As YumikoYoshihana has already identified, racism is predominantly about power and privilege. As such they were quite right in identifying that there are differing varieties of racism which can be present in society. There is the lesser form which exists between individuals. While this can be an unpleasant experience for those involved, it is not as serious as the alternate. The other form it can take is on the macro level through racial stratification. That is through virtue of belonging to a group one has differential access to power and opportunity. This is achieved through cultural and societal means and understandably is more serious than the individual level. After all, as YumikoYoshihana pointed out this is what results in large segments of society being heavy overrepresented in negative statistics.

Nigger is not a color. Negro, is a color in spanish and possibly other languages, though i don't know because I am not a linguist. Nigger is a slang term meaning "a person who is black" and carries with it huge negetive connotations because it comes from a time where black people were viewed as stupid, lazy, uppity, worthless, and all in all less then human. It was the word uttered when black people where lynched and thrown up trees. It was the word black people, my ancestors, heard every day when they were treated less then human, when they weren't given a fair shot because they were thought of as stupid and lazy.

Cracker a food. A delicious, crunchy food. It is also a slang term black people have given white people; the marginalized have given their oppressors. Does it have negative connotations when used in this fashion? Absolutely. Does it carry the weight of hundreds of years of social and legal oppression and abuse and marginalization? No, absolutely not.

The assertion that Cracker is worse then Nigger because Nigger is a color and Cracker is a derogatory term is so ignorant and chocked full of privilege that it makes my head explode.

And to circle round back to white people. No, people born white cannot help being white. But they can help their privilege. Saying that one can't share their privilege even though they want to and all they can do is be nice and kind to everyone is not really helping. What white people, and people like me who are biracial with heaping helpfuls of white privilege can do, have to do, is check their privilege. Saying cracker is a worse derogatory term then nigger is not checking one's privilege, and saying all racism is just fucked up in the same ways no matter who it comes from without keeping in mind the history and current forms of modern oppression is not checking one's privilege.

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And let them feel sad about their past because it is still in their present, and not carry on in the future for fear of bringing this shit with them.

Yea. I can do it too.

Kah, you know I love you, but I'm going to have to argue against you on this point: "nigger" is not the same as "cracker". Cracker has never been used in a serious context. It's never been shouted at a white child for trying to go to a "black" school, it's never been yelled by a group of men standing outside a white family's home with a burning cross, and it's never been used as justification for hanging or beating a white man to death because he looked at a black woman. It's a racial slur, and it's stupid, and those who use it are stupid, but it simply does not have the hatred behind it that the former does. Furthermore, "nigger" is not simply a colour. Most dictionaries define it as something along the lines of "an ignorant, uneducated person". Given that black people aren't actually black and our forefathers weren't colourblind, it most likely stems from the European association of the colour black with ignorance and stupidity; it was just convenient that the people they were referring to had a darker skintone than they did. It has always, always been a derogatory term; the only difference is that now, those who are referred to by it can do something about it and thus those who use it are forced to think about why they're using it. Here's a good way to know whether or not something is derogatory: if there is an actual, correct label for someone, and people insist on using some other term, chances are it's an insult, even if they insist they mean nothing cruel by it.

Now, I will agree that racism by a white person is the same as racism by a non-white person, on an individual level. Yes, there is a power dynamic at play, but I do not see how racism by the disadvantaged is any less vile as a concept than that by the advantaged. However, racism by white people is far more dangerous, as they are, still, a majority, and thus it is far more likely that racism against non-whites by whites will become institutionalized (moreso than it already is) and less likely that the people it affects will be able to do anything about it.

