Race and Racism! Let's talk about it!

[Liquid Blue]

Note: I know it's the latest craze to spew the N word, or call someone a jew but hey guess what! Keep that for pub where you will get banned and I'll laugh at you. Seriously though kids, same as my other topic- no childish stuff, save that for Volcs and her meat-lover's topics.

Yellow to keep you mellow and because Asian people are cool. Just kidding, on we go!

Race, race race. Hot topic for some, others like to keep it PC. Well here is where you can let your ignorance or questions fly (as long as you keep it clean) and hopefully, all of us can learn something after reading this topic. Like before, I have a few questions to start us out and hopefully the topic can expand and evolve, taking us along for the ride.

1) Interracial marriage. What do you think of it? Approve, disapprove? I'm not talking just white/black here, I mean asian/arab, spanish/white, etc etc.

2) Stereo types and which ones you think are true! I'm sure the black people stealing/eating chicken will come out, but do you think enough of that race really do it to justify the stereo type? For instance, the meek white guy stereotype. You know the drill- glasses, skinny, pale skin-



Anyway, I've seen a number of white kids like this but think more and more are heading towards either emo or outrageous, do you think this is because of said stereotype? And do you think that certain stereotypes are influencing said race(s) to do the exact opposite?

3) Race you least come into contact with. You might have to think about this one, I know I did. I'm talking about the race that you least interact with, on a daily basis. Now I know it might be cool for some of you to say " Hey I'm Polio Jones, I hang out with everyone! ". But really, think about it. For me I'd have to say Asian. I see them every day but I don't really interact with/ have that many asian friends since I graduated from highschool. One, really and I don't even see him on a daily basis. Do you think that the less contact you get, the more you notice certain qualities about them? Or attributes? Do you ever feel more reserved when around them? I'm trying to get you guys to be truthful here, this won't go anywhere if people bullshit and say they are PC all the time, everywhere.

4) Last but not least, I've wondered about the whole asian/spanish specific area thing. For instance, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, etc. Would you think I'm racist if I call them asian, and why do alot of them make it a point to specify which country they are from specifically? The same goes with Spanish people- Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, etc. Do they just want to stand out, are they just proud of their country, what?

[Fit of Rage]

You're on a roll with these deep thought threads tonight, fattie.

1. Sure.

2. As long as humans aren't homogeneous, racial stereotypes will exist. QED

3. Blacks. Nothing against them, I just don't associate with them.

4. I couldn't really answer that one. I'm about as WASP as you can get.

[SaucyKing]

1. I approve.

2. I think stereotypes are based on some amount of truth. Even though a black person has never stolen from me. Every time I've been jacked, it was by a white guy.

3. I least interact with Asians as well. That's because my school is mostly black and latino, with whites being a minority.

4. No fucking clue.

[suxxor]

funny thing. my high school was a pretty solid mix of white, asian, and hispanic.. roughly 1/3 each, plus or minus a few percent. incidentally, I noticed that a lot of the hispanic kids would spend their lunch times trying to be more hardcore than the guy next to him. now, my college is something like 75% white.. and yet, I'm finding just as many people I don't like here as I did in HS. I actually did a statistics project my senior year of high school, comparing ethnic composition of schools against their test scores and such.. and found some pretty interesting trends. asian population showed a strong positive correlation, white was less strong, and hispanic was quite negative. of course, you gotta remember that correlation doesn't imply causation.. but it's still kinda interesting.

[za gophar]

uhh, in highschool at least half of my friends were either jewish, asian, or indian. i like being surrounded by such diversity because i am interested in other cultures and find them pretty rich and respectable. in highschoool we joked about race all the time.

now i go to a private college and needless to say, 95 percent of the people there are white christians. when i think about it, it seems boring, but honestly i dont really mind it. people are people, friends are friends. now i never joke about race at school because it makes me feel like a dirty racist because no one of any other race is laughing along or joking with me.

[Superted]

1) Not bothered.

2) Hmm, I believe some will stick with their labal but not everyone.

3) I've never really thought about it before but I guess Asians, posibly due to the lack of them in my area or something, shrug.

