Racism

I am "white", blonde hair, blue eyed, Dutch descent, grew up in a mostly white suburb, in Michigan. Sadly, when I was little, my dad told us to "Look at the little chocolate children" when we drove passed a bunch of "black" children. As a 7th grader, my Sun. School class scheduled an outing where we took "inner city" children to the city zoo. I was nervous because I'd never had contact with "blacks", but when a little boy ran up and grabbed my hand, claiming me as his escort, I realized they were just kids. In high school we had one "black" student, she was very popular, but I did hear her complain often about everyone being prejudiced against her, which confused me. In the late 80's I was in SC, staying in the home of strangers. I asked them about a church in town and they laughed and said that was a "black church". I picked up some fast food and they were shocked because it was a "black shop", they didn't even think I should eat what I got. I was shocked at this attitude, she explained they were not racist, or prejudiced, they employed "blacks". But then she told me she would not let them in the house, and if they needed a drink, she used paper cups to give them a drink of water. All these years later, I am still shocked, but it helped me see the difference between the north and the south. By this time, my dad was good friends with the "black" neighbor, and felt bad about his attitudes in his younger years. Moving forward, in 2005, I started a job in a company was mostly "black" (in Maine). I did not think anything of it, but when I met my closest co-worker, she had a fit. She did not want to work with "white trash", and spewed several racial slurs towards white. Again, I was shocked. What made her think all that of me? I didn't know racism worked both ways, but obviously it does. I guess I led a very innocent, sheltered life. When I see people, obviously I notice their race, how do you not? But I do not assume anything about them based on that. People are people, no matter their skin color, nationality, age, size, gender, religion, etc. There are good and bad in each group, no group is superior. God created us all equal, in his image. My late husband was Native American, I have a daughter adopted from Korea, my best friend is an immigrant from Africa (talk about differences!), I have 2 nieces who have children from relationships with "black" men. I am saddened by abuse of various groups throughout history, and in the present. Why can't we just all work together in love?

God is The Creator of Love - may we come to realize His definition...

Racism makes me truly upset, but I also have to look at myself and try to recognize my own biases. I do find myself being wary of anyone who comes near on in certain areas, though hilariously I’ve realized I’m frightened of any man age 18 onward who comes up on me unexpectedly or when I’m on my own.

Also I’m Hispanic so I am obviously sympathetic to others having to deal with the attitudes towards illegal immigrants. But at the same time my family came here legally some 8 generations ago so I know it can be done.

Leviticus 19:33-34 33"'When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. 34The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 10:19 19And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.
Exodus 22:21 21"Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.
Ephesians 2:19 19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household,
New International Version , Copyright 2011-2019 Biblica

We as Christians are not called to be nationalists or racists but ambassadors to the world for Jesus.

Matthew 28:16-20 English Standard Version (ESV)
The Great Commission
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Yup this too:

Très bonne, I agree with your sentiment❤️.

Sexism would be another thread methinks. With men often they dont realise the stuff they say and do hurts women. Or excludes them (us) .... we all tend to have biases towards people who are more like ourselves. I think it becomes racism and sexism when those attitudes are derogatory.

Yes, as Lynx mentioned in post #3, racism is basically in the DNA of many countries in Middle East or Europe.
It's second nature, like guns in the second amendment in the USA.
For example, North Italy hates South Italy, parts of Greece hate each other, North Albania hates South Albania, West Germany hates East Germany and many other examples.
It's just the way it is. Many, treat it lightly and joke about stereotypes but things do get serious or violent other times but this happens rarely.

Japanese vs Chinese
this was an old one

But before that it was Chinese vs Manchus, though Manchus assimilated into Chinese culture even though they tried to rule it. But there was civil War even in China amongst the same people who spoke the same langauge and looked the same (maybe slightly different dialects) and it was mostly between rich and poor.

The rich just had nicer clothes.

