The ethnic thread - have you experienced prejuidice based on your ethnic background?

[Relic]

All the recent race threads got me thinking...
How many of us have experienced rotten things thrown our way due to ethnic background?

I certainly have. I was a kid during the 70's, and being of Polish descent, I was BOMBARDED by some crappy things thrown my way.
I'm sure most of you have heard the old "Polish joke" cliche?

Just about a year or so ago, I had to explain to my two older sons about it when they heard a derogatory phrase in the remake of "Land of The Lost" (forget the Polish, the t-rex is the dumbest thing that ever lived...or something like that) They asked me "why did he say that?" They had no clue before then.
Now, it's just a joke, get over it, right? Grow some thicker skin, stop being such a baby..?

No, actually, screw you.

You did not have to sit there and have your dad coach you on how to make your name sound more Anglo. You did not have to sit there at the 5th grade talent show and watch as one of your classmates got up on stage and told Polish jokes for about 10 mins as his performance while you felt like a total moron. (Or you are somehow SUPPOSED to be a total moron). You didn't have to ride the bus while kids passed books like this around reading it aloud and cracking up: Amazon.com: The Official Polish Joke Book (9780523426068): Larry Wilde: Books (this one is newer I believe, there are more than a few)
You did not have to sit there and listen later while your boss tells you 'I know you guys are a little slower, so I'll make it easier on you"
To these things, I swear on my very soul I experienced.

Of course these things are not really a big big deal, others have experienced a whole lot worse than I ever have but still... it kind of ticks me off to this day.

So, sometimes as you can see above, I still get a little flustered by it. This is why from time to time, I feel like I may know just a little bit of what some folks are talking about in the race threads. I'll never know all of it, but even just a fraction is enough to make me realize that people can suck sometimes.

Now, I know I'm not the only one - I've had Italian friends who were bashed, Irish, etc. So this thread is for you guys - of any ethnicity to talk about it. How it made you feel, how you feel about it now, or even if you just think that folks like me are being big 'whining woe is me" crybabies - I don't mind. I've met many folks who have told me just that.

[electracoyote]

My maternal grandparents were Czechoslovakian and Hungarian immigrants. They spoke little English and were semi-literate even in their own language. They were treated like third-class citizens. They got taken advantage of countless times by unscrupulous businessmen. They lived dirt poor in a shack in a segregated shanty town. My grandfather barely made ends meet due to low wages, had to farm and raise enough food, mined coal and died virtually penniless within a year of retirement from Black Lung.

They came to this country to escape the ensuing Nazi regime, and then the Communist regime that rolled in shortly afterward.

The kind of prejudice, discrimination, and oppression they endured was a sad thing to witness as a child, an even sadder thing to remember as an adult.

[Relic]

Originally Posted by electracoyote

My maternal grandparents were Czechoslovakian and Hungarian immigrants. They spoke little English and were semi-literate even in their own language. They were treated like third-class citizens. They got taken advantage of countless times by unscrupulous businessmen. They live in a segregated shanty town. My grandfather mined coal and died within a year of retirement from Black Lung.

The kind of prejudice and oppression they endured was a sad thing to witness as a child, an even sadder thing to remember as an adult.

Yep, my grandfather was a coal minor for many years in Pa before he somehow through sheer luck landed a job at General Motors here in Jersey. He lived into is 80's but, as you can probably guess, his lungs just basically quit. He was a tough guy but the coal dust in the lungs never goes away.

[electracoyote]

Originally Posted by Relic

Yep, my grandfather was a coal minor for many years in Pa before he somehow through sheer luck landed a job at General Motors here in Jersey. He lived into is 80's but, as you can probably guess, his lungs just basically quit. He was a tough guy but the coal dust in the lungs never goes away.

Lots of European immigrants got put through the social wringer in this country.

Members of my family were still waiting for fair treatment long after the Civil Rights movement.

My mother was shunned and called "hunky" and "pollack," ignorantly and mistakenly of course, because she associate with Polish and other Eastern European families.

Lots of lines were drawn back in the day, the color line was only one.

[Relic]

Originally Posted by electracoyote

Lots of European immigrants got put through the social wringer in this country.

Members of my family were still waiting for fair treatment long after the Civil Rights movement.

My mother was shunned and called "hunky" and "pollack," ignorantly and mistakenly of course, because she associate with Polish and other Eastern European families.

Lots of lines were drawn back in the day, the color line was only one.

