ThunderySleep t1_j9s69v7 wrote on February 24, 2023 at 4:15 AM

Reply to comment by cardzmr in Portsmouth pushes back on overnight wave of hateful graffiti targeting Temple, businesses by twosunsyzygy

It's not ignorant.

I'm just not a melodramatic child. There's video. It looks like it's an edgy teenager.

If either of our takeaways are ignorant, it's the rube acting as though this is a catastrophic event and we should all panic about it. It just makes it seem like you haven't experienced much in life.. Which would actually be in line with the word "ignorant".

It's a gross thing for somebody to do. But no, I'm not going to play along and encourage panic because some rube is over excited about the first instance of racially motivated vandalism in their area.

Intru t1_j9scs7u wrote on February 24, 2023 at 5:14 AM

It not the first, it just the first you are aware of. There is a lot of performative reaction to these type of events from the general community, sure no argument there. We are used to it, too. I don't expect any tangible shift in behavior from anyone even as a try to convince you that our realities might be different, and one does negate the other. I have to code switch on the regular to not draw attention to myself yep, it something you learn to do subconsciously. Am I scared when shit like this happens, yeah, does that stop me from trying to live? No, but it does eat at you and can be exhausting. Does that mean every day I'm getting harassed or singled out? No, it can go months before someone says something ignorant towards me, flips me off, yells at me, ask me why I am here, tells me to take that flag sticker off my car, or my favorite one someone told me ones at a party in rural NY "your one of the good ones" after going about a tirade about lazy Puerto Ricans. But I get it, when shit like this is so off most people's radar it's just sound ridiculous and sensational that any sane person could easily think is over dramatic or made up. It's not that we haven't experience much in life its' that as a collective we have experienced a little bit too much of it too fast.

ThunderySleep t1_j9smb86 wrote on February 24, 2023 at 6:57 AM

I know you think this is some enlightening monologue, but the whole thing just makes you sound so unbelievably coddled.

> But I get it, when shit like this is so off most people's radar

Bro, what you listed would not even register as memorable for most people because most people deal with far worse (at least outside of rural new england). I find it insulting that you even used that as your big memorable example of "experiencing prejudice".

Intru t1_j9u0zoz wrote on February 24, 2023 at 3:40 PM

I know, I got primos in Maine, New York, Texas, and Florida, and brother in California while our parents still on the island. All of us grew up together in Puerto Rico and had to leave do to the economic devastation that 200 years of colonial rule and neglect from Congress caused and the devastation from Maria and earthquake compounded. It blows that i don't get to be with my family and it hurts when we talk about the shit we have to deal with in the places we ended up. At some point all these experiences do meld together, especially the small ones, the big ones I'll keep to myself and share it with those close to me, I don't like bringing them up, and don't want to turn this into a full-on trauma porn post. Then why share at all? Because I want to, because I think it's important. So yeah, I usually prefer to shared the most absurd examples over the painful ones, it's how I cope with this shit. Sometimes it sound performative, sometime I sound entitled but I'll keep doing it, because I think there some value in doing so. Which all rounds to what I'm trying to impart, this stuff just hits different.

ThunderySleep t1_j9uoph3 wrote on February 24, 2023 at 6:11 PM

It's not impressive. I've experienced far worse than what you're highlighting and I'm white.

Also important to point out the goalpost shift from people acting like there's some active Nazi takeover of Portsmouth to talking about micro aggressions and colonialism.

Also, if you're Puerto Rican with any Spanish ancestry, you're as much a "colonizer" as any of us. In fact, more so because your ancestors were definitively "colonizers" if you do, while a lot of us just came from struggling farmers and tradespeople and such. Not that you should be blaming people for presumed crimes of their ancestors based on their skin color (because that's what racism actually is), but it sounds like you do and it's as hypocritical as it gets.