Now you get the phenomenon of Crazy Rich Asians, who wealthy westerners respect only if they are rich (hey they are greedy just like us, welcome to the club!) so maybe money overcomes barriers too in certain circles but just like it was for Jews being thrown out of Europe, people got jealous if they became TOO successful and wealthy....and then they get called a 'sell-out'

we dont know how good we have it here in the us. look around the world and find another country allows minorities to own guns. any race or creed can go to walmart and buy a firearm with ammo to go with it.

Did you know the first gun laws were passed because of racism?

Did you know that the first gun law, the right to bare arms , was ddrawn up for our Constitution in order that the colonists could form militias to fight any invading forces? The forces were the Britich of cousrse.?

There were Colonial laws prior to that.
There were also a handful of laws in the 1800s to prevent freed slaves from owning firearms. Now there are thousands if you count the municipal, county, and federal laws and ordinances..
It's come a long way from the federal second and the state constitutional protections against govt violation of right hasn't it?

Lastly, just to clarify...in context of the ratified federal constitution, we have laws enacted against the 2A starting with racists gun laws. I didn't make that clear earlier when I went back to read again. Laws are usually passed to give advantage to those in power so they can do bad things with impunity. When one group or individual conquers another, the first thing they do is to disarm them. The second is to steal and enslave those conquered. Only a Biblically minded society produces a free culture where people are permitted the means to defend life, liberty and property.

The British traded the maori guns/muskets when they invaded/colonised NZ but while the muskets wars were going on, they had a superior naval fleet and brought in reinforcements when they quickly wanted to annexe the land. Also the Maori signed a treaty which the British made out was like a partnership, but was in reality giving soveriegnty to the crown (at the time, Queen Victoria) and making everyone who came to NZ shores, a british subject.

Its all rather complicated because the two cultures spoke different langauges. However there was plenty of mixing between the two. Many maori sold their land for a pittance and were somehwat hoodwinked by the Brits, but they didnt lease it out cos at the time they had different ideas of what was ownership and what was property and different ideas on what the land was going to be used for. The Brits confiscated a lot of prime agricultural land for their dairy and sheep farms and cut down a lot of native forest to build houses for settlement, to the extent that sensitive ecosystems are damaged and will take years to recover.

The reason why the Brits came? Overcrowding in their own country and also fighting and poverty and famine. Maori voyaging to the land of the white cloud was also partly because the islands they were originally from started being too small to sustain them. That they both found this land was like a promised land tale from the Bible...a land of milk and honey, if only they could prosper in it. But for a long time they couldnt even have a common conversation to get along. Yet Maori after many years of settlement were also destroying their own land and cannibalism was rife.

Nowadays battles are fought in the courtroom, and parliament, and occasionally the rugby field rather than any race related skirmishes...but those who are interested in peace and understanding (like what happened at Parihaka) know the way forward is learning to speak each others langauge and believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ which is all about forgiveness. Our national anthem is all about God defending New Zealand (and can be sung in both langauges) however, the question is does everyone regardless of ' race'believe in the same God the Father and His son Jesus Christ?

Or have people sold out to the god of this world - Mammon? I observe that the god most people are worshipping looks like their own belly.

There's nothing good about guns, except maybe hunting. Not even sport. Just hunting.
This is just my view of course, because I realize that people have like 50 registered guns.

what is fascinating to me is the us and yemen are the only 2 countries that allow anyone to buy a gun with no permit. i just cant imagine not owning a firearm.

as one man put it, 'some men were made big and some small, but sam colt made all men equal.'

Surprisingly, I've seen videos of Iraqi crowds at Sodom Hussein political speeches with full auto AKs. We never saw that at Hussein Obama rallies. We were told that they attacked 2001 because they hated our freedom.
I don't think they copied our bill of rights.
No disrespect to my veteran friends. Politicians are making money and making the calls.
Once operation Iraqi freedom flourished, anyone found carrying unconcealed was treated as a target and shot on site. Most people became allies of American forces, but their whole first world infrastructure was turned to rubble. They are tough people to have so many survive without weapons, major water systems and electricity for so many years.