Quote:
Originally Posted by d-ray657
I'm curious about your use of the phrase "this racist country." Do you believe that the majority of the country is racist? Do you see it in degrees?
For example, I wouldn't have much trouble with the proposition that we all harbor some amount of prejudice, often even when we don't even realize it.
Others are unabashedly racist - I think that that is a shrinking percentage. Overt racism using direct racial terms is rare.
Others use code language to convey racist attitudes. I'm not sure whether that group is shrinking. Whether a politician uses such code as a result of personally held racial attitudes or simply to manipulate those attitudes in others I would still identify it as a racist act.
There are some who will reflect class bias without realizing that there is a racial element in the class bias.
But I believe that the number of people who sincerely believe in racial equality and equal opportunity is growing, even if that number does not yet reflect a majority of Caucasians, or even a majority of all citizens.
Or were you being facetious and just pulled one over on me? 
Regards,
D-Ray |
Your points are valid, but what do think of first when you hear someone mention South Africa? You immediately think of apartheid, or I do anyway.
There are probably people outside of the USA who think of slavery when they hear the word United States, or some other negative aspect of our nation.
Slavery was an codified in our Constitution unfortunately, so technically we can be said to have been a racist nation.
Plus our own system of apartheid did not end till the 1960s, and the first Federal law against lynching was not till 1948 I think.
Plus the fact that our prisons are also filled with people of color right now.
We may all feel enlightened, and perhaps a majority of us really believe in racial equality. But institutionally we are not as non-racists as we could be. Just think of voter suppression.