As to the actual topic, I have only one thing to say: those who speak English as a first language do not have a right, in my opinion, to complain about people needing to "learn the language" before they come to the US. We are extremely privileged in that, no matter where we go in the world, there will almost certainly be at least a few people who speak our language. In most places, there are English translations of pretty much everything you'd need, and many countries require children to learn English in addition to their native language. Manners aside, most Americans could go their entire lives and travel around the world without ever needing to learn a language other than English. And if that weren't enough, English is an incredibly difficult language to pick up. All of our "rules" of grammar and pronunciation are constantly being broken, and most casual conversations are about 50% slang or made-up words that just don't translate well or at all. Even the etymology of our words is different; we seem to have mixed Germanic and Romance languages just enough so that no one can tell what the fuck we're talking about. And on top of that, Americans seem to be some of the cruelest when it comes to mistakes in speech made by those who haven't spoken English their entire lives. Even a slight accent (which we pretend we don't have) is enough to get them mocked. It's just amazing to me how much we take for granted when it comes to learning new languages, or rather, expecting other people to learn our language.

Well, more than one thing. It is only because we're complete xenophobes that English is needed to get by in this country. English is not our national language; according to a treaty we signed, we cannot have one. Even if you go by history, the native peoples did not speak English, and the invaders were not solely English-speakers either. So there is no reason why children cannot be required to learn, at the very least, Spanish and French. There's no reason most things that someone might need to read (road signs, menus, instructions, etc.) cannot be printed in more than one language. There is really no reason why we cannot do what most other countries do. Instead, we've adopted this sort of "tourist" mentality, in that every other country should be expected to go to great lengths to make our lives easier, while asking us to offer anything in return is "destroying our national identity" or some such nonsense.

Because those aggressions show through when the word is used. It also doesn't affect people as badly; I can shrug off an insult that's meaningless or even comedic to me, but if a word has been tied to something more hostile, like an attack (particularly when it's based on some characteristic of mine; "asshole" versus "bitch", for instance), it affects me a lot more.

Oh, I know. I was talking specifically about the US.

No, trust me, people here really do expect those in other countries to speak English :P

Philomel, you articulate things so much better than I do! Thank you for your contributions, I fear I was causing both Kah and myself a lot of annoyance and frustration in expressing myself so clumsily.

At the risk of putting my foot in it again, I would like to expand on a few things. Kah, if you say nigger is not necessarily derogatory because it means black, then my point that cracker means a delicious crunchy food is equally valid. And I've seen some pretty expensive gourmet crackers, so the cheep tack doesn't necessarily hold water. The fact is, both those things are derogatory and offensive depending on the way they are used. In talking about the USA, the term is laden with heavy oppression and abuse, and covert past and present racism. It was a tool and a marker of oppression. Being offended by the term isn't holding on to racism, its being aware of and also effected by the historical and modern issues with race. For someone to go up to a black person in the US (for example), and say that they shouldn't be offended because that means they are holding onto racism is in itself extremely racist and prejudiced, because it denies the true damage of the word has an does do in both historical and modern contexts. If a derogatory word has been created for a marginalized and oppressed group of people, it should be up to that group to decide how it has meaning, or if it is offensive, not people outside of that group.

I actually agree with Yumiko here, I don't like either of those words being used at all. They're meant to inspire racist hate.
And again, racism only breeds more of itself.

This. Thisthisthisthisthis.

One of the things that I will be extremely mindful of when (if) I ever travel overseas is to not disclose that I'm American. I've heard that Canadians are given far less flack. I'll also try to know some of the language of the country I'm visiting, but that should be a given (unfortunately it's not, if you're American).

However, I do know that in some countries the 'natives' would rather speak English (or at least in some cities). I hear this a lot about people who visit Japan; they apparently like to be able to brush up on their English speaking skills with a native speaker. I've heard several accounts of this from different people visiting different parts of Japan. Granted, this is usually when the travelers are interacting with younger folk, as the older ones tend to be less welcoming towards foreigners (though that trend with old folk tends to follow here as well).

While I feel the woman' s out burst was highly inappropriate I do believe people who come to America should learn to speak English. My family had to do it, there wasn't even a help program for me because I came from Germany and the only kids who were given alternative learning tools were Spanish speaking children. Their solution for me was that I stop speaking German altogether and focus on English and becoming an American. I felt slightly put off because they were accommodating someone else culture but making me adjust to theirs it just seems unfair. There's nothing wrong with having a Spanish label on a product but sometimes it feels like no one encourages them to assimilate like they would with a European immigrant.