4) They probably don't like to be classified like that, but if we're not classing them as one thing, we'd be classing them as another.

[Suh]

1) great, from my own experiences a black-arabic marriage is the, erm? most differcult socially.. i guess thats how to put it.

2)meh

3) i guess latino, but then what is that? latin america

4) no clue

[ZeUs!!]

Cheers

[Pressure Drop]

1) to me not an issue, to others i know it is. My book of greatness says to marry someone you love.

2) Stereotypes will always exist and will nearly always be negative things. Regardless of race there are national stereo types and those are the ones i'm more familar with. Stereotypes are often exaggerations of facts about cultures, these facts can be outdated or about a small minority of the poulation but the stereotype lasts longer and groups everyone together. When meeting anyone of any race or nationality i certainly wouldn't use the stereotype to prejudge them.

3) Where i live (Belfast) is extremely white based as not many immigrants wanted to move here while "the troubles" were going on, since the peace process more have been moving in. Out of the ethnic minorities here are Asians are by far largest with both large communities of chinese and Indians who set up restuarants 30-40 years ago. For example in the school i went to in my year there where 2 chinese and one indian , all of whom were born here. Out of about 250-300 kids in my year you can see its a small %. One of the chinese fellas is one of my best friends still after erm shit 6 years since i left school

4) those areas are huge with huge diversity in people too. They are letting you know out of the billions that live there an the numerous countries where they come from. If some american went to me so your from Europe , i'd go yeah i am, I'm from Ireland, since Europe is a big place and that narrows it down alot. Alot of Americans do the same if i ask them if there from USA they go yeah IL or some abreviation of a state they assume i should know since USA is the greatest place on earth... which is worse? In fact you saying make it a point? Shows you don't really give a damn since there all asian to you

[ZeUs!!]

I think tensions are heightened when people have been persecuted in the past, hence jewish and negro slurs are more common

[scumbag]

i try to avoid racism as much as possible, i cant stand it
but steroetypes can sometimes be funny

prime example :- the TV show 'Allo 'Allo, classic stuff. :grin:

but it also surprises me how much progress we have made, i recently watched the pink panther movies and realised that there is quite a bit of racism in them, especially towards the chinese, you would never get away with that kind of stuff in films today

[Morh]

Rofl.

[Subjugation]

First of all, I'm not cool with the N-bomb whatsoever. I don't understand why such a big portion of the younger black community take part in calling each other n's, either. I mean, I understand the argument that it's a way to "take the power" out of the word, but I don't believe it actually does that. When a racist white kid calls you a n*****, it's still going to be offensive, regardless if you hear it all the time from your boys. Also, it furthers the racist argument that african-americans hate themselves, and are uncivilized, and inneffective communicators. I think it does far more harm than good.

Regarding the list...

1. I have no problem with interracial marriage. According to contemporary sociological thinking, race is a myth, anyway. Most scholars believe that people are more accurately divided into "cultures" instead of "races".

Regardless of what the label is, I have no problem with people marrying whoever they want to marry, be it gays, or inter-cultural marriages. If anything, it's probably a good tool to create cross-cultural harmony in a broader segment of society.

After all, that's precisely what happened during the Spanish colonization of Latin America. There was a tremendous need to create stability between the Spanish colonists and the native Indian population, and that's exactly why the Spanish crown received permission from the Pope to have the Catholic church officially acknowledge marriages between those two cultures.

2. I think there's some truth in stereotypes, however, often they're just supported by junk science, or racial myths. I don't put much stock into them, unless they are supported with facts and logic.

3. I am more cognizent of how I phrase things when I'm around unfamiliar black people. I'm aware there is a long and violent history of oppression with blacks in America, and I think it's important to be aware of that when communicating. The same can be said of the Jewish culture. However, I'm Mexican, so I tend to just speak my mind around other Latinos.

I probably least associate with Arabs and Indians (from India). Only because there is not a strong representation of them in my day-to-day affairs.

4. The reason why I get annoyed when someone referrs to me as "Spanish" instead of Mexican is because I'm not from Spain. The same can be said of most Latinos. During the conquest of Latin America, several nations took part in that conquest, mainly the Portuguese, Spanish, and French. To just assume that any random Latino is of Spanish ancestry can often be inaccurate. In fact, my last name is of French origin.

