Well, Reb's nice and all, but I'm on Team Matt.

You do know that's J.D.'s son right?

On a side note, sometimes I feel bad about derailing threads. THIS IS NOT one of those times. This thing was a flame war just waiting to happen.

FIXED!

Yeah... I never read Catcher in the Rye.

On the thread derailment... eh. Don't really feel it's totally derailed, and I actually think there's a decent discussion to be had on the topic. The water's pretty damn turbulent as of late though, which makes it unlikely that it won't just devolve into an all out flame war.

And miss out on TinyE's insanity? Are you nuts!? :D

we can have that in any thread - or at a passing freakshow (when the UK allows them again), why this thread needs to be about to witness it is beyond me!

Well this thread "needs" to exist because these thoughts were on my mind and GOG is the only place I expect reasonable conversation. TinyE is largely an added bouns but I feel a little flattered to have him blurt his non-sequiturs on my thread :)

*flings poo at man accused of having travelled to scunthorpe for fun at some point

YARP!

I first became aware of racial differences playing D&D around my friend's kitchen table.

Halflings have a +1 bonus to backstab.
Dwarves have a 10% resistance to magic.
Humans get skill bonuses and can multi-class but no attribute or resistance bonuses.

(How did it take 4 pages for this post to get made?)

I was born in 1972, so my earliest experience with noticing there were different races was during the 70s. In elementary school I can only remember my class (which was usually between 20-30 kids from 1st Grade through 6th Grade) having 2 black kids (fraternal twin boys) for a few months, and one Korean girl (also for a few months). All the rest of us were just plain white. Race never meant anything to any of us.

During that time, I used to watch mostly sit-coms on tv. A lot starred mostly white people (Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, Three's Company), but I was also a big fan of the ones with mostly black people (Sanford & Son, The Jeffersons, What's Happening). I didn't care what race any of the characters were, I just enjoyed watching the shows because they made me laugh.

Of course, with it being the 70s, all the shows would have the occasional "racism" episode. As a child, I never understood why racism existed. Everyone on these shows were generally good, decent people, so why should anyone hate everyone who looks like the characters or came from the same continent as the characters? I could understand hating someone for being a jerk, but not grouping everyone of a particular race under the same umbrella.

Even now, in my early 40s, if I think someone is a hoodlum or a prick or a douche, its because of how they act....not how they look.
LMAO....ok, we can lock this thread now! Nothing's gonna top that as far as I'm concerned!

I was not aware of racial differences until I read the OP. ;) But seriously, I would say it was probably when I was about 5 yeas old, although studies show everyone is aware subconsciously, even babies, and that part is not a joke. Check out this surprising 60 Minutes newsmagazine segment about "The Baby Lab" where they have found babies showing racial bias: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRvVFW85IcU (60 Minutes is the name of the show, but this particular segment is 13 fascinating minutes long)

If you don't want to watch a video, here is a transcript of the segment: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/babies-help-unlock-the-origins-of-morality/

I for one found this thread's original premise to be mildly interesting, since the perception of race surely varies for people from different countries and/or ages. It obviously had potential for being derailed and flamed from the get-go, but I trusted GOG's community to handle it seriously, which is why I took part in it (it hasn't really been that bad so far, has it?). I still think it has the potential to be an enriching thread if we keep to the original question. The "other" points that have been brought up, while mostly valid, could probably do better on their own thread (or not, because the threat of an impending flame war would be over nine thousand on such a thread). All of which doesn't mean "the usual derailers" are unfunny in any way.

tl;dr: make GOG, not flame.

Spot on. I never really thought about why people were different colors when I was a kid. I just saw them as other kids.

First real thoughts and exposure to any racial issues was when I was in the 5th grade I think and our teach was talking about segregation back in the past. Everyone in the class was of the opinion that it was dumb and stupid and made no sense. Fortunately we were not raised by bigots so our wells were not poisoned so to speak.

Though my birth father was a total racist he kept it to himself most of the time. When it did come out it just sounded petty and unreasonable and I couldn't take him seriously.

Though this is all coming from blondie McAryan here so I didn't go through some hard shit like some folk do.

So you say. But saying so does not make it true, or plausible.

I think you wish to align yourself with the OP, who wishes him/herself to be patted on the back for being "colour-blind" when actually being blind to assumed privilege.

Meanwhile, 007 I think could be any gender or race these days.

Kindergarten, there was a Black girl, I cried.