Racial Integration in the US: Is it an ever-receding dream....

[CruzNichaphor]

disagree. I would say environmental stimuli.

You do realise that environmental stimuli is exactly what propels the evolutionary process and forges biological end results, right?

We're a species that functions only when binary differentiation is entertained - i.e. male v female, friend v foe, home v away, self v other, black v white.

We're a species than is intrinsically racist on that basis alone; however, culturally we are at a stage where its use has been mostly rendered redundant. Mostly anyway.

 

[Father Heathen]

I think it is.

You get a bunch of strangers into a large room of all ethnicities, more often than not you'll see people group together according to their own race. It's an instinctive trait to seek out those who they are most familiar with.

I would feel more comfortable with a fellow american of a different race than with a foreigner of the same race, because we would have more in common in regards to culture and social norms.

 

[Father Heathen]

They want to divide people along ethnic lines and political etc.

So yes it will probably get worse.

Who are "they"?

 

[CruzNichaphor]

Who are "they"?

The perpetrators of identity politics.

Catch any big ones today?

 

[74x12]

Who are "they"?

It should be investigated to find out exactly who it is. It's definitely a soviet style tactic. But I'm not blaming the Russians specifically. I don't really know. I think it's some powerful people with ulterior motives. It's just a means to an end for them. They play off both sides against each other. This side is unfair, the other side did this. This side does that. It's provocations and psyops designed to keep tensions high.

The world really is a stage and like every stage there is a curtain and what takes place behind the scenes is reality and what is on the stage is fake.

 

[godnotgod]

You mean because Black and other minority unemployment is at record lows?

Oh, racism does not mean we still don't USE people of color to do our work for us, especially when it comes to fighting our wars against other people of color to support the ill-conceived notion of white supremacy, as well as for domestic menial labor, like picking your crops, motel and hotel work, cooking your food, caring for your young, washing your cars, cleaning your house, butchering your meats, etc, etc. Besides being a racist-based social structure, it is also class based.

 

[CruzNichaphor]

I would feel more comfortable with a fellow american of a different race than with a foreigner of the same race, because we would have more in common in regards to culture and social norms.

You could literally exchange the terms indicating "foreigner" for "race" and your comment would make as much sense.

So, racism = bad; xenophobia = still bad but understandable?

Goofy, sloppy post...

 

[godnotgod]

It seemed that we were on the right track and making progress through the 70s and 80s, as barriers were being broken and racial tolerance was gaining momentum.

But somewhere in the late 80s/early 90s, the direction seemed to take a different course. Group identity politics appeared more prevalent over individualism. It also appeared that the people (in both parties) favored a more dog-eat-dog, predatory economic system which made class divisions more pronounced. So, it was probably a combination of factors, both class and cultural divides, which led us to the point you're referring to ("current trends and events").

Many of what are now of the 'poor white' class used to be a step or two above the economic/race class of those they considered below them. They had nothing to worry about in terms of competition. But due to primarily economic changes and perhaps demographics, they now find themselves on the same level or lower, and they resent it. During the upheaval of the 70's and 80's you mentioned, came much fear and insecurity. All of these factors led to a polarization of attitudes, and Trump represents, in part, a figure who can make sure America remains racist, while protecting those who feel threatened by people of color who have become more and more vocal about social injustice. When the 80's came, came the recession, and that's when the issue of the undocumented worker really heated up. They were seen as a threat to the white American pocketbook, and something must be done. Up until then, Mexican labor freely came across the border to serve our needs while we mostly looked the other way. Today, we have literally become hysterical about them. Even Blacks have picketed against them as a threat to 'their' security, which never was a problem in the past.

Unfortunately, many coming across the border are now mules for the drug cartels, and so we have an exacerbated problem, which overshadows the issue of the need for viable work program for these laborers from the south. And so we pay rapt attention to the issue of the undocumented worker, rather than getting down to work on a creative plan to hire these much needed laborers.

A good deal of the demand for drugs comes from the US, which drives cartel activity along the border.

BTW, it was due to NAFTA that American corn growers dumped tons of cheap American corn onto the Mexican market, thereby putting scores of Mexican corn growers out of business, and driving their some 2 million now unemployed workers north to the US looking for work.

 

[Father Heathen]

You could literally exchange the terms indicating "foreigner" for "race" and your comment would make as much sense.

