Not dating someone of another race doesn’t make someone a racist. People have the right to date who they want to — politicizing personal intimate behavior is just dumb. I’ve never dated a black woman…Does that make me a racist?

I think your requirements for someone to be “not racist” are fanciful, at best. We don’t get to choose most of the world around us, penalizing people for not doing the impossible is intellectually dishonest — is that what they teach in sociology classes today?

Are there racist white people? There most certainly are. There are also racist black people, racist Asian people (ask a native Japanese person what they think of Koreans), racist people come from all corners of the globe, it’s not something that only applies to white people. I think the “no racism without power” tack is a cop-out. The last time I saw the KKK in my town there were 18 guys surrounded by a cyclone fence and 80 cops…to protect THEM from US…how powerful were they if they had to hide behind the police?

Proposition 8 is about one group of people stigmatizing another entire group of people for reasons that are less than rational. Sorry, but I think your claim that “all white people are racist” does the very same thing.

Basically I think you need to get out of the classroom and deal with some real, live people. If your sociology teachers knew anything important, they would be doing something other than teaching sociology.

Yes, Barack Obama is black, and is president of the US. The fact that it is notable speaks of the racism that is inherent in society.

How long have black people had voting power? And how racially diverse is our Congress? In the entire history of the United States, only *five* black men have served in the Senate. Minorities are also underrepresented in the House of Representatives.

I am fully aware that the idea that there is not “reverse racism” is an opinion, just as the definitions of “racism” are an opinion. It is shared among many, if not most, social scientists, but as with most things in sociology, we cannot “prove” it.

Ive met several people who have claimed to be not racist. Yes they have never dated a person of color, they have never served under a minority boss, they havent ever had black teachers (except for “multicultural” classes.) Without these types of exposures, there really cannot be this type of “not racist” people.

Granted, I come from Texas in which there are not that many black people. It might be different here in New York, but I still haven’t met anyone. My classes are overwhelmingly white (and female, but that tends to be the nature of social work). Most of the minority students are immigrants or here from other countries.

Not sure what the Prop 8 comment was about, care to explain?

(P.S. Amazing work. I don’t think I have said this enough

I took a Social Issues class with a professor who believed in this very same train of thought. It is an opinion, not fact, that “reverse racism” does not exist. Your clinical speak and vague examples do not make this opinion into an institutional truth.

I have an “almost 4.0″ from college. The reason? I wouldn’t write that same opinion as an answer on my final.

A black person is president. Now tell me about race+ power.

Saying that all of any type of person is one thing is ridiculous. It’s the sort of thinking that got us Prop 8.

Please think this over.