Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with race

What tips do you have for a new winter runner?

gocubbies — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:31:42 -0800

What tips do you have for a new winter runner? I'm a fairly seasoned runner (about five years experience on the treadmill), but I have never run a race longer than five miles. I am training for my first half marathon this May which means I will be doing most of my training in the winter and I want to get outside and run on the street.

I live in Illinois so snow will be constant. Most of my long runs will be through cornfields. What tips do you have for running in the snow? What about gear? Besides a great pair of shoes, all my gear is for warm weather and running indoors on the treadmill.

I do have an iPhone I always take with me for music and safety in the event of an injury.

Thank you in advance!

How would you make the most of 1 full day without sleep in Bangkok?

gttommy — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:25:39 -0800

How would you make the most of 1 full day without sleep in Bangkok? My friends and I will have only 1 day in Bangkok but we want to see/do as much as possible. I want to organise something similar to the 'Amazing Race', rush from one place to another non-stop, except, not as crazy and the destinations should be all nearby (within Bangkok).

We decided not to even book for 1 night accommodation. Instead we will just stay up partying hopefully and have a nap afterwards at Bangkok airport before flying to Patong.

Who: 4 male adults
Interests: food, anything unique to Bangkok, socialising, nightlife
Time: day 1, arrive at airport 11:10 AM --- day 2 depart at 7:30 AM

What would you do?

Something similar to the below will be most helpful:
catch a taxi at xxx outside the airport
go to xxx
visit xxx
ride the xxx
eat at xxx
run to xxx
avoid xxx
drink/party at xxx
catch taxi at xxx to go back to airport

Otherwise, even simple suggestions will be appreciated, Thank you so much!

Looking for racism tests

shetterly — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:28:22 -0800

Do you know of any good tests for racism? I've only found two that seem promising. The first is the race test at Project Implicit, where they found "75-80% of self-identified Whites and Asians show an implicit preference for racial White relative to Black."

The other, described in Color Blind or Just Plain Blind?, isn't as well-documented; it found, "When white participants believed that they were the only witness they helped both white and black victims very frequently (over 85 percent of the time) and equivalently. There was no evidence of blatant racism. In contrast, when they thought there were other witnesses, they helped black victims only half as often as white victims (38 percent versus 75 percent)."

The first suggests 20-25% of whites and Asians are not at all racist or are racist against whites. The second suggests 38% of whites are not at all racist. I'm sure there must've been other attempts to measure racism, but my google fu is weak.

AAVE, AAE, BEV, whatever we call it nowadays, in the movies.

ms.codex — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:32:58 -0800

I'm looking for "black best friend" supporting characters in movies who also come with a black love interest. I'm interested in their language patterns and dialect usage. I'm thinking of writing a paper about the portrayal of African-American English in popular film. When I watched the movie Clueless, I was struck by how the black best friend and her black love interest speak COMPLETELY DIFFERENT dialects: the girl speaks fairly standard English, the boy speaks strong African-American Vernacular English, and this discrepancy goes totally uncommented on. It's as if (pun intended), because they're both black, the linguistic divide that would send very different social signals in the real world is irrelevant. Are there other examples like this where racial identity trumps language? Movies in which black couples speak different levels of AAVE? Clueless is pretty dated, and I'm also wondering if this scrupulous need to give black-best-friends love interests of the same race, language use aside, is still as strong as ever.

African American smokers choose menthol cigs ~75% of the time; Whites ~25% of the time. Why?

jjjjjjjijjjjjjj — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:16:46 -0800

How did menthol cigarettes come to control such a large share of African American smokers' cigarette purchases? [quick cites: wikipedia, FDA (via USA Today), Harvard SoPH] The studies linked put ~25% of White smokers as choosing menthol, and 70%-80% of African American smokers as choosing menthol. My anecdotal perceptions for my age cohort and region (~30, St. Louis, MO) seem like they'd widen the gulf even further. How did this come to be?

I suspect that the major mechanisms perpetuating this amount to: advertising (just by looking at where and how Kool and Newport [popular menthol cigarette brands] concentrate the bulk of their advertising) and inertia (just like all the products I use for no other reason than that my daddy used 'em). But how did it get that way, in this case?

Answers will be quite nuanced and variables quite interconnected, no doubt... not looking for any "just so" stories. Willing to read challenging things. Many thanks.

