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Originally Posted by xenourtv
I went to school in Kansas State and traveled to Iowa at times. Some of the whitest parts of the country, very homogenous. I will tell you that as a minority I was suprised to be in an environment where I felt comfotable, accepted, and respected. I was able to enjoy myself at times because the natives and the people who grew up there learned how to respect other people regardless of what environment they came from. They were taught not to discriminate other people based on the color of their skin, and were educated on civics, ethics, and morality. I do not know what they are teaching in Arizona schools, but it is definately not black history. This is not surprising since your senator rejected the idea of MLK being a national holiday years ago  . One homeless guy called me the N word, for no apparent reason and when I confronted him he blamed my people for his undoing
People here just do not know how to react or adjust to different situations, instead they decide to just let it be or in your words become "tolerant". I am not surprised with the adults, but concerned about the children because that is a skill that you need if you want to compete in today's society. I think it really all comes down to the fact that since I am presumably more intelligent than my counterparts here in the Phoenix area they see me as a threat, cause I have a high vocabulary, knowledge, could enunciate words with eloquency at times, and black. In the past a person like me would have been seen as a threat, but it is great to know most places in this country have gotten over it and can handle a black male being smarter then them. However it appears that people here have a hard time dealing with it, because chances are most people who live here probably had no interaction with black people throughout their time in grammar, elementary, junior high, and high school. The balancing effect to neutralize prejudices and racial tendancies would be the school system, but obviously they are not teaching racial harmony  So they go to the media and use stereotypes, so when they have a run in with a person who happens to be black, what do you think happens. They do not follow the rule of getting to know a person, they automatically assume, let be, wonder, and go on with their contentable ways.
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You make many assumptions...based on what, exactly? Personal experience? Every single human being has a unique life experience. If you have been oppressed by a homeless man due to the color of your skin, how does that determine the nature of the attitudes of all other people living in Phoenix? Individuals may do and say ignorant things to others, but that does not mean that the rest of the world is just like them.
As far as what they teach in public schools, from my experience, there may not be a chapter dedicated to black history (actually, there might have been, it's been a while), but neither was there a chapter dedicated to white history.
Personally, I prefer history to be racially unbiased on all counts. I do remember learning about the civil rights movement in the 60s, and wishing that I could have been a part of it.
I also had friends in school who were black, so your claim that those who go to school here haven't been exposed to black people is false.
I don't understand this sense of entitlement some people have. If everyone is to be truly equal, then we should stop playing the race card in the first place. Life's tough and you'll meet stupid people, but for every ignorant person, there is one who is not ignorant about racial equality and respect. Maybe you should venture out, meet some more white people, and you might change your mind about how rampant racism is/is not in Phoenix. I've been neighbors with black, asian, mexican, white, etc people. I have never had anyone assume that I am racist because I am white, and I never did the same to them. We were genuinely friendly with each other, and that's what really matters, isn't it? Not what skin color we were.
And regarding respect: people don't respect you for what you know (perhaps they admire you, however). They respect you for how you act.