Julian's Blog

We hate discrimination but deep down are we racist?

2010-08-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

In response to: Why Am I Not Attracted To Black Men

The United States east coast is a melting pot of cultures as there is people from every corner of the world. Everyone has an opportunity to better their situation and in many ways fulfill their dreams. I do cherish different cultures, I love eating Indian, Middle eastern and far many more types of foods my step father would ever dare put in his mouth. So why can't I bring myself to date someone with a different shade of color of skin?

I am open minded, I have many friends that are from different cultures and when it suits I find them funny, intellectually challenging and hot. I can admire the beauty of a slender black woman, the edginess of a Japanese girl, an adorable Thai and the presence of a latin woman. So why can't I be sexually attracted to guys that in many ways could be considered more handsome than the ones I tend to like? Am I not allowing myself to date them because I don't think I should be attracted to them?

The norm has always been - you are expected to date someone who looks like you and has a similar lifestyle. One hardly ever questions why a Jew must marry a Jew so why am I questioned when I don't want to date someone from a different race?

Whatever the issue is, it is a recurrent question in gay populations.

This maybe due to the limited pool of people there are to date and most assume they are entitled to date whomever they want.

Maybe it is the image of the slender and tall white figure most people think of when asked to think of the "typical gay"

In dating gay sites many times people are upfront about what they want and describe their perfect man to the race. I used to be one of these people and many times I would get emails from black guys telling me how racist I was and how much this hurt them. When I first read these messages I became defensive. If I date light skinned people why are they trying to date me and not other dark skinned people? After much thought and sleeping over it I came to the conclusion that it was a very offensive thing to do yet I couldn't help my sexual desire.

But why should I feel bad about my sexuality, I don't feel bad about such a stigmatized act as dating a guy so why should I feel bad about not being an interracial couple?

This question has been tried to be answered by many people like Jesse Bering. He explained how Homogamy be the solution to this question on his article Oedipus Complex 2.0: Like it or not, parents shape their children's sexual preferences on Scientific American. Freud always thought our parents had a way of affecting our sexual desires and I could not agree more. Homogamy fits into his theory. "Homogamy is marriage between individuals who are, in some culturally important way, similar to each other. Homogamy may be based on socio-economic status, class, gender, ethnicity, or religion.^[1] It is a form of assortative mating."-wikipedia

In the past I have dated black and Latino people, however, I was never truly sexually attracted to them. I myself am Latino so it is quite amusing to me why I am not attracted to other Latinos. Most people don't understand one thing about latin America: Just like in the United States, in Latin America there are descendants from Europe, Africa and pre-Columbian natives. Unlike in North America there has always been mixing of the races since colonization and the population became a race of many shades.

I myself inherited light skin genes. While living in latin america I was always made fun of as some of my cousins had nice olive skin and I was pale. Mom by the same token was light, with freckles and a red head. I can date Latin American guys that have light skin and look european or are a mix but I can hardly ever find a dark skinned native looking central American attractive. Am I experiencing Stockholm syndrome? Do I like white guys above others because I am told they are the hot models in magazines? Or am I experiencing homogamy due to my skin color and it doesn't encompass my whole race..?

Why have I not a problem fantasizing about dark Italiano men?

Sexuality is truly a complex matter, just like fetiches it is weird and unexplainable to some degree.

The media's role reply to "Air France: misguided Media Attention"

2009-06-03T17:21:00.000-07:00

As promised to the writer of the article "Air France: misguided Media Attention" I will give an opposing answer to his post and explain why I don't believe the media is blowing an international incident like this, out of proportion.

I am not a journalist nor have researched this topic extensively. This is an attempt at an educated response.

(disclaimer: I am just a scientist)

One of the reasons why some think these types of news should not be advertised as much is the relative number of people that die on flights compared to any other medium of transportation as insignificant. Although on paper numbers might seem reasonable, truth of the matter is that there are many other factors why the media should focus on events like this.

How important is it for the general public to know if a plane goes missing or falls?

-Almost everyone will use airlines at some point in their lives and I believe it is important that people are aware of what could happen before they make a decision on how to travel.

-gregor-morrill's point is right on the bull's eye. When over 100 people die in a given incident it is noteworthy. If 100 people die in a car crash it would definitely make national news.

-Someone has to report these crashes and let everyone know about them. It is just fair again to the general public.

-You usually pay over 1000 bucks for an international flight as opposed to a tank of gas for 30 bucks. These expenses are supposed to cover proper maintenance of the planes and a knowledgeable crew.

For god's sake if something that big falls off the sky I want to know about it.

- The plane went -missing- -When you get on a plane you are not the one flying the plane. You are putting your life(and 200 others) in someone else's hands.

Now why should the media focus on this events so much?

MANY PEOPLE DIED in an international flight (why it should not be covered in just one country) and on a MAJOR airline. I have not traveled by plane too much but on the few times I have, I have used this airline.

Now I know that planes from this airline have failed.This will make me and many more on the general public reconsider when I am trying to find that cheap ticket on Expedia.

