From: Steyr@yabbs
To: Pele@yabbs
Subject: Racist insults.
Date: Sat Aug  6 22:50:33 1994

I am white.  As white as they come.  (Well, a shade of pink actually).
I have very blond hair.  If someone comes up to me and calls me
"white-boy" or "gaijin" or "white-trash", I don't take extreme offence
other than because he was trying to insult me.  I have no complex about
being white.  I'm not ashamed of it.
 
Are you ashamed of being black ?  Is that why you take so much offence
at being called a nigger ?  I mean shit, it's only a petty insult.
And don't on about how it's more than that, how it's a whole different 
way of being treated, with beatings, and being treated like filth and 
blah blah blah, and how I, being white, can have no idea what it's 
like.  I won't go into great detail, but I have lived in several 
different countries thoughout my life, and in one of them (for example)
if I walked down the street, people would grab my hair and try to
pull it out of my head, simply because it wasn't black like everyone
elses.
 
Perhaps I have overstepped the mark here because I admit that I know
very little about the plight of black Americans, but it just seems
to me that life is what YOU make it.  If you want to take offence
well that's your problem.  Sure, it's not nice to be called a nigger,
but it's only really offensive if you LET it be.  Maybe it's called
growing a thick skin, I don't know.  I once read a book which
said that when we find things insulting, we are not so much angered
by the fact that someone insulted us, but more by the fact that we LET
ourself FEEL insulted.
 
Anyway, I hope you don't find this insulting, because that's not what I
intended.  I try not to let myself get involved in petty little flame
wars (re Bart), but sometimes I get a little carried away.
               ,,, 
              (o o)
     +----oOO--(_)--OOo----+  +--------------------------+
     |                     \  \                          |
     |     Barry Noble     /  /   Melbourne, Australia.  |
     |       (Steyr)       \  \   Steyr@GPO.swin.edu.au  |
     |                     /  /                          |
     +---------------------+  +--------------------------+