the-unpopular-opinions:

My parents moved to America from Vietnam, with a preconceived negative notion of black people. They have always made brash comments on blacks, usually referring to the stereotypes associated with them. Since I have been getting more involved in my learning of social justice, I have tried to teach them to move away from these stereotypes whenever they make racist comments with limited success. Their way of thinking is ingrained, not justifiable, but difficult to change.



So it is extremely discouraging to come online to see commentary to the tune of, “haha fuck white people white men are all predators fucking crackers.” Mostly because when you spend a lot of time chastising your people against being racist and you have to see the people you’re defending doing the same thing, it’s incredibly draining.



And what bothers me more on top of that is the “reason” that people think that’s okay. “That’s all they’ve ever known of white people, and it’s their experiences so you can’t say that’s wrong.” It bothers me because my parents’ store have been robbed by black people. My aunt has been mugged by a black person. My cousin had his iPod stolen by a group of black kids. And the only people who have ever bullied me, or catcalled me for that matter, have been black. So it peeves me to think that while I’m trying to convince my very old parents to not stereotype black people by their very real experiences, black people are throwing blanket statements all over white people and thinking it’s perfectly okay.