What color/race do you see?

[green 6]

As some of you may know, I am Canadian and I am, therefore, commenting from a point of possible ignorance. What we have heard up here is that the value of the school system in your country depends on which school board you live in since the school taxes raised will go to that school board only. Up here the educational system is run on more egalitarian lines; school taxes from rich and poor sectors are thrown in together and are apportioned out equally.

What poor schools may suffer from is the lack of the parental back-up. These families are poor and often are single parent families. The parents are not too engaged in what is going on at school except perhaps in an adversarial way; if the kid is doing poorly, the family wonders if this is due to racism.

It also seems that the kids' own lack of comfort in and sense of anxiety in their immediate social environment does a huge amount of damage. These kids are not short changed in school. In the junior grades these kids tend to do just fine.

It is when they hit junior high that their sense of bitterness and alienation kicks in and their performance both academically and socially ends up in the crapper. The drop-out rates are high and the girls go on to have babies.

[NJChick 3]

Up north its not as obvious . Just my opinion .

Mindy

I'm from the NY/NJ area and yes.... its obvious up here too.

[Rita Ann 0]

I Think Everybody Has Great Thoughts On This Whole Race Thing I Grew Up For A Time In Florida And My Mother Is Very Racist I Cant Stand It. It Bugs The Hell Out Of Me And My Brothers, She Used Bad Words I Wont Even Say And We Vowed As Adults We Would Never Be That Way And We Are Not. My Mom Went As Far As Saying When My Youngest Brother Moved To New York City I Hope He Doesnt Come Home With A Black Girlfriend Well He Came Home With A Jewish Boyfriend, How Friggin Wondeful Was That Put That I Your Pipe I Told Her. I Dated A Hindo Guy For A Long Time She Was Pissed And Never Discussed It And My Husband And I Are Very Open To All Walks Of Life And Diversity, The Best Thing About This Support Group Is We Are All Fat And Banded And We Are All The Same No Matter What Color We Are And Where We Are From. I Think The Internet Can Open A World Of Good Because You Get To Know Someone With Out Passing Judgments On There Looks..........

[Rita Ann 0]

I Think Everybody Has Great Thoughts On This Whole Race Thing :clap2: I Grew Up For A Time In Florida And My Mother:angry Is Very Racist I Cant Stand It. It Bugs The Hell Out Of Me And My Brothers, She Used Bad Words I Wont Even Say And We Vowed As Adults We Would Never Be That Way And We Are Not. My Mom Went As Far As Saying When My Youngest Brother Moved To New York City I Hope He Doesnt Come Home With A Black Girlfriend :omg: Well He Came Home With A Jewish Boyfriend,:omg: How Friggin Wondeful Was That :biggrin1: Put That I Your Pipe I Told Her. I Dated A Hindo Guy For A Long Time She Was Pissed And Never Discussed It:think And My Husband And I Are Very Open To All Walks Of Life And Diversity, The Best Thing About This Support Group Is We Are All Fat And Banded And We Are All The Same No Matter What Color We Are And Where We Are From. I Think The Internet Can Open A World Of Good Because You Get To Know Someone With Out Passing Judgments On There Looks..........hugs and kisses to you all:kiss2:

[green 6]

Earlier in this post I was prepared to give a fairly smug answer and I can still say that I have been lucky in that my city has become, more than ever, a city of immigrants. I live in Toronto, Canada, and our population is over 3 million people; most of us are first, second, or third generation immigrants. A lot of the people who live in this city have arrived from somewhere else and a lot of the newest Canadians are not white.

Toronto is a city where multiculturalism does seem to work. There are many ethnic or racial festivals but these are open affairs and are widely publicized; the understanding is that other local folk will join in and will be welcomed.

It should be remarked that there may have been some polarization of the Muslim community since the horrible events of 9/11 and the overall political shift within that community. But this is recent.

As for green herself, this blonde girl was treated like gold when she moved onto her street fourteen years ago. She was single and she was the token blondie. She received regular care packages of chow from her Greek neighbours as well as her West Indian, Italian, and Portuguese neighbours. (Life was different once her significant other moved in, ya know. She had to start cooking for herself.)

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

911 had a strange effect on race in the USA.

For a while, many US Blacks were glad that the rest of the people had someone else to pick on; Muslims and Middle-Eastern looking people.

But then the US Blacks realized that many whites could not tell a light-skin Black from an Hispanic. Then as the immigration issue heated up, Blacks, Puerto Ricans and (Asian) Indians where mixed in with the Muslims, Middle-Easterner and Mexicans (and other South of the Border Illegals). The TSA which has many races and ethnic groups seems to "randomly select" a disproportionate number of non-whites. I have traveled about 10 times via air since 911 and I noticed that the people in line the security lines were well over 75% white, but the people pulled out for random (extra strength) screening were over 90% non-white.

Now we are back to where it was before 911. Unless you are a fair skinned white, you don't have quite the same rights.

I am not bitching. My mother was nice enough to make me white.

[Rita Ann 0]

good one tired old man!

[jojo41 0]

TOM.....I must fall into that 10% of whites you are referring to.

When we were travelling around the US in Dec/Jan, myself and my family (husand and 2 kids) were taken from the security line and "frisked" in LA, O'Hare and JFK airports not to mention the fact that as we were checking in at Sydney airport we had our bags pulled apart and searched by security!

There must be something very suspicious about 2 fat middle aged Aussies and their kids

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

TOM.....I must fall into that 10% of whites you are referring to.

When we were travelling around the US in Dec/Jan, myself and my family (husand and 2 kids) were taken from the security line and "frisked" in LA, O'Hare and JFK airports not to mention the fact that as we were checking in at Sydney airport we had our bags pulled apart and searched by security!

