How do you think people's prejudices in the '00s differed from the '90s? I'd say overall that aspect of the way people are, in general, is closer to the '00s than the '80s, but the '80s is closer to the '90s than the '70s.

I think many people are almost as racist today as the 90s, It's just more underhand and discrete. Like the idea of 'racial harmony', tolerance.etc was forced down people's throats in the 80s and 90s, so much so many people did not have the 'traditional' outlet for their anger. I'm not condoning racism in any way, of course, I think the racism we see today is alot more repressed, characterised by what we see in TV, what he hear on the street.etc - a sort of more repressed racism.

Racism was pretty high in 1994 and 1995 during the OJ Simpson Trial.  Majority of Black people insisted that OJ was Innocent no matter what while White people insisted he was Guilty (Mainly because he WAS, it was obvious) but alot of Black people refused to acknowledge the truth and wanted him to be found Innocent to spite the White people.

It may sound wrong, but it's the truth, this is exactly how it all went down.

Of course there was also the Rodney King fiasco in 1991 and 1992.

Racism was much bigger in the '90s.  Even Michael Jackson had to write a song called "Black or White" to try and make peace  ;D

I'd say the '90s were overall more racist. '00s are more tolerant.

I'd say the '90s were overall more racist. '00s are more tolerant.


I actually think there's more prevalent racism among kids this decade. In the '90s, the civil rights movement and the Rodney King era were close enough that people were worried about being stereotyping and offensive. Now, people constantly make racial jokes and write it off as "rebelling against political correctness." Also, the whole Hurricane Katrina thing and the reaction to it showed the racism brewing under the decade, and the immigration reform debate showed alot of anti-Hispanic sentiment among both whites and blacks.

But all things considered the 90s were definitely a more racist time, especially in the schoolyard. I was young enough to remember a time when racial slurrs were common in schools, and teachers just overlooked them (most of the time, that is).

But all things considered the 90s were definitely a more racist time, especially in the schoolyard. I was young enough to remember a time when racial slurrs were common in schools, and teachers just overlooked them (most of the time, that is).


Well, in Australia, anyway  ;).

Well, in Australia, anyway  ;).


What do you remember of racism when you were growing up?

What do you remember of racism when you were growing up?


Not very much. I remember there were no black kids at my school, though...they all lived on the other side of town. I started noticing racism more in the early '00s...everyone was sort of "friends together" in the late '90s in elementary school. Now, there's alot of suppressed racism.

Not very much. I remember there were no black kids at my school, though...they all lived on the other side of town. I started noticing racism more in the early '00s...everyone was sort of "friends together" in the late '90s in elementary school. Now, there's alot of suppressed racism.


Yeah, racism in primary school tended to be a bit more harmless, in that it was more a sort of childish name-calling. Racism in high school is probably much more serious, and indicates that individual has a pre-disposition to be racist throughout their adult life. I know many racist terms which were once common in the early 90s among even adults, in the popular media.etc, are very rare in today (except in certain communities). It also seems racial/ethnic segregation seems to breed racism. In my school, people didn't really think twice about your race or ethnicity.

Yeah, racism in primary school tended to be a bit more harmless, in that it was more a sort of childish name-calling. Racism in high school is probably much more serious, and indicates that individual has a pre-disposition to be racist throughout their adult life. I know many racist terms which were once common in the early 90s among even adults, in the popular media.etc, are very rare in today (except in certain communities). It also seems racial/ethnic segregation seems to breed racism. In my school, people didn't really think twice about your race or ethnicity.


Like there's sort of suppressed anti-Hispanic, anti-black, and anti-Asian racism in my class. Not overt, but it's there, that they're "silly" or somehow below whites. Some of this may come from ignorance, since I live in a very, very white town. Actually, there's sort of been some racist revivalism against certain groups in my area. Actually, I think classism is more prevalent in the '00s than in the '90s. Like within the massive local Italian-American community, the more well-to-do ones call the less well-to-do ones "guidos" and such. Definitely working-class whites are prone to racism, like giving the finger to black people or trying to kick them out of their districts.

Like there's sort of suppressed anti-Hispanic, anti-black, and anti-Asian racism in my class. Not overt, but it's there, that they're "silly" or somehow below whites. Some of this may come from ignorance, since I live in a very, very white town. Actually, there's sort of been some racist revivalism against certain groups in my area. Actually, I think classism is more prevalent in the '00s than in the '90s. Like within the massive local Italian-American community, the more well-to-do ones call the less well-to-do ones "guidos" and such. Definitely working-class whites are prone to racism, like giving the finger to black people or trying to kick them out of their districts.


Yeah, in America class and racism probably go together hand in hand, less so here (depending on your neighbourhood).

