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There are way more white people waxing eloquently about the benefits of diversity than there are people of color arguing about the benefits of diversity. People of color want fairness and equality. Period. They don't really care how that is accomplished. If diversity does it. Fine. If not, fine. But something should accomplish the objective of equal access by people of color to employment, housing and quality of life comparable to the dominant white majority.
As I understand it, 95% of white people do not have a black friend, and 75% of white people do not know a single black person at all. Not even casually. The 800lb. gorilla of diversity is that diversity is the inclusion of people of color into the wider society. No, it is actually the inclusion of black people into the wider society.
Societies are healthiest when they are cohesive. The homogeneous societies are enviable because they are cohesive. The supposition is that they are cohesive because they are homogeneous. What if that is incorrect? What if they are cohesive just because. What if cohesiveness can be achieved regardless of the socio-ethnic makeup of the population so long as everyone respects one another as human beings? I know that this is possible because America has integrated just about every other ethnicity of people, except black ones. It is pure politics that stalls the breakdown of that last wall of apartheid. It is immigration politics that has touched off the present difficulties that Central Americans are having with the White House. As people, the immigrants are not perceived as dangerous, or lazy, or people to be feared. Latin people are not much more likely than white people to be shot on sight by agents of law enforcement.
Good post, but the problem lies in defining what is fair. This is an old argument, but is it equal and fair to not allow higher-scoring white and Asian young people into medical school in favor of lower-scoring black and Hispanic/Latino kids? I am also not just talking about blacks, but also about the government showing preference to women-owned and minority-owned businesses when awarding contracts.
P.S. On Edit: Btw, as I have said in NUMEROUS posts, I would also much rather live next to a quiet black accountant (for example) than to a violent white substance-abusing "redneck" who receives numerous police visits or to a Hispanic who blares Spanish-language music throughout the whole neighborhood. So, I guess that one can say that my bigotry and prejudice, if I am guilty of either, is about the way people act, and not how they look.
Last edited by katharsis; 03-31-2017 at 02:12 PM..
As I understand it, 95% of white people do not have a black friend, and 75% of white people do not know a single black person at all. .
I have +/- 20 friends who used to be identified as black.* Does that make me a 1%er? Oh Oh. Now I am bad for a different reason.
*now the PC name has changed again. Black is out. Either because more of the people called black are brown(ish) skinned rather than black or because it has been determined to have negative connotations. African American is common, but that is wrong. Dark skinned friends? That sounds wrong too. I am not longer sure what is right, I just call my friends friends, or I call them Susan, Natasha, Bob, Jerome, etc.
What makes me laugh is when I hear someone say, "Well I have Black friends", and then I press them on it. "What do you mean by 'friends'"? "Well, I'm friends with a couple of Black guys at work." "They've been at your house?" "Well, no." "You've been to their house?" "Well, no." You and your wife go out to movies and/or dinner with them?" "Well, no." "You go to football games together?" "Well, no." Yeah.
I think that as long as people share the same the same basic attitudes toward work, family, education, morality, and personal responsibility -- and as long as keep their religion to themselves (unless the community is religious in nature, such as the early Puritan settlements in Massachusetts) -- diversity is fine, although I personally prefer to be around people like myself -- considerate, polite and honest middle-class moderates with a strong work ethic. (I don't care about any other characteristics -- or at least I can't think of any other right now.)
The conflict comes when two basically incompatible groups of people try to share space, and this is particularly a problem when newcomers try to force their culture on the natives (or even get rid of the natives). The problem is a lack of respect for people different from oneself, and this has been a problem for centuries.
P.S. I also think that a common language is important as communication is key to fostering good relations between people.
I agree that commonalities create cohesion.
Who would we consider a newcomer? Does an American with 1 Scottish parent and 4 grandparents from Europe (President Trump) serve as the gatekeeper and arbiter of American culture anymore than the black American whose blood runs 12 generations deep in the U.S.?
At what point does someone cease being a hyphenated American and simply becomes "American?"
