I don't like talking about race because I feel like I'm going to slip up and say the wrong thing somehow. I feel like anything I might say opens me up to being judged by someone. I also feel like you are looking to judge people here.
Because, really, if you're surrounded by white people and you have zero interaction with non-white people, how are you going to know anything about non-white people?
You travel if you can, you listen to/watch the news, you watch foreign films and PBS.
At least, this was my parents' strategy for my sister and I as we grew up in a 95% white area. They didn't want to send us out into the world entirely ignorant about the world around us.
I'm not saying that this was a substitute for growing up in a racially, ethnically, or culturally diverse area. But I think it gave us a head start, so we weren't quite the "aw shucks" hicks some people expected us to be. Not that you are expecting that of people, either - I'm just speaking from my own experience of going from a small, rural town to a very liberal (but actually, still mostly white) school, where kids from the surrounding area didn't expect me to know shit about shit.
Post by birdistheword on Jan 22, 2013 23:29:10 GMT -5
I went to high school in a town that is like 99% white. There was exactly one black person in my school, and he was adopted by a white family. My college had more diversity, but was still mostly white. I live in Southwest Missouri for reference. I very rarely interact with any minorities on a daily basis. I have one Chinese friend, and one Filipino-American friend, and that is pretty much the extent of it. I don't do this on purpose. There simply just aren't many minorities around here.
Um, probably not, I don't know that I've mentioned it on here before.
Sorry, I totally get geeked about adult transracial adoptees.
No worries, just to clarify, my sister is adopted, not me, not sure if that was clear. It was really interesting growing up with an adopted sister, let alone one of a different race. I would get so mad when people would say she wasn't my real sister or didn't understand how we could possibly be sisters when we didn't look a like.
I interact with quite a mix of Minorities everyday. My BFF is Korean, my assistant is a gay And Taiwanese. One set of my cousins are Jewish, another set are Vietnamese. I really do not interact with many black (is that the correct terminology?) people though on a daily basis.
Interestingly, my Taiwanese coworker refers to himself as Oriental. I don't say it, though.
WTF? Is he old? Or actually from Taiwan (i.e., recent immigrant)? Does he have a good command of English?
No self-respecting American-born person of Asian descent would ever refer to herself as Oriental.
This is my MIL. She refers to herself and her friends as Oriental. She's lived here for 40+ years. We explained multiple times that it's not an okay thing to say. "Why not? If I want to call myself Oriental, I can!"
Okay then.
And to answer your question... yes, I know minorities in real life.
I grew up in a town without a lot of diversity, but my uncle and cousin were puerto rican, and my mom's close friend who was at our house a lot was black, and the other coach of my dad's baseball team was hispanic. Oh, and my first boyfriend was native american. And until I went off to college in a more diverse area (the school, not the city) I did not realize racism actually existed. I didn't even know growing up that people were distinguished in modern society based on race . . . . it wasn't like I was ever taught to look past skin color, no one cared about skin color in my family so I just didn't know it was really a thing.
Through high school, I knew very few minorities (even in Seattle). College in Boston opened my eyes, but then I moved to eastern WA for 5 years, where I rarely saw a non-white person who didn't play college basketball.
Now, back in seattle proper, I'm surrounded by a pretty diverse group, both professionally and personally.
Post by fuckyourcouch on Jan 22, 2013 23:50:35 GMT -5
I currently live in a pretty white suburb. I grew up in ethnically diverse areas, and I think white people may have been the minority in my high school. My friends include white people, Asian people, gay people, Hispanics, middle eastern people, black people (African and African American), and others.
Honestly, yes. I live in a predominantly white area and work for a a very high end country club. At this time, we have approximately 5 minority families. Everyone else is white. And despite the attempts of my University, we were not a diverse student body. They did try to bring in as many Asian students as possible (usually Chinese students).
Through high school and middle school, one of my best friends was half Japanese, another was Hispanic. Both were "white" in terms of culture though. Except for food. My Japanese friend's mom makes the best gyozas!
My understanding of racial issues is likely quite limited. Now I'm off to read the thread that prompted this.
Look ... if "Jesus is on the main line" tell him by hour two of church, some of us are gonna want some brunch. I'm just sayin, snacks would've been appreciated.
We went to a couple services at Baptists churches in the south when I was growing up. They always felt sooo long, and I didn't know what to do, because at our regular Presbyterian church there was definitely no dancing or people waving their hands in the air.
I grew up in a suburb of DC and then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. LOL. I relate to what elle was saying about not even realizing that race was an issue for people.
My H is Hispanic and it didn't occur to me until after we were married that we're interracial. Like, I obviously knew he wasn't white (and I did notice that he was the first non-white guy I had ever dated) but for some reason that didn't equal interracial to me.
Post by LeggsBenedict on Jan 23, 2013 0:44:06 GMT -5
berbles, I did the same thing. I think it's because H is Chinese, but he doesn't look Chinese. I realized we were interracial a year ago and felt like an idiot.
berbles, I did the same thing. I think it's because H is Chinese, but he doesn't look Chinese. I realized we were interracial a year ago and felt like an idiot.
LOL! I can do you one better. It wasn't until I was chatting with an African-American coworker who said something about us being interracial and I was like, "We are?" You should have SEEN how she laughed at/with me.
yeah, you loved it because it wasn't every week. nobody wants to party hard every goddamn weekend.
we used to get to sunday school by 9:30am and wouldn't walk out of the church building until well after 2pm.
AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT SHIT. foreal.
I'm crying for real because it true. Trying to balance that, and getting homework done before Monday. I used to panic Sunday afternoons.
We used to go from 9am-12:30pm. So, when my husband complains that Mass was "a whole hour and 15 minutes!!" I just laugh. I mean, that argument is never going to sway me from a church if I other wise like the priest/congregation. Just over an hour is nothing! LOL
DD1's preschool is decently diverse and I'm interacting with those moms daily, at least casually. My SIL is Korean, but I don't see her much b/c she and BIL live in Korea. Another SIL is from Spain. Denver is an area with a large Hispanic population, and I definitely see that reflected in DD1's classes the past two years and to some extent in our neighborhood. Also kids of Asian and Indian backgrounds. But she hasn't had any African-American kids in her classes, which seems a little odd to me considering that the school is pretty diverse overall (not just race but socio-economics).
I know we have at least a couple of black families in the neighborhood b/c I see the kiddos walking to school, but they're older (middle school).
I don't know where that falls on the spectrum of diversity, but it's got to be better than where I grew up -- a little rural Ohio backwater that was mostly white with quite a few Hispanic kids, but in a town of about 5K, there was exactly one black person, who was a kid in my grade who was adopted. One family from India who lived down the street from me and had a son my age who was in a lot of my classes. No Asians that I can recall. I think another family in my neighborhood was Filipino? And I don't think I met anyone who wasn't Christian until I went to a private high school an hour away in the nearest city -- ironically, it was a Catholic all-girls high school that had a surprising number of Muslim and Hindu students and was way more ethnically & religiously diverse than my entire hometown.