No. I was legitimately shocked the first time I heard these things, as I switched schools.
I stayed shocked until today, though I’ve had to keep hearing it in my small town. For a while in the early 2000s, it got a bit better, but starting in 2016 it ramped up to 1980s levels again.
As a designer doing advertising work, a local bakery rebranded themselves and asked me in 2017 to redo their logo to Kathy’s Korner baKery, for instance. Of course I wouldn’t, but nobody would have asked me to do that before.
Back in the 80s/early 90s I would have seen shit like that, but not in the early to mid 2000s.
From my (very white girl) perspective, it seems some people have hit middle age and desperately want to return to their teens when that abhorrent behaviour was okay. Their personality has become wrapped up in it, and they think being asked to care about others is a judgement on their soul (it is, and they’re awful people), so they’re lashing out.
They don’t understand they can learn and grow, and instead feel everyone has turned against them, so they’re doubling down. It’s actually sad.
I fully agree with everything you said. Do you mean that children aren’t necessarily learning racism from their parents because they are learning to be racist from society as a whole?
Maybe I’m wrong about parenthood, but I would like to believe that any openly racist 10-13 year old kid must have racist parents, simply because any decent parent would catch on and stamp that behaviour out.
Those pathetic, racist, middle aged people who are trying to relive their teenage years? I just met a few people like that. You’re right on the money. Those people had children too.
No, children are learning this from their parents, but society as a whole is moving on from this, and some insular communities are getting butthurt over it. This is part of what’s fuelling their xenophobia, actually.
Not necessarily. It’s the internet turning them into this for the last 20+ years or so because most white boys have had internet access longer than any other group of people.
I had the same experience with racist kids growing up. That was long enough ago that only nerdy kids like me cared about using the internet.
Honestly, middle school kids usually aren’t good at hiding that kind of behaviour from their parents. Any decent parent would slap the proverbial shit out of their kid for it.
A viciously racist 10-13 year old kid will almost always have tacit or direct approval from their parents.
But you are right, I am certain that the internet today has been making it worse.
It’s especially making it worse with algorithms that affirm their beliefs so they don’t encounter as many differing views. The mass manipulation of children on a global scale scares the shit out of me.
Same and it all begins around middle school when white kids start really being openly racist around their fellow whites like myself.
Someone at home must be acting like that and teaching that behaviour to them.
No. I was legitimately shocked the first time I heard these things, as I switched schools.
I stayed shocked until today, though I’ve had to keep hearing it in my small town. For a while in the early 2000s, it got a bit better, but starting in 2016 it ramped up to 1980s levels again.
As a designer doing advertising work, a local bakery rebranded themselves and asked me in 2017 to redo their logo to Kathy’s Korner baKery, for instance. Of course I wouldn’t, but nobody would have asked me to do that before.
Back in the 80s/early 90s I would have seen shit like that, but not in the early to mid 2000s.
From my (very white girl) perspective, it seems some people have hit middle age and desperately want to return to their teens when that abhorrent behaviour was okay. Their personality has become wrapped up in it, and they think being asked to care about others is a judgement on their soul (it is, and they’re awful people), so they’re lashing out.
They don’t understand they can learn and grow, and instead feel everyone has turned against them, so they’re doubling down. It’s actually sad.
I fully agree with everything you said. Do you mean that children aren’t necessarily learning racism from their parents because they are learning to be racist from society as a whole?
Maybe I’m wrong about parenthood, but I would like to believe that any openly racist 10-13 year old kid must have racist parents, simply because any decent parent would catch on and stamp that behaviour out.
Those pathetic, racist, middle aged people who are trying to relive their teenage years? I just met a few people like that. You’re right on the money. Those people had children too.
No, children are learning this from their parents, but society as a whole is moving on from this, and some insular communities are getting butthurt over it. This is part of what’s fuelling their xenophobia, actually.
Not necessarily. It’s the internet turning them into this for the last 20+ years or so because most white boys have had internet access longer than any other group of people.
I had the same experience with racist kids growing up. That was long enough ago that only nerdy kids like me cared about using the internet.
Honestly, middle school kids usually aren’t good at hiding that kind of behaviour from their parents. Any decent parent would slap the proverbial shit out of their kid for it.
A viciously racist 10-13 year old kid will almost always have tacit or direct approval from their parents.
But you are right, I am certain that the internet today has been making it worse.
It’s especially making it worse with algorithms that affirm their beliefs so they don’t encounter as many differing views. The mass manipulation of children on a global scale scares the shit out of me.