Racism or Prejudice?

So, when I go on random chat sites such as this, I always find that there is a hidden form of racism. I’m black, but I don’t act the stereotypical version of how a black person “usually” acts. On some sites, I have a bio up so people can know who they’re dealing with. Here’s my bio:

I like to read and write. I like anime, manga, and Kpop. I have piercings, I wrestle and I play drums.

I don’t feel there’s anything wrong with my bio at all. It looks normal to me. But when a person and I exchange pictures, I usually get something along the lines of “Wow, I didn’t know you were black” and sometimes they end the chat. Once, I got a guy to be honest with me, and he said that he didn’t normally converse with black people because of how the people in his neighborhood and at his school act. I realized that he wasn’t being racist, but slightly prejudice.

After that, I started to state that I was black in my bio. Tacked at the end. Just so I didn’t get the offending “Wow you’re black!” message at the end. Then nobody wanted to talk. I got the feeling that maybe they’re racist or prejudice. Or maybe they’re just annoyed with the fact that I feel the need to put my race in my bio like the millions of other people obsessed with themselves.

My questions are: Why won’t they talk to me? Is it because of my race? Are they being racist or prejudice? Both? Can you justify why they maybe wouldn’t want to talk to me/black people? (I promise I won’t get offended). Am I stressing my race too much? Should I take my race out of my bio? Maybe they don’t like anime dorks?!

Category: Society & Culture Tags: race asked March 14, 2015

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Penangie

6 Answers

I don't know why people don't want to talk to you now. I'm sure not everyone on this site is like that and many people would be more than happy to talk to you, like me :D you can PM me if you want. I don't think people don't want to talk to you because you're black, there could be a million other reasons. And honestly, screw the people who don't want to talk to you. I'm sure you're a wonderful person and if they don't want to talk to you because of your race they don't deserve to talk to you. They're the ones who are missing out.

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big pipsqueak

322

People who judge you on the color of your skin aren't worth your time. It doesn't matter what you look like, what matters is who you are on the inside. No matter if someone is black, white, tall, short, fat, skinny or whatever, we are all human. If someone stops talking to you just because of your skin color, then I'd say that's racist. Nobody should judge you on the color of your skin. They shouldn't be judging you at all if they don't even know you. It's frustrating how easily people put others in boxes. I don't think you need to put your race into your bio. If you want to you can, but you don't have to. Personally I don't care who someone is on the outside, I care about who someone is on the inside.

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Rain

9,516

I don't think the way those people respond or people in general reflects on you, but reflects the way they were raised. I know when I was younger my parents would tell me to make friends at school & to invite them for sleepovers & stuff...but if they were black to not invite them because they're sneaky thieves & that they were dirty. & then one day we moved to a town where most of the people there were black, a couple of mexicans like myself & almost no white people on the side of town that I lived in. & thats when I actually got to know how black people really were...they were like everyone else, despite their skin tone. I learned that everyone is different & to not single a certain type of people out just because of what is heard of them. Sometimes the parents of the person is what influenced them to react a certain way, not because of you as a person, but because of what they heard when they were growing up.

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MarthaA

I really hope people on this site aren't discriminating against you, but I also know that prejudice can be ingrained in the human psyche. This site is supposed to be about being supportive to each other and I would hope that the vast majority of people here have that intention. There will always be exceptions but please don't judge us all by them.

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Infinite Shadow

111

that's called whitewashing: all the things you like and enjoy have been dominated by white interest and thus everyone will assume you are white based on "white dominated" behavior. it's just white supremacy, nothing new. however, there is no excuse for the antiblackness you experience. not "embedded into the psyche" not "oh they didn't mean it!" and certainly not "i was just raised that way! :(" lack of malice doesn't excuse a harmful action people! if someone assumes you're white, they're ignorant with no excuses and most likely completely racist under the surface with a varying level.for those of you vaguely trying to excuse misidentifying someone's race on pre determined values of whiteness: i'm personally disgusted with you, and hope you never have black friends, or nonwhite friends, ever.

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human insect

You sound like a cool dude, so it's their loss. I think that you've just got a bad luck streak. There are a lot of people on blahtherapy from my experience that have been terrible, but some are absolutely awesome as well. Just ignore all the racist people you can, I promise that there are good people. I would take your race out of your bio because it may lead to racist remarks and the good people won't care if you are or not, so don't feel the need to put it in. I don't think there is a justification to racism, no one should be subjected rude remarks. Some people don't like "anime dorks" (I'm not one of them), but none of the comments seemed to be about the anime part of your bio, so I wouldn't worry about it. Like what you like! :P

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wrophoenix