What I Want Is A Mostly White Law School In A Mostly White Area

[critic]

? You obviously mostly work better with people you are comfortable around versus uncomfortable to be around.
LOL I didn't think I needed to point that out.

Actually, you do need to point out your unwarranted assumptions.  You are assuming that people work better when around those they are most comfortable with.  THis is your assumption, and your argument doesn't hold without this assumption.  You cannot, however, in any way substantiate this.  I would argue (from experience in working in groups with friends, where we got nothing done, just talked about girls) that your assumption is false. 

Regardless, I found it comical how you presumed to boil this 'whole AA thing' down into one statement, and thereby 'solve' it for us.  Thanks for the exhaustively researched, highly credible answer to that social problem.  What do you think we should do about social security and the middle east, while you're at it?

I would go into the whole "comfortable" discussion in greater depth with you but I get the sense from the rest of your post that discussion isn't the direction your moving in. I'm going to interpret you making personal comments about me (something I have not done about you) as a defensive, last resort effort by you to make a point when you realize you have already  lost the argument. lol

[SleepyGuyYawn]

I've always lived in diverse areas, and my campus in undergrad was very diverse.  I think I'd like a mostly white law school, and live in a part of the country that is very white.  I'm just more comfortable in that environment.  People of other backgrounds seek this out as well, so I don't apologize for wanting this.

This post hits many of us on a gut level -- we fell there is something quite insensitive about it, but none of us has pinpointed why yet.  I'll try.

To me there's a big, glaring difference with what the OP said about wanting to live with white people, and with what people might commonly say about living with a diverse population.  Why?

B/c of the language of exlusion.  If you say you want to live with lots of types of people, you obviously aren't saying you specifically want to avoid anybody.  If a person says they want to live with different types of people, they aren't saying they want to live in an area that's as black as they can find.  On the other hand, what the OP said is very exclusionary.  What he said, that he wants to live in the whitest area he can find (his whole question was that of wanting a list of the most white schools) he necessarily is saying that he wants the non-white population to be non-existant or as small as possible.  As I see it, this is exclusionary language.

And in my opinion racism doesn't require "intimidation or physical violence," as a previous poster said.  Let me ask this previous poster whether they are a racial minority -- just seems odd that white people should be defining racism in terms that constrict it -- you seem to be defining it to suit your needs.

No, racism is about a majority culture excluding a minority culture b/c of the minority culture's race.  That's all -- that's all it takes.  It is one thing for a group of people in a minority people to gather together for mutual protection and identiy.  It is another thing for a group in the minority to gather together -- because it's not about mutual protection (they don't need it) and it's not about identity (for the culture is largely based on what the majority decides it wants it to be).  When a group of people in the majority bands together without people in the minority, it is not about the same things as if it were the other way around.  It is about exclusion -- and finding ways to exclude, not protection -- and finding ways to protect.

It can be a tough thing to understand -- but try your best to take on the perspective of somebody who doesn't have the same cultural protections that white people, by and large, do.  

[superius]

Congratulations!  We have established that there is no such thing as a definitive "White" culture, although there are cultures like Scottish, Swedish, etc. that involve White people.  That's what I was driving at this whole time.  And since that is true, that makes the OP's whole premise of going to a place where people share his/her "culture" baseless.  Thanks for sealing the deal on that point for me.

Actually it does not make the OPs point baseless.  Caucasian-American culture, which is what the OP will likely encounter at an American university, shares similarities as well.  Certainly common ground exists no matter what area of the country you go to.  For example, almost all the white people in the USA will speak english.  If you go to a school where a large chunk of students speak French, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and other languages the culture is back in play. 

