My racial bias? I dunno. I was raised in 1 sq ml suburb in NJ.
Mostly white families and mostly either Irish or Italian. While
I have Irish in me, I never "felt Irish" nor felt Italian, so I
was accustomed to feeling an outsider in my own town. First
blacks started moving in when I was in middle school, as did
Indians. Never noticed any change in the town or myself. I
honestly didn't care about their race as people treated me the
same regardless as individuals But if I was not in the Irish or
Italian clique, which I wasn't, well, THAT was noticeable when
people would have solidarity in their 'groupings' == So, perhaps
you can find some hidden data in my upbringing that can help me
understand my hidden bias one way or the other, I would actually
appreciate it. == When people segregate into groups, whether
sports, religions, politics, races, take your pick: if they
start having "opposing teams" of some sort, there will be
problems. I treat people like individuals, including all of you,
even though I, too dive into stereotypes as well, mostly for
humor or to make a point, because for me, it's practical,
pragmatic, effective to be an individualist. Group behaviors are
illogical to me. == Maybe I am the result of some calculated
social conditioning program. That's quite possible. It wasn't my
school. Maybe it was Mr Rogers. Seems like a good source. Maybe
it was my mother who was born too early to be a policewoman in
1959 like she wanted and yet while she agreed to ERA in the 70s,
she also thought women's lib ppl were mostly nuts. Maybe my
grandmother who believed in ancient aliens and did Yoga and yet
was very into science and engineering. [she worked for an oil
refinery with engineers - Esso, before it was Exxon]. Each of
them had shitty childhoods. I had a good one. No males in the
picture. Mr. Rogers was the closest dad figure to 4-7 year old
me. 8+ it was Dr. Who. I was a "Whiz Kid" in the 80s with
computers, was going to go into theoretical physics, ended up
taking child psych, got screwed out of college by $$$, was going
to be a monk in my mid 20s, joining the very conservative
Orthodox church, ended up going agnostic in lieu of anything
else. 1/2 deaf / 1/2 blind, born with cerebral palsy,looks/acts
normal, perfect pitch, turned down Julliard and nearly every
opportunity like that that would have forced me into a group
identity. So, there you go. All the source material I can think
of. Speculate. You fit people into groups and I'll be happy if
you'd fit me into one, two or 10 and I'll agree if they fit.
Maybe you'll help me find "my kind", whatever they are. Nerds. I
suppose I fit good with that group. == Egypt was very civilized
up until the Ottoman empire. They kinda set thing back for a LOT
of areas for quite some time. Prior to the ottoman empire, Egypt
was a part of the Byzantine Empire and also a part of the
parallel Persian culture. They traded freely, interacted much,
had similar education systems. Not the shit of Europe. Ottoman
empire though? wrecked it. It's only thanks to the Byzantines
that any additional knowledge got passed on at all, allowing the
West to FINALLY catch up to where they WERE, and then surpass
it, as the Ottomans kept their areas in some kind of weird retro
situation. == But, correct me if I'm mistaken, the cultures
_did_ continue to trade as far as I know, even during times of
fighting, all the way through to the start of the Ottoman
empire, yes? I was always under the impression that they
operated more or less parallel in civilization and education
compared to Europe, which was doing quite terribly, up to the
Ottoman empire which is when everything of course changed
significantly for both East and West. = I looked up the time
frame. 1250 is when they started in Egypt, so yes, that sounds
about right. That's about the time that Byzantium was taking a
tumble for the worse and it laid the roots for the eventual
takeover in 1453, start of the Ottoman empire. I don't think
Islam was anywhere near as radical as it became in the Ottoman
empire, but I think it was around the 1200s that the conversion
tactics changed significantly, not just for Islam but also for
Europe/Western Christian Church (Catholic). But Byzantium wasn't
really doing much active converting at that point, except I
*think* for missionaries in Russia. They were going to uncharted
territories. ==