You've got to be carefully taught

pseudostrabismus — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:55:36 -0800

A friend is teaching a "Multicultural Education and Identity" class in a high-school setting, and asked me for advice, so I'm asking you, hive. I would like a broad spectrum of anti-discrimination educational resources and materials, for ages 12-adult. Interested particularly in racism, classism, able-ism, and privilege. My friend wants to spice up lectures with visuals, videos, articles, and other supplementary materials. He's looking for a variety of stuff, including, but not limited to, the following:

Some sample topics:
- respectful discussions of privilege
- helpful ideas for privileged people to navigate the world fairly
- ideas for PoC and whites to address racism in real life
- internalized racism, beauty standards, etc.
- reverse racism and whether or not it exists
- racist tropes in pop culture, media bias, etc.
- clear & engaging definitions of key terms and supporting statistics

Ideal Materials could include anything, really: blog posts, articles, essays, YouTube videos, songs, short films, art, visuals, quizzes, interactive activities, stand-up comedy, whatever.

Tone:

- Would really prefer to avoid snark and condescension. Sites like Derailing for Dummies, for instance, have fantastic information, and are fun for PoC to read, but tend to alienate the very people they intend to educate. I absolutely understand how frustrating these issues can be (first hand... believe me) but ideally we'd want these materials to be inclusive, not accusatory.

- On the other hand, we would love stuff like The Deal With Disability, which was recently featured on the blue. Eva's a tiny bit snarky, yes, but her humour and her very unusual vantage point more than make up for it. So I guess SOME snark is okay, if it's thought-provoking rather than abrasive.

Other resources I think would be great, to give more examples:
Chris Rock's "Good Hair"
Kiri Davis' "A Girl Like Me"
"A Class Divided"
Peggy MacIntosh's "Invisible Knapsack"
the Harvard Implicit Association quizzes
Heidi the Sugarmonster's article about why she chose to have weight-loss surgery
Even small doses of pop culture phenoms like Borat and Russell Peters, who sometimes cross the line but could still provide good seeds for discussion.

... More, like those would be really helpful. Thanks in advance!

Bright Ink, Dark Skin

Juliet Banana — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:06:24 -0800

Is it possible to get a bright, satu rated, extr emely colorful tattoo on light brown skin? It hasn't escaped my notice that the tattoos I admire are generally on Caucasians. I've heard that you should consider tattoo ink like colored cellophane; the color of your skin will shine through. I've heard tattoo artists saying that your color options become more limited as your skin gets darker. Hence, I've kind of accepted the fact that brightly colored tattoos are out of the question for me.

I'd love someone to prove me wrong, though, with photos or anecdotes or personal experiences! I'm half Mexican and half White, with skin the approximate color of peanut butter. I would like to see examples of colorful tattoos on people in a relatively similar shade range (ex: Latinos, South Asians, Native Americans, multiracial people, any light-brown people regardless of race). I know about BMEzine, but it's total information overload. If there are certain colors that would work but others that wouldn't, I'd like to know that too; this previous thread discusses white ink, for example.

If I got inked, it would almost certainly be on the upper arm or back, as pictured. I know that the bright color in photos of tattoos is sometimes because the tattoo is very fresh, and I also know that maintaining that brightness has a lot to do with limiting sun exposure, sunscreen, regular touch-ups, etc. I just want to know: is it possible for someone with my shade of skin to get a very colorful tattoo and keep it that way with a reasonable amount of effort?

I know Metafilter "doesn't do race well." This is not a cultural question about race or identity or ethnicity, it is a scientific question about how tattoo ink appears when applied to different shades of skin. In addition, I know there are issues with tattooing over scars; that's a different can of worms, kids. Your reward for keeping discourse civil is an extra bonus NSFW colorful tattoo.

There are no gay people in the future. (Or are there?)

mumble — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:55:41 -0800

Looking for book recs about sci-fi, specifically about gender issues and jetpack-related physics. Slowly easing my way into science fiction (classic Star Trek as of right now, with some Blade Runner/Electric Sheep-related thoughts and plans to branch out some more), interested in two aspects of discussion right now. I did some quick Amazon and Google searches (not very helpful) and poked around a bit at AskMe, and was hoping for specific recommendations about these things:

1) Sci-fi as a white, male space </allegation>: Essay collections prefered over single-topic tomes. I'm referring specifically to sci-fi movies and novels and the way women, sexuality and/or race are handled in the narrative and, to a lesser extent, the history and culture of the genre as a whole.