A friend from Florida tells me that I am going to experience huge culture shock if I end up selecting a school in the US south (something I am probably going to do if given the opportunity) because eastern Canada is much different than Alabama (for example).  But if I were to go to Alabama it is likely that most people there would be speaking English.  Whereas if I go to U of Miami (without knowing the makeup of the school) I would probably suffer even more culture shock due to the large Spanish speaking population.  Now I know I am moving away from schools a bit here (but the OP also mentioned areas), but we can assume that Miami is not the only city in the united states that has radically different minority populations.  All around the south you are going to have large numbers of Mexicans along the border with different culture and language.  Their culture is going to be so radically different than the OPs that no matter where he goes if it is a predominantly white area it will be more similar than different.  That being said, if the OP were to go to a school that is largely African-American, english and north american in nature it will also not be that different than what he is used to.  But it could also be different in ways too.  I admit I know little/nothing about southern Black culture but I hear it is different than southern white culture.  Given that there is likely two different southern cultures (lets limit it to black/white even if not correct) which do you think is more similar to life in Vermont?  Maybe they are both radically different, maybe one is closer than the other.

[I hear America singing]

I don't know- why would a black teenager be more comfortable with other young black teenagers than say at a Bar Mitzvah?  

Why would a white construction worker from Michigan be more comfortable with his white michigan friends than at a reservation in Oklahoma?

Take an Asian from ChinaTown and drop him into a Korean culture and I'm sure he'd be just fine...  they even look somewhat the same... I'm sure they'd do fine.

If we were all robots, things like our different pasts and upbringings wouldn't matter.  But, we're HUMAN, so they do.  We've been biologically wired to trust things that look most like us.

If you're a Neanderthal with animal bones around your neck and you're walking down a path and encounter the following people, which one do you think he'll be most wary of?

1.  The fellow Neanderthal with animal bones around his neck and similar weapons, etc.

2.  Or the explorer from Africa with face paint and strange weapons.

This isn't racism, it biological commonsense.

One could argue that now that we're "civilized" (HAHA) this shouldn't occur.  Try telling that to your boner when a hot girl walks by.  These things are ingrained into our beings, whether we like it or not.    

[the REAL desi]

I would be very uncomfortable arriving at a school that was 60% black or something like that simply because it isn't something I'd be used to.

which law school, other than Howard and FAMU have a black population that is even close to that percentage?  my own law school is probably 70% outright while, and an additional 20% white-washed minorities

[I hear America singing]

I would be very uncomfortable arriving at a school that was 60% black or something like that simply because it isn't something I'd be used to.

which law school, other than Howard and FAMU have a black population that is even close to that percentage? my own law school is probably 70% outright while, and an additional 20% white-washed minorities

You're attacking her premise but not acknowledging her feelings... I don't think it's wrong that she realizes she'd be uncomfortable in a majority black enviroment... I also don't think it's wrong if she decides to go somewhere else because of it.

[SleepyGuyYawn]

Black culture consists of two things-

1. A hollowed-out version of European culture (Christianity, social customs, holidays, etc.)

2. And the noble and traditional customs of their ancestors, which 97% of American blacks are either ignorant about or choose to disdain.  Real African culture exists in Africa, not in America- at least not in any discernible degree.

This is one of the most racist comments I've ever seen on this board.  It speaks of such incredible ignorance on the part of its poster that I can even begin to respond.

I suggest that instead of telling African Americans where they need to go to find their "real" culture that you learn a little bit yourself about black history in this country.  Black people have over a three hundred year history in this country -- I suggest you take a serious look at it.

[WOMBAT]

So does anyone have any suggestions for the original poster?

[SleepyGuyYawn]

Yes, I responded directly to the original poster a few posts ago -- check it out.

[I hear America singing]

Yes Black people have a long history of culture in American History- but it is nothing more than a subset of a rich and varied American culture-

You just cannot read a Black poet writing in English and wearing European clothes and agree that his voice is distinctly African.  He has, as someone posted earlier, been white-washed.

What we've witness in black culture the last few centuries is nothing more than a rotting sideshow compared to the gleeming spectacle that was African culture in millenia past.

Exhibit A:  Lil' Kim