The hate crimes are everywhere. There was an article of the two teenagers who would have killed 88 African Americans and then head up to go kill Barack Obama. It makes me sick as well that we still have people judging by the color of people's skin. I'm Chinese and I still have kids (and even adults) say "ching chong" to my face or do the slanty eye thing with their fingers. But you know, I just know that I will be better off than them in the long run. They are going to do it to the wrong crowd one day and find themselves in a whole heap of trouble. As for your kid, make sure that you have implanted more common sense into your child than him planting "ignorance and intolerance" in him. Eventually, when your child grows up, hopefully, he/she knows the quality of respect and if his father says such disrespectful things, he/she can stand up to him and shut him down. I had to do that a few times with my parents.

That is really sad that your kids have a father with such a big flaw. My dad is the BEST man I know, but his biggest flaw is that he is (or appears to be) racist. He is very educated and loving, but I know his racist comments come because of his family and the way he was raised. So I do lose respect for him when he says things about people's race.

My parents didn't sit down and talk to me about not being racist, but it would have helped. The world we live in today is just progressive and it really is stupid to judge some one by the color of their skin.  I find all kinds of reasons to like/dislike people, but that is never one of them!

You also have to remember that people vote for Obama ONLY because he is black. 

Racism is everywhere, not just in the South. I live in Texas myself, and I've actually lived in two of its small towns. I can say that neither of those towns were racist.

"What bothers me more than anything is, this is not isolated. You head
anywhere to small towns in the South and you are going to find this
type of ignorance."

The above statement is off entirely. Not every small town has racism. And you saying that, specifically, this happens in Texas is making Texas look even worse. One person saying they hate racism, while pointing out that "entire small towns of people" are racist, doesn't make anything look better.

Plus, I highly doubt you've been to every single small town in Texas; therefore you can't say that statement and actually know for sure to begin with.

@CodeEnscripted@xanga - Yeah, there's at least a few everywhere. But I think her coming down specifically on groups of racists in the South is, for lack of better words, silly. I assume that the South is all she knows, and that she can't say 'for certain' whether the North is like that also, but I think there's more of a problem with the country-wide racism than with the Southern racism alone. Though you do make a good point.

I live in Texas in a small town and while we certainly have ignorant white trash racists here I don't feel it is the majority where I live. We've been in the news a lot lately as if we're all a bunch of redneck card carrying KKK members though because a young black guy was killed by two white guys in town. They were all friends. It wasn't a hate crime. (One of the white boys had killed a white friend before...why he wasn't still in jail I'm not sure) But anyway....the New Black Panthers have gotten involved and a few of the black activists around town and what I've observed on the local topix website, the rallies and talking to people is that the black people here are way more racist than the white. It's all very sad that they are trying to turn it into something that it simply was not. Sorry, didn't mean to go out on a rant there.

And while I don't think anyone should NOT vote for a worthy candidate because of his skin color, I also have a problem with people that DID vote for him simply based on his skin color. That happened a lot as evidenced by people being questioned about his policies, views etc coming out of the polls, a lot of them had no clue as to the issues...so how did they know he was the candidate they needed to vote for? Anyone who actually voted and was not informed on the issues and candidates....Shame on you, no matter who you voted for.

Does anyone other than me think it's weird that we are calling Obama an African American when he happens to be more Arab than African American? 

I'm pretty sure my idiot father voted against Obama because he was black. There is a reason I don't talk to that man. And I'm pretty sure his grandfather did the same thing and is saying the same things. I had to take the dog outside to run around at Christmas last year at my great-grandfather's house in freezing weather just to get away from hearing the n-word every two minutes... I choose to pretend I'm not related to those individuals.

I too am from a small southern town, South Louisiana to be more specific. Where I grew up, they were still putting KKK flyers in kids lockers. I nearly got into many fights over this b/c it was usually a classmate of mine stuffing them into lockers. Inevitably he would get to mine and it would be a war of words in the hallway, until a teacher came out to see what was going on. (I am only 29, so we aren't talking that long ago.)

Currently I live in a small town in North Carolina.

I think there is racism everywhere, small towns, big towns, north, south, east, west and everywhere in between. I can completely understand the feeling of disappointment over family members (in-laws, ex-in-laws, etc.) and their views and harsh words. I have walked that same path with people who were once close to me.

Here's what I think, being from a teeny little speck on the map in the south: We can no longer blame racism on location (whatever it is), we have to call it by its real name, ignorance. Once you become an adult, we'll say early 20's, you cannot blame your behavior on any thing or any one other than yourself. Because that age, you have a choice now on how you think... if you don't like your own behavior, change it. When you are a kid you react the way your parents do, typically, you are a product of your environment.

With that said, those who behave that way, I don't blame their location or their families. If they are adults, there is no one to blame but the person behaving to ignorantly.

Hope that made sense. Great post.

@reflectionphoto@xanga - You know, you are correct. I really did not mean to imply such a thing because I know that it occurs everywhere. Having been raised in a small southern town, I really did not want to imply that they were all filled with racist people.

For the purposes of my story, I was using the location that I was most familiar. I have never been up north so I was going off my own experiences. Sorry, my intentions were not to offend anyone.

I live in a small Kentucky town and I know what you mean. There are people here who wouldn't vote for him because he's black. There are people who voted for him just because he's black. There are also people who know nothing about him, but voted for him just because he's a democrat. I think most of my family fell into that last category. We're all a bunch of Bush haters. I hate racism, but I don't think it's something that will ever go away. That is because ignorant racist pass their crap down to their kids. There is always hope though. Kids usually know when their parents are crazy and rebel against it. Sometimes.

I have and it makes me sad, particularly the story about the KKK plot to kill a hundred people, then assassinate Obama a week before the election. Nothing like giving the man a chance, right? And what about the innocent people in their path?

Hate makes people so heartless and stupid.

@McCoy_Mama@xanga - AMEN! I too and from Mississippi, and am happy about the outcome of the election. I guess we all kinda knew that Mississippi would vote republican. My husband and I were so excited to see the votes for Obama on election night. I got chills and happy tears at his acceptance speach. It was an awesome night.

I believe that the removal of racisim will take more than the voting in of a president. It will take all of us standing up to racist people. Telling them that we will not accept their remarks, jokes, behaviors, or actions. It will take all of us to no longer bite our tounges, leave family gatherings, or to sit quietly and delete racist jokes from our emails and text messages. I do not tollerate racist remarks to be said around me. I do not use the  "N-word" and I tell other people off for using it. I know many people from many walks of life, and like another person here said, there are many other reasons you can find not to like a person. To not like a person because of the color of their skin is the same as not liking a person because they have red hair or green eyes. If you were to go around not liking a person because of their features, people would think you were insane.

This is an issue that makes people very angry, very easily, but it should not even be an issue. We are all here, like it or not. Why can't we all just get along?

Thank you for letting me speak my peice.