I actually think real racism tends to be worse in areas with several, very close-knit racial groups living together, rather than in areas with a sizeable majority (which is usually white, but can also be black.etc). It breeds a 'tribe' mentality. Such could be seen in the recent riots in Sydney which were on the news, largely between Lebanese and local 'Anglos' (I don't know if you heard of it). Of course the recent terrorism/villification of Muslims was an added factor in that conflict. In areas which are predominantly homogenous, other races aren't seen as as much of a threat, and as long as they 'keep in line', are tolerated.

Yeah, in America class and racism probably go together hand in hand, less so here (depending on your neighbourhood).

I actually think real racism tends to be worse in areas with several, very close-knit racial groups living together, rather than in areas with a sizeable majority (which is usually white, but can also be black.etc). It breeds a 'tribe' mentality. Such could be seen in the recent riots in Sydney which were on the news, largely between Lebanese and local 'Anglos' (I don't know if you heard of it). Of course the recent terrorism/villification of Muslims was an added factor in that conflict. In areas which are predominantly homogenous, other races aren't seen as as much of a threat, and as long as they 'keep in line', are tolerated.


My area is definitely ethnically divided. My county has pretty well-delineated Italian, black, Hispanic, Asian, Irish, yuppie, Jewish areas.

My area is definitely ethnically divided. My county has pretty well-delineated Italian, black, Hispanic, Asian, Irish, yuppie, Jewish areas.


Yuppie's a race?  ;) ;D

Yuppie's a race?  ;) ;D


Sorta...they all live together in their own district. For example, racism in my school: somebody removed the letters from a display to form "Spot a Nig", and two years ago somebody keyed the superintendent's car and etched "kike" in the siding.

Today I think the problem of racism has been overshadowed by the pressing problems of terrorism, WMDs and the war.  Peoples' attention has definitely been turned to those issues (propagated by the media of course).  Of course more overt ethnic hatred and paranoia has been turned toward people of Middle Eastern descent more than ever.

Racism was pretty high in 1994 and 1995 during the OJ Simpson Trial.  Majority of Black people insisted that OJ was Innocent no matter what while White people insisted he was Guilty (Mainly because he WAS, it was obvious) but alot of Black people refused to acknowledge the truth and wanted him to be found Innocent to spite the White people.

It may sound wrong, but it's the truth, this is exactly how it all went down.

Of course there was also the Rodney King fiasco in 1991 and 1992.

Racism was much bigger in the '90s.  Even Michael Jackson had to write a song called "Black or White" to try and make peace  ;D



My dad is whte and he thinks O.J. was innocent.  He thinks O.J. was there but that his son Jason actually killed Nicole.  The following year, my dad met O.J. and Johnny Cochran in the Bahamas and he said O.J. was the nicest guy. 

My dad is whte and he thinks O.J. was innocent.  He thinks O.J. was there but that his son Jason actually killed Nicole.  The following year, my dad met O.J. and Johnny Cochran in the Bahamas and he said O.J. was the nicest guy. 


You know what? He's not the first to think Jason had something to do it. My mom (who's African-American) thought the same.

Hello everyone, I'm new here. My name's Stacey. Well, I think living in Phoenix all my life and I can sort of give my personal experience. I have both Mexican, Spanish, German, English and a few other ancestries, but I've always identified mainly with being a Hispanic, Mexican-American (my mother was born in a small village in Chihuhua state, while my father was a half-Mexican American from, of all places, rural South Dakota). I current reside in the Tempe area (just to the east of the city), which actually is full of white, middle class spread out in the 60s. Phoenix is actually a very white city, and growing up even in the 1980s and 1990s I experienced some discrimination...but I won't go into that. Just to say that racism was very much evident in the 90s, and continues today.

I can see a difference.  It seems to be that people are more racist and rude.  As my sister said," they no longer feel as if the have to behave"  There isn't much you can do with a racist, if that is the way they want to be,
but it seems like they are very comfortable these days with being as ignorant outside as they are in the comfort of their homes.  I was working (construction) in the inner city(African American section) and one of the guys who was pretty ignorant had a horn on his car the played Dixie and felt it was a laugh riot to beep it every time he came to work(7am) and at the end of the work day.  Most of the workers, and definitely all of the neighbors did not appreciate it. One day a guy walked up to the truck swung a baseball bat and took out the guys windshield.  Let's face it, he was asking for it( 12 noon, no witnesses  ::) )

I can see a difference.  It seems to be that people are more racist and rude.  As my sister said," they no longer feel as if the have to behave"  There isn't much you can do with a racist, if that is the way they want to be,
but it seems like they are very comfortable these days with being as ignorant outside as they are in the comfort of their homes.  I was working (construction) in the inner city(African American section) and one of the guys who was pretty ignorant had a horn on his car the played Dixie and felt it was a laugh riot to beep it every time he came to work(7am) and at the end of the work day.  Most of the workers, and definitely all of the neighbors did not appreciate it. One day a guy walked up to the truck swung a baseball bat and took out the guys windshield.  Let's face it, he was asking for it( 12 noon, no witnesses  ::) )


I would've loved to see that!!

