FIRST Experiences as a Person of Color

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I'm not sure what some of you are responding to, but it doesn't seem to be relevant to what Samuel said about isolation contributing to racism. He notes that people from places without a lot of diversity tend to show racist attitudes, and the objections to his comment seem to say "I have experience with muticultural neighborhoods all over the place and the people there are not racist." That's not a contradiction. If anything, it lends support to his observation.

I see the same thing he does. The most strongly racist people I know grew up in a highly homogenous environment, where everyone looked like they did and came from where they came from and went to the same church they went to. A lifetime of experience with a "they aren't like us" mindset is not easy to overcome.

I myself struggle with prejudice against people who speak using a variety of English that I can't easily understand. Although equating intelligibility with intelligence might not be appropriate, it's something I find myself ready to do if I'm not careful. But I'm pretty confident that my upbringing hasn't given me a tendency to look differently at people based on their skin color, or eye color, or hair color, or body shape, or any such superficial quality.

The difference between what you are saying and what Samuel is saying is that one is a valid statement, the other is no different than racist remark.

When you say "people with no experience with other groups have to rely on stereotypes" I can't argue, that's completely true. When he makes broad sweeping generalizations about entire geographic regions I have to object because it's no better than making sweeping generalizations about entire creeds, colors, genders, or sexual orientations.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by tab1a

If you are white, please do not comment on how little racism there is in your region. There's no way for you to have experienced it first hand.

Do not tell me I have not experienced racism firsthand because I'm of European descent. I've been beaten up and denied scholarships, among many lesser offenses, for no reason other than that I'm white. If you believe that violence and discrimination against someone on the basis of race is not racism because the victim is of the majority race, you need to look at the world more honestly. I will say that I have never directly witnessed racism within FIRST, against myself or another of any race.

Edit: My advice in the future is not to attempt to create an exclusive conversation on a public forum. I'm going to add this thread to my ignore list now.

[Shrub]

Originally Posted by mrnoble

we are talking specifically about the culture of FIRST, and how it is experienced by persons of color, per the OP...

..

[Isaac Ash]

Originally Posted by Shrub

I wanted to create a thread for POC who have or are participating in FIRST to share their experiences and how these identities (and others they hold) intersect, and any other relevant comments they may have.

This thread is getting ridiculous.

Anyways, Shrub, I would like to know if people on your team treated you any differently when they found out you were not white, or if you or your brother felt any difference in the way those who knew you were Hispanic and those who thought you were white treated you.

Thank you!

[mrnoble]

What the flip, people. Sorry OP, it's lost. If you're interested in feedback from some students that have experiences which are relevant, send me a pm, I will put them in touch with you. This thread is now depressing and crap, I'm out.

[cadandcookies]

I promised myself I wouldn't post here, but I'm making an exception solely because I think too many of the wrong voices are being heard in this thread. This isn't to say that the many voices being heard here don't have valid things to say and experiences to share, just that this is not the place for them. I feel like Eric was pretty clear about which voices this was intended to be a venue for, and so, if you don't fit what Shrub intended this thread for, but would still like to talk, please join me in this thread.

Hopefully this thread can return to its intent.

[Shrub]

Originally Posted by AshTestDummy

This thread is getting ridiculous.

Anyways, Shrub, I would like to know if people on your team treated you any differently when they found out you were not white, or if you or your brother felt any difference in the way those who knew you were Hispanic and those who thought you were white treated you.

Thank you!

Hi! Thanks for asking. I was actually starting to write this up so I might as well post it now.

It's kind of obvious I'm not white. People enjoy, or have enjoyed, making a guessing game of my ethnicity. I actually keep tabs of what they ask, and if anyone cares, people usually guess I'm Mexican-American last. Either way, they often follow up with something like "well I'm surprised/glad you're here" i.e. at a robotics event. Of course, they have no ill intent, but that doesn't mean that it is not a microagression.

I felt a difference between my brother and I, because he was also build captain and on our drive team both years he was on the team. This caused people to take what he said a lot more seriously, because he was making stuff happen for lack of better words. My senior year I volunteered at the regionals our team went to. This was a nice change because I was taken a lot more seriously, (seeing as before this I was a scout sometimes and that's about it at events) but it was kind of surprising to realize I was one of few PoC volunteering. It's one of those things that you don't notice until you look back though, because it's so rare to be surrounded by PoC (at least for me) unless they're friends or family.

