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Cultural/Stereotypical contradictions....got any?

#41
At this point in my life, I don't even know what a "black" person really is, let alone a "white" person or any other racial description. There are "white" and "Asian" people who are darker than some "black" people, and what those terms mean is different when you go different places. So, the whole idea that what people look like has some significance other than personal identity has all dissolved for me. I understand the idea of cultural identity or ethnicity as it relates to how or where you grew up, but all the rest makes less and less sense as time goes on. Meeting my wife was just one step in the process. Our son, who has been defined all kinds of ways, has the ability to think of himself in one way when he checks boxes, another way when he considers himself culturally, and yet another way when he decides what he really is internally. None of it bothers or affects him in any way, as far as he's concerned. When it all comes down to it, that's the way it should be allowed to work for everyone. It doesn't, as the headlines make perfectly clear on a regular basis, unfortunately.

For what its worth, I fell off the turnip truck in 1982. The diverse nature of England wasn't as readily apparent back then. England was BBC announcers you couldn't understand or costume dramas you couldn't understand or futzy guys with flat caps and pipes who talk funny and drove Jaguars. Or maybe Agatha Christie mystery novels. Oh, and the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Can't forget those guys.
 
#44
Milk said:
But here in north america you know, its still a a thing somehow... "What?!?! you mean a black person and a white person!?!? in a couple??!? That is just CRAZY!"
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Pish! You're in Canada, a scarcely populated slice of North America. In the USA mixed race couples are as common as Milk and cookies.:D
 
#46
Quoted, because every page of this thread benefits from this picture being posted:
Milk said:
Anyway, beautiful black and british, two words, Freema Agyeman:

freema-agyeman-18.jpg
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Lawdy.
 
#48
OK, so, back on topic, assuming anybody still cares.

I have long hair, am prone to tie-dying otherwise perfectly acceptable t-shirts, and have even been known to take a smoke break or two. I recycle like a madman, and give hugs to people I hardly know. And yet...and yet... ok, I'm just gonna say it: for the life of me, I simply do not get the Grateful Dead. That whole genre of gentle country-fried jam band just bores me to tears.
 
#49
edpal said:
Pish! You're in Canada, a scarcely populated slice of North America. In the USA mixed race couples are as common as Milk and cookies.:D
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You know I thought of that I realised ok so you do see it in the real world.. but tv though...name me American tv shows with interracial couples? (specifically black and white, cause nobody thinks much of Asian and anything else, for some reason) It's still not frequent. In movies neither.

And I would say, only in certain parts of America....
 
#50
Well, it's certainly fairly ordinary here. Which is just fine with me, since we are pretty ordinary.

The other thing, though, is that I'm a bass player with a beautiful wife. My brother is also a bass player, and his wife is beautiful. What's wrong with these women? Don't they know bass players are not supposed to get the hot chicks?
 
#51
I am a stocky, white guy with a shaved head and facial hair. I get stereotyped as biker, bouncer, racist/skinhead, metalhead, etc.

I haven't had a bike since I was 12 years old, definitely not racist, and prefer R&B, urban gospel, and traditional and acid jazz.
 
#52
Milk said:
You know I thought of that I realised ok so you do see it in the real world.. but tv though...name me American tv shows with interracial couples? (specifically black and white, cause nobody thinks much of Asian and anything else, for some reason) It's still not frequent. In movies neither.

And I would say, only in certain parts of America....
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Regarding representation on TV....it depends where you look. Turn on BET, lot of mixed race couples. ABC or CBC(Canadian Broadcasting Company) not so much so, some of the reality shows have a lot of racially mixed couples. I'm a little disappointed at the low level of representation non-Caucasians hold in the sci-fi genre. To me it seems Asians get a bigger slice of the sci-fi than any group other than Caucasians. And blacks are missing almost completely in sci-fi unless they are from another planet, in which case they have some physical strangeness added to their bodies like crazy ears or something that looks like a third eye.

TV is entertainment, so shows have to have something that drives the plot. So a show about a mixed couple has to either be racial charged or be fairly uncharged. If race isn't propelling the plot then mixing up the couples isn't necessary unless you are trying to mirror some particular segment of the population. BET shows have more mixed couples because their viewer demographic can more closely relate to the story lines.

