ethnicity

[Zeno Marx]

Is ethnicity important to you? Not to you or your identity, but in how you view other people. In other words, is it natural and quick for you to attribute personality, habits, or whatever to a person's ethnicity? Or once you learn their ethnicity, do you naturally and quickly draw connections to their personality, habits, etc? And, do you ask, or are you curious, about a person's ethnicity? How much weight does it have in your view of the world, personality, and social interaction?

I'm surprised by how often some people lean on ethnicity for reasoning and/or judgment of a person. This isn't a political discussion, at least as I'm thinking about it. It's more a social thing that surprises me. I don't know the ethnicity of most of my friends, and it isn't something I ask anyone. Simply, I don't care. I don't think about it, and I do not ever think in stereotypes and say to myself, "Ah, that makes sense. They're Italian. Italians do it like that." It's not a trigger or indicator of anything to me. Not that it can't be, but it isn't how I view or approach the world or the people I meet. Maybe that is a luxury. Maybe I'm the fool.

So, what says you? Is ethnicity a key component in how you process interaction and experience with other people? Were you raised that way and continue forward with that tradition?

*I'm going to ask a younger crowd these same things. As I suspect they do things differently, I also suspect Americans think differently than Europeans.

 

[Puff Daddy]

To be honest I judge a person I've just met based on how they speak. Within the first few sentences I usually know whether I'm talking to a decent reasonable person, a derelict, an immature ******** or a self righteous prick. Color, gender or ethnicity are unimportant. Martin Luther King got it right when he spoke about the content of a mans character being the way we should judge someone. If anything else comes before that then the problem is with the viewer.

 

[Richard Burley]

Not I. I'm completely unbiased. I just assume every new acquaintance to be a moron and some species of thief, until proven otherwise.

 

[Lonecoyote]

Personally, I don't stereotype anyone, never have in my life. Oh, in " real life " my Dad had Archie Bunkers type of mentality when it came to pre-judging another person. As for me, I don't judge a person by race, color or nationality. Just because I grew up in Archie's house does not make me a bigot, nor was my Mom.

Let's sit and talk " one on one " a while, won't take me long to figure out the type of person you are, as far as....intelligence, beliefs, morality and ones opinion of humanity and the world we live in today, generally speaking.

I do consider myself a good judge of character, and easily can weed out those I care to no longer have any contact with, now and in the future. For me, it's that simple.

My bad habit, I trust to easy until proven wrong, so I've been told. Picked that habit up from my Mom, God Rest her Soul, and THANK GOD I grew up more like her, in every way!!

 

[Zeno Marx]

That's a good direction for this, though not the only one I'd like to hear. Is it a generational thing? Is this something more common with Boomers and WWIIers? I know I almost never...really, never...hear ethnic slurs in my circle, but if I get with my older family, it takes all of ten minutes for one to be in the air. And if something negative is being discussed, only for that person or group's ethnicity to later be mentioned, whatever that negative thing is quickly gets attributed to their ethnicity accompanied with "I should have known." Or maybe it isn't just generational, but regional? I know where my parents grew up has strong ethnic tension with significant contempt in tone.

 

[monbla256]

I think it's both a generational and geographic thing. In my case, both of my parents were from white European immigrants, my fathers family from French Canada, my mothers from Scotland. Their generation was part of a massive immigration from Europe and as such nationalities were a part of their daily life. My father grew up in the "French" part of his New England town where French was spoken on the street, in his church and in his school. My mother lived in the "Anglo" part of town where most were from England, Scotland or Wales. The Irish lived separately as most were Catholic and not Protestant as the rest of the Anglo's. That was up in New England and down here where in Texas the largest ethnicity we have are Hispanic they are still discriminated against. Myself it matters not , to my parents it did. Black/White discrimination as I experienced it back in the '50s/'60s is not as much "in your face" today but it's obvious it's still very much a part of American life. Sad, very sad.

 

[Fight'n Hampsters]

Not I. I'm completely unbiased. I just assume every new acquaintance to be a moron and some species of thief, until proven otherwise.

:lol!:

 

[Lonecoyote]

Myself it matters not , to my parents it did. Black/White discrimination as I experienced it back in the '50s/'60s is not as much "in your face" today but it's obvious it's still very much a part of American life. Sad, very sad.

Only " quoted the last part of your thread "!
Why, because you hit that nail right on the head. As tho it's said.

Today the bigotry and antisemitism is not " IN YOUR FACE "! It's still there, I'm sad to say....behind ones back. Living down South now I hear more Black people using the " N " word, which I've never used.
From what I see....Antisemitism & Bigotry will still exist even once I'm gone from this ? PLANET ?

 

[hobie1dog]

To be honest I judge a person I've just met based on how they speak. Within the first few sentences I usually know whether I'm talking to a decent reasonable person, a derelict, an immature ******** or a self righteous prick. Color, gender or ethnicity are unimportant. Martin Luther King got it right when he spoke about the content of a mans character being the way we should judge someone. If anything else comes before that then the problem is with the viewer.

Same here.

 

[Ozark Wizard]

It is obvious that there are underlying currents of what is coined 'racism'. It has become apparent to me, by proof of genetic evidence, that at some point in history at least two human species interbred (I.e. **** Sapiens and Neanderthal) and created the people we are today. At a certain level it holds with my spiritual belief, that we are all created from a 'Base Pair', ( just so we stay politically correct). So in my eyes, there is now only one 'Race'. Human race. The bipedal infestation now occupying this planet is blended. Any other prejudices should just be considered bigotry or bias. To call it anything like racism belies the user's play into current slang or an outright misuse of the word.

Of course, bear in mind, I'm considered quite naive....

 

[Lonecoyote]

It is obvious that there are underlying currents of what is coined 'racism'. It has become apparent to me, by proof of genetic evidence, that at some point in history at least two human species interbred (I.e. **** Sapiens and Neanderthal) and created the people we are today. At a certain level it holds with my spiritual belief, that we are all created from a 'Base Pair', ( just so we stay politically correct). So in my eyes, there is now only one 'Race'. Human race. The bipedal infestation now occupying this planet is blended. Any other prejudices should just be considered bigotry or bias. To call it anything like racism belies the user's play into current slang or an outright misuse of the word.

Of course, bear in mind, I'm considered quite naive....

Naive....hell no BROTHER.....your RIGHT ON! Well stated

 

[KevinM]

Many decades ago, back in Western PA, ethnicity was a strong identifier. If a house had in the yard a tractor tire painted orange and used as a planter, it was supposed the residents were Polish.  Italians were loud, excitable and the females matured at age ten, at the same age the guys began to shave. The Irish were a merry lot, but moody and prone to fisticuffs. Jewish families did not maintain the outside of their homes, but the insides were spotless and beautifully furnished with well-stocked bookshelves. Black families had homes that didn't cost as much as the cars parked outside them.  It was generally assumed the sons and daughters of these groups should not intermingle and, if they did, the result would be unhappy, possibly fatal. But they did anyway. So, decades later, at this point, it appears to me that such stereotypes, that had been taken for granted as evidence of ethnic differences in most cases, are now less pronounced unless a group attempts to preserve its "differentness" or uniqueness for some reason. It seems to me that "ethnic" differences are now usually better understood as differences in social class, or, as seen at ground level, a difference in income. Somewhere recently I came across an article in which the author argued that the reason for income inequality is that middle class and upper class individuals simply refuse to consider lower class -- i.e. Poor individuals -- as suitable mates, regardless of ethnicity. Kindly note that I am NOT claiming nostalgia for the "old ways."

 

[MisterE]

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[Ozark Wizard]

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:cheers: :cheers: :cheers: