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Thank you. The idea of poverty bringing races together only worked during a certain time. It doesn't work because the powerful know how to take advantage of such conditions.
One major difference between the UK and the USA is this. In the USA, there was always this idea of "being White" can help you move up in rank. In Britain, it doesn't really work that way so easily. I would theorize that there, the class system works differently. There is an idea of "knowing your place" in terms of the class system. In the USA, it has often been more race-based.
Not really. Poverty never brought races together. It unified races (ethnicities) against other races (ethnicities). See the former Yugoslavia or Nazi-Germany for example.
Not really. Poverty never brought races together. It unified races (ethnicities) against other races (ethnicities). See the former Yugoslavia or Nazi-Germany for example.
My point was that the powerful have learned how to use hard times to their advantage. Consider what I said about Bacon's Rebellion. Africans and Europeans living at the bottom, gathering together and rebelling. This scared the elites and race was used as a way to divide people.
If you look at cultural segregation today is it white culture running away from black culture or is it black culture running away from white culture? Do you see more black people listening to classical, rock, and country or more white people listening to jazz, rap, and hip hop?
Rock's origin is based in the black diaspora (like Jazz, rap/hip-hop, R&B, Folk, Pop and Soul music), but that's beside the point... To answer your question, I'd say that most white Americans want to preserve their whiteness (by ensuring that their children go to predominately white schools and live in predominately white neighborhoods and date/marry predominately white people) but the reality is, unless the white person is upper-middle class (which most are not, since the average U.S. family income is 45K/year) they will not be able to afford a home where there is a relatively small number of people of color. Therefore, they will have to come to grips with the fact that the U.S. demographics are drastically changing, and this means there will be a sizable number of people of color living amongst them.
Many Black people in the U.S. tend to view everything from a black/white prism. I can't say that blacks are trying to preserve "black culture" because I don't consider mainstream "rap" culture authentic black culture, I see it more or less as inner city blighted culture, that is marketed to teens of all races and colors.
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Would it be more common for a black person to be questioned for hanging out around a trailer park or for a 'cracker' to be questioned for hanging out around the projects? It seems that (most) black Americans are more protective of their black identity than white Americans are of their white identity, or do you disagree?
It wouldn't be uncommon for a poor black person to hang out around a trailer park, just as it wouldn't be uncommon for a poor white person to hang around the projects, since these locations are where many low income people live, irrespective of their color.
Black Americans are not really that protective of their identity, because many have no issues with intermarriage and mixed race children. For example, over 30% of all black men who married (in 2010), married interracially, according to the U.S. census.
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I doubt it. Even before illegal immigration boomed in this nation, the black unemployment rate was still twice that of whites.
And illegal immigration has just created even less job opportunities for them. I have to believe that blacks won't address that because minorities should supposedly stick together against whitey even if it means their own demise. You won't see many Hispanics objecting to illegal immigration because most are from their ethnic group. It is mostly whites that object to it and for good reasons. I haven't seen many blacks join the fight against illegal immigration. Is it a because they feel a comaradery with Hispanics who are also minorities in this country?
Of course, but I was making a point. West Africans and Somalis are also very different from each other genetically, as Africans on the continent are more genetically diverse than any other humans outside the continent.
OK, but I was directly responding to your comment about blacks having genetic ties to white Americans.
And illegal immigration has just created even less job opportunities for them. I have to believe they won't address that because minorities should supposedly stick together against whitey even if it means their own demise.
Not necessarily. There are a sizable number of middle class (educated blacks) who won't be in competition with illegal immigrants for jobs, therefore illegal immigrants will have little impact on their lives.
Mostly, illegal immigrants impact the working poor (which includes -poor blacks, poor whites, poor Latinos and poor Asians).
The class divide COULD make race take a back seat. On the other hand, in times of poverty, in times of distress, those with power will find ways to use divide and conquer. Consider this. The Deep South by 1900 was very poor compared to the rest of the nation. Education lagged behind the rest of the nation. Blacks are poor, ans so were alot of Whites. However, poverty status didn't stop such a stark racial divide. Race didn't take a back seat.
This is all true, but I think the legacy of slavery also played a role in the racial divide amongst whites and blacks. Places like the UK, tend to have far less racism amongst whites and blacks, largely because they don't have the same historical slavery issue that the U.S. has...
Rock's origin is based in the black diaspora (like Jazz, rap/hip-hop, R&B, Folk, Pop and Soul music), but that's beside the point... To answer your question, I'd say that most white Americans want to preserve their whiteness (by ensuring that their children go to predominately white schools and live in predominately white neighborhoods and date/marry predominately white people) but the reality is, unless the white person is upper-middle class (which most are not, since the average U.S. family income is 45K/year) they will not be able to afford a home where there is a relatively small number of people of color. Therefore, they will have to come to grips with the fact that the U.S. demographics are drastically changing, and this means there will be a sizable number of people of color living amongst them.
Many Black people in the U.S. tend to view everything from a black/white prism. I can't say that blacks are trying to preserve "black culture" because I don't consider mainstream "rap" culture authentic black culture, I see it more or less as inner city blighted culture, that is marketed to teens of all races and colors.
It wouldn't be uncommon for a poor black person to hang out around a trailer park, just as it wouldn't be uncommon for a poor white person to hang around the projects, since these locations are where many low income people live, irrespective of their color.
Black Americans are not really that protective of their identity, because many have no issues with intermarriage and mixed race children. For example, over 30% of all black men who married (in 2010), married inter-racially, according to the U.S. census.
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Why do you think white people are trying to preserve their whiteness when black culture is completely embraced by mainstream white culture? If there is a school that is predominately white that is high performing, do you think the parent would care more than it is predominately white or more that it is high performing? If there is a neighborhood that is predominately white that is low in crime, do you think the buyer cares more that it is white or more that it is low in crime? It is often true that predominately white schools are higher performing on average and that white areas have lower crime on average so what makes you believe that it is the whiteness which makes them attractive rather than the performance and crime rates? Certainly there is a significant percentage of people who want to live with people who look and act like them, but it is not the driving factor, especially today with such great emphasis on being 'progressive' and 'multicultural', and you would be hard pressed to show that it is.
Also I think interracial marriages are a very clear sign that we are moving steadily towards a post racial society. My wife is of another race than myself and both of her sisters married different races as well, making 4 distinct races between us. Our family get-togethers are a preview of the America which is fast approaching. We will get there soon and who will be/is fighting it is what I am interested in.
If you look at cultural segregation today is it white culture running away from black culture or is it black culture running away from white culture? Do you see more black people listening to classical, rock, and country or more white people listening to jazz, rap, and hip hop? Would it be more common for a black person to be questioned for hanging out around a trailer park or for a 'cracker' to be questioned for hanging out around the projects? It seems that (most) black Americans are more protective of their black identity than white Americans are of their white identity, or do you disagree?
cultural segregation emanates from residential segregation PERIOD!!! When people live as one, without social or residential barriers, then they morph into one culture. Its clear that white aversion to integration is at the root of the segregation that exists between blacks and whites in this nation. That is not to suggest that some blacks do prefer to live around other blacks or that some white do not mind living around equal numbers of blacks, but rather, that the present demographic geography, along race, has been shaped by racism. A city like Detroit does not go from once being majority white, to being majority black, without blacks demonstrating the will and desire to integrate and whites demonstrating the desire to segregate.
OK, but I was directly responding to your comment about blacks having genetic ties to white Americans.
Yes, and I stick to that; black Americans have more genetic similarities with white Americans than they do Somalis.
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