It's like the show "Modern Family" - a lot of the plot centers around a gay couple and different social faux pas that occur due to their gayness. If gayness was more accepted, not just tolerated, it would probably be less productive to build a show around gay situation comedy.

Everybody wants to laugh at the other guy's funny parts.

Fretless1! said:
I am a stocky, white guy with a shaved head and facial hair. I get stereotyped as biker, bouncer, racist/skinhead, metalhead, etc.
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I totally get that, I've had my hair past shoulder length AND (currently) military-buzz cut in just the last 4 years. Basically I grow my hair to a length that fits the demographic of the particular band's primary target audience. Posing - why yes it is. I don't feel bad about it, people are obviously making all sorts of silly assumptions anyway.
 
#53
We live across the street from a school. It was closed when we moved in, and a mega church was renting the auditorium for their services and other functions. I had a blast sitting on the front steps, by the sidewalk, when they had a Christian metal show going. There were all these hair farmers in lime green spandex and makeup who wanted to tell me about Jesus, not how to kill puppies. They were some of the nicest, friendliest people I ever met, and I miss having them around sometimes. The Christian skateboard shows they put on were very similar. Completely amusing and abslutely non-stereotypical.
 
#54
I am southern. Extremely southern. Like, "rural version of Larry the Cable Guy if he grew up on the side of a bayou and never traveled" southern.

I am not the least bit racist- in fact I was raised in a very mixed race area that more or less paid no attention to black/white/latino/etc. My parents were adamant anti-racists. All the while being extreme rednecks.

In my travels, I have had more than one "white" person assume I am racist and drop racial slurs in front of me... much to my dismay. I can only guess because of my well endowed Ark-La-Tex accent that most will assume I am the typical hate filled prejudiced redneck.

I am not.
 
#55
machine gewehr said:
Next time a GreenPeace volunteer walks up to me, I'm going to say: "I want a nuclear war to end the life on the planet as we know it, where as you are opposing to any kind of nuclear power. You'll have no support from me." just to see that expression on their face.:D
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Years ago, way way way before 9/11 I was in a grocery store early one morning and as I tried to leave these two guys blocked my path and introduced themselves as being from the neighborhood baptist church. They then asked if I would mind if they prayed over me. One of them said he could see demons all around me and would I let them try to pray those demons away.

Without batting an eye I told them I was muslim and the only thing I could think of they could do for me was to shed some christian blood.

Oddly enough, they moved aside and allowed me to pass with no further comment or request.
 
#56
dullsilver_mike said:
I think the average person picks his personal development battles. If I tried to actively improve myself in every skill I use at work, with my hobbies, or out in my community, I'd have to stop sleeping and get some kind of time machine to make each day 35 hours long.

When the boss offers me some training opportunities, I turn half of them down because I'm already doing the other half and spending hours and hours a week honing other skills I'm using on the clock. Watching my friends, they seem to do the same thing. I've concluded that most the people I had labeled apathetic slugs simply have different priorities than I do; they choose not to develop in the way I think is best because they're focused on whatever they've deemed most important. Since I'm not with them 24 hours a day, I happen to miss out on the way(s) they are trying to better themselves.
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As usual, I failed to make my point.

The training I was offering was not that difficult, was 100% OJT, and once acquired would have resulted in a very hefty increase in pay. It's not like I was offering them opportunity to become better hog callers or shuffleboard players.

I don't know about you, but if I was offered the opportunity to more than double my pay while working the same number of hours at the same job, I'd be hard pressed to find an excuse to turn it down, which is actually how I learned what I did about CNC at the early stages. I was offered an opportunity to learn from someone who already had the skill and I saw it as an opportunity to better myself. Granted, I had to change jobs to realize the fiscal benefits, but it was a no brainer as far as I could see. if I have to work anyway, why not make more money for the same time put in?

I don't know if it was luck, being in the right place at the right time, my insatiable curiosity, my belief that any day I fail to learn something new is a wasted day, or what else may have been the root cause, but I managed to work myself out of working for someone else at a fairly early age. If it didn't bore me to death I could not work at all and be fine, but I'm just not content to sit around and veg.
 

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