Undercover Racism.

[Rozlee]

Being bi-racial sometimes can make one privy to things one wouldn't hear in mixed company. My current husband is Anglo, whose late wife was from Okinawa, Japan. Two of their three children have subdued Oriental features. You can see practically none in his only daughter, my step-daughter, Karin, who has extraordinary cinnamon colored eyes and light brown hair. My own children, from my German ex, have light brown to dark blond hair, and light brown to green eyes. Karin and my kids easily "pass" for white.

Karin has heard some comments when she's been among whites directed against Orientals who haven't known she was half-Japanese. During the Japanese tsunami, she was sickened at the "Well, maybe it's God's way of payback for Pearl Harbor," from people she's worked around that don't know of her heritage or tend to forget because she doesn't look it. She's heard stories of her late mother who married her Air Force father in the late fifties, and the blatant in-your-face discrimination her mom received from military personnel and the general American public as well. You'll never rise in the ranks if you marry her, my husband's superiors told him. Go to hell, he told them. It's enraging to hear of the ghastly treatment the gentle, tender-hearted Tsukiko had to endure from the bigots of the day; the bigots that are still here. It twists Karin to her soul to think about it. Many of those bigots are probably still around, having instilled their poison into another generation.

My children are half Hispanic and half white. With the large Hispanic population in the U.S., they've been saturated with the casual racism that flies their way constantly. My daughter yanked my grandchildren out of daycare when the owner made a comment about it being one of the best child care centers in the town due to it's dearth of minorities. A neo-Nazi skin head that worked with my son approached him about joining their group because he liked his German surname. My kids have gotten to the point where they hate being in a group consisting of only whites. They never know what they'll hear and it always hurts. They've gotten upset in so many ways. My daughter's husband is part Polish and when my little grandson told his other grandparents that he didn't like sausage during one of their BBQs, a neighbor laughed and said: "He's Mexican, German and Polack and he doesn't like sausage! What's wrong with this picture!" My daughter lit into him. Calling my grandson a Polack was a non-starter with her. Her husband told her worriedly that it was said in jest. But, she'd had it with the racist name-calling.

I understand where they're coming from though. I haven't had anyone say bigoted comments to my face but maybe a handful of times in the last couple of decades. Bigots have learned to be circumspect, except in some of their Teabagger signs. But, point out the racism in them and they howl and gnash their teeth that they're not bigots. Liberal whites are the bigots because they keep minorities down with social programs. Lately, since Obama's become president, that bigotry has come surging to the fore in conservatives and the general right wing. However, most bigots still tend to be undercover. You can see them venting their spleen quite a bit in anonymous posting on blogs and comments sections on many news articles. Just read Fox Nation. If you can stomach it.

Here, in Kendall County in the Texas Hill Country, 87% Republican by demographic, I'm feeling no pain. I'm one of the token Hispanics in Teabagger Central, I reckon. I need to go out and get some left-leaning stickers, I guess, if I want to get anything worse than patronizing, non-committal conversation, which I don't. Still, I know they're probably talking behind my back. I ought to send the kids undercover to find out. But, what's the use? It's happening and no use getting the kids hurt by listening to it all over again.

Being a racial minority in this country can be rough. Being mixed and able to blend into the majority culture can be even worse when you get casual bigotry first hand and unrestrained. And Asians and Hispanics don't even have it as bad as African-Americans. Karin's son joined a mixed race organization and tells overwhelmingly horrifying stories of the children and grandchildren of blacks who've been able to pass for whites and the monstrous things they've overheard from haters. Whoever said we've come a long way from the days of segregation doesn't know what they're talking about. It never went away. Now, it probably doesn't even need to be expressed within the enclaves of the xenophobics themselves. Witness Pat Buchanan and Rep. Doug Lamborn. Does anyone really believe these douches "regret" their hateful comments? Their only regret is that they spoke them outside of their hate-filled tribes.

[Glassunion]

1. Very well said.

As a mixed race individual(black and white) who grew up in many different parts of the country I can say that your post hit a lot of solid points.

Racism wears no discernible face, it can be found in every corner of this country. It is not a sole member of any party, nor is it exempt from any of them. Hell, I have even seen it here on DU on occasion.

Oddly enough, I see it more in places I would not expect it and not in places where I thought I would.

[demguy72340]

3. agreed

[proudlib8134]

5. good post

[provis99]

2. as a white guy formerly from Mississippi,

I've probably heard a lot more slurs on non-whites than even you have. I can look kind of rednecky when I wear my baseball cap and white tshirt and jeans, and I still have a bit of the Northeast Mississippi accent, so other white people tend to assume I'm some Southern racist. And they blurt out the most appalling things that they wouldn't say if they were talking to a minority person. It shocks me in two ways: one, that they would have such attitudes, and secondly, because of where I come from and how I dress, that I must agree with them.

I guess that's why I go a little overboard at times, and tend to be sensitive to white people using words that might be interpreted as racial code words; because they will say vile racist things right to my face about minorities, I assume that others are just being more subtle, but share the same attitudes. There's more casual racists out there than a lot of minorities suspect, because the racists are usually smart enough not to let their bigotry show in front of a minority person. They sure will in front of another white person, though.

[Karenina]

4. I don't think so... We FEEL it.

"There's more casual racists out there than a lot of minorities suspect, because the racists are usually smart enough not to let their bigotry show in front of a minority person. They sure will in front of another white person, though."

In my circle we call them "stealth racists." They're actually quite easy to spot.