guess ill go first :P

[Eru]

@Hess
Technically a zip code (mailing code) is a small local area. A full 9—digit zip code is an actual house or building, but the more common 5-digit is, I believe, the most granular ‘area’ in the US.

However, by zip code I guess I just meant the neighborhood and surrounding area in which you grow up. Where your friends live, where you go/went to school, where you shop…basically your local community.
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To me it seems that everything that has been brought up would at least loosely fall into “environment” especially when contrasted to the alternative in the OP which was race. So it sounds like, while race may be the cause discrimination in some cases most ppl here feel that it is not the norm or causes *significant* societal disadvantage and that it boils down to an individuals choice on what to accept and how to react?

[Vasu]

Well, here in India, it isn't as much of racism as caste discrimination. It all started of with the dominant religion here in India, Hinduism. I will make my views very clear. I do not like the concept of religion, and I strongly believe it is religion that causes most barriers between people.

What Hinduism basically tried to do was to divide society into 4 basic types. The first and supposedly "best" type was the teachers, priests and other men of supposed "intellect". The second type was the type of physical strength. The police force, the army, the security guards and so on. The third type was the traders, businessmen and the shopkeepers. The fourth type were the downtrodden. The type who did the menial jobs, sweeping, cleaning drains and other "dirty" jobs.

This system failed terribly, what with the introduction of "caste heredity( I hope I got that word right )". What I mean, is that a son of a barber must remain a barber, no matter what his intellectual capacity, and no matter if he could become greater than Einstein or something.

That really mangled things, and now the Indian government in an effort to "bring up" the downtrodden classes, has introduced a system of reservation where anywhere from 10-50% of the seats in an educational institution, the vacancies in a corporation and job openings in a company are reserved for these "backward classes". This does nothing except foster a hatred between these "backward classes" and the "normal people". There are no definitions as to who is "backward" and who is "normal". The "backward" people have certificates declaring they are "backward"(which can quite easily be forged by the way) and get an easy entrance into wherever they want, while a "normal" man of exceptional ability night not make the cut because a "backward" guy got in. And this does not even take into consideration the corruption and other red-tape involved in the issue.

This has led to further division in the classes, and is slowly choking the country, and is the basic form of racism present in India.

P.S. I like this section!

[Draven_25]

I'm a White Female from the south, Georgia. I am also a lesbian and have lived "on the other side of the tracks." It is hard enough to be a high school dropout but add gay and "ghetto" and you never get a moments peace. I have put up with a lot in my 18 years but nothing like the disrespect and criticism I get from the people where I am living now.

If you don't spend at least 40 dollars on a haircut you are poor, eating McDonalds means have no money, you can't wear that brand of clothing, blah blah blah..

I can only imagine how hard it is for people of different races living here..

[Lady-Loki]

I am a firm believer that a child from a two parent home has a better chance than a child from a single parent home. Not a rule but a factor.

True, it really depends on the home. I divorced Spirit's dad when she was barely over a year old. I truly believed my kids would be better off being raised by me alone, even though it meant great struggles to work, pay bills, teaching, and guiding my kids. But the other option was to raise them in a home where they would watch their father being physically & mentally abusive. And that has its own set of negative influences. I was fortunate to have met and married a truly wonderful guy within the first year. But I was still willing, at the time I left, to struggle through whatever lay ahead to keep my children from growing up in a house full of hatred, abuse & anger. I would rather have them grow up poor than thinking that was how people treat each other..

So, while a nuclear family in a 3 bed, 2 bath split level with a picket fence is a wonderful concept, we still have to make individual choices based on our situation. "What's the lesser of the two evils?".

the Indian government in an effort to "bring up" the downtrodden classes, has introduced a system of reservation where anywhere from 10-50% of the seats in an educational institution, the vacancies in a corporation and job openings in a company are reserved for these "backward classes".

I don't want to step on anyone’s religion, but I believe access to education should be based on ability more than religious classification or financial benefit. Unfortunately we have a lot of intelligent people who do not get the opportunity for higher education because they lack finances or recourses to overcome these obstacles. And I expect some would say at this point "There are grants, scholarships etc, they just have to go after them.", but the problem with that is that many do not have access to the resources or the people to assist them in seeking those resources (not all school counselors help all the students process through the confusing array of grants and scholarships. There is still the favoritism issue.)

I'm a White Female from the south, Georgia. I am also a lesbian and have lived "on the other side of the tracks." It is hard enough to be a high school dropout but add gay and "ghetto" and you never get a moments peace. I have put up with a lot in my 18 years but nothing like the disrespect and criticism I get from the people where I am living now.

While you can't change being a white lesbian female (almost redundant) from the south, you can affect some of the other issues. You reap what you sow. so if you practice The Golden Rule (Treat others as you want to be treated) then it should not matter that you are white, lesbian, female or from the south.

As for the dropout and ghetto part: You are 18 and you live in the United States. You legally control more of your life at this point. Up until you can legally leave your parents home you basically have to reside on whichever side of the track your parents are on. But at 18 you can now take control and put forth the extra effort to make things different for you. You can choose to do something about being a drop-out - research options for getting your diploma through a local community college or vocational school. If you work on getting the high school diploma you then start working on the ghetto issue. It won't be slow and it won't be easy, but you can do it.

I grew up very poor family, 7 kids, one income. It took me a few years and a bad marriage to understand that I actually do have the ability to change my life and world. It was not, I repeat: NOT, easy early on, but you have to have determination and you have to expect & accept that there will be some very hard times and some very down time, but if you keep your focus on the goal at the end then you will get through those times and one day you can refer to yourself as a prominent white lesbian female (almost redundant) from the south.

All this to say: There are too many forms of discrimination to say it is race or zip code specific. We have also seen a religious aspect thrown in by Vasu, and while he was referring to India, I think we have religious discrimination in the US also. I also believe we have people of all races, religions, sexual orientation and geographic regions who have either or both felt the affects of discrimination or been the harbinger of discrimination.

I also believe discrimination, of one form or another has been on this earth for as long as man has and as much as I wish it would completely cease to exist I realize that it probably will not. Sad, because we are all humans, we live, we breathe, we love, we hurt, and we die. Human.