Minorities and networking at conferences: as a minority, what's your experience?

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Minorities and networking at conferences: as a minority, what's your experience?

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Started 2 months ago by anon
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anon
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Post something on this forum or on EJMR which is more brutal. And ask a question but casually mention somewhere in the post you are a minority person. And watch how you are attacked and torn apart. Of course, I have never posted anything before, but this has been my observation.

This same racist behavior is on display at conferences but very, very hidden and very much under-the-surface.

I have been to conferences and learned it does not help when it comes to networking. I am usually the only person of my race at a conference, so I never meet someone of my race. I am a 4/4 Native American, which means a "full-blood" although that is very much a meaningless and ridiculous European concept. Of course, no one recognizes me as a Native American - they assume I am of some other race (Brazilian, Argentinian, East Indian, Guatemalan, Middle Eastern, Cuban, Peruvian, etc). The only race that seems accepting towards me are dark-skinned Hispanics who have not married a white person. If they are married to whites, they too are usually not accepting.

So my personal experience has been that networking never helps someone of my race. Other skins (our slang word for American Indians) also say that going to non-Indian conferences never helps with networking. Unless you wear a sweat shirt that says "Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians" or something like that to advertise that you are Native American, in which case you frequently attract the wrong kinds of people to you.

So conferences for the express purpose of networking are a complete waste of time for someone of my race. I am intrigued about the experience of other minorities. What has been your experience.

Posted 2 months ago #
Anon
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> which means a "full-blood" although that is very much a meaningless and ridiculous European concept.

There's your problem right there, the attitude that makes you say nonsense like this. Most white people perceive you to have a chip on your shoulder. The % of your "blood" that is native American is neither meaningless nor ridiculous, it's just arithmetic. Get with the program, and don't do research on "The Experience of People Like Me in America." Unless you want people to assume that you're leveraging your identity to get a job.

And if this sounds hostile to you, try being less sensitive and easy to offend.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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"try being less sensitive and easy to offend."

I know, right? White people only took your ancestors' land, raped their women, destroyed your country and massacred any opposition that didn't die of the diseases the white people brought and usually intentionally gave you.

Now that we've learned to mildly acknowledge your culture, stop rubbing it in our f*cking faces - especially any systematic discrimination that you still face or anything that reminds us of all the bad stuff we did. And don't get so f*cking offended when we point and laugh at you when you have a drink in your hand. I mean, it's a **** joke. Sure it reminds you of the cultural and physical genocide of your people, but try being less sensitive and easy to offend.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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I am the OP and this will positively be my last post as I don't want to argue or debate. But I wanted to clarify and respond to the poster who wrote, "The % of your "blood" that is native American is neither meaningless nor ridiculous, it's just arithmetic...And if this sounds hostile to you, try being less sensitive and easy to offend."

The perception that Native Americans are very sensitive and easy to offend is an incorrect one. We're portrayed as "stoic" but in reality we are very difficult to offend. We are unflappable. By "we" I mean those of us who live on Indian reservations. About the % of native blood, saying that someone is 75% Indian is as ridiculous as saying that you are 33% Jewish or 3/4th Christian or 12% American, which is why we call it a ridiculous European concept. Either you believe in Jesus or you don't. So you cannot be 75% Christian. Likewise, you are either a skin or not a skin. Anyway, I am not here to argue or debate or clear anyone's misunderstandings, so I am not going to be posting again. But I do look forward to hearing the experiences of my minority brothers and sisters. And love to all my white brothers and sisters as well.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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Is the OP seriously using PSJR to support the argument?

Posted 2 months ago #
anonymous
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"try being less sensitive and easy to offend."

That perception is a result of opposition by Natives to mascots. But remember that Natives who oppose mascots look as white as Senator Elizabeth Warren. Did you ever read this http://sonofwashington.com/2013/03/01/native-americans-speaking-out-in-support-of-redskins/

Posted 2 months ago #
Anon
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> The perception that Native Americans are very sensitive and easy to offend is an incorrect one.

I didn't say Native Americans are, I said you are, or you might be anyway. If you take umbrage at an innocuous and indeed useful concept like this, you probably are.

Just try not acting like this. Just to spite white people.

> So you cannot be 75% Christian.

Your problem is not that you're a minority, it's that you are an idiot. Your ancestral bloodline is not the same as a belief system; have some choice about the one but not the other.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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LOL, about a year ago someone sent me a funny but enlightening e-mail about the % of Indian blood. Let me dig it up and post here.

Posted 2 months ago #
Anon
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> know, right? White people only took your ancestors' land, raped their women, destroyed your country and massacred any opposition that didn't die of the diseases the white people brought and usually intentionally gave you.

