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Re: Ethnicity » Dinah

Posted by shar on February 3, 2003, at 17:05:30

In reply to Re: Ethnicity » shar, posted by Dinah on February 3, 2003, at 3:07:41

> >
> > .......Italians are STILL genuinely looked down on, people STILL really think the stereotypes are true, and a lot of them ARE true (if, perhaps, exaggerated). The old 'grain of truth' or 'where there's smoke' deal.
>
> Hmmm. Not here they aren't. I guess I'm lucky in where I live.

--Or, you aren't hanging out with the folks who don't like non-whites, maybe.

>
>
> > .........Even within my Italian family, there is eye-rolling at some of the hot-blooded displays, and you gotta watch out for the hands flying while people talk. Moreover, we're part Sicilian, and even the Italians look down on Sicilians! Family reunions are always quite an experience. I always feel sorry, at family reunions, for the Anglos who marry these women who look like Sophia Loren, and a few years later look like Pavoratti (sp).
> >

> Hmmm. Stereotypes are odd, aren't they.

--The thing about stereotypes is they are intrinsically refutable. There are ALWAYS exceptions to stereotypes. And, whatever behavior is the subject of the stereotype does NOT occur in only that one group! However, stereotypes do not develop in a vacuum; they develop because cultures are different, and people notice differences, and they talk about them. When we go to a different country, we notice differences in the cultures (at least I do).

I am of the opinion that differences are not bad. I am not a big fan of the melting-pot theory, where everybody tries to be the same (shallow white bread culture), in order to be treated the same (presumably). There are many parts of my Italian culture that I value, and of my Texan culture, too. And some parts of those cultures are silly, too, and some are funny. I don't want to give any of that up in the name of political correctness. Pretending there are no differences, or ignoring what differences exist, is as bad, IMHO, as using those differences against people. I think we've gone too far to the other side.

Being mean and nasty, as I said earlier, is something else. A racial slur or an epithet hurled is unacceptable. There just happens, IMHO, to be a lot of wiggle room between a joke and an epithet.

>>Oh, by the way, quite a few people in my entirely suburban middle class family have a working TV sitting on top of a non-working console.

--I'm sure quite a few hundred thousand non-Rednecks have working TVs sitting on top of non-working TVs. That's an example of the behavior occurring in groups other than the one being talked about (stereotypical behavior is just behavior).

Shar


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