Racism & Prejudice

11.05.06

Posted under: Uncategorized

What I don’t understand is why people have to include someone’s race when describing him/her. Usually, someone will say, “Hey, there’s this white kid that…” instead of “Hey, there’s this kid that…”

Why is race so important? Because an adjective stuck in a sentence means it’s okay for people to start formulating stereotypes and prejudices? I admit that when I hear the word for a certain race (i.e. white, black, asian, etc), all the stereotypes jump to my head. I can’t help it, but it’s true. Of course, I wouldn’t express it out loud (unless contained in an environment where all parties knew I was joking around), but it’s the fact that these stereotypes are brought to my attention that bothers me.

I remember my 12th grade English teacher was telling us the same thing. She told us her father once described a man and had used the term “black” when it had no relevance whatsoever. She was upset and I could understood why. Race is an important factor to someone’s lifestyle, but does it define who s/he is?

My friends from high school looked at me funny when they saw my MySpace is Maria. One friend actually said “You’re not Mexican!” But does it really matter? I could’ve chosen a stereotypical African name or a European name, but does it really matter?

Why does race matter so much when you describe someone?

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7 Comments »

Abby shouted:

Thursday, May 11, 2006 @ 3:10 pm GMT-8

I really don’t know why race is such an important factor in our society. I especially hate the stereotypes that exist. They just create more barriers between people. Everyone is so similar and so different at the same time. I admit that I often include race in my description of a person. I also hate it when people call me racist just because I’m white. I believe that anyone can be racist no matter what ethnicity they are. I sometimes wish that we were all blind so that everyone could finally be equal and race wouldn’t exist at all.
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Emz replied:

Friday, May 12, 2006 @ 3:42 am GMT-8

I think describing someone by their race is wrong. Especially in the stereotypical sense. Everyone is the same in my opinion. It’s just a silly thing people do whether it’s offensive or not.
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Laura typed:

Saturday, May 13, 2006 @ 4:26 am GMT-8

I have exactly the same views and questions as you. It\’s ridiculous. We don\’t often hear \”this white girl\” where I am because you don\’t often find black people here. But when you do somebody would describe them as \”the black guy down the road\”. Whereas if they were talkign about a white person it would be \”the guy down the road\” so why should colour mean you have to add to your sentence and pick it out. Bugs me. Roar :frown:
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Kristina commented:

Sunday, May 14, 2006 @ 12:21 am GMT-8

I don’t know if I said this before, but nice site!

Anyways, I don’t like it when I hear people describing someone and the first thing they say is: he’s vietnamese, or he’s white. What does that have to do with someone having a decent personality? A person’s ethnicity does not describe the way they act. Period. I think the only time it would be okay to say the person’s race is when you’re describing what they look like, as long as you don’t just say “he’s white” without putting more details into it.
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Nguyen commented:

Sunday, May 14, 2006 @ 8:03 am GMT-8

The fact is everyone is not the same. I know you’ve said that. Not all people are educated like you with common sense that it’s wrong to say stuff like that. I’m guilty of doing that. But I make sure it has relevance to my story or I’m just making a joke. I make fun my race too. lol. Some people just don’t know. I can’t blame them. I think we try to find things to associate with like Asians good at math, blacks are ghetto, and other things. In a way it’s like they want a social divide amongst groups, like they don’t want to be associated with nasty people if someone says a white girl. I don’t know where I’m going. Hope you understand. I may not even be saying anything at all. lol.
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Alexine said:

Sunday, May 14, 2006 @ 8:16 am GMT-8

Hm, well I see race as just another description so I really don’t have much of a problem with it as many people do. It’s not like people freak out over other descriptions like how “kid” also describes the person’s age. If anything, using words like “black” or “kid” or “tall” or whatever helps me visualise whoever it is that they’re talking about.
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Luisa commented:

Tuesday, May 16, 2006 @ 11:35 am GMT-8

Maria IS an European name.. It’s a typical name at the very roots of the Spanish and Portuguese languages.. that’s way before Spain got to Mexico and the people there, whatever their skin tone might be, adopted it along with the rest of the language.. so yeah, that was a really stupid assumption of your friends to begin with.. -_-
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