Look, you have every right to wear this grotesque history as a bloody badge of honor. If you do so, you accept the repercussions of it, which is that white people won't want to chill with you and hang at the conference bar and make idle chit chat. You don't have to give up the identity of the oppressed, just don't be surprised that it's not endearing. The OP has had to discover this, apparently, and it shouldn't take more than 3 seconds thought to figure out that it's the only thing you can expect.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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"I read on your site that AAIP membership is "open to individuals that possess 1/8 degree or more of American Indian or Alaska Native blood."

I am not very good at Math, so I am asking you to determine my eligibility for membership in the Association of American Indian Physicians. Now 1/8 = 12.5%. Let's assume, this rounds off to 13% to simplify matters. On my mother's side, I have 100% Navajo blood. On my dad's side, I am 100% First Nations from Canada, which is neither American Indian nor Alaska Native. However, my mom went to Italy in 1987 and was involved in a car accident there, so she got an infusion of several bottles of Italian blood, which dilutes her own Navajo blood percentage. I was born three months after my mom got an infusion of blood in Italy, so evidently not ALL of the Italian blood was absorbed into my body, although some of it was. That will reduce my Indian blood somewhat but by not as much as you would imagine. To complicate matters, I donate at the Red Cross my own Indian blood at least one or twice a year, so I am quite a few pints short of Indian blood at any given point in time. I also donated plasma for four years to pay my tuition. I don't know how the donation of plasma impacts the Indian blood percentage, but I am sure it does. I am laying all this before you so you can determine my eligibility as per your white colonized criterion.

Thank you
_____"

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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^Gold

Posted 2 months ago #
Anon
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^ See, why would you not want to invite that guy to your pizza dinner at MPSA??? Obtuse, combative, pedantic...what's not to like?

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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Im a minority...theres racism all over Poli sci and academia, but I got my job at APSA.
go to apsa.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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We should have exterminated Native Americans just like Hitler did to the Jews. That is one mistake America made. That would have ended all claims to this land. We should have just shot them one by one. Or gassed them.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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I agree 100%. Canada should have just put all those fcuking First Nations in concentration camps and gassed them all or at least rounded up all Indian men, women and children on reservations and set fire to the whole lot. They are fcuking no-good drunks. I hate those bsatards.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
Unregistered

what awful responses. OP. these people are not representative of the vast majority of the people in the profession. have an open mind and assume that most people are decent until proven otherwise. that's my approach and I haven't been disappointed.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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OP, get a bottle of beer, get drunk and go scr*w a squaw.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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"these people are not representative of the vast majority of the people in the profession"

Sorry to disappoint you but as a person from China I have to say that anonymity brings out the real person. Most people in our profession are racists. OP, that is why most Asians stick to our Asian brothers and other minorities.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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First Nations people are always drunk. They make me sick. I see them at our malls begging for quarters. They should all be deported from Canada to America. If America does not accept them, the Canadian government needs to kick their asses back to Mongolia or wherever their fuckingg ancestors came from! Instead we gave them an entire province called Nunavut where these disgusting people live for the most part.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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"First Nations people are always drunk"

Here is a solution. Our Canadian government supplies them with free booze with poison in it. Like we gave them smallpox blankets. Even better solution. Inject them with some virus that will exterminate their **** race.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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This is all so **** up, but I still can't help laughing. Jesus Christ.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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This is terrible. It's time for us minorities to unite, because it's our force they're doubtin' and make these Devils cower to the Caucasus mountains.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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Let's start by defining "minority."

Posted 2 months ago #
Anon
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OP is a big ol' trolly troll.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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Hey OP, I was born and raised in Latin America and I am fully aware that there is a lot of racism at APSA. So let me give you a piece of my mind:

Have you ever tried to leave your "I am a 4/4 Native American" attitude at home for a change?

Here's a thought: Try being the first to make "inappropriate" Native-American jokes instead of being some kind of obnoxious person obsessed with his own "identity". The only people that like that are other obnoxious people obsessed with their own identities.

And if you play your "identity" cards right, you may even get the girls interested in your "exotic stories" and end up f***ing some American anvs. Works every time...

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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>>"But I do look forward to hearing the experiences of my minority brothers and sisters. And love to all my white brothers and sisters as well."<<

Translation: fcuk you chinkks!

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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"This is terrible. It's time for us minorities to unite, because it's our force they're doubtin' and make these Devils cower to the Caucasus mountains."

I have been saying this for years. But minorities are so eager to suck up to whites that they run down their own kind. Sad.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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"OP, that is why most Asians stick to our Asian brothers and other minorities."

This is **** hilarious. Hey Chinese man, have you tried telling that to your Japanese colleagues?

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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All minorities, including Indians from First Nations, should be kicked out of Canada. If no country is willing to accept them, we lock them up in a prison and use their labor for the rest of their lives after sterlizing them.

Posted 2 months ago #
anon
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OP is a troll.

Posted 2 months ago #

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Minorities and networking at conferences: as a minority, what's your experience?

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