There must be something very suspicious about 2 fat middle aged Aussies and their kids

Well, what do you expect as firners? Yo ain't boned in the US of A, so you kin not expect to be treated as kin-folk.

My wife's English relatives go through the same junk when they visit.

And what makes in really bad is that tests have shown that getting weapons onboard aircraft is not much harder than pre-911.

[Rita Ann 0]

jojo I had to giggle, but its not funny, I am of italian decent (olive complexion) and my 82 year old grandfather who cant hear worth a damm and doent speak that great english was asked to take off his sneakers at the airport he didnt really understand and thought they wanted to take his shoes he made a fuss and it just made it worse, between me and his wife we got him to understand and settled down. so I understand how you must of felt.. sorry:think

[green 6]

There is this touchy issue of racial profiling, isn't there? Though I tend to "dress to the left" I must confess that I feel that we should leave our politically correct sensitivities behind us. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed families lugging tiny children are not a target group; these folks will not be blowing up aircraft. Why spend time and resources on them?

On my way back to Canada from Mexico City via Atlanta post 9/11 I had my carry on luggage isolated and swept for gun powder residue. I was fascinated since it all seemed so Law & Order but it did take time and there was a long line-up and I was just passing through. Moreover, I am post-menopausal, a woman, and so white I seem almost blue. And in a similar fashion my Scottish cousin, another person who cannot tan, was given the gears when he wanted to cross the border in order to watch a hockey game in Detroit. Neither one of us is likely to want to blow ourselves up for Allah and 72 virgins, eh.

[mini_me 3]

it always really bugged me that my mother-in-law and father-in-law have always been such horridly racist individuals. how my husband escaped that mentality, i will never understand. thank God for free will...

so anyway, of the three children, my hubby, his older brother, and his little sister...the brother married a black woman, and the sister has three mixed black/white children, and will likely marry her black boyfriend. poetic justice. my in-laws love the grandbabies and now get to see the pain that racism causes innocent children...and adults. i don't think they have remorse for their years and years of racists attitudes and beliefs, but at least they have now learned to refrain from the expression of those attitudes, and slowly, they are learning to live without negative racist influences. the "N" word has finally disappeared from their vocabulary, thank goodness.

just my contribution here...

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

There is this touchy issue of racial profiling, isn't there? Though I tend to "dress to the left" I must confess that I feel that we should leave our politically correct sensitivities behind us. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed families lugging tiny children are not a target group; these folks will not be blowing up aircraft. Why spend time and resources on them?

On my way back to Canada from Mexico City via Atlanta post 9/11 I had my carry on luggage isolated and swept for gun powder residue. I was fascinated since it all seemed so Law & Order but it did take time and there was a long line-up and I was just passing through. Moreover, I am post-menopausal, a woman, and so white I seem almost blue. And in a similar fashion my Scottish cousin, another person who cannot tan, was given the gears when he wanted to cross the border in order to watch a hockey game in Detroit. Neither one of us is likely to want to blow ourselves up for Allah and 72 virgins, eh.

Maybe true, but today, the US charged a man with treason for the first time in my life-time.

He is a white man born in California who used to play in a heavy metal rock band, but who is now a member of Al-Quiada. What good is profiling going to do if this man wanted to board a plane?

Do you remember Johnnie Walker Lind, the so-called American Taliban? What good is profiling going to do if a man like him wanted to board a plane?

I watched a documentary recently and the Neo-Nazis who were the subject of the documentary all sang the praises of Al-Quiada, because both groups hate Jews and the US government. Maybe one or more of the Neo-Nazis will be willing to take down a plane. How will profiling stop them?

Profiling is a very nasty idea. It assumes that one person because of their race or some other trait beyond their control is not as entitled to the same rights as another person with different traits. And the idea of profiling usually depends on other people who don't have the same traits as him to give up his rights.

What determines who should be profiled. Race, religion, gender?

Why not just throw out the whole constitution?

When the Israelis started profiling, then women started carrying suicide bombs.

How do we know that the person carrying a baby on board the plane is the parent of that baby?

How do we know that the person carrying a baby on board the plane does not feel that baby's best chance for salvation is as a martyr?

How do we know that an 85 year old man or woman doesn't want to redeem himself through martyrdom?

[housecatgirl 0]

My Mom was a little pissed when I married my 100% Chinese DH. She says she's not racist but she thinks everyone should only marry/date their own kind....uhhh, ok, sorry but that's racist in my book.

Funny story...we were at Trader Joes one day and a lady walked up to my husband and said, "Are you asian?":paranoid He was stunned since he'd never been asked that before...he said, "uh yeah"... :straight She said, Oh cuz they are out of jasmine rice here and I was wondering if you know where I could find it. My husband doesn't even like Jasmine rice so he told her he had no idea. The lady might have been confused because I am white so wasn't sure if he was asian. Later he told me he must have been married to me so long he is starting to look white. I swear, I look more asian every day.

[Carlene 12]

I have traveled about 10 times via air since 911 and I noticed that the people in line the security lines were well over 75% white, but the people pulled out for random (extra strength) screening were over 90% non-white.

Now we are back to where it was before 911. Unless you are a fair skinned white, you don't have quite the same rights.

I flew from DFW to Cleveland to get my granddaughter, who was 8. I got off my plane, picked her up on the non-secure side, and promptly went back thru security to get on another plane. We were selected for extra screening, even though I had no luggage - just a purse. Danielle, who must look like a pygmy terrorist - had a carry on bag. They literally took out every single item in the kid's suitcase.