<ol>
<li>I don't know anyone that goes to the school I am going to go.</li>
<li>When I see his facebook, he is very ghetto. (I don't mean he is an African American)</li>
<li>I don't want to live with him because of that.</li>
<li>I tried to find someone that I met in the orientation to live with, but failed.</li>
</ol>
<p>What should I do?</p>
<p>Calling someone “ghetto” for what’s in his Facebook IS racial profiling!</p>
<p>Maybe you could call the housing office and request a roommate that is a little less ghetto.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I had to laugh at #2.</p>
<p>On another note, you don’t know how they are when they aren’t with their crowd, so stereotyping isn’t the solution… at least until you actually meet them and see how they are.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. He is NOT African American. (That’s why I told you don’t racial profiling someone!)</p>
<p>When you say “ghetto,” what entirely are you meaning to imply?</p>
<p>PoppinBottlesMGT:
Well, I graduated from a high school that many of their parents are just above or below the poverty line, but I am way above the line. I don’t discriminate poor individuals, but many of people in my school takes weeds, drugs, getting loaded during class, lots of behavior problems. I am afraid that he would be one of them.</p>
<p>I’d say that once you find that to actually be the case, act on it. By the looks of it you ARE discriminating/stereotyping. If any of the above is actually true, I doubt you would have any issues getting a new roommate.</p>
<p>rmeltzer1986:
I tried my best wording not to sound like I am a racist or something. My roommate and I are both white, but…</p>
<p>Well, looks can be decieving. No one likes to be judged by the their appearance. What if he turns out to be a great friend? Everyone deserves a chance. And if it doesn’t work out, you can always request a change.</p>
<p>Oh I know, and I am familiar with the type of person you describe. You just can’t let your discrimination or stereotyping keep you from meeting someone potentially completely different than you think. As I said, if the person actually does those things you mentioned, they won’t be there long enough for it to be a significant issue.</p>
<p>You are 100% discriminating based on what you think his income level is. You think he is poor from his FB if I am reading this correctly, you have anecdotes about poor people who have behavioral problems, and thus don’t want to be his roommate.</p>
<p>Shawna23:
I definitely understand that, but you wouldn’t even feel safe if you see him.(it’s really tough to explain my dear) Not only I am worrying, my mother is worrying too if she needs to move with me by the school.</p>
<p>If your mother would move to live by her adult son’s school because his roommate is poor, I can sort of see that this is not an issue that people are going to be able to help you with over the internet. I wish all of you the best of luck, particularly your roommate.</p>
<p>Your dorm should offer an option to swap roommates in the first weeks/month of school. </p>
<p>I had a similar problem with my roommate - I personally didn’t like him because he only cared about his fraternity, didn’t go any of his classes, had a very messy room, and smoked weed too much. The point of that is just because you disagree with his personal choices shouldn’t be a reason not to get along. I still got along with my roommate even though I held a very low opinion of him and had almost nothing in common.</p>
<p>I chose not to switch because I only used my room for sleeping and figured it wasn’t worth the problem. You have to get signatures from the person you are swapping rooms with and your roommate to approve the switch. Likewise, the person switching with you has to get your signature and the signature of his roomate to approve the switch so everybody agrees to the changes. At least that’s how it worked at my dorms.</p>
<p>(btw his skin color doesn’t matter so don’t feel the need to prove everybody you’re not racist…ironically it makes people suspicious that you stereotype ethnic groups)</p>
<p>I can be fine with him if I want to, but NOT my mother. My mother would not let me live in the dorm if I am going to live with him.</p>
<p>gr33kbo1:
My school has that too. However, what I am trying to do is to get him out of my room or get me out of his room before the school starts.</p>
<p>Even though you haven’t actually met him yet, I guess I understand the concern.</p>
<p>Shawna23:
Thank you. What do u think I can do?</p>
<p>Ohhhh, now I see where the prejudice comes from. It’s a shame and not your fault that you were raised in such an environment but you’re a goddamn adult now and you should know what to think, say, and do without your mother holding your hand all the time.
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” hundreds of times now. Learn to use it. And if you are right about your blatant assumption on his CHARACTER then it is easy peasy to request a room change.</p>