Why is the United States so segregated?

[DonFerrari]

PSintend0 said:
"Your skin color doesn't make you behave a certain way or say certain things."

This is true, but if people are divided and treated differently according to skin color it can lead to that. That can create different cultures, habits, neighbourhoods and things that are connected to the skin color. And those things won´t always change quickly.
Same for example things that are viewed as feminine and masculine, for example certain colors and professions might be now viewed as feminine/masculine, but they might have been the other way around before. The thread about men being less talkative than women is a good example of that.

The short answer to op is history.

Some studies would show that woman will talk less objectively than a man, and also that south american will be less objective than a german for example.

Rayban99 said:

Why do people from countries with far more egregious human rights issues than the United States try to adopt a position of moral superiority when it comes to this topic? Is also a good question .

Brazil is probably at least as 'racist' as America but they are decades from even beginning to address an issue like this. America averages around 500 killings by police per year while Brazil is 3000.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Brazil

Yes Brazil is a very bad place on statistics, but the rampage criminality and homicides are off-topic.

jason1637 said:
The US is the most diverse country in the world so it makes sense to have people asked What race they are. Yeah there are communities of only white, asain, black or hispanics. There are also communities of people from certain countries. But this isn't racist that's just where people feel most comfortable living. Fortunately this has been going away so many communities are becoming more integrated. But yeah the US isn't racist.

Sorry not necessarily... In Brazil we have several of the biggest communities of migrants from several different countries... yet besides "liberdade" (which have a lot of asian people and now some brazil northeast), "Bras" and "Bexiga" (Italian) neighborhoods in São Paulo, there isn't any neighborhood that is know for a specific ethinicities... sure we do have the South with a lot of German but that is more like the whole city/state not a neighborhood segregation and is totally due to migration near the start of XIX-XX centuries.

Arminillo said:
Only country in the world so many different kinds of people live together. If you live in like Switzerland, and its 95% white people there's little to be racist about.

See above.

Salnax said:

So from what I can understand...

Comparisons between the Brazil and USA are valid in many regards. Comparable areas and populations, ended slavery latter in the 1800's, large surges of European immigrants around 1900, and so on.

Looking at it with lackluster knowledge of Brazil, I think that one benefit Brazil might have is the concept of a "Multiracial" group. In the USA, we've rarely ever acknowkledged one of these existing, outside of some recent censuses. Back in the day, somebody with mixed heritage in the USA was either treated as one race or the other, usually black or white, on a legal and social level. In Brazil, it seems the mixed race concept predated independence, and included aboriginal populations as well. Point being, there is a long social and legal history of races meeting, mixing, and so on. And it has historically been about as prominent as "White" Brazilians. In the USA, the binary continued until 1990, when the census first acknowledged that people with multiple races exist.

Thinking about it, even some things that improved quality of lives in the USA might have helped. Education of blacks in the USA from around 1870 into the 1950's was based around creating schools separate from those that taught white students. The black community largely supported this because they did not trust white teachers. And ultimately, these schools did a decent job at providing necessary education. But they closed no divides.

Yes Brazil have like 3 different names of typical old mixes... the white+black, white+indigenous, black+indigenous and that dating to 1500-1700.

Gamer147 said:
Easy answer. In other countries they are predominantly one race. Example in China is 99 percent Chinese. In other countries you also cannot stay for more than a month they kick you out if your not a citizen. Only in the US is there a diverse group of cultures. So more room for disagreements. Also US is least racist place when it comes to living. You can't live in other parts of the world without citizenship. I have friends who live in Sweden and Denmark but they were going to get kicked out after one month. They were only allowed to stay because they became dual citizens. US is much nicer in this regard they allow you to get work visas and other things. So in many respects United States is the least racist place.

Just USA? Look to any other country in America.

SuperRetroTurbo said:
If that's the way you view America... you're wrong.

There are plenty of racist people here but I can assure you... they're a minority.