2) Why transwarp teleportation will never be possible </opinion>: Books on the science behind the fiction, preferably written for the layperson without being overly cutesy about it. This sounded pretty ideal, until I read the last paragraph of this review. See 1).

Not looking for actual novel recs, just the meta. Will also take specific essays that can be found online, if you feel like sharing a link. Thanks very much in advance!

What did you wish you knew going into your first triathlon?

neilkod — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:55:56 -0800

What did you wish you knew going into your first triathlon? I just registered for my first triathlon on Sunday. It's a sprint distance. Ocean swim. I'm a beginning swimmer, a fair runner, and a very experienced cyclist. I don't know anything about transitioning or any of the other aspects of triathlons. I'd love to hear all relevant tips and tricks.

If it helps, I'll be competing in atri suit, asics running shoes, and typical CF-soled cycling shoes. I don't have triathlon-style cycling shoes. I have a decent pair of speedo goggles.

Bonus points for anything that'll turn me into a better swimmer by Sunday morning.

Carribbean

gt2 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:53:05 -0800

Is this common in the Carribbean? Where are the local bars or clubs in St. Thomas or St. John where different races hang out together? Is anyone familiar with St. Thomas or St. John? This is our first time in the Carribbean; we're staying in St. Thomas and have been catching the ferry over to St. John. We've been driving all over St. Thomas and have noticed that either there are places geared towards tourists or there are local bars and clubs that seem to either be all black or are all white, sailing-boaty type bars. The closest we saw to a mix of people was Coki Beach. We were there over the July 4th holiday weekend and there were a lot of locals there, but they seemed a tad resentful of tourists being there (expected and not surprising).

I'm from California and have been to Hawaii, Georgia, Tennessee, New York, London and some other places. I'm more used to people of all races mixing it up. I see a huge social discrepancy here between the tourists with money a lot of the locals who earn less, but the race division seems a lot more intense than I've seen in Georgia or Tennessee. (Although I haven't spent a huge amount of time in the Deep South).

Clearly we're just tourists and haven't seen it all, but does anyone know where the bars and clubs or restaurants or churches are where blacks, whites, and all other races just hang out in St. Thomas? Or is this typical for the Carribbean?

Please don't chime in just to rage - I saw the post about the swimming club in Philly. I know there is racism in the United States. But I see a lot more mixing in the U.S. also. I'm curious if the rest of the Carribbean is like this.

White white Black black

ClaudiaCenter — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:17:28 -0800

Would like more understanding of black, Black, white, White. (This is from of civil rights law perspective.) Some of my colleagues use capital letter B as in "The company failed to promote dozens of qualified Black apprentices, and instead advanced less qualified White workers." When I was in law school one of my professors (historian Abernathy) insisted on the capital letters for Black and White. Some of my colleagues do not use the capital letters B and W.

From what I have gathered from my conversations, the capital letter is intentional and means something, to highlight, but I feel as though I don't totally understand the meaning.

Are there any essays about this or do you know more about this useage?

Include mentions to race on a resume?

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:33:47 -0800

Is it okay to indicate race in a resume? I have recently been getting my resume in order to send out to potential companies and organizations. In my current resume I mention a scholarship I received for being an influential black male in my home town before I moved and went off to college.

It's 2009 so it's easy to suggest those things don't matter and that it's crazy but that's not always the case. The city I am looking for a job in has a very small black population and at one time was the sixth whitest city in the country for it's size (200,000+ I believe). It is basically known as a college town.

Should I let my experiences do the talking and exclude any mentions to race? I'm still fairly young, mid-20s, so any experiences or suggestions you've dealt with or seen would help.

Terms for mixed race couples?

roaring beast — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:34:30 -0800

What are the most appropriate terms for referring to couples of mixed race/ethnicity? Multicultural? Mixed Race? Bicultural? Multiethnic? Just to clarify, I mean couples where the partners are different ethnicities, not that each one individually is mixed race. Please excuse me if I have used any of these terms in an offensive manner.

Your challenge, should you choose to acecpt it....

jasbet07 — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:15:32 -0800

Help me come up with some fun/outrageous birthday relay race stations... Since many of you were a great help this time last year, I thought I'd tap in to your collective genius again...

I'm planning a relay race around Prospect Park for my partner's bday - she's an avid runner (mostly over the past year) and as a result she's encouraged me and a number of our other friends to get off our butts and start running too - so I thought no better way to celebrate her and her bday than with a "race" of sorts - t-shirts will, of course, be created.

