Wow Shannon and Veronica are Black names? The only Shannon I have every known was Irish, and the only Veronica I ever knew of was in the Archie comics, until Veronica Mars came along that is.
Racism and all prejudice does seems mystifying because people seem to seek it out, when I was in England I had people ask me if I was Protestant or Catholic, because they wanted to categorize me. There was a joke I heard later about an American in Pub who was asked if he was Catholic or Protestant and he said 'I'm Jewish' and the questioner brushed this off and said: "Yes, but are you a CATHOLIC Jew or a PROTESTANT Jew." It is like people want to exercise their prejudices....
My parents were very liberal and open minded, but they liked to classify people by how much education they had, but it has been my experience that that isn't a very reliable measure of intelligence, much less worth as a person. Since amazingly dumb and apparently worthless people can have advanced degrees and some incredible saints with real understanding of human nature, and practical knowledge of the world can be uneducated.
In other words I have nothing really to add to your understanding of racism because like all intolerance it all seems unfathomable. I have been pushed around and sworn at by Black people on crowded buses in Washington, DC, but I noticed it was only on hot uncomfortable evenings when everyone was tired after work, for the most part (in my experience) no one was more likely to stop and help a stranger than a Black person. When I was in Italy I found that in Rome there was an attitude that all Americans are rude and arrogant, BUT if I got in the habit of starting every sentence with 'par favore' (please) they would assume that I was the exception and would suddenly treat me much better. You just had to get past the generalization and be seen as an individual.
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The only Shannon I have every known was Irish, and the only Veronica I ever knew of was in the Archie comics, until Veronica Mars came along that is.
Racism and all prejudice does seems mystifying because people seem to seek it out, when I was in England I had people ask me if I was Protestant or Catholic, because they wanted to categorize me. There was a joke I heard later about an American in Pub who was asked if he was Catholic or Protestant and he said 'I'm Jewish' and the questioner brushed this off and said:
"Yes, but are you a CATHOLIC Jew or a PROTESTANT Jew."
It is like people want to exercise their prejudices....
My parents were very liberal and open minded, but they liked to classify people by how much education they had, but it has been my experience that that isn't a very reliable measure of intelligence, much less worth as a person. Since amazingly dumb and apparently worthless people can have advanced degrees and some incredible saints with real understanding of human nature, and practical knowledge of the world can be uneducated.
In other words I have nothing really to add to your understanding of racism because like all intolerance it all seems unfathomable. I have been pushed around and sworn at by Black people on crowded buses in Washington, DC, but I noticed it was only on hot uncomfortable evenings when everyone was tired after work, for the most part (in my experience) no one was more likely to stop and help a stranger than a Black person. When I was in Italy I found that in Rome there was an attitude that all Americans are rude and arrogant, BUT if I got in the habit of starting every sentence with 'par favore' (please) they would assume that I was the exception and would suddenly treat me much better. You just had to get past the generalization and be seen as an individual.