Now if you were to use the term segregation...I would agree...but that concept can be attributed to practically all countries.

I can tell you from first hand experience...living in urban and suburban areas... there's a constant.

It never ceases to amaze me how black minority people in America...make the conscious decision to segregate themselves from other ethnicities...by congregation. You see it everywhere. Black people sit with black people on the bus. They form groups on campuses...places of business... recreational....all in such an ironic attempt to desegregate.

And that notion can be applied to all minorities in America. It can be applied to White people as well.

There are placed where actual racism is blatant...all over the world but you would be hard pressed to find a community in the US...that could match those blatantly racist places.

He is talking about segregation.

LuccaCardoso1 said:

Ok, this thread is getting completely out of control. People seem to completely skip what I wrote and just answer to the title, and that's not what I want.

You don't need to tell me that the racists in the US are a minority, I know that. I also know that the US houses many different cultures, I actually wrote that in my text.

What I am referring to in this thread is the practice of dividing people into different races, caring way too much about skin color as using that as a character-defining thing, even unconsciously. Everything seems to be defined by skin color over nationality, ethnicity, etc.

By the way, why are so many people getting defensive saying that "racism is not exclusive to white people"? I never said that. I even used an example of thinking skin color creates a certain behavior by black people in the op (but I guess no one read that).

People don't read post title in a very big percentage of times.

Paperboy_J said:

OTBWY said:
There's racism in all societies. Human beings are tribal creatures, no matter how "civilized" they claim to be. Singling out the United States is wrong.

There are definitely bad eggs within every group, and racism can certainly spread, but I don't think it's quite right or fair to just say "everyone is racist, deal with it."

Racism is taught, racism is learned.  Just look at children.  Kids don't see color AT ALL.  It's not until we get older that we become influenced by the world and begin to develop racial biases.  I don't think people are just inherently racist.

Racism is a taught/learned concept.  It's a vicious cycle that started a long time ago, born out of fear and greed, and is still going on today.

Everyone have prejudice, that is part of self protection in our DNA. So nope, racism is a type of prejudice and doesn't need to be taught.

VAMatt said:
As an American, I take a bit of offense to this OP. My experience shows me that we're, by and large, much less racist than the average citzen of earth.

I've had a fair amount of experience with European and Asian cultures. Compared to them, Americans are far, far less racist. Its not even comparable.

I've had a bit of experience with South and Central American cultures. While I agree that those cultures tend to ignore race more than Americans do, I think the difference is relatively small.

I have essentially no basis for comparison to Africans or Aussies.

You could read the OP.

StarOcean said:
Because people are insecure and uneducated. Until education becomes priority and is properly funded and religion dies the death it should have hundreds of years ago, racism will slowly cease.

Education is always the culprit... even places where we say the standards are high people on the country complain of the lack of priority, like Japan.

StarOcean said:

LuccaCardoso1 said:

Ok, this thread is getting completely out of control. People seem to completely skip what I wrote and just answer to the title, and that's not what I want.

Because people don't often read past the title, unfortunately.

You don't need to tell me that the racists in the US are a minority, I know that. I also know that the US houses many different cultures, I actually wrote that in my text.

They rarely read. Outrage culture is what most of these people live for.

What I am referring to in this thread is the practice of dividing people into different races, caring way too much about skin color as using that as a character-defining thing, even unconsciously. Everything seems to be defined by skin color over nationality, ethnicity, etc.

It's because many are uneducated. Especially those of the south. Trust me, I grew up in Texas, where the Civil Wars true intention is stopped at "states rights" and science is considered an optional opinion.

By the way, why are so many people getting defensive saying that "racism is not exclusive to white people"? I never said that. I even used an example of thinking skin color creates a certain behavior by black people in the op (but I guess no one read that).

White people who are insecure and more likely than not conservative, often get offended by the idea that a white person could be racist. Some here might even claim to be a different race to hold high validation of their opinion. 