The thought is that we'd have 4-6 stations along the loop of the park and each station will have an activity somehow related to her that they have to complete before moving on to the next station. In the end all will have completed the activities and a 3.2ish mile run - then off to the bar.

So, here's some general info about her to help with any ideas - but generic, fun ideas that could be customized are also welcomed...

She is...
turning 32
a graphic designer who works in advertising and does logo design freelance
she's got a few tattoos
wears funky glasses
plays trumpet
throws pottery
born and raised in New England
loves running, softball and rugby
has a terrible sweet tooth
loves sci fi (battlestar is the favorite) and historical fiction.

I guess that's a good start. We are looking for things that can be done on the cheap, take a little effort, and can be documented in some way.

Some of the potential ideas we've come up with so far are:

buying cheap play glasses and having people decorate a new fashion forward pair for her,

creating puzzles from some photos of her (I think snapfish does this) and having people complete them,

Creating a short quiz about her and requiring some form of shot (jello perhaps) for wrong answers

Anyway, any ideas really appreciated!

More than just attracted to difference?

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:54:22 -0800

Seeking advice and shared experiences from other people who are not attracted to people from their same racial/ethnic/national identity. I'm mixed. My parents, immigrants to the US, originally hailed from opposite ends of this earth. I (female) have never been attracted to men who are from either side of my parents ethnic/national identity. Never, ever.

I feel bad, like I'm not giving certain demographics a fair chance. Recently, a male friends of mine from x background shared that he is attracted to me. There's nothing really wrong with him, but it's as if I have some inability to feel sexual and/or romantic chemistry with men from either "side."

I've generally been attracted to a wide variety of backgrounds. Though, I am very frequently attracted to men who are mixed - perhaps its a shared experience of always straddling the in-betweens, and a feeling of sameness (of experience) through differences. I am, occasionally, attracted to men who share 1/2 of their background with my own - but it's because I see them foremost as mixed, rather than from a shared ethnic/racial/national identity.

But those that have "whole" backgrounds shared with one of my parents, I have never felt chemistry. No attraction. At all. Ever.

Does anyone have any reasons for why this is? I've occasionally heard of people experiencing similar - not being attracted to people of a same background - why is this? It is not as if I've had some terribly awful experience with people from either side; even from childhood, I had crushes on people from a variety of racial/ethnic/national backgrounds - just not on those where my parents were from.

How can I communicate to people that my lack of attraction to either "side" is not indicative of being a sell-out, racist, or evident of some kind of self-hatred?

I am not looking to change this, just merely ways of addressing this with other people ask, or kind ways of telling someone from either background that I am just not interested in them, and it is sincerely not personal or about them.

What music keeps you going and going and going asking for another hill to come?

mathiu — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 09:20:28 -0800

[exhausted-athlete-music-filter] What songs will carry you up any hill? I am part of a university sports team that is to compete in a one day, 18 leg, relay race over 45 minute distances in running/inline-skating/street-biking and mountain-biking.

I am in the process of pimping our tour bus with a sound system. I hope that music will lift our athletes' up-hill spirits throughout their gigs.

What music keeps you going and going and going asking for another hill to come?

Studies re racism, memory, age

ClaudiaCenter — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:26:10 -0800

ISO studies re differing perceptions of racism among same-race witnesses. I am looking for studies or case studies to explain why two different black witnesses, both female but one in her 40s, one in her 60s, might perceive or remember incidents of workplace racism differently. We're set for logical explanations and/or explanations specific to our fact pattern -- right now I'm looking for psychological or other sorts of studies about memory, race, and age.

The most imitated AskMe..

CRM114 — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:13:38 -0800

Who was it who first said that (paraphrasing) "the American black man is the most imitated man in the world"? I want to say that this was first said by Cornel West, but Google has failed me completely.

I'm running a 10k race on Sunday. How should I prepare my body diet and supplement wise?

willy_dilly — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:45:18 -0800

I'm running a 10k race on Sunday. How should I prepare my body diet and supplement wise? I've been running 3-4 miles every other day for the past 6 weeks and will be joining a 10k race this Sunday and hope to prepare my body so it'll have enough energy to last me through the race. What should I be eating in the next few days and the few hours before the race? And what supplement do you recommend?

P.S. The race starts 5 a.m. in the morning. Any tips on early morning race would be appreciated also.

Thank you!

