slur Archives - The Race Card Project

Mainly white neighborhood, racism is normalized

August 26, 2024 Bondurant, High School, IA, joke, normalized, racism, slur, whit edemographics, white neighborhood

Eden Coy,
Bondurant, IA

I am from an area with high white demographics. In my high school, there is a small percentage of people of color. Often, walking through the halls at school I hear slurs used in everyday conversation. When a person makes a racist joke, many laugh and encourage them. There have been incidents of students doing blackface and mocking people of other communities. However, my school does little to discourage these actions. It is seen as kids just being kids. If one were to comment on the disrespectful nature of people’s actions, they would be brushed off as “it’s only a joke.” I believe racism should not be turned into a joke, and it is not ethical to bully other cultures. The normalization of racism in my community creates a negative environment. I am ashamed to hold any relation with my peers.

My Dad said “Jap”. Everyone blushed.

June 10, 2024June 10, 2024 Berkeley, blushed, CA, Chinese, dad, half Chinese, half white, JAP, Malcolm Gin, name, Pacific Theatre, slur, soldier, World War II

Malcolm Gin,
Berkeley, CA.

My Dad is Chinese and 86 years old. He was stationed in the Pacific Theater during World War II, fighting on the United States’ side. Nearly got his butt shot off several times for looking and being Asian, by our own side. Lately he was talking about his experiences in the war with a Japanese acquaintance and, in the moment, called the soldiers on the Japanese side, “Japs”. And all the white people participating in the conversation got really on-edge, though I don’t think my Dad, our Japanese guest or I (half Chinese, half white) were nearly so bothered. My only thought at the time, “There’s worse words than that!”

Rural Alaska, six blacks, my family.

January 19, 2024January 19, 2024 AK, Alaska, blacks, Dillingham, Family, jiggaboo, Lydia Taylor, memphis, N word, rural, slur, State Trooper, TN

Lydia Taylor
Memphis, TN

I was born and raised in Alaska. When I was 4, my father got out of the Air Force and accepted a job as a State Trooper in Dillingham, Alaska. He moved from Anchorage to Dillingham first, to start his job as we as find us a place to live. We followed on my 5th birthday, I thought I was being punished. We moved to a small fishing town off the Bristol Bay, where the majority of people there, majority Alaskan Native, had not seen a black person in “real life.” We lived in Dillingham for 8 years and it taught me many things about race relations. My siblings and I were tormented daily at school, called n*****, jiggaboo, blackie, darkie, monkey, ape, pretty much any derogatory racial slur you could use towards a black person. It caused me to hate being black as a kid, it took a lot for me to learn to love me. We left Dillingham in 1993.

I’m sorry I’m staring at you.

October 25, 2022October 26, 2022 advertising, Amelia, assistant, Color, cracker, demo, different, grocery store, hyper, Jessica Flake, job, label, obsessive, OH, people of color, Race, slur, work

Jessica Flake,
Amelia, OH

I work as a demo’s assistant at an international grocery store which will not be named for advertising purposes. Being in Demo’s means I make samples for people to try of various products that we want to sell. I have been called various ‘slurs’ by some people of color in the past (mainly cracker, because I often work in the cheese department) and this has lead to my thinking in overdrive when it comes to race at work. If two people are coming at me and I call to one first instead of the other, have I done that because the first person was closer to me than the second, or because the first person was white and the second was a person of color? This leads to my constant hyper-awareness of the customers that walk past that may be a different race than my own, and I try to call out to them but then how do I know that I’m giving them more attention without meaning to? Thus, my indecisive glances that would easily be perceived as obsessive staring if I didn’t try to occupy myself in other ways.

Rene’s Mom said she couldn’t come….

