From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@ricochet.net)
Date: Mon May 21 2001 - 18:16:04 MDT
Mike Bast wrote:
> I'm 33, and most of the people of my generation I know do see
>differences in race, but most struggle not to let it affect their thinking.
> ...However, I've got some cousins who are 18 or 19, and they don't even
>seem to really notice color, except when they confront it as racism, which
>at least one actively works against. (He's involved in some anti-racist
>organizations)
> Mind you, it's more complex, since there will likely always be people
and Eliezer wrote
> But, given that ninety percent of the problem has been solved, especially
> in the younger generations, the best way to finally damp the problem out
> of nonexistence is to avoid saying or doing anything that gives the
> impression that you are mentally keeping track of what race a person is.
> That's why I object to this subject line. A physicist inventing time
> travel is a triumph for physicists.
About the subject line: I agree with Eliezer, and am sorry that I started
the old subject line, "if a black physicist invents time travel". It was
in marginally bad taste.
But the issue of how long racism will be with us is, as Mike says, not
so simple. I, too, find there to be less racism among the young than
formerly, but I'm afraid that this may be true only of the people that
I associate with. I fear that the media is ignoring a certain amount
of racism that is alive and well among everyone, not just the young.
Here is one interesting example. The parking lot at a certain high school
in the south bay (northern California) is (or was just a couple of years
ago) divided into four areas: there is the hispanic area, the asian area,
the white area, and the black area. A reporter asked a kid if he could
freely park in an area that he didn't usually park in. "Yes," he replied,
"I could. But I just wouldn't feel comfortable". A friend of mine's
daughter, who goes to school in southern California says, "there is
a fair amount of mixing. But the Mexicans mix least of all." Now
since Mexican children are soon to be majority in California, this
may not bode well for a diminution of racism..., or rather, if not
racism, this tendency that people have to act on their tendency to
be most comfortable with their own "kind" (however they perceive that).
There is a biological urge, I think, for people to seek out others of
their own tribe. Of course, when parents are designing their kids
in a few years, one of the options will hopefully be whether to include
this option or not. Others of us may also be lucky enough to be able
to choose options that enable us to stop noticing correlations in areas
we deem unimportant or counterproductive.
Lee Corbin
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