America may not have an official language, but it's pretty clear that English is the predominant language here and that those who intend to stay in this country would be better off learning it. However, if services are provided here in a language other than English and someone wishes to use those services, I don't see how that could be a problem.

Just to stick my twopenneth in. The kind of people who declare that people coming to live in, for example, an English-speaking country should speak the lauguage of that country, are often also the kind of people who go on holiday to a foreign country and expect every one speak English to them, they wouldn't dream of learning a single word of the language of that country >_> It's just ignorance, nothing more.

There's a big difference between going to live in a place and simply visiting it.
Also, I really haven't heard of anyone honestly expecting everyone in a non-English-speaking country to speak English, especially not if we're talking about those who expect those tho want to live in a country to know its main language.

That just shows that you're not British :lol: I'm talking from years of personal experience of pig-ignorant Brits going on holiday to places like Spain and coming home complaining that no-one could speak English, and the self same people being the ones who are now complaining just as bitterly about Polish and Lithuanian immigrants who come to England and can't speak English...and of course there's a different between holidaying and immigrating, but the basic principle is the same. If you're going somewhere for a week or two the least you can do is learn how to say things like hello and thank you in the principle language of where you're going.

And when I say people complaining about immigrants not being able to speak the language of their new home, this isn't after they've lived here for any length of time. Your typical zenophobic Brit will expect them to be fluent when they get here >_> I find large parts of the UK population to be extremely embarrassing :( It's somewhat cold comfort to know that the same attitudes apply to certain mindsets in other parts of the world also ._.

Language.
 

My mother brought up an interesting point a few years ago and over time I have come to share the sentiment. I was put down by a Jewish kid for being of German descent. (and I am put down in my mostly Italian town too).

I'm 22. I was not around for the Holocaust. I was not around for slavery or the Civil Rights Movement or the Japanese internment camps. DO NOT treat me as if it were my fault. If people put those comments toward me I just say "I wasn't here." because it's true. My family came here in the early 1900s and you were expected to learn English just as well as your native language. And if you didn't, too bad, you were a teenager in a first grade class.

I think it's time the US adopt an official language. I think it should be English and Spanish (just because Spanish is so influential here already, and not just in Puerto Rico) or just English. Hell I speak French and I get shit for it...and I can assure you, when I was in France I spoke FRENCH. In Italy I spoke English or French with Italian words mixed in. Main Europe has everything in several languages and children are expected to know at least two in addition to English. God forbid you tell an American kid to learn another language! I also do agree that visiting another country is different than LIVING there. If I moved to Japan tomorrow the first thing I'd do is begin Japanese instruction.

English isn't just the main language of the US. There is also Australia, Malta, New Zealand, South Africa (it's one), Jamaica, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, Canada and that's just a small sampling off the top of my head. If I tell someone living here in the US I feel they need to learn English I'm suddenly racist!

I just got a job in a predominantly black community's library. The books are segregated by the race of who wrote them; black on one side, and everyone else on the other. That's concerning...because while I feel it's nice to exonerate people in the black community who have made a difference in academic and other fields, I feel it's also teaching the people in that community to keep things that way. I suddenly became one of the only white people to be there. To top it off, I have a disability. Ignorance has taught me to be afraid to work there, yes, but at the same time a person becomes a target when she's different (it's what you do with it that matters).

As for "nigger", in the dictionary it is also defined as someone who is ignorant. Hmm...then I know a lot of people of ALL races that would fit that description! One girl screamed at me for using that word in an academic context, and then she proceeded to call her neighbors "retards" and "spics"...but she said that was okay because it's not as historically and socially charged. Um, I don't think so. Words, no matter the history, when directed at another person to HURT them are just as potent in my eyes. Too many times I've been called a dyke for being gay or a cripple or retard because of my disability for it to EVER be cool to me to call anyone words like that.