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str4hler
Joined: 04 Feb 2008
Posts: 93
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 Posted: Oct 10, 2010 04:59 Post subject: Re: Ethnic minorities and minerals |
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I'm Dutch
I'm an appreciated minority everywhere I go :) |
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stumpy
Joined: 08 Feb 2010
Posts: 30
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| Posted: Oct 10, 2010 08:58 Post subject: Re: Ethnic minorities and minerals |
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| Vinoterapia wrote: | What I find interesting about Stumpy is that usually he/she just open the subject with a message trying to get the attention of the forum members, then sit back and wait for all the discussion to develop. Something like throwing a ball and watch it bounce around being kicked by somebody else.
I have the impression that this person is simply studying the behavior of the forum's members.
Regards.
José Luis. |
Some very interesting responses so far. I admit I do like to be provocative, but only in the sense of provoking new thoughts rather than disputes. And I do think this post is very much in line with the subheading of the forum title: "The place to share your mineralogical experiences". I am simply sharing my experience that ethnic minorities are under-represented at mineral shows and in the hobby in general. I don't think therefore that my post has broken any rules. Perhaps the "senior member" of the forum (aren't we all supposed to be equal on here?) would like to put this in their pipe and smoke it.
Going back to the topic of the thread, I think the following comment is probably the best explanation: "...I strongly suspect it has to do with income distribution among ethnicities, and its influence on value judgments. Sometimes that influence on value judgments lasts for a couple generations, even after economic barriers have been broken."
Another thought I had is related to an observation that minorities also seem to have little interest in collecting industrial and agricultural heritage objects, or the history of cars, trucks, trains, etc. Different ethnic groups in a country like the USA probably have different perspectives on its industrial/commercial history and the artefacts associated with it - while some look back on the early days with nostalgia and see it as an age of opportunity, others see it as an age of oppression and have few fond memories of the equipment they were forced to operate. Perhaps they see mineral specimens as symbols of this oppression too, representing an extension of the ore that their ancestors were forced to dig under poor conditions, and it is a chapter in their history they would rather forget?
S.
P.S. Thank you, Jordi, for spotting my mis-spelling of "ethnic" in the thread title. I think the score currently stands at: Jordi 1 - Stumpy 1. |
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stumpy
Joined: 08 Feb 2010
Posts: 30
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| Posted: Oct 10, 2010 09:04 Post subject: Re: Ethnic minorities and minerals |
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| alfredo wrote: |
On a somewhat different angle, I'm currently at the Kyoto mineral show, Japan, and I met a couple of caucasian mineral collectors who live here and are active in the local clubs - I guess they count as "ethnic minorities" here ;))
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Alfredo, I think it would be more interesting to consider whether there are any mineral collectors among the Korean community in Japan, as this would be a better analogy with the black/hispanic community in the USA?
S. |
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alfredo
Site Admin
Joined: 30 Jan 2008
Posts: 1012
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| Posted: Oct 11, 2010 18:53 Post subject: Re: Ethnic minorities and minerals |
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| Interesting question, Stumpy. Chinese minority here, deinitely yes (I'm going topaz hunting with one later today). Koreans, I'm not sure... perhaps you're right. |
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