June 9, 2021June 9, 2021 9th grade, Catholic School, first experience, MA, MD, Rae Ann McInnis, school, sleepover, slur, The Cap, towson, you're white

Rae Ann McInnis,
Towson, MD

9th grade. All girl Catholic High School. I planned a sleepover and had about four or five of my friends invited, the first time to my house by about three of them. The next day at school I asked everyone where they were coming from. Rene, one of the girls I was particularly fond of, had to look me in the face, and, clearly uncomfortable, she says, “Mom said I can’t come.” “Why?” “You’re white.” Earlier in my life, we lived in Massachusetts, on The Cape, and it was there I heard of race discrimination probably for the first time. “they’re Portuguese”, I overheard. As though it were a slur. I simply did not understand, I wasn’t brought up that way.

White People Tears Are My Lipton’s

May 31, 2021May 31, 2021 Alex Miller, america, Arabs, cotton pciker, Croatians, Family, Germans, Hungarians, irish, Lipton, N word, nazi, New York, NY, Poles, racial slur, Racist, reefer, Scandinavian, slaves, slur, smallpox, tears, the Italians, white people, WWII

Alex Miller,
New York, NY.

White people. Some of you, not all… please notice that I said SOME…some of you have been wondering, for a while, “Why am I always called a racist?” “Why do blacks blame me for slavery? My family never owned slaves!” And that sort of gives me pause because: What, did you think you were special? Everyone in America gets it! Do you think you have it worse than anybody else who gets called names or epithets? Cuz I got news for ya Bub… nuh uh.

So, maybe your family didn’t bring Native Americans Small Pox blankets mixed with a side of Christianity. Your ancestors may not have owned slaves, castrated, and lynched them. Or maybe you don’t know anyone who made the Chinese pan for gold or dig trenches until they died on the spot. You probably don’t know anyone who turned away Jewish refugees escaping the Holocaust…or anyone who flooded society with leaflets of caricatures accusing them of being Nazi spies. You may not have even been alive when Reefer Madness instilled in the minds of millions an image of a raving mad Mexican “wetback”. I don’t think you ever interned any Japanese Americans during WWII because “they might be working for the enemy” in barely functioning shacks, while their businesses went into disrepair and got looted. You may, or may not, have made crazy ass Apu from the Simpsons-inspired jokes, with an Apu-inspired voice, to trash and degrade Indians, Sri Lankans, or Bengalis. And I pray to everything you never were a member of the current group of Islamaphobes obsessed with how “terrible every Muslim is” and physically attacked Arabs (who may not have actually been Muslim) just because of how they look and your preconceived notions of how much of a threat they might be.

Relax, my friends, dry your eyes. The Irish, the Italians, Poles, Hungarians, Croatians, Germans, Scandinavians, even Brits, have all been victims of hate and bias in this nation. I think a major difference, in this country, is that those people of European origin, eventually get fully indoctrinated into society purely off the basis of how closely they resemble the “purebred American, the All-American.” But this is how it works.

You may not have done anything, been involved with any racist faction on the planet, hurt a single soul. You may have had immigrant ancestors from European nations who got treated like utter dog shi*; but each time I get online and get called “cotton picker” “n*****” any variation of primate, or get told I’m a part of the “13%” (despite the fact I’ve never committed a crime in my life, let alone a violent one), by a different person, I don’t feel sorry for myself. It just tells me there’s plenty more where that came from. Race is as important now as it’s ever been. And if all you can do is point fingers at others for not making America a better place, if you’re not actively getting out there and helping to change America, then it’s problematic to expect people with less of a resemblance to those who caused so many problems to minority communities, to do more. Stop crying. Start changing.

Double standards and mutual racial fragility

July 21, 2020February 14, 2022 All Lives Matter, black lives matter, cracker, hate crime, hillbilly, Lily, N word, passing, slur, UK, white devil, white trash

Lily,
UK

I don’t understand why people on all sides of the racial debate, despite wanting equality, suddenly splutter and get defensive when people criticize another race, even when it is valid. I see white people replying “all lives matter”, because they feel that “black lives matter” is somehow diminishing them. I also see black people in online spaces who get defensive whenever a negative aspect of black culture is highlighted and blame white supremacy as if that negates responsibility and makes expectations of personal agency unreasonable.

