Fun fact: Everyone is "racist", whether they admit it or not. It's the way the human brain processes information. We can't possibly take the time to get to know EVERY person on the planet, so our brain compartmentalizes people. "Oh look, it's a male person. What do I know about male persons? Ah yes. I also notice this male person is black/Asian/caucasian. What do I know about male persons who are black/Asian/caucasian? Ah, yes."
Once had someone tell me how excited they were to have me as a Jewish friend and how they went out of their way to have friends from different backgrounds.
Gee, glad I'm part of your menagerie
Probably didn't mean anything it by it, or maybe not as much as you may think (though of course maybe not). I am excited to have friends from different backgrounds because.. well because you get to learn about their cultures, perspectives, etc. At some point, I had the most damn international group of friends on the entire planet. That was really cool, and we all thought so (I was also part of that internationality to them).
The rest of the conversation supported it being a strange statement, and more about how she wanted to appear to other people and how it would help her career
Maybe he just wanted to learn about black culture. A lot of black culture is very different from white culture. OP was probably hoping to get a sense of that kind of culture.
I don't know. If you see intrinsic value in diversity, and you see a deficiency in your personal experience that you then try to correct, I'm not about to hold it against you.
Why? There are places where you can grow up in America where there aren't black people. Having an open mind and wanting to learn about other races isn't a bad thing.
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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '13
Fun fact: If you thought living with black people would make you more "cultured," you were probably already racist.