RACIAL STEREOTYPES ARE DEEPLY EMBEDDED IN OUR CULTURE
Sat Jan 19, 7:56 PM ET
After a recent column describing Barack Obama as "a presidential candidate who happens to be black -- not a black presidential candidate," I received countless responses from readers, a handful of them odd. That odd handful declared they take no notice of superficial traits such as skin color, and they took me to task for making any reference to Obama's race. ... click here to read full article
It's after reading an article like this that I'm so glad to be a part of a community like Second Life. I've met people from all over the world in Second Life and the racial prejudices that exists in my first life does NOT exist in my Second Life. I can create a character that can be of any skin tone and I would never be discriminated anywhere I go in Second Life.
I think if someone had time and needed a big research paper to do in college, there's definitely a subject that can be discussed here. Why do we discriminate against each other in the real world, but when it comes to a virtual world like Second Life, it doesn't exist?
Of course there are mean and rude people in Second Life. Like the one that kept poking me with a huge plastic phallic item when I was just trying to have a conversation with a friend. Or there's people who get easily offended when I accidentally drop an item in their virtual land. But those type of people are few and the majority of the people in Second Life are kind, courteous, and mature, regardless of my skin color.
So in a place like Second Life, a person's race does NOT factor into how they are treated by others. The only factor in Second Life is a person's behavior.
Why can't the real world be like that?
