Originally Posted by celeste_63 link=board=27;threadid=6784;start=msg78138#msg7813 8 date=1077825557
I just wanted to point out something regarding this topic because I think a lot of people here are relying VERY heavily on assumptions and stereotypes.
Don't think you can tell the ethnic background of someone by looking at them. I, for instance, am blonde, with hazel eyes and freckles, but am actually 1/2 Brazilian. Not that this validates me or makes me one of the "club," but I also have a history of dating minorities almost exclusively. I am not racist, do not see people in terms of color but in terms of how they present themselves and how they treat me.
I was accused of being racist exactly one time in my life. I was working in a customer-service related job (non-SC), and a patron was being extremely rude to me. Finally I just ignored her while I finished my job. She asked to speak to my manager and told him I was being rude to her because she was black. I was tempted to say: "No I was being rude because you are a bitch." But I just kept my mouth shut. Luckily I had worked there for a few years, was highly regarded by the other staff, so my manager had my back. Unfortunately she started calling him racist, too.
I have always been a pretty friendly person, but after that I started making an extra effort to smile at people of other ethnic backgrounds who came into my work. But then I heard that can be considered a form of racism as well, because it is still technically treating people a certain way based on how they look. I thought: I can't win!
Now I just try to smile at EVERY damn person, black, white, brown, yellow, purple, green, striped, polka-dotted, whatever. There are infinite shades of skin color, and they are all beautiful.