badgenome said:
Supposing that's true, if the only thing keeping the country from self-segregating all over again is someone pointing a gun at our heads and forcing us to mingle, then it's only a matter of time before it all falls apart. I'm not at all convinced that's the case. Nothing will be done about the Congressional Black Caucus, because it's a politically correct form of discrimination. There was remarkably little outrage when it happened, and the only reason it got any coverage at the time is because it's fairly rare that the double standard is that naked at the federal level. |
You have more faith than me then. All you have to do is look at history most people don't seem to act right unless they have the federal government breathing down their neck. Just take slavery and civil rights for an example. When did slavery end it was when the federal government stepped in. After the civil war during the reconstruction period african americans were treated equally voter turnout among blacks was the highest it has ever been and a few blacks had been elected to legislators and congress.
When did things turn sour? It turned sour after the federal troops left the south at the end of the reconstruction period. This allowed the ku klux klan to rise to power to intimidate and kill blacks to keep them from the polls, this allowed private businesses which still make up the majority of businesses today to say no blacks allowed or to go around back to be served like some animal, and this allowed poll taxes, literacy tests and the grandfather clause which states that your grandfather had to be free in order for you to vote to be put in to place. No more blacks got voted to congress for nearly a century. And I keep mentioning the south but there was plenty of racism and discrimination in the north as well.
But surely the majority of people would have thought it's wrong to treat others this way and would have made the choice on their own to do something about it and change things right like you seem to think people would be able to do right? Wrong it lasted until the federal government once again stepped in during the 1960's with new legislation and harsh penalties for those who discriminate. Oh yeah it just so happened that after this another african american got elected to congress and for some reason it's no longer a once in a hundred year event I wonder why.
When did the lynchings and killings of blacks go down by the ku klux klan it was when they realized that they could no longer get away with doing it and not receive jail time because the federal government got involved. The klan shared the same beliefs of the town/city where they were from so who in their town would punish them for doing what most people in their town thought was right especially since the jury was always all white males?
My home state of North Carolina was one of the last states to give women the right to vote they just did not want to do it even though it was the right thing to do. Once again the federal government had to step in to get people to do what should be common sense.
I believe that despite the election of Barack Obama things are already starting to slowly fall apart. In North Carolina they have gotten rid of the diversity policy which allowed students to go to the same schools and ride the same buses no matter what economic background they came from. Getting rid of this policy is going to allow the upper class to put their kids in a better school while the poorer parents will have to send their kids to a worse school which will worsen the achievement gap between classes of students.
Then of course there is everything that is happening in Arizona. There is also the rise in the klan membership since the election of barack obama. Then there are these groups like the tea party that are mostly white mostly conservative who sends messages that sometimes have racial or discriminatory undertones to it. It maybe just me but I don't like groups that have 90% of one race in anything whether its black, white, asian, indian etc because the first impression one gets while looking at it is they are preaching some kind of supremacy even if that's not the case. I for one like seeing diversity.
Also I'm not saying that the federal government always does the right thing or the state government+ private businesses always does the wrong thing. I'm saying at the moment I prefer the federal government involvement because I think that they try to do the right thing in most cases even if they over spend and waste billions doing it. The goal should be to get things done right to the point that they won't have to be revisited again.