It's complicated, I know. But that's why.

[Arikel]

1) Why should there be a problem with that... besides the possible cultural shock some persons might get if they love each other, go ahead!!

2) Human beinghs tend to generalise and stereotype everything, not just races... stereotypes are based on true facts but they never produce accurate results so i tend to judge someone singularly and on my sole knowledge i have about that person rather than judging someone based on the stereotype i have for that race or social status etc etc although i think we can never be 100% objective on that.

3) Probably middle eastern native people and african native people since i cross with them everyday but i never have something to say to them...

4) Brazilians are not spanish people :annoyed: they are from Portuguese ancestry... those countries fought for their independence and managed to get it through revolutions... they don't like to be genralised as i think everyone does not like to be generalized. I don't like to be called "euro" because i like to maintain my identity and the identity of my nation alive, in a time where globalization is at hand every bit of your own tradition is precious, so i guess that's one of the main reasons.

[Liquid Blue]

First of all, I'm not cool with the N-bomb whatsoever. I don't understand why such a big portion of the younger black community take part in calling each other n's, either. I mean, I understand the argument that it's a way to "take the power" out of the word, but I don't believe it actually does that. When a racist white kid calls you a n*****, it's still going to be offensive, regardless if you hear it all the time from your boys. Also, it furthers the racist argument that african-americans hate themselves, and are uncivilized, and inneffective communicators. I think it does far more harm than good.

I've been meaning to ask about this...is there a word with similar effects for spanish people? I don't mean gringo, but like some other word that used to be used negatively to refer to spanish people, but is now embraced by most of the younger generations?

And do you think that alot of latin-americans are slowly going the route of being uncivilized and generally ignorant? I see alot of blacks (some whites too) today that are getting brainwashed by the media and peer pressure- they dress and try to act like thugs and rappers but really don't live in bad neighborhoods or have to deal with life/death situations. Now I know it's mainly a popular "wanna fit with the in-crowd" bullshit, but it's actually keeping up a negative trend of minorities trying less in school, spending all their money on clothes, etc etc basically limiting their potential by conforming to the popular image.

How do you feel about the latin american community in this regard? Same shit happening, or is it not as much? I know there are a couple of white/asian kids that try to act like thugs, but not nearly as many of their race stunt themselves so. Maybe that has to do with the area they live in, which is another reason why I would like to know a bit of the spanish perspective, because blacks and spanish share alot more of the poor living areas than whites or asians.

Regarding the list...

1. I have no problem with interracial marriage. According to contemporary sociological thinking, race is a myth, anyway. Most scholars believe that people are more accurately divided into "cultures" instead of "races".

Nice, could you elaborate?

2. I think there's some truth in stereotypes, however, often they're just supported by junk science, or racial myths. I don't put much stock into them, unless they are supported with facts and logic.

Ok, any that you know of that are supported with facts and logic? I'm not trying to rag on you, I just want to keep this topic alive and kicking.

3. I am more cognizent of how I phrase things when I'm around unfamiliar black people. I'm aware there is a long and violent history of oppression with blacks in America, and I think it's important to be aware of that when communicating. The same can be said of the Jewish culture. However, I'm Mexican, so I tend to just speak my mind around other Latinos.

Really? That's interesting. Do you find yourself changing your slang at all also, or does that fit in with "how you phrase things". I kind of took that as how you say things, not exactly which words you might use. Have you ever noticed black people (or any race) seem to tighten up their speaking patterns or the words they use when around you? I know it might be kind of hard to look back and think of a situation, but I just put it out there for ya anyway.

4. The reason why I get annoyed when someone referrs to me as "Spanish" instead of Mexican is because I'm not from Spain. The same can be said of most Latinos. During the conquest of Latin America, several nations took part in that conquest, mainly the Portuguese, Spanish, and French. To just assume that any random Latino is of Spanish ancestry can often be inaccurate. In fact, my last name is of French origin.

It's complicated, I know. But that's why.

Cool, thanks. A different perspective on things never hurts the viewpoint, I'm glad I asked.