Why don't the fastest times win?

bluefly — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:15:10 -0800

Why don't competitors in marathons start the race all in one pack? Why are there different start times for elite runners? Why don't they decide the winner just on time alone? So, I was reading about the Nike Women's marathon and the Chicago marathon last year where the people who ran the fastest times didn't technically win because they weren't in the elite pack (I think they were given some sort of consolation prize/designation). The argument being that they were running essentially a different race since they didn't start with the leaders who couldn't judge how far ahead/behind they were and adjust their strategies accordingly. I get this. But why have two different start times anyway?

Why are middle eastern people categorized as "white"?

tumbleweedjack — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:14:26 -0800

Why do middle eastern people get lumped into the "white" category when asked to declare their ethnicity? Yes, technically, middle eastern people are "white," but so are most hispanic/latino people. And, with several million people of middle eastern origin, it seems like somebody would be interesting in counting them separately.

This question was inspired by the Daily Kos weekly poll's crosstabs. I was really curious to see Obama's ratings among middle eastern people, but there's no such information!

What comic did this come from?

electroboy — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:19:09 -0800

Does anyone know which comic book this image came from? OptimusChyme posted it in the Katrina's Hidden Race War mefi thread, but didn't know the original source. Any ideas?

Please help me understand the ethnic/racial origin of the Japanese.

gregb1007 — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:49:39 -0800

Please help me understand the ethnic/racial origin of the Japanese. I really would like to know the ethnic history of the Japanese. Considering that some mingling of different tribes had to have happened on Japanese soil, I would like to know who these tribes were. The purpose of all this information is basically to be able to relate the Japanese ethnicity to other ethnicities because obviously the connection has to be there, though it's hard to establish because the Japanese have a very unique look to them.

How to deal with a racist boyfriend?

lblair — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:11:40 -0800

How do I deal with a racist boyfriend? How did you help someone overcome their racism, or did someone help you overcome yours? I have a boyfriend who I get along with and have a great time with, but one thing that absolutely drives me crazy is when the racism comes out. Usually it's when he's drunk and in front 'the guys.'

In general, I would simply not associate with people who I thought were racist, but he really is a good person aside from this, and I want to help him come around. (You know how it goes- the last person you ever thought you'd date ends up being one of the best people you've known, despite their flaws.) In any case, I disagree with an argument that I see a lot on this topic- that racism is a learned behavior. If you read (and agree with) evolutionary psychology, it suggests that racism IS innate and that, in fact, people have to learn NOT to be racist (by exposure to people from other races, and to other people who aren't racist.) I think this explanation makes a lot more sense. I'm not condoning racism, I am not racist- I recognize that I was lucky to be raised by liberal parents in a diverse community. But I do think it helps to explain why otherwise intelligent people, who just happened to be sheltered, can end up this way ( e.g. my boyfriend.) It also has made me a tiny bit more forgiving towards those who are racist. Not in the sense that I would put up with it long term, but in the sense that I would be more forgiving of the occasional slip up if he was genuinely trying to change.

In any case, based on this belief I do believe that it's possible for people who are racist to change- it seems that the younger you are, the easier this would be. He is 26 so I think it would be challenging, but possible. I've already tried a few tactics. I've tried to expose him to people of different races, tell him about my friends and people I know of different races. I've also made it a point to tell him this stuff isn't funny when he starts cracking jokes- but unfortunately, his other friends still laugh when he cracks them. So basically my question is this- if you have seen someone else go from being racist to not, how do you think it happened? If you were the one who overcame racism, how did you do it? I know he makes a pretty good effort to not say things like that around me, but I'd prefer it if he was able to reach a point where he wasn't saying (or thinking) them at all. Although I am willing to be patient now, in the long run it would be a dealbreaker (as in, I would break up with him if the racism did not cease.) I've said as much to him, unfortunately the couple times it's come up have been while we were drinking (while he was cracking the jokes,) so I'm not entirely sure whether he realizes I am serious.

I can also sort of tell that he is afraid of/ feels threatened by black men. Of course, I think it's ridiculous, but I know that when fear is involved, people become irrational. How do I deal with that? Thanks in advance, everyone.

Life expectancy by race.

517 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:05:53 -0800

Where do I find life expectancy data separated by 5 categories of race and/or state of residence for the United States? All the data I have found thus far has used only two categories of race (white and African American). I am looking for data that separates race into the 5 categories used by the Census Bureau (American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African American; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and White.) or something close. Can you help me?