Help me out - with an interview for my Minority Groups class

C

catiew21

New member
Hey! i have a paper due tomorrow for my Minority Groups class. It is quite interesting. We were assigned a minority group to research. My minority group is Muslim Americans. I need to interview people with a scale that we were given in class.

This is the scale:

Bogardus Social Distance Scale
7. would exclude from country
6. as only visitors to my country
5. to citizenship in my country
4. to employment in my occupation
3. to my street as neighbors
2. to my club as personal chums
1. to close kinship by marriage

This is the way it works: You apply your thoughts on Muslims to this scale. You start at number 7 and if you are completely 100 percent okay with that (with no if ands or buts) then move to number 6, completely okay it and move down until you find a number you are not comfortable with...

For example If I were not comfortable with number 2, I would write:

The last number that I am most comfortable with and therefore chose was #3 because ____________.


This is hard to phrase eloquently - so thanks for baring with me.

If you'd like to pm your results to me that'd be fine too.

RECAP:

Applying your person views on Muslims to the scale, start at # 7 and move down the list until you find a number that you have an objectiont to. Then, write down the last number that you are completely comfortable with and write a reason or justification for it.

Thank you all very much!
 
To paraphrase Martin Luther King - I don't judge people by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character... Unless of course they're purple -I hate purple people :)

Gimme a 1 - I like someone or I don't based on who they are -what race, religion, culture, whtever, they belong to is not relevant.
 
Another 1 here. In my household, we have a Christian-in-the-sense-I-give-Christmas-presents-and-hide-Easter-eggs Unitarian (me), a nonpracticing Buddhist (my partner), a recently-converted Southern Baptist (MIL, on the grounds that "it's easier to only have to deal with one god"), and my daughter who goes to church because there are kids to play with there. Neither of my parents have attended a church service in 20 years (and that was a friend's baby's baptism); my sister is married to a Reform Jew. So a Muslim would fit right in.
 
I echo Mal.... that was an excellent post.

Hit me up with a 1.

When I was young, a Hispanic man shot my neighborhood friend in the back right in my yard.

Killed him.

He was Hispanic as well.

Lesson learned:

Race/religion/beliefs mean nothing. Values are the only thing that fend off evil.
 
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I am loving this... Thanks everyone... I am so impressed with all the open minded responses.

Not to diss my state - but not surprisingly (probably) many people here who I asked were WAY up on the scale. To be honest, it made me a little sad. To each his own, but I'd have to choose 1 for the same reasons as well.
 
1. as well. I have no problems with people's beliefs or skin color. I was raised to believe everyone is equal. I know that I was raised right.

I'm Athiest BTW, kind of a hippe tree hugger.
 
most people here i asked (not saying i believe this at all) said that they would not be comfortable with #1 (marriage) because of different/opposing beliefs. I think that can be worked out -- just sharing some other results
 
The area I grew up in - in the late 60s early 70s in suburban new jersey was extremely ethnically diverse - probably the most ethnically diverse place i ever lived -including new york city, boston, and where i"m living now = becuase in cities, ethnic groups tend to stay in one area -my neighborhood had ukranians (who spoke fluent russian and taught me some of it) italians (not long off the boat -mrs v gave me my first taste of calamari when I as 8 - loved it ever since) to hindus, iranians ( she made an incredible tea) and a gfew othercultures - and all the kids got along and played together and got to learn about each others holidays and food traditions... It was kind of a neat way to grow up... I'll never forget moving to connecticut when I was in high school and realizing how vanilla fairfield county was...

It makes me almost sad that people almost fear what they don't know - but i suppose its true of almost anything -there are a lot of exercise i fear because I don't know them - yet.. we'd probably be a better world if we all went color blind.

Ok let's all hold hands and sing kumbaya now -
 
It's easy to say... "Put me down as a # 1 "... But the reality could be very different.

So... Put me down as a number 1 as long as my Muslim husband is ok with me wearing tank tops and mini-skirts and he lets me make all of the decisions in the household! :)
 
It's easy to say... "Put me down as a # 1 "... But the reality could be very different.
Click to expand...

I agree wholeheartedly with this. You're going to get some skewed views when reaching for opinions on the internet, especially on a forum where people have come together to form a support structure.

Any one of the people above could harbor a serious dislike for whatever race you are studying for a bias against, but they will say "Mark me as a 1", because they know that our society (rightly) looks down on bigotry and negative racial bias. The fact that while I was writing that last sentence, I felt that I had to include "(rightly)" furthers my point, in my eyes.

Having said that... Mark me as a 1
 
With what P2B said above, mark me as a 7.

I hate anyone and everyone who is not me.

:p
 
I would give Steve a 7

No questions asked

Don't even think about a 1. I've choked bigger men for far less than implying far less about my younger sister.
 
Some men say that women are the source of premature gray hair. I would like to agree, but with a stipulation. Women, in the form of younger sisters, give men gray hair before their time.
 
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