Racism at UNC

phonyreal98
Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:12:48 +0000

OK, well I wouldn’t put too much faith in the first review you posted, since it has no real examples.

I am a person of color and have a weird last name and go to UNC. Sure, I get some funny looks from time to time (this is in general, not so much at UNC though), but I don’t let that bother me. I just stick my tongue out at them and go about my business. It’s not like looks kill. I find that there are a lot of people that get themselves waaaaayyyyyyy too worked up about stuff like that. I was fortunate enough to go to an elementary and middle school where there were kids of all races, many of whom lived below the poverty line and so was able to learn, from a young age, how to be sensitive in dealing with this issue. While I can’t say know for sure some of the situations that some of the students you’ve cited were going through, nor how they were feeling, I personally feel like they are blowing things out of proportion. That being said, there are certainly people at UNC who come from areas where the population is relatively homogeneous, and it simply was not part of their experiences growing up having to deal with other people of different backgrounds and ethnicities. There are parts of North Carolina that are just like that. This does not mean these people are racist. I bet if the 2010 dude or the 2011 girl just spoke up and said, “You know, the way you phrased what you just said is sort of offensive to me”, then 99% of the people of UNC would be sensitive to that, and try not to repeat their mistake. And people (in general, not just at UNC) don’t seem to understand that everybody’s a little bit “racist.” It’s just a part of human psyche to want to treat someone who’s a little bit different from you, well, a little bit differently. To me, racism isn’t about being insensitive to a certain race, especially if you’ve never had a lot of experience in dealing with that sort of situation. That’s just being inexperienced, and therefore insensitive, and this can be fixed rather easily. Rather, it’s about believing that one race is superior to another, a view which is about as non-existent at Carolina as it can be.