I certainly agree that people are content with their ignorance, especially now when you don't have an excuse to not know about others.

I can see a difference.  It seems to be that people are more racist and rude.  As my sister said," they no longer feel as if the have to behave"  There isn't much you can do with a racist, if that is the way they want to be,
but it seems like they are very comfortable these days with being as ignorant outside as they are in the comfort of their homes.  I was working (construction) in the inner city(African American section) and one of the guys who was pretty ignorant had a horn on his car the played Dixie and felt it was a laugh riot to beep it every time he came to work(7am) and at the end of the work day.  Most of the workers, and definitely all of the neighbors did not appreciate it. One day a guy walked up to the truck swung a baseball bat and took out the guys windshield.  Let's face it, he was asking for it( 12 noon, no witnesses  ::) )


It's odd: on one hand you have people complaining everyone's too PC (they probably don't hear the gossip behind their backs), and other's who complains everyone's too liberal or too dismissive regarding P.C. Interesting...

It's odd: on one hand you have people complaining everyone's too PC (they probably don't hear the gossip behind their backs), and other's who complains everyone's too liberal or too dismissive regarding P.C. Interesting...


Thr truth is somewhere in the middle.  The problem, I think, rises when people who are downright ignorant are given a pass because no one wants to call them on it.  What's wrong with plain old good manners. Why should white people complain about not being able to say ni**er when it is just plain bad manners, black people with good manners don't say it, just as they don't say w*p, k*ke, sp*ck, m*ck, etc, etc.  Playing "Dixie" in a northern African American community  is like playing "God Save the Queen" in Bogside or "Horst Wessel Lied" at a Bar
Mitzvah.

Thr truth is somewhere in the middle.  The problem, I think, rises when people who are downright ignorant are given a pass because no one wants to call them on it.  What's wrong with plain old good manners. Why should white people complain about not being able to say ni**er when it is just plain bad manners, black people with good manners don't say it, just as they don't say w*p, k*ke, sp*ck, m*ck, etc, etc.  Playing "Dixie" in a northern African American community  is like playing "God Save the Queen" in Bogside or "Horst Wessel Lied" at a Bar
Mitzvah.


White people are complaining about not being able to say 'ni**er?'  ::)

Modern racism is a propaganda campaign. The ruling classes use it to deflect attention from the iniquities they impose upon the rest of us and keep us fighting one another instead of them. A lot of it is about fear and scapegoating.

In the '90s I remember the biggest objets de ridicule were the "super predator" and the "welfare queen." Both were stereotyped as African-American or Hispanic. The slur "welfare queen" gained currency via the Reagan Administration, and continued into the '90s. I think we all have a general idea of the reference, so I'll spare a description. There were variants. For instance our Boston regional racist redneck talk radio host, Howie Carr, still uses the eithet "gimme girl."

The "super predator" was your savage Black or Hispanic male with no respect for the law or human life (when said subject is white, he's called a Republican). The "super predator" was depicted as violent, paranoid, unemployed, gang-affiliated, sexually potent, and drug-addled. The media played on this stereotype as far back as the 1960s, but it wasn't until after Rodney King and the L.A. riots that "super predator" made the A-list of epithets. The "prey" of the "super predator" was work-a-day caucasions, Asian shop proprietors, and young white girls. More than anybody, Pat Buchanan made martyrs of the hard-working entrepeneurs of Korea Town following the L.A. riots.
"Gangsta rap" wasn't the cause, but it didn't help matters.

Since the start of the GWB Administration, the objets de ridicule have shifted to Arabs and South-west Asians (Iraqis, Iranians, Afghanis, Pakistanis), and the "super predator" has become the "illegal immigrant." If you are unsure about these stereotypes, just watch FOX News every evening for five days and you'll be an expert.

As to Danoota's observation, racism seems more acceptable in this decade because racism is more acceptable in this decade. That's what you get when right-wingers run the entire government.  Racism in the media is usually billed as a backlash against rampant PC-ism, ala Glenn Beck.

The truth is "liberals" have not used the term "politically correct" in fifteen years. "Political correctness" as a phenomenon was generally restricted to college campuses and even in the late 1980s, bona-fide liberals shunned it. "Politically correct" was a term straight from Josef Stalin and was pushed by illiberal militants to control the speech and behavior of others. I was actually affiliated with true Marxist-Leninist militants (emphasis on was), and believe you me they were anything but liberal!

For the past dozen years right-wingers have kept the notion of "PC" alive in order to justify race bigotry and misogyny...and that's exactly what your Rushes, your Coulters, you Hannitys, your GlennBecks, and your O'Reillys are!

