEIQ was full of it, when many posters here are the sole members of the faith. So your opening line was bullshit.

And it's always nice to hear somebody come and reap the benefits of Mormonism, leave it and determine you're so much more enlightened than the ignorant savages who gave you life, fed you and educated you.

Are their malevolent Mormon racists? Of course. Are their ignorant Mormons? Of course. Are Mormons improving markedly in this department? Of course. However, if you're trying to argue that the only way to avoid racism is to shed one's Mormonism, then that's a crock of shit.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Archaea

But your post started off as a dandy, claiming everybody but SEIQ was full of it, when many posters here are the sole members of the faith. So your opening line was bullshit.

If any posters who preceded me are as you describe I apologize, since manifestly my post was directed at those from Mormon clans.

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

If any posters who preceded me are as you describe I apologize, since manifestly my post was directed at those from Mormon clans.

Define "Mormon clan".

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

If any posters who preceded me are as you describe I apologize, since manifestly my post was directed at those from Mormon clans.

all Mormons are just the descendants of bigoted Mormon polygamists. I have no idea how generalizations get started. Thanks for the clarification.

[BYU71]

Originally Posted by Archaea

all Mormons are just the descendants of bigoted Mormon polygamists. I have no idea how generalizations get started. Thanks for the clarification.

He's trolling in a target rich environmnet. His next labeling will be to call you "defensive" which proves he is on target.

It is mostly those on the boards fault. I have seen a bunch of you indicate you think SU is an intellectual giant. His reasoning ablility though renders him as useful as a guy showing up on a porn set with a half inch pecker.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Archaea

all Mormons are just the descendants of bigoted Mormon polygamists. I have no idea how generalizations get started. Thanks for the clarification.

You are still focusing on the first sentence of my post. This comment has no relevance except for that.

I'm not going to suspend judgment of racist Mormons just because they gave me life and raised me. And you, my friend, have been defending the indefensible. Citing Bill Russell's experience dealing with racism in Boston as mitigation is really pitiful. It's pathetic. Before the priesthood ban was lifted anyone who passively accepted it was pretty much by definition racist. The book of Mormon itself has racist passages. These passages make my blood boil, and most Mormons accept them as verity not unlike Musllms embrace the Koran as divine words. I can bear witness that racism has been a pervasive element of Mormon culture. Fortunately, it's been a fairly benign form of racism given how insular and tiny most of Mormonism has been. It is still morally corosive.