I really like making it known that I'm there for others. I usually have some kind of sticker or button on at FRC events that says I speak Spanish and French. My grandparents, who don't understand English, loved coming to FRC events during Aerial Assist season because it was so easy to explain and become invested in. I was glad for once I could show them what I was doing in actions and not words.

I have a few friends who may want to share there thoughts through me and I will be posting those as they talk to me about them.

[asid61]

I have never seen the traditional, overbearing racism in FIRST. However, I come from the unique stance of growing up in a 75% asian 20% white 4% hispanic 1% black community.
On my team at least, there is a lot of "subconscious" racism. It manifests in the way we group ourselves into racial groups or gender groups; it's hard to find an example of a perfectly integrated hangout group, although I don't feel like anybody purposefully tries to bring others down or up. How it has affected me or others, it's hard to tell.

[Dave McLaughlin]

Originally Posted by tab1a

If you are white, please do not comment on how little racism there is in your region. There's no way for you to have experienced it first hand. This thread was made for PoC to talk about their experiences in FIRST as PoC.

How is this post acceptable?

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Dave McLaughlin

How is this post acceptable?

It's a reasonable request in the same way that creating threads for women to share their experiences is.

I am flabbergasted (but not remotely surprised) that people cannot manage to honor that request.

[ghostmachine360]

Originally Posted by Madison

It's a reasonable request in the same way that creating threads for women to share their experiences is.

I am flabbergasted (but not remotely surprised) that people cannot manage to honor that request.

When you're talking about a public forum for people to discuss; when you see ignorance, it's usually in good nature to correct ignorance.

The second sentence is probably the most idiotic. Racism is experienced in many ways by all ethnic groups. Including white people.

I've seen it both ways; towards myself, and from my race towards white people. This is why I would see how Dave's post is legitimate.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by ghostmachine360

When you're talking about a public forum for people to discuss; when you see ignorance, it's usually in good nature to correct ignorance.

The second sentence is probably the most idiotic. Racism is experienced in many ways by all ethnic groups. Including white people.

Irrespective of whether you believe racism affects white people (I don't) -- the original poster asked for people of color to share their experiences. If you're not a person of color, they're not interested in your experience. How hard is it to understand that and keep to yourself? Seems to be pretty straightforward.

Forget systemic racism, forget prejudice, forget whether this forum is public or not -- the original poster asked for a certain type of discussion and y'all can't seem to find it in yourselves to respect that.



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A: "I am interested in hearing about teams' experiences with mecanum drives."

B: "We had a great season with our 6WD!"

A: "..."

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

The difference between what you are saying and what Samuel is saying is that one is a valid statement, the other is no different than racist remark.

When you say "people with no experience with other groups have to rely on stereotypes" I can't argue, that's completely true. When he makes broad sweeping generalizations about entire geographic regions I have to object because it's no better than making sweeping generalizations about entire creeds, colors, genders, or sexual orientations.

I simply stated that outside of cities in those areas it is more prominent. Inside of cities or areas that are more cultured it is much better.

I feel like you are trying to start a fight as you clearly could figure out my intent.

This thread is basically gone but imo that whole thread in itself was bad.

If we want to make first more diverse we can't create a thread and then tell people that this thread should only have POC speak in it; it's straight up segregation. If that wasn't the original intent of this thread forget what I'm saying but it feels like it was.

Having POC in first is great and I want more but, the real goal of first is to inspire ALL students not just poc.

This thread has gotten me enough red dots so I'm going to stop.

[ghostmachine360]

Originally Posted by Madison

Irrespective of whether you believe racism affects white people (I don't) -- the original poster asked for people of color to share their experiences. If you're not a person of color, they're not interested in your experience. How hard is it to understand that and keep to yourself? Seems to be pretty straightforward.

Forget systemic racism, forget prejudice, forget whether this forum is public or not -- the original poster asked for a certain type of discussion and y'all can't seem to find it in yourselves to respect that.



----------


A: "I am interested in hearing about teams' experiences with mecanum drives."

B: "We had a great season with our 6WD!"

A: "..."

[jman4747]

I don't see this as bad as a lot of you do now. Yes the generalized statements are and will always be wrong and maybe this thread was only supposed to be for POC but at least I get to see what you're thinking. Forget about the definition of racism or prejudice or discrimination or how they differ. That's just a side thing. What matters, and what I like about the thread is, I get to better understand each individual persons side.

The primary problem with just about everything is two or more sides not seeing each others points. Instead of correcting someone, trade the long reply with just the word "elaborate" (and don't red dot them). I'd rather let you flesh out your thought and know your full thinking first, especially when I don't agree.