Ethnicity

[Arrian]

Natan,

Well, the clique thing probably varies widely depending on the university or college. In my experience, there just wasn't all that much mixing. Some, but not much.

I don't think having those houses for the groups is a really bad thing. I just think it, in combination with the early orientation thing, had one bad side-effect.

It's a tough thing to balance, I think. On the one hand, I understand why a particulary ethnic minority might want an organization/house of their own - a place they can retreat to, a safe haven. Then again, I'd like to think that things have changed over the last few decades, and that racism is declining. At least as far as my friends go, I think that's true. If I'm right, then I think the special handling of ethnic minorities on campuses is overprotective and possibly counterproductive. On the other hand, if I'm wrong, then well... I'm wrong.

-Arrian

[Natan]

Originally posted by Arrian
Natan,

Well, the clique thing probably varies widely depending on the university or college. In my experience, there just wasn't all that much mixing. Some, but not much.

I don't think having those houses for the groups is a really bad thing. I just think it, in combination with the early orientation thing, had one bad side-effect.

Certainly I can see the danger of encouraging people to spend the entirety of their college years with people who look like they do.

It's a tough thing to balance, I think. On the one hand, I understand why a particulary ethnic minority might want an organization/house of their own - a place they can retreat to, a safe haven. Then again, I'd like to think that things have changed over the last few decades, and that racism is declining. At least as far as my friends go, I think that's true. If I'm right, then I think the special handling of ethnic minorities on campuses is overprotective and possibly counterproductive. On the other hand, if I'm wrong, then well... I'm wrong.

-Arrian

I'm sure it differs from college to college, but my feeling is that the houses may be a secondary factory in all this. If people don't feel comfortable for whatever reason mixing with people of different ethnicities, then they won't and you can't really force them to. If people do feel comfortable mixing, then there's only so much segregated housing is going to do to prevent it.

[MrFun]

Did anyone read my post??

[Kropotkin]

No, Mr. fun. No-one rrad your post so keep shut!

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Kropotkin
No, Mr. fun. No-one rrad your post so keep shut!

I hope you meant that as a joke.

I mean, God forbid if I wish to participate in Off-Topic threads.

[WhiteElephants]

Mr. Fun, you have some deep seeded issues concerning attention. I have a sneaking suspicion you didn't get much from your parents as a child and now you're making up for it. You seem to have this phobia of being over looked, as this isn't the first time you've wondered if anyone read your last post. How do you think this might relate to your open homosexuality? Tell me about your mother.

[WhiteElephants]

Originally posted by MrFun
Did anyone read my post??

Yes, I did. You made a statement. How do you expect us to react?

[MrFun]

White Elephant, I will just ignore your troll and explain to what a discussion is.

A discussion involves more than one person.

When a person posts their arguments or statements on a thread here, they mean to initiate, or continue a discussion or argument about a topic.
Can you grasp that concept?

When people do not respond to my posts, I do not know who agrees with me, who disagrees, and why they agree or disagree.

[WhiteElephants]

Originally posted by MrFun


White Elephant, I will just ignore your troll and explain to what a discussion is.

A discussion involves more than one person.

When a person posts their arguments or statements on a thread here, they mean to initiate, or continue a discussion or argument about a topic.
Can you grasp that concept?

When people do not respond to my posts, I do not know who agrees with me, who disagrees, and why they agree or disagree.

Doctor, I think you hit a nerve.

[WhiteElephants]

Originally posted by MrFun


I have read some of the good posts in here, and they are interesting.

I disagree with the issue between conformity and diversity. Some of you seem to be going to the extreme in saying that we cannot have ANY diversity between people --- we all need to become culturally monolithic to create a true melting pot society.

I find the concept of the melting pot repugnant. We can balance moderate conformity with moderate advocacy for diversity.

Actually, I prefer my bath water luke warm.

[Sandman]

Ethnicity; what use is it?

[Evil_Eric_4]

I am responding to the very first post only.

Hoek-
Just to frame this reply- I am a 36 year old American ,born and raised here(in USA) of German descent.

