My ex neighbor's eldest son accused me of being racist. If he truly thought that or not, I don't know. But the situation was that our truck hood got dented, and we asked them about it, and they denied it. A long while later, I found out that one of the younger boys was in fact standing on our vehicle hoods to shoot baskets. So, we raised the dented hood issue with them again. And the oldest son called me a racist bitch for accusing his brother a second time. Not even an hour later, the kid finally confessed to it. That bothered me a lot especially because the whole thing had nothing to do with race. I did not like any of the boys but that was based on the fact that all of the boys there were not properly raised and acted with disrespect constantly.

Not in a real sense. I work in a middle school and one particular ethnic groups love to cry racism, which they've learned from home. Anytime you call them on something, they tell you you're being racist. It's sad, really, because these kids have no idea what racism really is. They just know how to use the term because they hear it tossed around at home and used an excuse to avoid responsibility. This is the same ethnic group that regularly assaulted my friend's son and tormented him because he was black, and the school did nothing. Other than that, no one has said I'm racist.

I've also never perceived someone to be racist and then realized I was wrong but I've had the opposite happen - someone I didn't think was racist turned out to be racist.

I get falsely accused of racism online all the time, even here I think.

Chris wrote:

• Have you ever been falsely accused of racism, or being a racist?

If you count the number of times a racist white person has accused me of "pulling the race card" out of the blue, then yes. Other than that, no.

Chris wrote:

Have you ever perceived someone to be racist, but later realized that you were wrong, and that this person actually wasn't?

Unfortunately no. Sadly, whenever I've perceived someone to be a racist, I've had those suspicions confirmed in some way or another. Trust me, I would LOVE to have been "wrong" every single time this has happened. There have been other times when I've suspected someone of being a racist (that actually was a racist), but they changed their ways to be more open minded and accepting. I've met plenty of racist people being in the military. But one thing I've found throughout the years is that being forced to work with people you otherwise may not initially be comfortable around and eventually getting to know them as "people" instead of by their "race" can very often change your perspective. There is a certain satisfaction I get when I realize I've just converted someone from being a racist into being a decent person after all! Granted it's only happened twice, but the reward of changing the minds of two people is greater than the sacrifice of encountering dozens more who never change.

captainbryce wrote:

...But one thing I've found throughout the years is that being forced to work with people you otherwise may not initially be comfortable around and eventually getting to know them as "people" instead of by their "race" can very often change your perspective. There is a certain satisfaction I get when I realize I've just converted someone from being a racist into being a decent person after all! Granted it's only happened twice, but the reward of changing the minds of two people is greater than the sacrifice of encountering dozens more who never change.

Not to change the subject but the same applies to gays, and I hope more military men will now have the opportunity to see that many of their stereotypes of gays were wrong. BTW, the military, police and fire depts are significant places to combat homophobia, just as they were for racism, by forcing ppl to work and live together (and depend on each other) that they would not have on their own. Not saying it always happens smoothely, but I saw it happening in the '60s and '70s and hope it has gotten better.