<p>If you are white and live in a predominantly white neighborhood and your friends are all/mostly white, you think of members of all other races as 'outsiders'.</p>
<p>If you are black and live in a predominantly black neighborhood and your friends are all/mostly black, you think of members of all other races as 'outsiders'.</p>
<p>If you are Hispanic and live in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood and your friends are all/mostly Hispanic, you think of membersof all other races as 'outsiders'.</p>
<p>If you are (East) Asian and live in a predominantly Asian neighborhood and your friends are all/mostly Asian, you think of members of all other races as 'outsiders'.</p>
<p>If you are Indian and live in a predominantly Indian neighborhood and your friends are all/mostly Indian, you think of members of all other races as 'outsiders'.</p>
<p>This sounds dangerously close to justification for racist and prejudiced behavior, the "well, everybody does it!" argument.</p>
<p>No it's not the same. When one group consists of 100% of elected presidents, over 90% of the Senate, and overwhelming control of mass media, it's not comparable when said group does it and the others do it.</p>
<p>This isn't really something people have to "face". We are all aware of our own prejudices, even if some of us don't like to admit we have them. We are all pretty much inherently racist.</p>
<p>Anybody who's spent 10 minutes around a group of people from another ethnicity realizes very quickly they are the "outsider" in that situation - not only by color but by cultural references, humor, even what is deemed physically attractive in a mate (poor white girls with badonkadonks...).</p>
<p>So, then, why is this something we need to "face" as if it's a shocking revelation?</p>
<p>Siglio21, I understand what you were trying to say: that a lot of people come out as foolish and even hypocritical when they rub their "multiculturalness" or "ethnic open-mindedness" on other people's faces when they, themselves, are very ethnically biased. </p>
<p>That's funny I don't feel "ingroup bias" with Hispanic people (I am Hispanic). I feel it with conservatives. =)</p>
<p>I guess that's true that ingroup bias tends to be stronger when the group is smaller.</p>
<p>^^
Oh, I get it. Yeah. Like those 20-something liberal white women who like guys because they're brown and don't like guys because they're also white and, therefore, not multicultural. </p>
<p>I'm white and I've been dissed by other white people for being white. They just assume they already know all about me. I'm not strange and different. Kinda funny.</p>
<p>
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We are all pretty much inherently racist.
[/Quote]
Untrue, a new born isn't racist. Racism is taught. If you don't learn racism, you won't grow up racist.</p>
<p>True, people prefer cultures similar to their own. But skin color, ethnicity, etc. don't necessarily correlate with culture. Example: CCers are interested in educational issues, so at a gathering you might find more in common to talk about with another CCer who is of a different ethnic group than you would someone in your own ethnic group who is not at all interested in educational issues.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Untrue, a new born isn't racist. Racism is taught. If you don't learn racism, you won't grow up racist.</p>
<p>True, people prefer cultures similar to their own. But skin color, ethnicity, etc. don't necessarily correlate with culture. Example: CCers are interested in educational issues, so at a gathering you might find more in common to talk about with another CCer who is of a different ethnic group than you would someone in your own ethnic group who is not at all interested in educational issues.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well said. We are taught by our surroundings to recognize "races" and then invent prejudiced opinions about them.</p>
<p>If you are an outsider and live in a predominantly outsider neighborhood and your friends are all/mostly outsiders, you think of members of all other social groups as socs.</p>
<p>Racist mentality is taught, but young children are afraid of the unfamiliar, and the unfamiliar extends to people who look different. "Racism" is not inherent, but the cause of it is.</p>
<p>On the up side of all this, I think a lot of young people had to be told by older people that Barack's ethnicity was something of concern for some. I honestly don't think most people who supported Barack early on thought much about his race at all.</p>
<p>As I write this, the young generation is being taught to be racist by some ignorant elders who still make it an issue. You can see it in the panick over poll numbers at McCain/Palin campaign rallies.</p>
<p>Imagine a man who climbed from modesty to Columbia and Harvard being looked down upon for being an "Arab", as the woman said yesterday.</p>