Racism In The Military And Society

[AverageJoe11]

I saw plenty of racism and other types of prejudices during my time in the army. I have also seen hate caused by ignorance. Example: Someone was telling me how they hated those Arabs working at the gas station and Muslims should all be shot. And I replied you mean those Hindu practicing Indians?

Personally, I could care less what a persons race is. It's the fundamentalists that scare me. So if I'm prejudiced, it's against the fundamentalists of any given religion.

 

[Jimmy1]

When my grandfather came home from WWII he hated the Germans and the Japanese. Even when he died at 96 he still hated them.

My other grandfather fought in WWI and he hated the Germans and the Turks till the day he died.

The same went for the Korean war and Vietnam and so on and so on. They train us to hate enough to kill then let us loose. They don't desensitize us and wonder why we have problems in society and I bet the same goes for the other side too. How do you think the Japanese and German civilians thought of us after WWII?

And it can go back even further. Look at Native American Indians, and Australian Aboriginals.

Religious wars are totally different, and that is the problem and one I should not get in to, but think about it. You can have a plain old American who grew up down south and speaks with the southern drawl and he can switch to Muslim beliefs, and you could not really tell him apart from any other southern gentleman, and the same goes for here in Australia. And look at the Irish Catholics, it's not everybody who lives in Ireland or who lives in Ireland and are catholic, but a lot get tarred with that brush.

I saw the slaughter as a result of the Indonesians and for years hated them, but for me to be able to function in society, I have to be able to say gidday to them as they are our neighbor and Allie. I still don't trust them. And Iraq, that religious war has been going on for a hundred years and will go on for a hundred more. I became very good friends with the guy and his young friend who operated the shop on our base there. They taught me about the war and how scary it was for them. Phil, the owner even had two different outfits to wear depending on which side of town he was going to, and the young fellow was too scared to go to his own home some nights because of the attacks, and they were his own 'RACE'.

We went there to weed out the fundamentalists as Joe mentioned in the thread above, once we found them we got out and it has returned to normal with market bombings etc.

So when people hate Muslims, do they really hate all of them? All of them don't hate us.

Just my opinion and mindless waffle.

P.S. I still have problems with people dressed in the full Burqa, you can't tell if it is male of female and I once saw two 155 howitzer shells concreted together and then dressed in a Burqa. It took out a US patrol. They found another one just like it up the road.

 

[Sarg]

Having prided myself in not being a racist by "training" myself out of my upbringing, I still find myself nervous around Vietnamese. I've tried every argument I can to myself but am still leery of them. And I wasn't around them as much as say, Jar was. I spent the bulk of my tour with Blindbat. But it's still there. I remember they were brow beating us in basic about them, name calling and such. Perhaps that's it.

Don't know. Tough subject.

Sarg

 

[Anglesachse]

The one that gets me the most isn`t the Irish, I mean having been there and all, like most have said will give you reason to hate someone, but the one that gets me and I just can`t get out of my head, even though I know how irrational it is, is the Russians.

I mean I came to Germany in the 80`s and it had been all, "This is where we`ll hold them", shit even for the Gulf in 91 it was all Russian based indoctrination. and even though the Wall has been down since 1989 and there are thousands that now live in Germany I still have problems when I hear them, which considering I never met one when serving is f*cked up.

I think like you guys have said, it is so stamped into us to hate the (insert National Enemy of the Day) that even when you leave you just can`t stop it.

 

[5line]

In my personal experience racism hardly exists in the military. I mean Im sure there were race-based incidents and all that but I never personally experienced any overt racism. Sure, we used to say some pretty f*cked up things to each other. It definitely got racial most of the time. Nothing was off limits. Nothing was held sacred. But i think the racism part of it all was more a reaffirmation of our brotherhood. Like we could say whatever we want to each other and it doesnt matter. I miss that. Sometimes i get some really shocked looks and i have to remind myself that im no longer surrounded by my brothers. yay civilian life.

 

[OldDoorGunner]

As I have said in other post my wife is Native American Indian. Me I am not a racist (Sorry Jar, I really am not.) When it comes to Muslims (maybe I could learn to be) and that comes from trust!!! I don't know how I could ever trust them as we are told there are good Muslims and the Religious nut jobs!!! I don't have enought intel as to how much good the so called good Muslims (do) put on the line fighting the Religious nut jobs. Add in how would I know the the good ones from the bad, till I saw it. It's not racism just because you don't who is the enemy is.

A number of years ago on the news was a story about a bus going a very steep bank in Vietnam. It was loaded with old NVA solders (men), all were killed. These old solders were out doing a trip to look at where they had fought as young men. Doing the same thing that us old solders do. To tell you the truth, I felt sad about it......

Jar said "As far as race goes, we're all the same race, human. Even though we come in many shapes, colors and cultures".

The problem starts with all the different beliefs. (some maybe indoctrinated in their beliefs from birth).....So we have good humans and we have evil humans and we have them in every race. Hell we have them all over the world. So what is one to do? Well to me it's somewhat simple, when an animal has Rabies, you put it down!!! Evil should always be put down.....

J R