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Yes

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Large-scale statistical studies, in general, show racial/ethnic differences, which is why I write for the "yes" side. But that's not important. Who cares?

Sweeping generalizations about racial (or ethnic) traits serve no purpose. We don't deal with "races" in our daily lives. We deal with individuals. Those individuals have unique talents, strengths, and weaknesses, different goals and fears. How can you help someone in need if you won't listen to what her needs are? How can you choose someone to help you if don't know what he's capable of?

It's very easy to become a racist. I grew up in a town where there were literally two African Americans, a couple of Asians, and a handful of Hispanics in a virtually all-Caucasian school. So of course you can imagine how I felt about people of races other than my own!

I was high-minded and egalitarian to a fault. Being Caucasian, I had no first hand experience of what it was like to be in a racial minority. I found racism so puzzling it seemed unreal. I didn't exactly disbelieve in racism, per se, but I was skeptical. I heard phrases like "Black community" and scratched my head, wondering why people who just so happened to share a few arbitrary physical traits would consider themselves a community.

To me, being Hispanic or Asian or African American meant very little. Some of my classmates had blond hair, some brown. Some were fat, others thin. Tall, short, freckled, pale, olive-skinned or very dark, what did it matter? Sure, the African American girl in one of my classes didn't look like me, but so what? Neither did the short, skinny Caucasian girl sitting in front of me. I found neither girl any more or less relatable, any more or less like me.

In college, I volunteered at a high school with a large African American population, and that's why I say it's easy to become a racist. So many of those students were witty and outgoing with razor sharp minds when I spoke to them. On written assignments, most of them did poorly. I started to understand some of the racial stereotypes I had experienced only through T.V. shows and movies. No one, of course, is a walking stereotype, but I could see why people think of African Americans as outgoing and loud, and why African American men are so often stereotypes as "charmers" who get by on a smile and a knack for knowing what to say. Those are what I would call positive stereotypes, since they attribute traits that would make a person valuable

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