This is true. A lot of people fail to fully realize that. With a diverse culture like ours, in it's infancy at the time, we had (and still have) a lot to learn I think.

[Marial]

I'm a generic white guy and was once told that I therefore had no soul. It made me laugh. I'm 'post-ethnic' in my whiteness, we've been here too long, but I have a lot of poor Scottish ancestry in the hills and mountains of the Carolinas.

[macaroni tony]

Wow. Some of stuff is news to me.

The line from "Land of the Lost" - I don't even remember that ever being said. Shows how desensitized one could become

[aborgman]

Originally Posted by Relic

Now, I know I'm not the only one - I've had Italian friends who were bashed, Irish, etc. So this thread is for you guys - of any ethnicity to talk about it. How it made you feel, how you feel about it now, or even if you just think that folks like me are being big 'whining woe is me" crybabies - I don't mind. I've met many folks who have told me just that.

When my grandmother started attending school she was told by her mother "You don't look Indian(Native American), so don't let anyone know you are".

...and of course I've heard the inevitable "Dutch people are cheap" jokes/stereotypes - although, funny enough, mostly from folks of Dutch ancestry.

...and I've heard every "drunk and fighting" Irish ancestry dig out there.

[Relic]

Originally Posted by macaroni tony

Wow. Some of stuff is news to me.

The line from "Land of the Lost" - I don't even remember that ever being said. Shows how desensitized one could become

It's crazy sometimes. Check this out if you get a few mins:

Anti-Polish sentiment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[macaroni tony]

Originally Posted by Relic

It's crazy sometimes. Check this out if you get a few mins:

Anti-Polish sentiment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a long read, but anything beats working at work!

[EBodious]

does hippie count as an ethnicity? my worldview does not make me dirty (even if i don't shower every friggin day).

seriously tho, growing up in new york i don't think i got mocked for being jewish or italian. however, upon heading west i started to hear the expression, "jew down." as in, low-ball somebody. both in california as well as iowa. and by people who were educated and seemingly, honestly didn't know any better. creeped me out.

[macaroni tony]

Originally Posted by EBodious

does hippie count as an ethnicity? my worldview does not make me dirty (even if i don't shower every friggin day).

seriously tho, growing up in new york i don't think i got mocked for being jewish or italian. however, upon heading west i started to hear the expression, "jew down." as in, low-ball somebody. both in california as well as iowa. and by people who were educated and seemingly, honestly didn't know any better. creeped me out.

"Jew-down" is appalling to me as far as how often it's used, and how little thought it's given!

[kesslari]

Long list.
From being asked by people from a small midwestern town (who had never met a Jew before) "but... where are your horns?"
to having my synagogue defaced with Nazi graffiti...
to being baited personally...
to getting used to how common the expression "to Jew someone down" is in English language...
When I went to buy my house, we looked at several in areas where the CCR's (written in the 1940's) still contained language prohibiting "Negroes and Jews" from purchasing housing in the area.
But hey, we're used to it. The word "Ghetto" was first used in Italy, to described the walled section of town (formerly a canon factory) where the Jews were forced to live. The Inquisition. The Crusades (look up how many hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed by mobs of "crusaders" looking to kill some "infidels" as a warm up on their way to the holy land). Pogroms in Poland and Russia. And of course the Nazi Holocaust.

Got another dose of it just today.
There's a bill in the ballot in San Francisco to ban circumcision.
Whether or not you think that's a worthwhile goal, the comic book pamphlet published by the supporters of the bill contains a lot of very strong anti-Jewish caricature images. Pretty nasty stuff.
Jewish groups blast 'Foreskin Man' comic book's 'overly anti-Semitic' images on circumcision

[Absentia]

I'm a white guy in an urban school... of course.


Hear about why a lot of Italian guys are called Tony or Daygoes?
Cause when they got off the boat they wrote on their foreheads
Tony = To New York
Daygoes = Day goes to New Jersey
wakka wakka


Can we please just finish mixing the races so we can stop bitching about this useless garbage?

[Relic]

Originally Posted by kesslari

Long list.
From being asked by people from a small midwestern town (who had never met a Jew before) "but... where are your horns?"
to having my synagogue defaced with Nazi graffiti...
to being baited personally...
to getting used to how common the expression "to Jew someone down" is in English language...
When I went to buy my house, we looked at several in areas where the CCR's (written in the 1940's) still contained language prohibiting "Negroes and Jews" from purchasing housing in the area.
But hey, we're used to it. The word "Ghetto" was first used in Italy, to described the walled section of town (formerly a canon factory) where the Jews were forced to live. The Inquisition. The Crusades (look up how many hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed by mobs of "crusaders" looking to kill some "infidels" as a warm up on their way to the holy land). Pogroms in Poland and Russia. And of course the Nazi Holocaust.