I take it by the way you worded your first 2 sentences that you are completely "americanised" like me.
So I too find it hard to understand. However --of all the european countries I tend to find myself wanting to side with the Germans more than all the others(and thats hard to do when you launch 2 world wars).
Why? I'm not sure.
Maybe It's cause they never burned down my capital--or maybe it is something more subtle at work here.
I would venture to guess that if Holland where in a fight for her life you would probably sympathise with the Dutch no matter what the circumstances. It seems only natural.Unfortunately.

Maybe someday, with the huge advances in computer tech, the world will become truly globalised and borders will mean nothing.

In the meantime I hope you are exagerating your descriptions of American academics.I haven't been in school for a long time so I don't know -but what you describe is definately a step backward.

[Goingonit]

Ethnicity is not just biological. I identify with others of the same ethnicity due to the cultural and historical similarities I share with them.

You can be proud of your heritage and still be a member of a multicultural community.

Here is an example: I am currently participating in a model UN run by my school. I am Jewish, and biletting a Chinese person and an Italian. One of my co-delegates is an Irish Catholic, another is half-Japanese. I can't list the ethnicities of people whom I debated with because I didn't notice or pay any attention.

Rather than assimilation, we can place emphasis on cultural vibrance, diversity, and mutual respect.

[DarkCloud]

Hoek, I agree with you- as soon as "race" is abolished and ignored, 40% of the problems in the world will disappear.
No Hitler, No Arab/Israelie conflict, etc.

Race is horrid.
"Diversity" is trash. It only encourages differences. All cultures should homogenize into one superculture. the Quotas in schools are good but only to a point. You don't want discrimination, but you don't want to kick out good students because some idiot who is a "diverse" student needs to get in to meet a quota.

There should be no diversity.
Only humans.

[DarkCloud]

differences only encourage fighting.
Celebrate the uniqueness.

I always hate ethno-centric ideas such as in schools the "African American student union" or "italian club" or "Latinos Unidos" Ick.
Ick.
Ick.
I boycot anything of that sort.

I can see the reasons- "bound together so we won't be persecuted" but still... if no persecution exists- ick.

[MrFun]

Affirmative action and quotas is not about letting idiots in --- it's about aggressively seeking competent people for schools or careers, who belong to a minority group.

I love how you guys distort the purpose of quotas and affirmative action. It only makes you look bad.

[Sarxis]

why do people feel kinship based on believed biological connections. Why is it that people get so wrapped up in their ethnic identiy that they are willing to strap C-4 to themselves and kill ...

I am partly Polish.

I like Pierogies.


DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH MY GAWD@MN PIEROGIES!!!

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by Serb

How many Americans with Japanese roots were departated after Pearl Harbor?

i LOVE flaming people who say enterment was wrong.

the attack on Perl Harbor itself was aided by the use of Japanese spies, and the rumor was that they were basically everywhere. it was a wartime necessity, and i wish they did it now.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by UberKruX


i LOVE flaming people who say enterment was wrong.

the attack on Perl Harbor itself was aided by the use of Japanese spies, and the rumor was that they were basically everywhere. it was a wartime necessity, and i wish they did it now.

You want to throw Japanese-Americans into internment camps now? Talk about holding a grudge.

[Solly]

Hoek,

"let me first say that I am a white male American of 100% Dutch extraction."

"Ethnic identification needs to stop."

[Kropotkin]

it was a wartime necessity, and i wish they did it now.

So you're sdaying that the US gov't should put every one with arab decent or that are muslim into camps? Wacko.

They don't need to put people in internment camps. Anyone who truly believes the government doesn't monitor just about anything is naive. According to Yahoo! magazine, every piece of data that is sent over the internet is intercepted by the NSA. Also, every word you speak on the telephone is sent through computers and key words are red flagged.

What people forget is that the United States wasn't really a superpower pre-WWII. Most of the Japanese spies gave information like the location of key ships and targets. Now, that information would be irrelevant because the US military can detect the location of any threats. There is no way a fleet of carriers would get anywhere remotely close to attacking the United States in this day and age. In fact, if any of the countries that the US considered a threat started building carriers on a large scale, the US would probably strike first.