All in all, you're on a site where the GAF politics rejects come to play. You won't find much constructive discussion here

Haven't even tried once to sign up to GAF

Dr.Henry_Killinger said:

The U.S is not inherently any more racist compared to other countries.

Rather, the United States has a history of trying to deal with uncomfortable things by pretending it doesn't exist. Pretending Racism doesn't exists exacerbates it. Combine this with the fact that the U.S is one of the most diverse nations on the planet, and the result is that there are more instances where diverse people interact and this suppressed racism can flare up.

In addition, Racism is not necessarily as tribalistic as most would argue it is. Rather it is used to justify institutionalized practices by appealing to the ego. For instance, consider Slavery, which on the surface seems motivated by Racism. As slavery is not unique to a specific "race", nearly every race has been enslaved at some time in history, a motivation of Racism isn't necessarily a justification.

Rather Racism served as, and can continue to serve as, a tool to justify immoral actions in pursuit of more concrete motivations. It is much easier to sugarcoat the pillaging and looting of valuable natural resources as "liberating the heart of darkness" and "bringing light and happiness to the savages".

You know that the more you talk about races and racism more conscious people are and keep it?

And reading OP would help.

Snoorlax said:

pastro243 said:

Being from Chile, I tell you we have that problem too. Having amerindian traits would put you under white people in the scale of social valoration, even if it's implicit and no one goes around beating people because of it. 

To be honest both Argentina and Chile come first to mind when were talking about racism in Latin America. Despite that it's embarassing how nationalistic all of these Hispanic nations are always trashing the neighbor countries, insulting their women, comparing themselves to European countries atleast that's the impression i get when i read forums, news or even on Youtube.

Simon Bolivar wanted a United Latin America and he failed, yet a certain Brazilian company actually made his dream come true with bribes.

Well in Brazil we do love to piss over Argentinian, but just joking =p

And I would say the 2 biggest multi national companies from Brazil "AB Imbev" and "Vale do Rio Doce" doesn't have cases of bribes as far as I know... but if you are talking about Latin America uniting in bribes, that I can agree.

dgboweniii said:

We're not.  This is a narrative created by the supposedly oppressed that should be thankful every day that they get to live here and thrive in this country, as opposed to living in the dirt eating insects their entire lives.  Instead they complain.

It's reverse racism, caused by the minorities.

Read OP, and there isn't reverse racism, black being racist against white is just as racist as white against black.

Rogerioandrade said:

LuccaCardoso1 said:

I still don't exactly understand what "latino" should mean as a "race". Tecnically, latinos are people born in Latin America, but that's so damn broad! There are people born in Latin America from every ethnic group.

Yep. That´s exactly what latino means. People born in Latin America, or also people born in latin countries (countries that have a romance language as their primarly language)

I do understand what you mean when you use the word "racist".  Maybe "segregative" would be a better word to describe their approach toward "races".

I personaly don´t like to use the word "race" related to human beings, after all such thing does not exist. "Ethinicity" suits the matter much better. That said, I really think it´s kind of weird how the U.S. census identify people. Latino is by no any means an ethinicity, yet it´s considered as one there.

I also find kind of weird how many Americans tend to stick to their ethinicity group in most situations. When walking around any university campus, we see that people tend to stick to people of the same ethinicity, like, white with white, black with black, Asian with Asian etc. Sometimes you visit a church and there are churches almost exclusively frequented by black people, or latinos, or white people.  I´ve seen many, many Brazilians who studied there to report situations like this. 

Racism exist all over the world and in the U.S. it seems to be related only to ethnicity or "color". 

In our country, discussing racism feels complex because it´s not just a matter of ethinicity, but also a matter of social conditions  and sometimes even xenophobia. Overall our socitey do not really cares about ethinicity that much, so it´s tricky for us to understand the U.S. approach to that.

Most of the cases in discussion nowadays in Brazil are just blowouts.