Quickly, allow me to respond to your comments, Shades. First - calm down. I'm not interested, even in the slightest, in getting involved in a proverbial flame war. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, perhaps you're a little worked up. In any event, here goes :
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Originally posted by Shades
Goodness, where did I get off thinking that white people weren't inherently bad, especially in large numbers? YEE-HAA! 
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This is where the calm down comes into play - I guess I can understand where you're coming from, but I didn't say that ALL white people are bigots and Klansmen. By your own admission you're a graduate level engineering student, so I expect that you know that I didn't say that, any more than I said that there only 5 white people studying engineering at your school On a theoretical level, I completely agree with you. It is, however, my opinion that in reality if you were to start the said White Engineers Society, that you wouldn't find most of the white students showing up. I don't think that they would care. I think, even though it certainly wouldn't be a representative group of all white people, that the only people who would show would be the ones I mentioned. I could be wrong. Give it a shot - start the club. See how it goes.
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I'm still trying to decide how painting every white group that way wasn't a flat-out flame.
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It wasn't intended to be. First of all, once again I DID NOT say that every white engineer is a Klansmen. I said that, as above, my guess is that only a few very socially conservative and/or (if there could possibly be a racist white engineer) a racist white engineer who would show up. Secondly, it was intended to sarcastic exaggeration, perhaps (humbly) bordering on self-deprecating humor. Apparently, that's not the way it was taken.
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Which, of course, presupposes that white kids will automatically choose only white people as role models, instead of minority athletes or media stars.
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Nope, that's not what I intended at all. I'm simply pointing out, and I think this may be what a poster above was trying to get at as well, that it could be that if a person was looking for inspiration, that in addition to looking at people for much more grandiose and intellectually satisfying reasons such as their philosophy, their goals, their ethics, their accomplishments - they might, even if it were subconscious, look for people based on superficial qualities. They might like to see someone who looked like them, or came from the same part of the world as them in a position that they might like to attain one day. We can argue the merits of such superficial judgements 'til the cows come home, but it's something that I think everyone does. Perhaps you don't. I think that most people do - and I don't think it's a bad thing.
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I'm only doing so in the interest of fairness. If I'm to believe that there is nothing good about being white...
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I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "in the interest of fairness" - but I wholeheartedly agree with you that white people should feel no more shame about their heritage than any other person. As far as the question of race relations and the history thereof, I ascribe to something akin to the view point of Jared Diamond in
Guns, Germs, and Steel - basically that skin color had nothing to do with unforlding of events, save possibly being a secondary characteristic of environment - and that much more had to do with timing,the orientation of land masses where diffferent races seemed to arise, and the abundance of critical natural resources.
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I would be allowed to organize a White Pride parade (we invented Tang, bitches!)
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That's one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.
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Seriously, please just give me one solitary example in your entire life when anything- an educator, a textbook, a TV show, a movie,- every once even intimated that being proud of being white was anything less than branding yourself as a racist.
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Well, my first response to this was going to the A-Team. In seriousness, you're correct and I agree that it's a bad thing. That was my point with the stuff about the environment white kids are growing up in.
As for all the stuff on affirmative action, I'm going to cover it in a blanket statement as follows : On a theoretical level, I definately agree with you that the only way for things to be fair and equal....is for things to be fair and equal. Determining the best way to allow that to happen is a tough issue. I don't think that affirmative action based on race and gender are good ways to solve the problem, nor do I think that all the people who support these programs are out to screw over white males. I think that most of them simply want minorities, or a particular minority, to have better opportunities than they current do, and they are looking for pragmatic, enforceable ways to bring it about. I'm not going to blanketly demonize them either. Aside from that, I agree that early education and opportunity is the key, but once again - easier said than done.