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Race In Today's Society; The color of one's skin
Topic Started: Dec 7 2007, 04:21 PM (811 Views)
.Danilo
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the original pirate
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I really lack the knowledge to really understand how the American society treats the matter because as many of you already know, I live in a totally different country with a rather diverse culture. I can get a grasp of what you mean, though, because we have something similar going on here.

Two or three years ago, it was established by law that minorities, specially 'black' people (here, I must say I lack the knowledge to judge if that term is offensive or not in english language, so please pardon me if it is) should have a certain percentage of the available spots in public universities, which are hands down the best in the country and therefore have limited spots. Students have to get through tests, some of which are quite difficult, to manage to attend to those colleges, but with this decree, a black student may attend the college in the place of someone who did better in the admittance exams.

The decree was probably made due to a certain feeling of remorse some people have here because of the large period of time black people were slaves here. In fact, Brazil was the last country in the world to abolish slavery.

Even if such thing as a person's race was determinant to the results of the exams, the main problem behind all this is that Brazilian ethnicity evolved in such a way that it is really hard to tell who belongs to each race in most cases. The boundaries, that shouldn't exist in the first place, are not very clear, so I can't help to feel all this matter pointless.
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fazessilks
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It's obvious isn't it?, doesent matter what colour your skin is here because no one can see you. Just what you type :)
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Akira.
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ryo wa no koto SUKI
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I agree and disagree if I may. True, diversity is refreshing, and being in an area with a predominant race is somewhat... stifling at times.. but I don't think diversity should be the only reason "minorities" get accepted. I do however want schools to be more diverse, but I wouldn't want schools to choose applicants by race... yeah I'm sorta talking in circles but you get the general idea hopefully.
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finch
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I find that most of my friends are racist. It's really ironic and maybe it's because I've been immersed in the diversity of the internet for too long for it to affect me any more, but I feel completely different. If anything I'm more eager to talk to someone with a different racial background. In our school, there is one asian family. No black people. It's such a shame, because it's obvious the lack of diversity is what causes the racism.

But what I wonder is... am I racist? The first thing I see when I look at someone who isn't caucasian is their skin colour. I honestly try not to, but I guess being raised in this environment made me this way. And racism is treating someone differently because of their skin colour. I see them as immediately more interesting, more diverse... I assume. Am I a racist?
I wish I was raised in a culturally diverse area so these thoughts wouldn't be programmed into my brain. x__x
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Akira.
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ryo wa no koto SUKI
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finch
Dec 11 2007, 11:00 PM
I find that most of my friends are racist. It's really ironic and maybe it's because I've been immersed in the diversity of the internet for too long for it to affect me any more, but I feel completely different. If anything I'm more eager to talk to someone with a different racial background. In our school, there is one asian family. No black people. It's such a shame, because it's obvious the lack of diversity is what causes the racism.

But what I wonder is... am I racist? The first thing I see when I look at someone who isn't caucasian is their skin colour. I honestly try not to, but I guess being raised in this environment made me this way. And racism is treating someone differently because of their skin colour. I see them as immediately more interesting, more diverse... I assume. Am I a racist?
I wish I was raised in a culturally diverse area so these thoughts wouldn't be programmed into my brain. x__x

For your case I think it'd be due to ignorance maybe? I dunno, nor am I trying to insult you honestly. :sigh: Being that I'm both Black and Caucasian, I get all types of questions. I actually like that, when you know more you are more comfortable.. so I don't think you are racist. The only thing I somewhat hate is when people assume ... or stereotype other races and cultures. I think the problem with everyone is, they are using racism as an excuse.
I don't judge people by color or media.. it's all propagation most people indulge in but I try not to. I think there are two kinds of people; Good people and bad people. There are white people that are good, and some are bad. There are black people that are bad and some are good... I hope I offended nobody :unsure:
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.Chris
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finch
Dec 11 2007, 06:00 PM
I find that most of my friends are racist. It's really ironic and maybe it's because I've been immersed in the diversity of the internet for too long for it to affect me any more, but I feel completely different. If anything I'm more eager to talk to someone with a different racial background. In our school, there is one asian family. No black people. It's such a shame, because it's obvious the lack of diversity is what causes the racism.

But what I wonder is... am I racist? The first thing I see when I look at someone who isn't caucasian is their skin colour. I honestly try not to, but I guess being raised in this environment made me this way. And racism is treating someone differently because of their skin colour. I see them as immediately more interesting, more diverse... I assume. Am I a racist?
I wish I was raised in a culturally diverse area so these thoughts wouldn't be programmed into my brain. x__x

Actually, our school for a sort of diversity awareness thing (? I guess...), addressed the whole issue of people trying not to notice other's skin color. To make a long story short, they didn't want people, for the sake of diversity, to look past someone's skin color/heritage when trying not to be racist, but to look at that person and accept / "celebrate" their heritage.

I don't think you're racist for noticing that someone is of a different ethnic background than you; I think you're human. Now, what I paraphrased sounded kind of sappy, but it brings up the good point about the other extreme end of diversity, which is wanting to be so "diverse" that you ignore someone's heritage entirely, even though it may be an important part of who they are.

To me, diversity is kind of an unimportant topic. All these seminars about diversity wear on my after awhile. I, personally, treat people how I will treat them. If I like you, I'll be nice and whatnot. If I don't like you, then I will ignore you. And just the same, I think that other people will treat others as they feel like. Discussing diversity, and emphasizing the importance of diversity isn't going to change how people think. So, not having an extremely diverse group of friends doesn't make you racist, you just don't happen to have a lot of friends of different ethnicities, and if you think about it, it's not strange at all. People form groups, it's natural. People shouldn't be forced to integrate with other groups, unless they want to, and not just for the sake of integrating with a different culture to say that you, or a company, or a school, is very diverse.


Blah. I think I wandered. I might have come off racist....but sticking with my opinions, I'll go with a hefty "too bad", because it wasn't racist. :P

Also, I said "you" a lot. I wasn't necessarily referring to finch, but to people not me in general. ;)
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