I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about my comments in this thread comparing African slaves to the chinese railroad workers whom caseyh claimed were slaves. i have not responded to you about coolies. I'm not denying they were slaves. I haven't commented on it.
Chinese railroad workers were "coolies." This is not disputable. What may be disputable is whether coolies were the same as slaves except in name. As you can see from the links I provided many historians/scholars hold the view that there is virtually no distinction between the two.
slavery that you admitted didn't happen on american soil. so I wasn't referring to them regardless. so please don't attribute something I didn't say to me. that's all i'm asking. thanks
I understand that you are saying that the conditions of the work may be similar but you can't say "virtually no distinction" in general. I've posted a few reasons why. Another main reason is that "coolies" weren't bought or traded like slaves were in America. You've also ignored the long-term effects of slavery versus coolies. Ten generations of slavery versus maybe two or three is a huge difference, much more detrimental in terms of economics, education, culture, etc. Children of slaves were in turn slaves but children of coolies weren't automatically indentured. Tbh, I rather not do anymore reading on this subject, some sad stuff to be reading about coolie treatment. I'll admit that I wasn't aware of the details of how bad it was. Let's just say the argument goes both ways and leave it at that?
I'd argue the sufferings of later generations of early coolies are unique in their own way but I'll concede your last point (that I highlighted) is very valid.
When the bus driver finally did stop, what exactly did you say when you complained? I’m sure you were irritated when you finally got a chance to get on the bus, so the inflection in your voice could have possibly caused her to become defensive. A short temper from a few overstressed employees doesn’t necessarily equate to racism. It’s obvious that you have been suspicious of blacks on this issue for a while, so that could possibly be the problem. I grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood where the only Asians in the community were the ones who owned the corner stores. What is funny to me is, even the so called most “deviant” people who hung around with their shirts off, loved the Asians who worked in the community. Blacks are probably more prejudice towards other Blacks then they are towards Asians.
Yeh yeh yeh, keeping rationalizing. I have been as polite to them as anybody else. How about I change the phrases to "the rudest people I've encountered are SOME black people in most occasions"? If people are nice, they are nice and there are lots of nice ones among African Americans. I appreciate them and I would not label them as racists, period. Cut the "it's your own prejudice" and "it's the way you deal with them" crap. There is nothing else that can explain what happened in such situations. Don't you have a feel when something "odd" happened to you? So what I can do is suck it up and move on? Is it a taboo to show up some "black" people as racists? Why the heck those make you feel inferior belong to the same color mostly? At first, I just thought they are working such bad jobs, their social economic status is low and there is nothing to do with their race. However, over a long period of time I have noticed some of them hold the I-stand-higher-than-you attitude all the time. Their attitude is dramatically different when dealing with white or black people in the same situation, though. By the way I decide not to give a rattass to them if they behave in such way. Can somebody enlighten me what is racism so that I can prepare myself in the future?
I went to a restaurant the other day and saw half of the tables open. I asked for a table for 2 (being one part of a mixed race couple) and was told they were full. Me: WTF? Them: understaffed. To a different person that could have been considered racism.
A similar story. A Chinese woman and her white husband went to a restaurant in Galveston one day saw a table of two open and was told it's booked. Then a white couple came in and took the place. Her husband approached the table and asked if they had preordered the table. Guess what? The answer is a thunderous "Nooooooooooo"...... What the heck is that?
I live in Canada and in a pretty poor neighboorhood. I'm from eastern europe I'd say 50% of the people living here are black. 30% latino and eastearn european and 10% canadian born. I used to think people were more racist in America. I mean, here most of black people hang with black people, same for latinos and europeans too but we show love to all immigrants. (black people here aren't like african-american, they are immigrants from Africa not from slave ancestry). Myself I admit I became a little racist against Canadians because of the mentality. When I went to New York City, it seemed to me like people don't give a **** about your race. It's way less racist than I tought. It seems like you can't be racist in New York (especially if you're white) because there are so much different races. So IMO Americans are way less racist than here. Maybe it's because the only place I went is New York lol.
Maybe you're short and ugly or you smell bad or you speak crappy English. Maybe you just come across like your posts in this thread, ignorant with a lot to say. There could be a myriad of reasons why you're the only person in America that black people hate most of the time.
This thread has taken off since I last posted. There are some misconceptions in this post. The Chinese laborers, "coolies" as Wnes noted, weren't citizens and weren't allowed to be citizens. The same racial laws that kept Blacks down also applied to Chinese and even after the Civil War Chinese still weren't allowed many of the rights that others were including citizenship. From the link that MadMax provided earlier: http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Chinese.html [rquoter]The Naturalization Act of 1870 restricted all immigration into the U.S. to only "white persons and persons of African descent," meaning that all Chinese were placed in a different category, a category that placed them as ineligible for citizenship from that time till 1943. Also, this law was the first significant bar on free immigration in American history, making the Chinese the only culture to be prohibited to freely migrate to the United States for a time[/rquoter] At the sametime there were laws that prevented Chinese from testifying in court even in their own defense that meant that violence against Chinese was legally tolerated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_v._Hall Chinese were also subject to many other discrimantory laws such as not being allowed to settle outside of Chinatowns in many places and limiting Chinese women to be brought over. So while the Chinese weren't slaves for most of them they weren't treated as citizens or given the rights that many other Americans were given even after the passage of the 14th Ammendment. http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/cur/kane98/kane_p3_immig/China/china.html [rquoter]Chinese Americans were confined to segregated ghettos, called Chinatowns,...Assimilation was never a viable choice for Chinese Americans, who were excluded and denied citizenship because they were deemed nonassimilable by the white mainstream. By congressional and judicial decisions, the Chinese immigrants were made ineligible for naturalization, which made them politically disenfranchised in a "so-called democracy" and exposing them to violations of their Constitutional rights.[/rquoter] While I don't want to get into a contest regarding who had it worse, and I know the Irish had it very bad, the Chinese expereince for most of US history has not been good.
Just to add another thing about the Chinese American experience. Most Chinese in the US have come during or after Civil Rights and families never experienced things like the Exclusion Acts or were confined to Chinatowns. These are primarily the people we think of as the model minority but the older generation of Chinese-Americans many of them suffered from the same problems of poverty and lack of education that have bedeviled other ethnic groups that were denied rights in this country.
Wow, talk about defensive. I should feel black people (oh, just some of them please) are the noblest on the earth even if they behave so badly? What makes them immune to racism for the first place? Just because they were treated as slaves before? Will it make you feel better if I say some white people and some Chinese people are racists, too?
Sir, don't worry, I'm very satisfied with my height and I'm handsome enough You talked like all the African Americans hate me so much, sorry I have been befriended by some nice black folks. Will I become knowledged suddenly if I say "NOT A SINGLE black person is racist"? Your belittling me will not work, sir. Get it real.
I'm sorry, but I've encountered some of the nicest government employees at post offices especially in Houston, but also in places like NY and NJ. I always felt like they were really nice, because they had such an easy job that paid decently well for government work. Even the postal delivery people are really nice. Other than that I really have to commend the workers at EZ Tag HCTRA offices. They are always helpful and friendly whenever I call in for some issue. I would suggest getting that scowl off of your face and start a new day with a fresh attitude.