Surely, if our goal is to ensure that race – which cannot be changed (yet, waiting on science to make it a choice) – no longer matters, and pursue equality, I think we need to be open about it. I see white people saying that racism doesn’t exist and that black people are “the real racists”, and black people saying that all whites are racist and share sole responsibility for helping black people.

It doesn’t make sense to keep passing the buck back and forth when we already agree on the solution: stop discriminating. I am not advocating for complete “color-blindness”, but rather that we acknowledge what has happened and opt to not perpetuate it. We acknowledge that discrimination exists, and choose consciously to refuse to continue the cycle.

I am a white (MtF) woman, and I wouldn’t want to be called “white trash”, “cracker”, or “white devil”, just as a black person wouldn’t want to be called the N-word, or the C-word, or J-a-B.

The way the media buries white hate crime victims (unless they’re too huge to ignore, like that one disabled guy who got tortured by four racist black girls), makes me feel that my efforts to reject and challenge racism are going unreciprocated. I feel like the onus is always on me when we should be lifting each other up and bonding over the common acknowledgment that being victimized is a horrible experience for any human to experience.

How did we get the idea that understanding that white people can be victims too become an attack against the black community, or somehow implicitly racist? It may not happen as bad, or as often, but I doubt that matters to the actual victim of a hate crime. If I’m being beaten, or robbed, or murdered, am I really going to care that other people are getting it more often?

The buzzword “white fragility” is thrown around a lot, but every time I mention that we can also be victims, people freak out as if I’m trying to steal their thunder or something. There is nothing wrong with adding nuance to a conversation, in my opinion.

Are you having white girl problems?

September 25, 2018September 25, 2018 Charley Birdsall, dinner, dramatic, employee, friends, HI, Kailua, slur, spoiled, stereotype, stupid, ungrateful, white, White girl, white girl problems, young

Charley Birdsall,
Kailua, HI

One night, my friends were having dinner across the street from where my family and I were having dinner. So, I decided to go surprise them. They were all in the bathroom and when I went in there I startled them and they screamed. Then a very white employee that was a girl stormed into the bathroom and said without even thinking or looking at us “Are you guys having white girl problems”. A white girl problem is a way to refer to something as dramatic or ungrateful. To someone who doesn’t understand the situation a white girl problem could come across very pointless and stupid. This experience made me very offended since the employee didn’t know our situation and she atomically referred to us as spoiled brats. A synonym for white girl problems is a spoiled brat. She had no right to say this since she was also very white and young.

I was once called a “banana.”

January 5, 2018January 5, 2018 banana, China, Germany, slur, stereotype

Julie
Germany

When I visited family in China, my cousin called me a “banana.” White inside, yellow outside. She explained that it was a result of my growing up abroad. Race discourses, though diverse, are not unique to America.

Sir, please take your “hat” off

June 12, 2017June 12, 2017 Ann Arbor, hair, hat, humanity, India, Jasneet Kaur Palaha, long hair, MI, monotheistic religion, Sikhism, simplicity, slur, stereotype, take off your hat, Taliban, turban, University of Michigan

Jasneet Kaur Palaha,
Ann Arbor, MI.
University of Michigan.

Sikhism, a monotheistic religion from Northern India believes the idea of simplicity, therefore requiring to never cut your hair, along with other requests. Men usually tie their hair neatly in a turban, whereas girls commonly let it down. Wherever we were, my father would be frisked or forced to remove his turban. Hearing slurs and being referred to as “Taliban” only confirmed his faith to spread awareness about Sikhism. As Sikhs, we respect all races, creeds, genders, and essentially, humanity. The “hat” is not headgear, but a representation of courage and acceptance. We must end racial battles with no purpose.

