I haven't been able to watch any of SL3 or even SL2 (my current location does not have MTV or English language tv at all for that matter), but I thought this thread was interesting and I wanted to respond to some of the issues presented here.
About White people getting lumped together--one of the main reasons that White people are put together in one group or category in this country is that most White people in the US are not 1st generation immigrants anymore. Most White americans are at LEAST 3rd or 4th generation, if not more. Even though the various European countries have very different cultures and languages, almost NO White americans speak those languages or have the cultures of their countries anymore. Younger White americans who are born and brought up here may try to actively SEEK cultural ties, like learning about their culture, taking a language class, etc., but these cultural ties for the most part do not have a strong presence in the home (in other words, not too many White people in the US are sitting at home talking German. Even if your grandmother is, chances are, you aren't). So even though White people come from many different countries a few generations back, White americans are now, for the most part, fully "americanized"--the Italian-American's experience in the US is not much different (if there is ANY difference at all) from a British-American, German American, etc. SO sometimes there are still cultural ties, or new ties to the old culture are made, but for the most part White Americans have similar cultures and similar experiences in this country, so they are grouped together.
Now some people on here have stated/complained that non-whites are allowed (or forced to, however you see it) maintain their cultural ties and are separated into groups, but White people are lumped together. HELLLOOOOOO-do you NOT realize that "African-Americans" are all lumped together too?? Last time I checked, Africa was a CONTINENT, not a country! There are sooo many countries, cultures, and languages in Africa (probably many more than Europe), but African-Americans were unfortunately STRIPPED of their ties to their culture, and now everyone in the US gladly lumps African-Americans together without thinking twice, while they steadily complain about Whites being lumped together. And another thing--What about Jamaicans? Should THEY be called African-American? What about "Black" people from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, or Haiti? Should they be called African-American? What about a British Black person in the US? What about Aboriginals (for those that don't know, these are the Native people of Austrailia who are dark-skinned and look "Black")? There are so many different roots, cultures, backgrounds of "African"-Americans, but we lump them into one group. And we often do the EXACT same thing for Asians, Middle-Easterners, Native Americans, etc. So don't get mad when people group all "White" Americans together, because exactly the same thing is done to every other group in the US without a second thought.
On to the next topic--I read a few people on here stating that NPC sororities are diverse and/or multicultural. I don't know what things were like on other campuses (and I am trying not to assume), but I attended University of Maryland, College Park, which is considered (by some) to be a diverse school, and the NPC sororites on our campus were anything BUT diverse or multi-cultural. Not only were they almost 100% White (yeah sometimes a house had the token Black girl or the token Indian girl but when its 1 or 2 out of 80, that is pretty damn near 100%), but even the White people in each sorority weren't diverse!! You had the Jewish from NJ/NY houses, the Christian houses, the I'm Christian PLUS I like athletics houses. It was UNBELIEVABLE to me how these sororities work SO HARD to recruit COOKIE CUTTERS of themselves. I knew one girl that wanted to join a predominatly Jewish house, and HID the fact that she was Christian during rush so that she could get in. Whether or not she HAD to do it, who knows and who cares, but she FELT it was neccessary, and that speaks VOLUMES for the "diversity" of some of the NPC sororities on Maryland's campus. Now I WILL say that not ALL of them were like that (I don't want you all thinking that I'm lumping everyone together when I'm preaching against it LOL), but even the more "diverse" NPC sororities still consisted almost completely of middle or upper income White people. Yeah YEAH maybe their great grandparents came from different parts of Europe, but its still not diverse. Before I start getting hate male, I am not knocking these sororities--everyone has a right to make their own choices in life, and each person should do what is right for them. I also agree that, even in a predominately White sorority, you can still interact with people very different from yourself--different majors, different personalities, different religions, etc--and a lot can be learned from this. But I still don't think that you can call this type of sorority "multicultural."
Believe it or not, I wanted to respond to other issues raised on this thread, but I have been typing WAY too long (I'm an English majors who struggles with conciseness LOL), so I will have to save it for another day.
I'm pretty new to GC, but I have been browsing and reading various threads for about a month. I like what I've seen so far--a variety of interesting topics are discussed on here--so you might be seeing more of me in the future.
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