Exactly - the metrics kill the program.

Nope. I don't think we are.

But then I think we're all racist. In some way. We all make assumptions based on someone's race. I think if someone says they don't, they're not being honest.

Just my 2 cents.

I make assumptions based on race without even thinking about. Take a ride on the Blue Line through South Central and tell me issues of race don't come up.

Stereotype reactions are an important in-built mental tool that allows people to make on-the-fly decissions when no other information is available. It becomes a problem when people allow those incomplete, emergency-need-only impressions to guide decissions that should be based on real world facts, not sketchy assumptions.

I've found that I am more of an "economicist" than I ever have been a racist. I don't make assumptions about someone based on their race, but I frequently do based on the way someone is dressed or how they walk or whatever.

If I see a group of kids in their late teens walking through a neighborhood dressed in gang clothes with their hats on backwards, I get nervous. I don't care what race they are. If I am in the mall and a couple black guys walk by, I don't notice more than if anyone else walks by.

Yeah, dress has a big part of it.

The most racist think I've done lately (which I hate to admit, but it shows just how ingrained it is), a few weeks after we had a prowler I saw a guy dressed similarly to our prowler (dark sweatshirt with hood up) running down the street. I watched him with suspicion and told Fej about it. He suggested the guy may have been jogging.

The next day, I saw the same guy running down the streat wearing the same jacket. He was jogging. :rolleyes:

So when you see someone who looks Hispanic, you don't assume there's good odds they speak Spanish? Or someone says, "mind if I bring my friend David Goldberg over for brunch," you don't think that maybe bagles and lox would make a good choice to serve?

These are just broad buckets that ease social interaction in the short term. It means people don't have to walk around with life-history pamphlets so that we can start conversations with each other. As long as we realize that those generalizations are simply a start point, not an end point, it's a useful thing. It's only when people mistake "stereotype" for "general truth" that things become problematic.

I admit it. I'm a racist. There are certain races or nationalities of people where, in my mind, you start off with a black mark against you that I will give you every chance to erase, if you can. But you start off with that mark in my mind.

With me, the black mark starters are arabs and Germans. Others mileage may vary.








(and I wouldn't be at all surprised if whites and/or Americans - two groups I happen to belong to - are high on the black-mark list of many people in the world)

I'm sure there are various cultural things, but i'm pretty culturally ignorant. The bagels and lox - wouldn't even cross my mind. The hispanic speaking spanish - probably, but I wouldn't assume they didn't speak English.

Is making an assumption about such things being observant or being racist? I guess it's a fine line.

I simply picked a couple examples. Your mileage may vary. The point being we all make certain immediate assumptions based on very limited information on a person (whether it's their race, their mannerisms, their clothing) that gives us a starting point to then build a more complete picture. The don't all have to fall into the "someone would be offended if they knew I assumed this" category.

Like I said (twice), making assumptions is not racist. It's hardwired into our brain and is what allows us to be social beings (and likely allowed us to survive prehistorically, as that kind of pattern recognition helps avoid dangerous situations). It's erroneously using those assumptions as a be-all guide for actions and decission making that carries one into the realm of racism.