<p>you speak like the south is stuck in some time warp where racism still permeates the atmosphere. It might still be around, but what qualifies the contention that, because it’s the south; this is the way it is and has to be. College is suppose to be the time where you expand your horizons and experience the different ideals’ and cultures’ of the world regardless of prejudice. </p>
<p>It’s not like minorities have cooties or that if you befriend of associate yourself with them you are somehow degrading yourself as a human being. We don’t live in the 50s anymore. There can’t be such a huge difference between the south and the rest of America in terms of culture. But saying that i have never been to the south, so i cannot personally attest to such a premise. </p>
<p>but i have a friend from high school that goes there now, and he told me when he would be walking home from classes or activities at night, he would always have weird looks or stares at him, and even sometimes racial slurs like china man or something said to him by passerbys’</p>
<p>^I had some preconceptions about the south before I came here, but it’s not as bad as some people make it out to be. If anything, I think the South has a more friendly atmosphere than what’s up north. I can attest to southern hospitality.
I agree with this. I saw some of this when I went to Carolina, and most of the people I talked to said the same thing. self-segregation is there, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a diverse group of friends. You can indeed choose the kind of experience that you want to have.</p>
<p>I’m not at all talking about racism though.
Like i said inclusive to your own group but not exclusive to any others.
With UNC being 11% black, if you go into a classroom with 40 caucasian students and 10 black, I would go talk to the people like me, just how it is.
And its not like segregated, it’s just you hang around people you have more in common with, but it still doesn’t mean you don’t hang out with other people.
And for minorities, you just meet people of your own race quicker if you become involved in stuff like MSRC or the BSM or BGLO frat/srat</p>
<p>But however, I can’t attest to any of this because I’m don’t attend Carolina, this is just what i’ve witnessed and heard at when i went to unc’s Project Uplift, but hopefully i’ll be there in Fall 2011 ! :)</p>
<p>I am so tired of people that have never visited UNC flooding this forum with their ridiculous preconceptions about UNC and the south. If you are truly concerned about the racial atmoshere of UNC, then come and visit. Otherwise, stop speculating on something you know nothing about. North Carolina is not one of the poorest states in the country. Charlotte is the second largest banking center in the United States, and Research Triangle Park is one of the most progressive business and scientific areas on the east coast today. The triangle area is routinely named one of the top areas of the countries to live in today, with the Charlotte area is not far behind. I have spent a large part of my life in and around the Chapel Hill area, and I live about thirty minutes away in rural North Carolina. I am a white male, and I have many African-American, Asian, and Hispanic friends. My own mother grew up in rural North Carolina and attended UNC, where her best friend was an African American woman. College is truly what you make of it. You can have a group of friends that is made up entirely of your own race if that is what you want, but many, many people chose to have a diverse group of friends at UNC Chapel Hill. Just take a visit and see. Please stop contributing these negative stereotypes about how North Carolina is somehow stuck in the fifties or akin to Apartheid. You are claiming that North Carolina has old-fashioned tendencies based on your own old-fashioned preconceptions. This forum is here to help people in their college search, not alienate them with your false ideas.</p>
<p>People are psychologically inclined to feel more connected to those “like them” ethnically/racially. It’s an openly known and studied event. That doesn’t mean they can’t connect with different people, however there is a strong instinctual pull to those who strongly resemble themselves. This somewhat makes sense if you think evolution wise and how members of a certain tribe from a certain area would strongly resemble each other, and they could therefore identify outsiders who might be a threat or from a warring tribe that wants to throw rocks at them. </p>
<p>They actually did a study on this recently where after watching a video of someone I think getting poked in the hand with a needle, those who were similar in race/ethnicity to the person in the video felt more empathy than those different. </p>
<p>This is, of course, a really general rule for people though. Always exceptions, for example, I am a biracial (white/black) female, but all of my friends are white males. (Make of that what you will.) But if you stop and look, you’ll find this general rule to be true more often than not. </p>
<p>I’m transferring to UNC from the U of New Mexico. You wanna talk about racially segregated, sheesh.</p>
<p>I hope that rant wasn’t directed at me, tarheel151. I have lived in Chapel Hill/Carrboro and attended UNC for several years now. Just because we have different opinions doesn’t mean we’re all ignorant.</p>
<p>And your point about Charlotte and the Triangle isn’t helping your case. Nobody denied that there are fairly wealthy parts of NC. But there are also horribly, horribly poor areas, including many where black people are concentrated. That, together with the state’s truly awful secondary education system, entrenches a lot of division.</p>
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<p>Cuse0507, have you ever been to Berkeley? The two simply don’t compare. Though Carrboro is hippie central for a certain brand of white, late 20s to early 40s semi-wealthy ‘hippie’, Berkeley is a very ethnically and racially mixed home of true radicalism.</p>
<p>As much as I like Carrboro (and I do), I always thought ‘Berkeley of the East’ was a slightly cruel joke mocking the place’s pretensions, like ‘Paris of the Piedmont’.</p>
<p>Nope, never been to Berkeley. I agree that Carrboro may not be as radical as Berkeley, but can you think of another place on the east coast that is quite as quirky and “hippie-ish” (for lack of a better word) as Carrboro?</p>
<p>Nope, none spring to mind – but my main point was that even Carrboro is massively ethnically segregated. </p>
<p>Did you know that Carrboro actually has a rather high Latino population? You’d never know it from walking around central Carrboro. Carrboro is where a lot of white people go to feel good about themselves, communing with other white people.</p>
<p>The stat you posted is not great: 38th out of 50 is not a great performance, you know.
