White Community Case

Coming from an all white family in a predominately white community I often found my friends or others making racist jokes or using racist language. Under pressure some feel like they have to go along with what is said by others to look good in front of their friends even if it offends someone of a different race or ethnicity. Although some, like me, disagreed with the jokes and language being said by friends they often keep silent in fear of causing trouble in groups of friends. This is an example of a bystander problem but how do you stand up for something you disagree with even if it may cause trouble in a group?

As hard as it seems to stand up and say I don't think that joke was funny or that word was disrespectful towards a minority I often found myself doing this whenever I heard a racist joke or comment. While others sat back in just agreed while in the group they would often tell me how they admired my courage to stand up against racism. This made me think that it was not just me that disagreed with this and that a majority of my friends disagreed when it came to those kinds of jokes or comments. Even those who were telling these jokes or saying these racist names said if people didn't laugh I wouldn't say these things, which means that this bystander affect was just a vicious cycle in my group of friends.

As I sat there and thought of how many people were offended by the things that were said among my friends I thought of a way to finally talk through this problem. As a group we all sat down to say how we really felt about racism and how if these things were said about us how it would make us feel. After this talk we were all in favor of putting an end to racist jokes or comments both in our group of friends and among others we associated with.

This doesn't always happen though some people who agree with racism often find it hard to go back on their ways. It may be hard at first to speak up against them