So, racism = bad; xenophobia = still bad but understandable?

Goofy, sloppy post...

I'm not sure how you interpenetrated that as "xenophobia". My point was that it's easier to relate/socialize with people who you have more in common with culturally than with those you don't, regardless of their race. It has nothing to do with fear or hate.

 

[godnotgod]

The world really is a stage and like every stage there is a curtain and what takes place behind the scenes is reality and what is on the stage is fake.

...which Omarosa is currently busy exposing as being the case in the White House.

 

[godnotgod]

I would feel more comfortable with a fellow american of a different race than with a foreigner of the same race, because we would have more in common in regards to culture and social norms.

So maybe this ultimately points to the development of our powers of social interaction on a universal scale for the good of the planet. After all, we all are human at our base. Ensuring the survival, security, and happiness of others is to ensure that of our own. Ostracizing others on the basis of race while denying their civil rights is to create negative conditions for ourselves, as our own US history has proven over and over again. On a purely economic front, racism is far more costly than an integrated society in which we nurture the human potential, a potential which is currently operating at a minimal level. While we are eager workers, our priorities are misplaced. We seem to entertain the wrong ideas about what happiness entails. We have come to think that it equates with the acquisition of material wealth, rather than material wealth being symbolic of a happy state of mind. We live an imitation of life.

 

[CruzNichaphor]

I'm not sure how you interpenetrated that as "xenophobia". My point was that it's easier to relate/socialize with people who you have more in common with culturally than with those you don't, regardless of their race.

LOL

That is, by definition, xenophobia.

Imagine if someone were to make the comment:

"In defence of racism: it's easier to relate/socialize with people who have a similar skin pigment to you than with those you don't, regardless of their nationality."

Would you find that to be an equally repugnant comment?

 

[CruzNichaphor]

LOL

That is, by definition, xenophobia.

Imagine if someone were to make the comment:

"In defence of racism: it's easier to relate/socialize with people who have a similar skin pigment to you than with those you don't, regardless of their nationality."

Would you find that to be an equally repugnant comment?

Can you see how one might interpenetrate your comment like that?

 

[BSM1]

....considering current trends and events?

How so?

 

[godnotgod]

How so?

A racist president in office, for one. Or the banning of ethnic study books in Arizona public schools, and Texas allegedly actually re-writing black and chicano history to sanitize them? The murders of young black men by the police?

 

[Milton Platt]

Actually, on this issue I place more blame on the left and the media than the right.

For one thing, headlines are so ridiculously written to stoke controversy and create attention.

If a black or white cop shoots a white man
Headline: Cop Shoots Man
(and it remains a local article)

If a white cop shoots a black man
Headline: White Cop Shoots Unarmed Black Man
(and it goes national)

Great the media will get more 'hits' but it is at the expense of people's perceived racial tension level as reflected by this OP.

I agree the media uses flashy headlines and controversy to increase readership because it's a business, after all. How exactly does the left (whatever that constitutes) play into this?

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

That happiest areas in the USA are racially exclusive, religiously exclusive, and politically exclusive.

Evidence?

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

I agree the media uses flashy headlines and controversy to increase readership because it's a business, after all. How exactly does the left (whatever that constitutes) play into this?

It doesn't. But when you've internalised the false dichotomy of American politics, you kinda have to make yourself think it does.

 

[Milton Platt]

You do realise that environmental stimuli is exactly what propels the evolutionary process and forges biological end results, right?

We're a species that functions only when binary differentiation is entertained - i.e. male v female, friend v foe, home v away, self v other, black v white.

We're a species than is intrinsically racist on that basis alone; however, culturally we are at a stage where its use has been mostly rendered redundant. Mostly anyway.

Skin pigmentation is not binary. There are many different shades. I fail to see how a uniform distribution of skin pigmentation in the human species would put an end to the species.

 

[godnotgod]

That happiest areas in the USA are racially exclusive, religiously exclusive, and politically exclusive. Regardless of what the particulars of that are.

There IS a difference between the 'blissfully [deliberately?] ignorant' living in a fool's paradise, and the genuinely 'happy'. Truly happy people automatically want others to be happy as well, so they look beyond their closed societies, which is what all the fuss is about. They refuse to continue accepting the status quo, and 'business as usual', knowing that others are being denied their civil and human rights outside their tight knit social group.