Wow, a lot of responses since I left for school...
I guess, first, because I feel like my opinions and intentions of my first post were interpreted differently than what I meant: I, too, as a lot of other human beings, have a tendency to overgeneralize things. We all do it, it's part of being a human and having a working brain. So if I offended anyone with my thought that racism is still a problem, I apologize. We have all admitted that it is, and I am sorry if I overgeneralized the South by saying so. I am speaking from opinion, my own knowledge and research, and all that I know. And I never said that racism is NOT a problem in Southern California... it definitely is (a lot of my family members are still very close-minded)... just from my own opinion, my knowledge, and my research, it isn't quite as predominant. I don't have the attitude of "at least it's not as bad in the south." Have you seriously witnessed/heard about the problems we have in SoCal? I'd love to live somewhere without the whole "Hollywood" stigma we get, amongst other things... don't get me started. Back to the point: Last I checked, I was not all-knowing and I was entitled to my own opinion, as are all of you GCers... I don't enjoy being shot down on a part of my opinion that wasn't even the point of my posting... but I appreciate you guys making me realize to think about what I say/post/write/whatever. We all need a kick in the a$$ sometimes.
Second, in the United States or California as a whole, I am not considered an ethnic minority. Where I have grown up and gone to school, I am a minority in many ways: ethnically, socially, academically, etc. I cannot say that I understand the situations facing many ethnic minorities (or any other forms of minorities for that matter), but I have tried. Speaking with friends/relatives/co-workers/etc., and hearing their stories that affect them because they are a minority, I am able to think of some situation that I can relate to. But it doesn't mean I can completely understand them. Same thing with the whole South commentary... I don't live there, I can know what I know and have my feelings on it, but I cannot completely understand it like any person who truly knows the South can, no matter how much I try.
Finally, the whole point of my response was to get some thought-provoking comments in... I guess I succeeded there. I agree with all those who said sometimes it's good to rile people up. That's pretty much what politics are all about... not everyone will be happy with the outcome, and I just happened to not be happy about this situation's outcome... in my opinion, with conversations like this, we are moving forward from the whole race debate. Julius Alexander gave it some sincere thought- good for him. He declined the bid- also good for him. I can't say that I'm not proud of some girls that have declined my chapter's extended bids because they had their own reasons. But he gave it a try. It sucks in a way that his mom threatened to stop paying tuition- I mean, hey, if someone was paying mine and threatened to stop, I'd be doing whatever they wanted, but I dont have that luxury- I can definitely see where his mom is coming from.
Yeah, so there went another hour reading and writing that could have been contributed toward my finals...
