<p>That is one of the most important if not the most important reasons for having diversity.</p>
<p>I have a Korean roommate, straight from Korea who I would have to say used to be one of the most RACIST people I have ever met in my life. And the bad thing about it is that he actually thought his ideals were normal. The first day he met me I later found out he ran straight downstairs to tell all of his Korean friends that he had a black roommate. His parents even tried to get him to change rooms (mind you these people don’t know me from Adam), because they were afraid I was going to “hurt him and rob him blind” but he decided not to at the last minute because he found me interesting.</p>
<p>By him having a black roommate, he has,</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Become a lot more socially conscious not only about blacks, but about every other type of person.</p></li>
<li><p>Has learned that stereotypes very rarely fit the everyday person and that all black people aren’t gun toting, crack dealing, breakdancing, hoodlums.</p></li>
<li><p>Has learned life skills on how to associate with people different than him.</p></li>
<li><p>Is generally a A LOT less racist of a person than he was before, and his friends have learned a lot from me too.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Suffice to say I haven’t stolen any of his stuff, or hit him in any way, shape, or form, and we have become the best of friends. We’re even rooming together next year which is VERY rare, considering that he is an international student and getting past being acquaintances would of been an accomplishment, seeing as how they always cling to their own kind like a lifesaver.</p>
<p>Sort of on topic young adults colleges and what they notice. My kids attend a melting pot of race/ethnicities type suburban high school. My d, her best friend, and friends mom and I went to a NE private accepted students day this past weekend. </p>
<p>In the car on the way home when we asked the girls what they thought, they said did you notice nobody had a shade darker than blonde hair color. Both girls are as white almost transparent themselves. They said it made them VERY uncomfortable to be in that environment, they said it almost made them feel that they would HAVE to be just like everybody else clothing wise activity wise. Both girls have very independant streaks not followers. </p>
<p>What we moms noticed was the elitist double speak of the parents. Give me the diversity over that environment anyday. Im glad my kids have the opportunity to be themselves in a diverse environment, it is much more conducive to being who ever you want to become. </p>
<p>So glad my kids see past it, and have every ethnicity/race/nationality as friends.</p>
<p>Ahhhh… the equal opportunity offender, is how I describe this musical. It offends pretty much everyone, and I’ve seen it twice. Can’t wait to see it again.</p>
<p>we live in a famous upscale and very diverse small town. when my youngest started kindergarten she told that she had made friends with two girls, who i will call annie and beth. she wanted them to come over on the same day. both moms agreed. my daughter told me to look out for the three of them by saying that one was black and the other yellow. don’t jump here folks…the three girls came out. one was a black girl with blond hair–mom was white–the other was middle eastern with coal black hair. the girls had a great time…but i couldn’t figure out the black and yellow thing. i waited a few days and asked my daughter why she thought beth, the middle eastern girl was yellow. you got it…she thought beth was black because of her hair color…and annie was yellow because of her hair color.</p>
<p>" We’re even rooming together next year which is VERY rare, considering that he is an international student and getting past being acquaintances would of been an accomplishment, seeing as how they always cling to their own kind like a lifesaver."</p>
<p>Thanks for posting about your experience. What an excellent example of how being in a diverse college environment can expand a person’s perspective.</p>
<p>I read this article re Michelle Obama and Princeton etc. I was very relieved that the administrators at Princeton in the 80’s did not bow to the mother’s request to change the room assignments.</p>
<p>While diversity is a good thing to have on college campuses – except for maybe the small LACs (where the small student body kind of “forces” everyone to intermingle), self-segregation is often what you’ll find in most college campuses.</p>
<p>As for the above – yes, Asians in Asia tend to have a rather stereotypical view of African-Americans, but one has to ask where they get those ideas (since there aren’t exactly many African-Americans in Asia)?</p>
<p>The answer is American media (Hollywood films, music/hip-hop videos and news reports on national cable networks) which tend to give a slanted view of African-Americans.</p>
<p>It’s the SAME REASON why black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean tend to have similar views of African Americans (for instance, many African immigrants don’t want their kids to associate w/ black Americans and many Caribbean immigrants, who clearly have some African heritage, don’t regard themselves at all as “black”).</p>