Does an American with 1 Scottish parent and 4 grandparents from Europe (President Trump) serve as the gatekeeper and arbiter of American culture anymore than the black American whose blood runs 12 generations deep in the U.S.?
At what point does someone cease being a hyphenated American and simply becomes "American?"
Excellent point. If I had to be a hyphenated American, I would be a German-Scottish-English-French-Swiss-American -- or perhaps a Mutt-American (lol)? I completely agree with you that anyone who is a citizen of the United States should refer to themselves as (just) American -- period.
Good post, but the problem lies in defining what is fair. This is an old argument, but is it equal and fair to not allow higher-scoring white and Asian young people into medical school in favor of lower-scoring black and Hispanic/Latino kids? I am also not just talking about blacks, but also about the government showing preference to women-owned and minority-owned businesses when awarding contracts.
P.S. On Edit: Btw, as I have said in NUMEROUS posts, I would also much rather live next to a quiet black accountant (for example) than to a violent white substance-abusing "redneck" who receives numerous police visits or to a Hispanic who blares Spanish-language music throughout the whole neighborhood. So, I guess that one can say that my bigotry and prejudice, if I am guilty of either, is about the way people act, and not how they look.
Asians often hit glass ceilings despite having superior qualifications to whites. There's a tendency to treat Asians and whites as one in the same, but that simply isn't true. Whites benefit from preferential treatment over Asians but Asians haven't collectively pushed back....yet.
The government shows preferences because study after study as shown that when left to their own devices, white men tend to look out for their own. Some would say "that's just the way it is" and it's easier to say that when "that's just the way it is" puts more money into your pocket. It would be like running the 100 meter dash and letting Person A start 50 yards ahead. Diversity policies seek to stop Person A so that everyone else can catch up before restarting the race. Those that start ahead, are OK with everyone being allowed to run, but they don't want to have to stop and allow others to catch up.
I have +/- 20 friends who used to be identified as black.* Does that make me a 1%er? Oh Oh. Now I am bad for a different reason.
*now the PC name has changed again. Black is out. Either because more of the people called black are brown(ish) skinned rather than black or because it has been determined to have negative connotations. African American is common, but that is wrong. Dark skinned friends? That sounds wrong too. I am not longer sure what is right, I just call my friends friends, or I call them Susan, Natasha, Bob, Jerome, etc.
Nothing wrong with "black." I became black in the 60s, and I'm still black.
Asians often hit glass ceilings despite having superior qualifications to whites. There's a tendency to treat Asians and whites as one in the same, but that simply isn't true. Whites benefit from preferential treatment over Asians but Asians haven't collectively pushed back....yet.
The government shows preferences because study after study as shown that when left to their own devices, white men tend to look out for their own. Some would say "that's just the way it is" and it's easier to say that when "that's just the way it is" puts more money into your pocket. It would be like running the 100 meter dash and letting Person A start 50 yards ahead. Diversity policies seek to stop Person A so that everyone else can catch up before restarting the race. Those that start ahead, are OK with everyone being allowed to run, but they don't want to have to stop and allow others to catch up.
But why should, just for example, an upper-class black kid who obtained a 3.3 G.P.A. be allowed into medical school instead of a working-class white kid who worked an after-school job and still got a 3.6 G.P.A.?
I would think this policy might have the unwelcome effect that some people without any prior "extreme" racial prejudice might then, if they found out about the disparity in medical school admittance policies, actually prefer and seek out a white doctor.
(But, as always, perhaps I am wrong -- and, realistically, how many people even know about such policies, anyway?)
*now the PC name has changed again. Black is out. Either because more of the people called black are brown(ish) skinned rather than black or because it has been determined to have negative connotations. African American is common, but that is wrong. Dark skinned friends? That sounds wrong too. I am not longer sure what is right, I just call my friends friends, or I call them Susan, Natasha, Bob, Jerome, etc.
Seems like if you were really friends with black people you'd know what they prefer to be called.
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