Got another dose of it just today.
There's a bill in the ballot in San Francisco to ban circumcision.
Whether or not you think that's a worthwhile goal, the comic book pamphlet published by the supporters of the bill contains a lot of very strong anti-Jewish caricature images. Pretty nasty stuff.
Jewish groups blast 'Foreskin Man' comic book's 'overly anti-Semitic' images on circumcision

Yeah, it's rough sometimes for folks with Jewish heritage.
I even remember when it was used as an insult: "you Jew" said with a sneer..I've seen that one before. Really asinine stuff

Doing some digging into my background and heritage recently, I found out that my family is a large part Jewish as well.

[macaroni tony]

Originally Posted by kesslari

Jewish groups blast 'Foreskin Man' comic book's 'overly anti-Semitic' images on circumcision

Wow. This is just...wow.

Keep em comin guys, great stuff! I love to learn about these kinds of things...

[Absentia]

???

Originally Posted by macaroni tony

Wow. This is just...wow.

Keep em comin guys, great stuff! I love to learn about these kinds of things...

[kesslari]

Originally Posted by Relic

Yeah, it's rough sometimes for folks with Jewish heritage.
I even remember when it was used as an insult: "you Jew" said with a sneer..I've seen that one before. Really asinine stuff

Doing some digging into my background and heritage recently, I found out that my family is a large part Jewish as well.

In part, you grow thick skin.
And in part, we have it easier in the USA, which is a big mixing pot in which we don't stand out as much as, say, darker skinned people.

It's easiest to discriminate against those you can easily identify. It's hard to discriminate against, say, "people who's last names end in "i" when you see them on the street - but easy to do so from an enrollment list. Similarly, it's easy to discriminate against a dark skinned man when you see him, but harder to do so when "John Bryant"'s resume crosses your desk. Until the interview, of course, when he walks into your office and you see him.

In medieval Europe Jew's were the <insert racial epithet typically directed at African Americans here> of the age - e.g., physically easy to spot (different physical features, different dress, lived apart, etc.). You could spot a Jew on the street, and thus you could easily treat him or her differently.

In today's USA that is more true for Black's, Latinos, Asians, and others with physical characteristics that are recognizably "different" from the majority white culture.

[EBodious]

Originally Posted by kesslari

Long list.
From being asked by people from a small midwestern town (who had never met a Jew before) "but... where are your horns?"
to having my synagogue defaced with Nazi graffiti...
to being baited personally...
to getting used to how common the expression "to Jew someone down" is in English language...
When I went to buy my house, we looked at several in areas where the CCR's (written in the 1940's) still contained language prohibiting "Negroes and Jews" from purchasing housing in the area.
But hey, we're used to it. The word "Ghetto" was first used in Italy, to described the walled section of town (formerly a canon factory) where the Jews were forced to live. The Inquisition. The Crusades (look up how many hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed by mobs of "crusaders" looking to kill some "infidels" as a warm up on their way to the holy land). Pogroms in Poland and Russia. And of course the Nazi Holocaust.

Got another dose of it just today.
There's a bill in the ballot in San Francisco to ban circumcision.
Whether or not you think that's a worthwhile goal, the comic book pamphlet published by the supporters of the bill contains a lot of very strong anti-Jewish caricature images. Pretty nasty stuff.
Jewish groups blast 'Foreskin Man' comic book's 'overly anti-Semitic' images on circumcision

yeah, i forgot about the CCR's. both my house in davis, ca and ames, ia had those restrictions. my home-ownership is brought to you by the civil rights act.

i am surprised by that campaign and the comic. i don't think that is the way to win popular support. but, i guess i should set the record straight...

it's not my fault those goyem babies taste so good!



sorry, i really couldn't help myself...

[duff beer]

I was a white male (well, I still am ) in a government office working an acting position for 3 years and counting, with above average performance reviews. I was told to train someone to do my job (a native woman). Once she was trained she was made permanent in that position, and I lost my acting position and the pay that went with it.

The federal government in Canada openly posts job positions stating preference will be given to "visible minorities".