–

I am a bigot toward bigots

June 28, 2016 actionism, activism, bigot, black high school, Chicago, cop, Hispanic, IL, march, North Side, Paul Meyer, police, slur

Paul Meyer,
Chicago, IL.

I am a bigot toward bigots. My so-called best friend in third grade gives me, a Jew, a Nazi ring saying, “my father wants you to have this.” My fiancé when I’m 33 hurls slurs toward hispanics. Others throughout my life condemn my race or other peoples’ races. I just disown these racists, until last year, with the horrific killing of a 17-year-old unarmed black high school student by a racist Chicago cop. It moved me, at age 69, to start marching for the first time in my life. I feel that maybe my activism, although I was only one of 500 marchers, helped quash the reelection of the Illinois Prosecutor who was part of the coverup for the young man’s murder. And I feel good about that. But not satisfied. So I brought the young man’s story and my stories to the stage (at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwwNMBFf0jM), beseeching my fellow North Side Chicagoans “to march with our fellow citizens from Chicago’s South Side.” I have no data on the impact of my performance but conservative folks I know have weighed in favorably on my message. Perhaps if more of us could elevate our activism to “actionism,” if we could expand our race card in creative ways to non-activist audiences, we may at least open some otherwise closed minds.

First memorable English word learned…SPIC

May 23, 2016May 23, 2016 English word, Fernando Ospina, Keller, memorable, slur, SPIC, TX

Fernando Ospina
Keller, TX

Father’s vocabulary: N*****, junglebunny, Polack, Ch*nk

August 14, 2013May 7, 2015 American, chink, father, interracial marriage, junglebunny, Mexican, Mexican-American, n*****, Polack, slur, white woman

I am a white woman married to a Mexican American.

Ching-chong yourself, I’m not Chinese!

June 22, 2013October 6, 2013 Asian, bully, Chinese, Minority, PA, Philadelphia, slur, Thuc Luong

Thuc Luong
Philadelphia, PA

I am Asian and when I was a kid about 6 years old I moved to the US, this is when I finally feel like a minority. People treated me wrongly calling me Chinese. I am not even Chinese. They would mock the Chinese language by saying ching-chong macha hay to me and I am not even Chinese. Who is so racist that they can’t even keep their mouth shut. It would get so mad that I would ignore everyone who is talking to me. It became a problem because it became a habit and it made it harder for me to listen to the teacher.

My friend said Jew her down.

June 13, 2013 Columbia, Jew, Jew her down, MD, Ron Hartman, slur, stereotype

Ron Hartman
Columbia, MD

“Ching-chong” isn’t an actual word.

April 12, 2013 9th grade, Asian, Chinese, CHING-CHONG, PA, Philadelphia, slur, Tu Nguyen

Tu Nguyen
Philadelphia, PA

I am a 9th grader at central high school in Philadelphia. I wrote these words because I know that I’m not the only one who has heard them before. I am Vietnamese, but people often assume that I am in some way, Chinese. I notice that often then not, people tend to decide for themselves what someone is, instead of getting to know that person and actually learning what their ethnicity really is. It bothers me to know that people are judged based on stereotypes for example, Asians are said to have chink/small eyes, all Asians look identical, their IQ’s are higher than an average person who is not Asian, they study nonstop and always get straight A’s, etc. These things are not true about Asians, every one is different in they own ways or else we would all be clones of each other. I also often hear the words “ching-chong” countless amounts of time. I don’t understand why, someone feels the need to say it to an Asian person, because not all Asians are Chinese and “ching-chong” isn’t a real word. Not only are they making a fool of themselves for saying this, but also they are making the other person feel low and unimportant. Try being in the other persons shoes and see how it feels to be insulted because you are different. The next time you meet an Asian person or anyone of a different ethnicity try to learn about them, instead of assuming that they are this or that or saying something that you saw online/tv because it may not be true and will hurt that person. Think twice about what you say.

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