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How my experiences have influenced how I view and relate to people from different backgrounds

I think this question is very hard to answer. I suppose, like everyone, I participate in a certain level of stereotyping based on what ethnicity I perceive someone else to be. I find myself assuming black people will be more outgoing than white people, and Asians more studious, and Latino/as more family-oriented. This is mostly coming from what I have learned about other cultures since coming to college. I also assume people of color have had experiences with being discriminated against, which isn't always true. I can't really remember what I thought before college, other than diversity is a good thing, and to not discriminate against people, but I didn't really think about the power and priviledge dynamics until I started reading feminist books. When I was about 18 or so I read Angela Davis, and even in high school I was reading books by Alice Walker and Maya Angelou and thinking about the different experiences black Americans have had, and the historical roots of oppression. I suppose I also expect people of color to think about things this way, to be politically progressive, and I'm always surprised when I see or hear a person of color who I would call 'buying in to the status quo.' White people, however, I expect to do this, unless they are also of a marginalized group such as LGBT white people, Jewish people, or even straight white women. I feel like some white people should not be prejudiced, and should understand the power structure that benefits them, but I can see how the system is set up against this knowledge. We're not meant to know that we benefit. We're meant to be ignorant that differences even exist between our experiences and people of different races, but I expect smart white people to figure this out.

I find that I tend to 'sort' white people into various categories of more and less racist. When I was 17, I moved to Austin, Texas, from having lived most of my life in the Midwest. I found that people there were much more open about issues of race, at least they had a dialogue going on, but the white people there could be very persistant racists. They might say we were worse racists, because we can be more subtle about it. I'm not sure which is worse- they are both pretty bad, but living there the attitudes definitely disturbed me. My friends thought nothing of calling each other racist names and making derogatory jokes about people of color and Jewish people. In the Midwest, I'm sure it happens also, but I hadn't experienced it on that level before. Therefore, I suppose I have a stereotype of the South as being 'more racist,' whether or not this is an accurate picture. There is certainly a more entrenched attitude that racism is just 'the way things are' and isn't going to change. It is also interesting that Texans feel a sense of identity separate from the rest of the United States. They will put the Texas flag on everything, and have a huge sense of State Pride. Yet, there is little common knowledge that Texas was once stolen from Mexico by the United States, and was pretty much founded on anti-Mexican racist attitudes.