Race

[Raezarin]

Ho boy.
Race is.....
Well, with all honesty I never thought about it that much. I've been through the school guest speakers and the countless "Racism is bad!" talks along with the anti-bullying and anti-drugs and cigarettes, heard the tragic tales of slavery and discrimination, and some of what seem to be millions of jokes involving racial differences.
Racial differences. I am white, they are black.
The previous statement is a lie.
White and black are colours with their own meanings attached to them and really shouldn't be used to describe humans, as they fall so desperately short. Humans are complex creatures and can't be categorized simply on physical features.
We're all different, we come from different places and our ancestors probably slaughtered each other or some distant cousins because of it. At the same time, we're all human. Same biology, there's no denying that.
People are people.We all have the same potential to do something great or something stupid, be smart, strong, thin, stocky, tall, short, mean, kind, etc, etc, the list goes on. As people marry outside their "race" physical features are mixed even further.
The deciding point for me is the question; Are we part of the Human Race or is there a German, Russian, English, French, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and so on Race for every country or region?
I'd say human. Countries change easily compared to genetics.
I'm proud of my ethnic background, proud to say I came from Europe, but am I going to lord it over anyone? Nope. Do I base my opinions of other on their "race"? Nope. Do I notice people's skin colour and tell-tale features that mark them as being from a certain part of the world and of a certain culture? Yup, just as I would notice that they have an awesome Tim Burton shirt.
People are people.
Race just isn't something I care about.

[Iregyura]

I think that people that are prejudice are stupid. Seriously, if they're prejudice against black people, they should think what it'd feel like if they were black people as well. Would they then be prejudice? I can't believe how some people can't seem to understand that. Sometimes I find a certain person clingy, but not their regarding their race. Really, people who think that white people are the best race in the world is really wrong, because, as an Asian, i have to say lots of teachers already favor white students and have a better bond with them, and white parents don't mess with white teachers. I know this kid, and her mom always pay late fees to a Chinese teacher who doesn't know a lot of English. However, she always pays tutor fees on time to a white teacher working at my school. That's just stupid and wrong.
I usually favor the sides of an Asian, not because I'm prejudice, but because I'm Asian. Also, I don't hang out with black or white people from my school; I guess it's just my style to hang out with Asians. Of course though, if I see that another raced person's point is definitely right, I will take their side and stand up for them (If I'm involved anyways). So yup. People who are prejudice are bad. However, you can get influenced though. If you think that all the [blank] people in your school are annoying, then maybe you'll think that all the [blank] people on Earth are annoying, but that might not be true.

[wolfiewheeee]

It may sound odd... But I'm really oblivious to it. I don't know if thats good or bad (I think it's dandy) But I was raised in a VERY tolerant family, and hung out with many different race-groups. In fact, at this point I live in a place near the US/Mexico border where there's lots of Mexican kids in my school. Only one day when I COUNTED was when I realized I was one of two white kids in that class. Out of thirty or so students. I realized that in all but one of my classes this was true. It doesn't bother me. In fact, I LOVE learning about the culture of my Mexican and Chinese friends, as I don't see too much ethnic culture in my own childhood. (That is what comes of living on a military base half of your life -.-) What DOES bother me is racism. It's steriotypes gone horribly wrong.

[DrunkenShark]

Well, "race" is a word that should not be applied to the different people from the human kind: since 1950 or so, many scientists (doctors, people working with DNA, blood and all) came up with this thing: if there was different human races, an asian could not give blood to a caucasian or an mediterranean woman could not have a child with an afro-american for example... Races are very distincts and different types of being as for us, we share so much more feathers than we get differences that things like racism get stupid (those studies have been made by the UN following the WW2 and the trials on war crimes)

For humans there are ethnic groups, cultures, origins and phenotypes more or less adapted to the environnement.
But still I think there are too many white people presented in fictions and all: for example, in all the 17 role play websites I've been, I was the only one acting afro-americans or arabs and the few asian characters were anime characters. As for movies, we see too many muslim, blavk or arab people being the bad guys or some unimportant secondary characters. I think it is kind of unfair

[wolfiewheeee]

[DrunkenShark]

True. I think it's kind of sad: movie or tv show show producers will claim it was not on purpose, or that movies and shows with no white people as main character (or too many important characters of different ethnic groups) will displease the white population.
Most people "learn about society" by watching TV and the fact the best characters are more often white only will lead them to develop racist thoughts.

Plus newspapers do the same: when you hear about a murderer that is mexican or black, the news won't stop mentioning his ethnic group, but when the murderer is white, you barely hear about that, as if white people were less violent than the others or something like that...

[lexi luthor]

Ok! Here is what I have to say. First, there is only ONE race, and that is the human race. (As Drunken said) So the topic name was misleading. ;] Second, racism (ethnicism) is as someone else said, inevitable. Everyone is a little bit racist (ethnicist). Third, Why does everyone suddenly assume that White people are being racist towards african-americans and asians? What about how they are being racist towards us? This isn't a one way thing, it certainly takes two to tango. Fourth.... yeah.... that's all I have to say.

[wolfiewheeee]

[lexi luthor]

[DrunkenShark]

of course everyone is racist, it is close to impossible to not feel less attracted by some phenotypes (for example I got a friend who hates guys with thick eyebrows, so when she see guys with typical arabic features, it's stupid but she doesn't like that <_<)
And when we talk of racism from white people toward other ethnic groups, it is because this form of racism is one of the strongest and the most destructive (just think of the imperialism idealism and the eugenism, as well as the impossible to forget nazism)
There is a difference between the "instinctive racism" (being less attracked by ethnic features I mean), the "bitter" racism (like thinking every white persons are racist for example) and the social racism (non-whites or non-protestants unable to find good jobs, good fictionnal roles or fine place to live because of who they are)