<p>I’m really worried too, what if my roommate and I have different concentrations of melanin in our skin?</p>
<p>This is appalling. Talk about judging a book by it’s cover, I find it extremely sad that you have already completely missed the point of college. Isn’t this the time you’re supposed to be pushing yourself past your comfort level? A time to open your mind to new people, ideas, cultures, religions, RACES? Unless you have a legitimate reason to believe that your roommate is racist or in some way prejudiced against you, there is absolutely no reason you should request to switch roommates based on her skin color. I understand that you want to room with someone you feel you can “relate” to, so try to find out what interests you have in common. You may be surprised by how much she could teach you, by how much you could relate to someone of a different race if you would just open your heart.</p>
<p>You guys are hypocrits. This is equivilant to vilifying lawyers until you get sued; then you run out and get the best lawyer you can find.</p>
<p>I’d personally stake my small fortune that if given a choice, most people here would choose a room mate of their same race. People on the forum can afford the luxury of criticizing in anonymity. The cultural difference simply create conflict. If everyone should “get over themself and racism,” why did the white people shoot indians and catch blacks in nets when they saw them?</p>
<p>Cultural differences matter and i know for a fact that white people and african americans are at least 95% of the time raised differently. If you meet someone who grew up similar to you, watched the same shows, ate the same food, you’d connect to them a lot better. </p>
<p>OP go for it. Change roommates. You’re people fought for the freedom to do as you wish and you shouldn’t let a bunch of kids behind computers tell you off.</p>
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<p>No, you made a (amusingly stupid) assumption that everyone is a hypocrit because they “vilify lawyers” or whatever random example your basing this equally random claim on. </p>
<p>Considering my father is a lawyer, and one of my goals to become one myself–chances are your assumption is false. </p>
<p>If you’re going to make mass claims, at least don’t come up with a half-ass attempt to justify it.
Use your whole ass next time. </p>
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<p>Also false. I don’t want any roommate. At all.
If I had to have one, I wouldn’t care about their race. Seriously, where are you coming up with this crap?</p>
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Talk about being hypocrit…</p>
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Right. This isn’t asinine at all. Everyone here is shooting Indians and enslaving blacks.
Try to keep your cultural references in this century if you’d like to have any chance of being taken seriously.</p>
<p>And I doubt anyone believes cultural differences don’t matter. The point–that you’ve successfully managed to not grasp–is to not be intolerant of those differences. </p>
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<p>Again with the hypocrisy. Nobody can say anthing negative to the OP, yet you can take your pointy little pixels and “tell off” everyone else?</p>
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Oh please. Where you grew up has a much more profound effect than the color of your skin. Should we all boycott rooming with people from opposite coasts because they like different food than us, and watch tv shows at different times? Your reasoning is laughable.</p>
<p>Errrr… I’m white and I picked a black roommate. We went to the same high school (in the South) and a mutual acquaintance set us up when he found out we were both going to the same university (in the South). Obviously it’s not random, but we didn’t know one another at all. We were a perfect match as far as roomies go and we’re sticking together this upcoming year. Plus, I got to know tons of cool people that I don’t think I could have met otherwise. </p>
<p>OP, you can’t spend your life avoiding intimate contact with people from different backgrounds. Racism aside, you’re limiting yourself from experiencing something new. Maybe this girl is really nice; maybe she’s an awful, horrible, terrible excuse for a human being. You won’t know until you give her a chance. I also imagine that your school would be more willing to switch you out over personality differences a few weeks into school than “because she’s white” before you even meet her.</p>
<p>You’re gonna have to deal with race sometime in life. Might as well deal with it during college.</p>
<p>Platts:</p>
<p>read my post. </p>
<p>The first part was a comparison. People compare birds to airplanes yet they are nothing alike.</p>
<p>The last part was empowering the OP. I told the OP not to let people like you tell him or her off.</p>
<p>Has anyone else noticed that the OP hasn’t been posting anymore? I doubt she’s even still reading. But yeah, racism sucks.</p>
<p>It’s 2010!! the race issue should be over</p>
<p>My friend feels the same way you do although she’s white and her roommate is black. I guess I’m surprised at this. You need to keep an open mind, and if at the end of the semester you really don’t get along, you can switch for VALID reasons. Besides, you can spend your time somewhere else rather than the room.</p>