[MrFun]

The stealing of Japanese property, and forcing them to relocate into desert-area camps was based on racism.

The war-time policy bulls**t was a convenient facade.

[Hoek]

The goal shouldn't be to destroy differences, but instead, to identify the "good" differences in terms of identification and the "bad" ones. Ethnicity, which, in reality, is simply PERCEIVED biological linkages, is a poor criteria for identification. I framed my post by declaring my ethnicity to demonstrate that despite my Dutch extraction, I do not identify with the "Dutch people" in terms of ethnicity. If the Dutch were in a fight for their life, I would not sympathize with them any more than any other country in a fight for its life. Canada, Australia, and the other countries mentioned are not based on ideology. The only other country that the world has ever seen that nationalism is based on political ideology instead of ethnicity has been the Soviet Union. It was a multiethnic empire as well, and it defined itself in terms of communism, not ethnicity.

I come from a very liberal, diverse town, in which people had little choice but to be friends with people of different ethnicity. It's college that fosters ethnic identity here.

[Natan]

Originally posted by Hoek
The goal shouldn't be to destroy differences, but instead, to identify the "good" differences in terms of identification and the "bad" ones. Ethnicity, which, in reality, is simply PERCEIVED biological linkages

I don't think that's a good definition of ethnicity at all. In many places, such as the former Yugoslavia and Lebanon and one's ethnicity is solely a function of religion. In most others, it's a linguistic thing. Only pretty rarely is it percieved as racial.

Also, there are a number of countries which are based on religious ideologies. Saudi Arabia, for example.

[WhiteElephants]

Originally posted by Sava
They don't need to put people in internment camps. Anyone who truly believes the government doesn't monitor just about anything is naive. According to Yahoo! magazine, every piece of data that is sent over the internet is intercepted by the NSA. Also, every word you speak on the telephone is sent through computers and key words are red flagged.

Whoa there agent Moulder. That little paranoid ditty was pretty ridiculous. Every word 270 million + is a lot of words, besides being an invasion of privacy and an application of technology that doesn't quite exist yet. Get back to buidling your Y3K bomb shelter and quit fear mongering.

[DarkCloud]

And Sava- how can the government "read" all that information-

paranoia knows no limits

Affirmative action and quotas is not about letting idiots in --- it's about aggressively seeking competent people for schools or careers, who belong to a minority group.

I love how you guys distort the purpose of quotas and affirmative action. It only makes you look bad.

But Mr Fun- it is abused. I know that the spirit behind it is what you say- and I support the spirit- but not the application.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by DarkCloud
And Sava- how can the government "read" all that information-

paranoia knows no limits


But Mr Fun- it is abused. I know that the spirit behind it is what you say- and I support the spirit- but not the application.

If you can find some way to reform affirmative action to minimize its misuse, I am all ears.

But if you advocate abolishing a system just because of past misuse, then following your logic, we need to abolish ALL programs and systems that have a history of misuse.

Where would our society end up, following that logic?

[DarkCloud]

Originally posted by MrFun


If you can find some way to reform affirmative action to minimize its misuse, I am all ears.

But if you advocate abolishing a system just because of past misuse, then following your logic, we need to abolish ALL programs and systems that have a history of misuse.

Where would our society end up, following that logic?

I did not support abolishing it.
I cited how to reform it in the Affirmitive action thread... I believee you know of the thread which I speak. Thr=ere I posted how to make it better.

Make affirmitive action work so that only "minorities" which are the equals or better than whites receive jobs.

Do not let lesser qualified people into jobs!

It would be good for everyone!

[MrFun]

Originally posted by DarkCloud


I did not support abolishing it.
I cited how to reform it in the Affirmitive action thread... I believee you know of the thread which I speak. Thr=ere I posted how to make it better.

Make affirmitive action work so that only "minorities" which are the equals or better than whites receive jobs.

Do not let lesser qualified people into jobs!

It would be good for everyone!

OMG!!! We agree!