Assuming you were born into the same family, at the same time, in the same circumstances, but you were born a different race (take your pick – white, black, Asian, Hispanic, etc.), how (if at all) do you think your life would be different today? Why?
I would have enjoyed mild notoriety in my infancy as the [insert ethnicity] baby born to Chinese parents (followed by a slew of paternity tests) and if I had been white then maybe I wouldn’t have had to deal with racism growing up but if we’re talking fundamental changes to my person… not really.
Uh, yeah, your family would be the same race… :rolleyes: 
I wouldn’t be so guilty! You can’t beat Jewish/Catholic hybrids for guilt, dammit.
(Of course, I might still be susceptible to the guilt trip, then. My Jewish grandmother (you’ve all heard of her - she’s the one from all the jokes.) tried using them so often the whole family is now immune.)
Of course, anyone who is born into a minority is going to have obstacles that white folk don’t experience, but if I had the same family (same minority race as me but also the same people), I think I would be much the same as I am now. I believe that a strong and positive sense of self is important in a person’s quality of life. If you feel that your contributions, however small, are important to your world, it would be more difficult for prejudice or racism to beat you down. There are obviously things in each of our lives that we can’t control, and there’s no real way of knowing how those things would affect you or your life.
People wouldn’t laugh openly at my attempts to achieve urban hipness.
Sailboat
:dubious:
Well, sure, if I was born white or black, the world would have been significantly easier. And I don’t deny that I’ve had the occasional moment of weakness and wished I’d been born white.
But at 29 (almost 30!) I’m quite content to be Indian by birth, American by ubringing, personality, and choice.
I just wonder how some of the small things would effect the course of our life if we were born a different race – things outside the typical definition of “racism,” at least in the intentionally malicious sense. If I had been born Asian, for example. Even if I didn’t seek them out, would I have ended up being friends with more Asian kids who would have sought me out? How would that have affected my peer group and my decisions? Would I feel more confined to live in only certain parts of the country with established Asian communities? Would it affect who I dated and married?
I dunno, it’s interesting to think about… Hopefully, of course, we’re moving beyond the time when it will matter at all (and it’s heartening that some people don’t think it would make too much difference), but still, the way society currently is, it probably does have some effect.
There’s only one race: human.
Differentiating by skin color is bullshit, IMNSHO.
Call it bullshit if you want, but that doesn’t mean that that bullshit still doesn’t matter in societies all over the world. Thankfully it matters less every day, but ignoring it won’t make it go away.