<p>True or ■■■■■? </p>
<p>On a serious note. If you 100% wanted a black roommate why didn’t you apply to a HBCU? That would’ve gave you a black roommate fo’ sho’.</p>
<p>Listen everyone has a problem with their roommate for the first week or so and then at the end of the semester… guess what happens…those same roommates don’t want to room with anyone else but the other person.</p>
<h2>Don’t even post if you haven’t been in this situation before. </h2>
<p>I’m sensing a lot of hypocrisy in this thread. I myself am a <em>insert race in here</em> but I grew up in a fairly all <em>insert different race in here</em> so I myself would prefer to be roommates with a <em>insert race</em> because thats what I grew up with. </p>
<p>It’s not racist at all it’s just a matter of preference. I find that MOST people of my own race are a little weird for my liking but I still don’t mind being friends with them, just not roommates (if the person of my own race was like me and not weird like most people of my race I wouldn’t mind being roommates with them). I like to emphasize that I have a lot of friends from all races also. </p>
<p>The fact that the OP wants to be roommates with a person of his own race shouldn’t be looked down on unless he’s actually being racist. I don’t think this is the case because maybe he feel’s comfortable with another black person because he has a lot in common with them.</p>
<p>I had a roommate of the same race as me before and hated it. I’m almost positive I could have been really good friends with him if we weren’t roommates. But seeing as how I grew up in an all * insert different race* town, I found all of the stuff he would do as extremely annoying and not the norm as to what I’m used to. </p>
<p>People say that going to college is all about “opening your horizons” or whatever and you can still do that. Like I said before I don’t mind having friends from all races (because I actually do). But I would like to have some similarities with my roommate, a person that I’m actually living with, and that means if I grew up in an all <em>insert race here</em> then I’m most likely to have similarities with those kinds of people.</p>
<p>If anyone thinks that 2010 means race issues are over, just look at the news today.</p>
<p>An African-American woman in the Department Of Agriculture was fired today over her comments that 20 years ago, she was at first reluctant to help a white farmer (which was taken out of context to seem that she was racist surprisingly by conservative bloggers and Fox News). The white farmer stands behind the woman but she was still forced to resign.</p>
<p>In the 2008 election in Philadelphia, there were 2 members of the Black Panther party standing in front of a polling station in a predominantly black neighborhood holding a nightstick. Some people saw this as voter intimidation.</p>
<p>Even though it’s 2010, race is still an issue and even more so now that we have an African American president.</p>
<p>The more I read this thread, the more I am prone to think a person created a “reverse” racism scenerio to spark debate.</p>
<p>I also think people put a lot more emphasis on race than they need to. Yes, it’s an issue, but look out the NAACP and Jesse Jackson- they called a Hallmark card that used the term “black hole” racist, and Jackson said the Cavilers owner treated Lebron like an escaped slave. These types of things undermine actual racism.</p>
<p>thats sad, dont judge someone you have never met before
accept your roomate, and you just might become good friends with her</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Why shouldnt you be prejudiced?</p>
<p>If you see a tiger eat a man, should you just say “oh thats just ONE tiger. NOT ALL tigers eat men.” and jump into a lion cage offering it a chance for a tea party. Does that sound reasonable? HELL NAW. Our brains are designed to hold dearly to our experiences to make educated judgments about future similar situations. On the other hand, if you met a few puppy dogs who are nice, cute, and cuddly, it would be natural to assume the next one will be just as cute, warm, and cuddly. People are comfy with things they are familiar with.</p>
<p>If we encountered 5 [ insert race here ] who were mean, uneducated, and downright obnoxious, it is only logical to assume that the 6’th will follow the same pattern (it is most likely that the sixth will fit the description]. Any attempt to refute this argument is plainly irrational. Will all of them fit that description? No. Will they most likely fit that description? Yes sir.</p>
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<p>LMAO! That is a horrible, horrible analogy. </p>
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<p>The only thing irrational here is your weak inductive argument. ■■■■■ harder, broski…■■■■■ harder.</p>
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<p>People do that all of the time on this site, and yet those threads continue to be some of the most popular here.</p>
<p>I’m worried I might get stuck with a roommate with red hair. I just wouldn’t feel comfortable.</p>
<p>Y’all think I might be able to talk to the housing people about that? I mean, they’re supposed to be understanding, right?</p>