This is not good publicity for Air France . They might assume responsibility and hopefully make their pilot selection more strict, their check ups more through etc etc

Twitter is a whole different realm and you cannot necessarily call it "the media" Unlike most twitter power users the rest of us follow our closest friends say 20 to 50 people. Not one of my friends posted about it so how many times it was posted on twitter is relative to the number of users.

The writer also expressed his disbelief on how people were troubled by these tragic stories, when they should be bothered by other stories that happen in their immediate lives. communities etc.

I believe many of us actually do take part in this community news that affect our immediate surrounding though. When I read my school's news paper, sometimes I take action, whether it is to join a club, go to a protest or go to the latest concert.

Why are we fascinated with news about death?

Aren't news ways to re-tell stories? stories are knowledge. Processing the past, learning from it and building upon it.

If I am aware of these stories maybe I can prevent dying? I am not sure about that one since I am no psychologist but maybe this is why the death news are the ones that intrigue us.

Maybe these stories help us cherish our lives. They let us know we are lucky enough to be alive?

I do agree that TV news are lame and thats why I love the internet, feeds, categories tags, etc. They give us specific types of news so we can avoid some and use others.

Farc betrayal... lets all betray them!

2008-07-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

On the past few weeks amazing news have come from Colombia.

The liberation of fifteen hostages including Ingrid Betancourt; the 2002 Colombian presidential candidate. With the insane amount of bloodshed that this long civil war has taken, it was surprising that not one trigger was pulled on this operation. Apparently the captors were tricked into thinking that these hostages were being transfered to the FARC's leader. The Colombian government with the help of Washington were able to retrieve the hostages by meticulous arrangements.

Today a statement from the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) said the government's victory was caused not by disorganization but by betrayal from two guerrilla members. They were arrested and will be extradited to the U.S.

So these guys are going to jail huh? to me they are really bad people but at the same time heroes. They should be rewarded or a lot should be taken off their shoulders. This way more members will start betraying the organization and lead to an eventual weakening that will aid in its dismantle.

I am sure these guys stepped back and said... "wow what we are doing is reaaaaall bad. Lets put an end to this"

Even if they go to jail, they should be given a medal.

Uribe was under great international pressure from none other than Chaves(Venezuela)... which I will refrain from talking about and Sarkozy (French Press). Sarkozy wanted Betancourt's safe release important to France because Betancourt's dual Colombian/French citizenship. While Chaves was outright criticizing Uribe's tough hand on Terrorism... oh I said it. the FARC believe in Marxism which I am o.k. with, however they create fear/terror on the Colombian people. Making them Terrorists! enough said.

ah .. .so Chaves had to eat his own words when seeing such a marvelous operation

"we said some hard things. Between brothers such things happen"

Oh.. yeah I said I wouldn't talk about him....

Uribe in the other hand, a Harvard graduate will attempt to change the constitution once again for re-election. Lets hope he does not attempt to do what Mugabe or Chaves have tried.

Uribe Colombia LOVES YOU! so keep up the good work.

Also I can only wonder if the love between Bush and Uribe is one related to their Ivy league provenance?

the start off

2008-07-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

Today I attempt to start my blog for various reasons.

Mainly to organize my thoughts about anything and everything that well... I consider important.

I will talk about news(world, Colombia, US), computers(apple!, linux), Human rights, biological sciences and medicine. I also believe of blogging as a writing exercise that exceeds LoLs and OMGs.

Eventually if I become a super blogger, I will fork some of those categories

Alright, Leeetsss go!

So as I wake up and read some of the news I found out that hey! in spite of a slight decline on gas prices .. it just went up 2 dollars a barrel.(note I read these news in the morning)

ah, so I ask myself.. what now?

As I keep reading I realize oh, its just Iran launching missiles on some of its deserts

threatening the US and Israel. Oh yes, they have the potential to launch a missile straight into Tel aviv. In fact they were the ones who suggested it. "In case that they commit such foolishness, Tel Aviv and the U.S. fleet in the Persian Gulf would be the first to burst into flames receiving Iran's crushing response"

.. oh and they still claim that they are not using their Uranium enrichment program for developing Nuclear bombs.

Yesterday, Russia and its awkward use of words, claimed that if the missile shield defence program starts they will not use "diplomatic methods, but with military-technical methods" said Russia's foreign Ministry. This "shield" program is intended to go in the Czech republic and Poland. Great method to protect the US and some of its allies. So Russia is letting me down. ... and I wanted to visit.

Well hopefully after today's missiles Russia will understand that the US main direction is protection from Iran.

2 days till the iphone launch and guess what. OH ATT sucks ass and i wont be able to get the discount ... so I can pay... say 800 dollars for the iphone .. without any data.

Also, AFA also known as American Family Association just attacked McDonald's for supporting the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. So if they want to appeal to different groups and support them they cant because ... conservatives buy burgers... or so is their argument.

on a side note.... I hate how many organizations in the US have broad names like this one. One would think that their main objective is to make families, protect the parent child rights, and so on. but NO! they are always biased. Family does not equal conservative!

anyhow I cherish family and this organization believes that it can go around telling companies and the government what to do or they will protest or be boycotted .... ENRAGEMENT

did you know that there is a bunny serial killer in germany?

-news from reuters BBC and wash post