Originally Posted by JEFF_CHAN

Upon further clarification, he wasn't applying for VP. He was applying to be a rep.
(I'm actually not kidding, btw)

Well being an exec myself in the past, I do know that most or all the reps are Chinese. Cantonese (and a little English) is used during meetings as the communication language. Maybe this is why they prefer to have execs who can actually speak the language, not feel left out/awkward in the meetings and promote the culture to other people. Just like how you don't see a Chinese rep in clubs like Viet or Polish (no offense here). I do know that every year CSA accepts everyone into the club, but it's a matter of if they're going to show for the events or not.

Originally Posted by JEFF_CHAN

My housemate tried applying to be the VP of McMaster Chinese Students Association or something.

He suspects that he didn't get it because he isn't Chinese.

jeff chan..sigh what a disappointment...did you even know how his interview went? please get your facts straight before you post something like this...

Originally Posted by Biee

jeff chan..sigh what a disappointment...did you even know how his interview went? please get your facts straight before you post something like this...

What facts does Jeff not have straight?

All he said was his friend applied for a position and the friend suspects they didn't get the position based on not being Chinese.

If his friend did indeed apply for this position and has a suspicion that they didn't get it based on not being Chinese then what facts does Jeff not have straight? Those are the facts of the situation, friend applied, friend has suspicion. Pretty straightforward.

Originally Posted by sew12

What facts does Jeff not have straight?

All he said was his friend applied for a position and the friend suspects they didn't get the position based on not being Chinese.

If his friend did indeed apply for this position and has a suspicion that they didn't get it based on not being Chinese then what facts does Jeff not have straight? Those are the facts of the situation, friend applied, friend has suspicion. Pretty straightforward.

Yeah, but he doesn't even know the details of why his friend didn't get the position. I'm sure CSA is very diverse, accepts anyone and is not being racist because his friend wasn't Chinese. Just because his friend didn't get a position, he calls CSA racist?

...he's not calling CSA racist -_-

Originally Posted by alexfigueroa

...he's not calling CSA racist -_-

Jeff (or rather his roommate) is implying they are discriminating based on race.

That is racism.

Or it could just be a joke that his roommate tells to people...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbQiSVeQwVQ

Originally Posted by smiles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbQiSVeQwVQ

Except Stephen Colbert of course. He really is racially color blind.

In 3 and a half years at Mac, I have never encountered racism.

The only discrimination I've seen at school is ageism. In first year, I was in a group project with 2 other girls who were in third year and they constantly shut down my ideads because of my age. They said I was too young to know how the project should be run and that I should leave all the research and decision-making to them because they were older.
(Interesting note: I received an A- on my part of the project and they received C's)

OMG my Anthro degree has a use...

I find it all surprising that you have no idea that racism still exists.

There are several kinds of racism. Explicit racism is when the state/people are obviously racist. Implicit racism is more tricky, because the opinion isn't "out there"; normally these people (and most racist people in this day and age) don't give their opinions because they fear rebuke.

The Canadian state says it isn't racist, but I would say that's a lie. At best I would say it is implicit, but in some cases still explicit. The Indian Act is the only piece of legislation left in the world that openly discriminates a group of people...which is contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I have been discriminated against because of race, and it happened at Mac.

I don't think that anyone is denying that racism and discrimination exists. In psych you'll find that there is implicit racism even in people who claim that they aren't racist, but whether they act upon or externally express these ideals is another story.

During one of my physics labs one of the T.A.s kept on telling each and every Asian person in the lab to "put their first name first and last name last". Whether or not we make a big deal out of is another story. I personally thought it was hilarious that there was a TA stupid enough to believe that we didn't understand the instruction the first time.

In some respects, I think there's an issue with excessive political correctness. One time I referred to a group of people as "brown" and the people (non-brown) freaked out. Imo, calling a group of "brown" people Indian, when they aren't Indian is probably more offensive. If you can call someone black then you can call someone brown. I wouldn't have any qualms with being labelled yellow.

Originally Posted by Jay

I don't think that anyone is denying that racism and discrimination exists. In psych you'll find that there is implicit racism even in people who claim that they aren't racist, but whether they act upon or externally express these ideals is another story.

