AIBTS thinking my friend may be racist?

Most people are uneducated regarding racial issues, and don’t know how to just be respectful. I don’t think you’re being too sensitive, to each his own, but your friend could just be poorly educated. If you read about the anti racists involved in the BLM protests, there are uneducated people there, too. They’ve been tearing down statues of people who tried to abolish slavery. I’ve seen videos of random white people being jumped for no reason. Racism is perpetuated by people being ill informed. The way things are going now, we’re just fueling the same kind of hatred, just moving the ‘slider’ to another place on the spectrum. The place we need to be is one where race isn’t important and everyone is treated equally. But even with the anti racist protests, we see racism growing elsewhere. We just don’t understand hate well, so I think it’s hard to be harsh to someone whose on the less popular side.

I’d try and help them realize the errors of their ways. But that’s me.

If you want to be friends with him, try to let him know it bothers you. You can also try asking him why he seems so aggressive to make him self aware. Maybe he doesn’t realize what he’s doing. I’m sure my opinion won’t be popular, but my father and a few other people in my family have racist upbringings and most of them just dig their heels in when people come at them aggressively. I’ve gotten the farthest by being kind and trying to understand them, then trying to tell them how it makes other people feel. Often times they don’t realize that they’re engaging in something that doesn’t make sense once they really think about it. I mean, very few people intentionally want to hurt others. People often harm others out of cyclical abuse or other kinds of indoctrination.

We’re not going to make it out of this until we’re all on the same page in understanding that we’re no different from one another. If there’s anything he I can suggest, just don’t go the route of anger and hatred, only in the opposite direction of the racists. Then, in that light, you’ll end up no different from them, defeating the purpose of ever caring.

/r/AmIBeingTooSensitive Thread