Just saying.</p>
<p>And at least as of 2004, NC is a horribly unequal place. [From</a> a quick Google search:](<a href=“Redirect Notice”>Redirect Notice)</p>
<p>[ul]
[li] 21.2 percent of all Tar Heel families with children younger than age five are [/li]poor.[5]<br>
[li] One of every five Tar Heel children lives in poverty.[6]<br>[/li][li] In 2003, 13 percent of whites, 32 percent of blacks and 38 percent of Hispanics [/li]were poor.[7]
[li] Over one-third of high-school students fail to graduate four years after starting [/li]school.[15]<br>
[li] Minority students have a 50-50 chance of graduating high school on time.[16] [/li][li]25,000 people in North Carolina have HIV/AIDS with African Americans [/li]accounting for 71 percent of the infected.[18]<br>
[li]African-Americans account for almost 60 percent of the prison population but [/li]only about 21 percent of the overall population.[22]<br>
[li]The typical adult entering the prison system in 2004 could read at a ninth-grade [/li]level and perform math at a seventh-grade level.[23]
[/ul]</p>
<p>I actually wrote a paper about Carrboro’s latino population for one of my classes. A lot of residents are concerned about the behavior of the migrants while they wait for work, and there is a debate about how to best deal with the people. </p>
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<p>I think it is more of a “hippie-haven” than white person haven. I see a lot of traditional African people in Carborro wearing the garb and such.</p>
<p>I have been on these forums long enough to know that you live in Chapel Hill, keepittoyourself. I have also been on these forums long enough to know that the only purpose you serve is to stir up trouble, poke the flames, and quite possibly turn people away from UNC. I also resent you connecting African-American people with residing in the poorest areas of the state as well. It sounds like someone else has a problem with stereotypes, doesn’t it? There is certainly no shortage of poor, white people in Appalachia; I know that for a fact.</p>
<p>85% of North Carolina’s population has income that places it above the poverty line. Only 15% lives below the poverty line. Of those 15%, how many have children that will end up going to UNC? A very, very small number. So UNC students have a LOT in common, as least economically. There are very few impoverished UNC students.</p>
<p>It’s not a stereotype – the statistics back it up. Appalachia is sparsely populated – Eastern NC has a much higher population and is extremely poor. It also has a lot of black people.</p>
<p>And did you just call me a racist? This conversation is over.</p>
<p>I usually see a couple on the grass outside the Weaver Street Market (that’s the one by Harris Teeter, right?) every time I drive by there. Now, I may just be seeing the same ones over and over again, but who knows…</p>
<p>Did I mention the word racist anywhere in my post? I didn’t think so. For being this mass dispenser of wisdom and advice, you are mighty immature. I really wish you would take your negative, immature, and ill-founded viewpoint elsewhere.</p>
<p>OK I can’t resist, I’ll come back once more: you accused me of having a stereotype that black people are poorer and live in poor areas of the state. You said that, being a black person yourself, you ‘resent’ me for this. You also said that I 'have a problem with stereotypes.</p>
<p>That’s pretty tantamount to calling me a racist. What else could you have meant?</p>
<p>First of all, I am not African American. I resent you for your negative opinions and your stereotypes on topics that are discussed on this forum. And of course you have a problem with stereotypes. Everybody has a problem with stereotypes; it’s simply human nature. It’s how you are forcing your stereotypes down our throats in order to sway others that I really resent.</p>