During one of my physics labs one of the T.A.s kept on telling each and every Asian person in the lab to "put their first name first and last name last". Whether or not we make a big deal out of is another story. I personally thought it was hilarious that there was a TA stupid enough to believe that we didn't understand the instruction the first time.

In some respects, I think there's an issue with excessive political correctness. One time I referred to a group of people as "brown" and the people (non-brown) freaked out. Imo, calling a group of "brown" people Indian, when they aren't Indian is probably more offensive. If you can call someone black then you can call someone brown. I wouldn't have any qualms with being labelled yellow.

I always wondered about that. It's "politically" okay to call someone "black" or "white", but not "brown". I'm curious why this is.


Sorry for over use of quotes.

Originally Posted by Kathy2

I always wondered about that. It's "politically" okay to call someone "black" or "white", but not "brown". I'm curious why this is.


Sorry for over use of quotes.

My brown friends don't have an issue with being called brown. Then again, my high school was all asian and brown.

From my experience most of the racism I see at mac isn't overt, it's more along the lines of people just not knowing what they're doing is racist (such as saying "yo, yo, yo" and trying to act "gangsta" around me), almost all of the overt racism I've seen has been directed towards the asian student body; i've definately heard comments similar to the ones heard by the TC.

Originally Posted by Biee

jeff chan..sigh what a disappointment...did you even know how his interview went? please get your facts straight before you post something like this...

Wtf? He has his facts straight. "My friend applied to be (an exec, as he later clarified)." Fact. "My friend suspects racism." Fact.

It's not a bad thing to relay facts even if they 'smear' the credibility of an organization. The organization, if it's really a credible organization and not racist, its own actions will speak for itself.

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Myself, I felt a bit of racism when during clubsfest 2008 (I was at the booth for MBC), I went over to inquire about the Carribean Association...I felt very brushed off, like I wasn't worth their time (and let's face it...it's clubsfest, they should be happy to talk with interested people. Why else would they not want to talk? (I'm of european descent)). That was the first time I was really ever conscious of my race (at McMaster)...well, except when I'm with some of my girlfriend's (who is Chinese) more distant relatives, occasionally I feel as if they're all judging me. xD

Oh, or there was the one time I was at sushi with the MBC members and one brought his (asian) girlfriend. I remember I said something about some type of sushi being really good, and the girl goes "Says the white boy." First impressions right? xD At least it was a good icebreaker.

Speaking of asians, if you ask me, the most racism against asians comes from asians themselves. The MBC is filled with probably 90% asian members, Asian F.O.C.U.S. is predominantly asian (not sure why it's 'asian' exactly, since F.O.C.U.S. is a larger organization), but I've never felt out of place.

The problem with human beings is that they consider their own race a great thing, and are proud to be united in such a fundamental way...but it's problematic. If someone points out that someone is say, black, white, asian, spanish, etc. that's not ok...and yet if someone were to truly look at human beings in a 'colour-blind way' then that's not good either.

Why can't people seem to realize that it isn't what you can't change that makes you special! White, Black, Asian, who cares? On the other hand, if you're a nobel laureate, or an amazing teacher, or work a solid job, have a great family...THESE are what make you special! These are the things you should be proud of.

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This just screams 3rd Rock from the Sun. There's one episode where Dick (the main character, who is from another planet and is learning about humans as he goes along) stumbles upon racism. He remarks to his black coworker, who is talking about how proud she is of her African heritage, "Wait, you're black?!! You all look the same to me." And she gets mad at him. So later on in the episode, he writes "Black" on a post-it note and sticks to her since he just can't seem to remember, and of course, she's mad. xD

It's a great episode and really illustrates the point, since the characters on the show are as close to 'racially colourblind' as one can get. Here's a bit of the episode on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeSbePbLqDg

The episode is called "Dick, who's coming to dinner?"


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Oh, as for me, my closest friend (of about 12 years) is arabic, and muslim (which explains to some of the muslim members here why I know so much about Islam. xD). I occasionally throw out random one-liners such as "You're brown...like poo." and we both just laugh. He throws out one-liners like "You know, they're always calling you cracker...why don't they take it off the box if we're so politically correct?"

It's good times...not all racial remarks are actually racist. It can show that you're comfortable enough with each other to poke fun at 'sensitive areas.' (Race of course, not being the only thing we make fun of)