Modern racism is a propaganda campaign. The ruling classes use it to deflect attention from the iniquities they impose upon the rest of us and keep us fighting one another instead of them. A lot of it is about fear and scapegoating.

In the '90s I remember the biggest objets de ridicule were the "super predator" and the "welfare queen." Both were stereotyped as African-American or Hispanic. The slur "welfare queen" gained currency via the Reagan Administration, and continued into the '90s. I think we all have a general idea of the reference, so I'll spare a description. There were variants. For instance our Boston regional racist redneck talk radio host, Howie Carr, still uses the eithet "gimme girl."

The "super predator" was your savage Black or Hispanic male with no respect for the law or human life (when said subject is white, he's called a Republican). The "super predator" was depicted as violent, paranoid, unemployed, gang-affiliated, sexually potent, and drug-addled. The media played on this stereotype as far back as the 1960s, but it wasn't until after Rodney King and the L.A. riots that "super predator" made the A-list of epithets. The "prey" of the "super predator" was work-a-day caucasions, Asian shop proprietors, and young white girls. More than anybody, Pat Buchanan made martyrs of the hard-working entrepeneurs of Korea Town following the L.A. riots.
"Gangsta rap" wasn't the cause, but it didn't help matters.

Since the start of the GWB Administration, the objets de ridicule have shifted to Arabs and South-west Asians (Iraqis, Iranians, Afghanis, Pakistanis), and the "super predator" has become the "illegal immigrant." If you are unsure about these stereotypes, just watch FOX News every evening for five days and you'll be an expert.

As to Danoota's observation, racism seems more acceptable in this decade because racism is more acceptable in this decade. That's what you get when right-wingers run the entire government.  Racism in the media is usually billed as a backlash against rampant PC-ism, ala Glenn Beck.

The truth is "liberals" have not used the term "politically correct" in fifteen years. "Political correctness" as a phenomenon was generally restricted to college campuses and even in the late 1980s, bona-fide liberals shunned it. "Politically correct" was a term straight from Josef Stalin and was pushed by illiberal militants to control the speech and behavior of others. I was actually affiliated with true Marxist-Leninist militants (emphasis on was), and believe you me they were anything but liberal!

For the past dozen years right-wingers have kept the notion of "PC" alive in order to justify race bigotry and misogyny...and that's exactly what your Rushes, your Coulters, you Hannitys, your GlennBecks, and your O'Reillys are!




In some ways, yes, there has been a backlash against 'multiculturalism' and 'political correctness', but overall the 00s are definitely a less racist, more tolerant decade than the 90s were. The whole 'tolerance' movement only really picked up steam in the late 80s and 90s, but people's deep seated xenophobia remained even more entrenched. Racism was definitely more prevalent in the media, in the workplace, on the playground (I can speak from personal experience; not necessarily of racism against myself, but wittnessing it to others, although I did get my fair share in my school days). I suppose if you've never really experienced it you can't really appreciate how much society has changed from then and now.

White people are complaining about not being able to say 'ni**er?'  ::)


Yes.  I'm sure Max will back me up on this, and there have even been some posts to this website on the
matter.  The notion is "If blacks can say it to each other why can't we say it, it's just a word"  You wouldn't
think that this need an explanation, but there are many who just don't get it.

White people are complaining about not being able to say 'ni**er?'  ::)


I'm at the point where I can see them getting it. It's wrong to say it period. However, just b/c one group says amidst themselves, does not mean it's fine for someone else.

Yes.  I'm sure Max will back me up on this, and there have even been some posts to this website on the
matter.  The notion is "If blacks can say it to each other why can't we say it, it's just a word"  You wouldn't
think that this need an explanation, but there are many who just don't get it.

I've said before, I would rather blacks did not use the n-word among one another, but I'm not going to get my drawers in a twist about it. Perhaps taking the most hurtful word and appropriating it for their own use takes some of the sting out of it. It's like gays referring to themeselves as "queer."

Multiculturalism is great when it is both multi and cultural, when it presents the customs and folkways of discernable cultures in a positive light. It has gone out of vogue, but on university campuses in the '90s, the words "multiculturalism" and "diversity" were often just euphemisms for "anti-white." I experienced at my radio station black students using these politically charged terms for a narrow agenda. There was cabal of hip-hop DJs for whom "diversity" and "multiculturalism" just meant "we want more rap on the air." I didn't. I wanted more "world music." When I pointed out that we programmed folk musics from east Asia to west Africa, from the Andes to the Lakota plains, from the steppes of Mongolia to the hills of Sicily, those guys said I was a racist. That's not "multiculturalism," see, Master P is multiculturalism.  It ws just about that obtuse. I felt it was unfortunate that hip-hop DJs used the concept as cudgel, but the problem was very minor compared to the damage Rush Limbaugh and Dinesh D'Souza were doing!