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Originally Posted by Red Slinger
I'm curious as to how many people here have faced direct racism in their lives. I'd be very interested in hearing about some of your experiences.
I'm Jewish but I don't have a Jewish sounding surname and I don't look particularly Jewish so I haven't faced any direct racism myself. However, I've heard lots of comments, jokes and slang directed towards Jews in my presence like 'getting jewed'. I imagine it's much, much worse for visible minorities. I've also heard similar slang for Arabs, Asians, Blacks and Aboriginals.
I find personal stories are often the most powerful agent when it comes to advancing difficult conversations.
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The most hateful racist incident that's ever happened to me personally as an adult was over two decades ago. I was dating a white girl at the time and we were in a Dairy Queen in Calgary just sitting there enjoying our treats. A white man with two young daughters were sitting at a table next to us and he started telling his daughters not to be like my girlfriend when they grew up, that my girlfriend was disgusting for having relations with a chink. He was saying this at a volume clearly meant for us to hear. It didn't bother me too much -- heck, I grew up in Calgary during the 70's and had heard much worse. But I could tell my girlfriend was livid. The guy was smoking, and this was during the time when no smoking signs were put up in places like Dairy Queen but nobody really enforced them. So I told his daughters that they should avoid being like their father and that he was disgusting by being addicted to smoking. The white guy pointed at me and told me not to talk to his daughters. And nothing more deevloped after that. I think he realized I was willing to confront him and he didn't want to push things any further.