I'm in an inter-racial engagement, and believe me this is so relevant!!!

I totally agree - As a gay male, I, too, face diversity all the time.

BUT, when I walking in my neighbourhood with a bf, who was black, we received numerous dirty looks and gay slurs in the neighbourhood where I live (where it's pretty tough and whites are the minorities).

I have been out and about with other boyfriends (who were not black) and I didn't hear these disparaging remarks. But, boy howdy, as soon as I was seen with a black male, I did feel more backlash (I suspect it was a 'testosterone' thing since I am blond/white and was actually with a 'brother').

I think racism (as well as homophobia, sexism, etc.) will ALWAYS be with us - Very sad but true.

'There’s a name for you ladies, but it’s not used - Outside a kennel! (Crystal Allen in The Women)'

I was only five when this came out. I remember there was one girl in grammar school who was a "mulatto". Only the races were reversed...her mom was black and her dad was white. I remember many of my classmates' parents-including my own-thought it was just a terrible situation.

I also remember that we had a discussion on inter-racial relationships in high school. The teacher asked us if our parents (and this was in 1979) would've allowed us to bring home a black boyfriend (we were all white and all girls). Every single one of us said, NO WAY! In fact, most thought they'd be disinherited if that happened.'

I knew another girl who was Amer-Asian (her mom was Japanese). Quietest person I ever knew. I don't think I ever heard her utter two sentences together. Painfully shy.

What you are describing is called, BIGOTRY!!! Racial prejudice. It has existed for as long as we (Homo Sapiens) have been here. The problem is THEIR problem, not YOURS. Just ignore THEM!!!

"You can't HANDLE the truth!" Jack Nicholson, "A Few Good Men."

See my thread here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061735/board/nest/149177427.

My thoughts: while I've grown up in the suburbs of Toronto, the largest city in Canada and one of the most multicultural cities in the world, I went to university in a smaller city that is about an hour out. Since the university is known for its medical, science, and engineering programs, lots of Toronto-area Asians go there (Indians and Chinese are statistically the Greater Toronto Area's largest ethnic minority groups).

In the suburb where I grew up, about 75% of my elementary school was first- or second-generation Chinese. The rest of us, whites, blacks, Indians (like me, of which I was one of the very few), etc. never saw race as an obstacle towards anything. Of course there wasn't any dating back then (some kids do date in elementary, but not in a Chinese dominated school), but there were interracial crushes. Things got more diverse in high school with other races being more evenly represented. There I was able to see how multicultural my suburb really was and there was lots of interracial dating.

That's what made university so surprising. There is an increasing trend of racial segregation across university campuses in Canada (there is supposedly an article in Maclean's on this). While people socialize and make friends of other races, it's almost always the case that the core group of friends of a minority are other members of his or her own race. They often meet them through on campus race-based clubs. I'm not sure why, but even the people who grew up in the same suburb as me start to accept this new way of things. I for one never wanted to join the South Asian club, but I chose my principles.

It's true that there are some people there from small towns and that people from small towns are often racist. In my first year, a floormate of mine openly stated that he would prefer it if I lived with people of my own race. This was a huge surprise because I don't really walk around thinking "I am Indian." I present myself as a regular guy and I don't even like Bollywood movies or, as stated above, have a lot of Indian friends. I'm sure that fear of discrimination plays a role in this segregation, but it seems silly that a small town mentality overrides a city mentality.

Anyways, I apologize for rambling, but this is an important conversation so I think it's important to be as open as possible (if anyone is actually interested, that is). I would love to hear other people's thoughts on racial segregation in colleges/universities or on the link in my other thread.

"We played with life and lost." - Jules et Jim, François Truffaut.