Our BetterMost Community > Chez Tremblay
1963
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on August 28, 2013, 10:09:37 pm ---Maybe I'm glass half full, but when I think of what the culture of this country was like 50 years ago -- within my lifetime; almost within my memory! -- segregation widespread, interracial marriage banned, black people attacked for sitting in Woolworth diners, women needing permission from husbands to get a credit card and banned from many jobs, gay people presented in cautionary school newsreels as sexual predators ... it would not surprise me at all to think that 50 years from now race won't be a big deal and we could potentially have a gay president.
We have a black president now. A woman candidate almost won. Gay marriage is in a dominoes situation. A gay president might takes a few more steps, but that's not out of the picture. Not. At. All.
--- End quote ---
I think that you are being a "glass half full" person--not that there's anything wrong with that! ;D ;)
Yes, we have a black president now, but don't forget the vicious, thinly veiled racist attacks, the idiotic "birthers," and others of their ilk. I guess I'm being a "glass half empty" person, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if things even get worse--that race becomes even more of an issue, even if it isn't openly an issue--before they get better as the U.S. becomes more and more a minority majority nation. I would love to be proved wrong, but I won't be surprised if I'm right.
CellarDweller:
I tend to be an optimist, but I wouldn't be surprised at all with a backlash, and then steps back.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: CellarDweller on August 29, 2013, 08:01:44 am ---I tend to be an optimist, but I wouldn't be surprised at all with a backlash, and then steps back.
--- End quote ---
That's more or less what I was trying to get at. You said it better and more succinctly than I did. :)
"Two steps forward, one step back." That sort of thing. :-\
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on August 28, 2013, 11:31:29 pm ---I think that you are being a "glass half full" person--not that there's anything wrong with that! ;D ;)
--- End quote ---
:)
--- Quote ---Yes, we have a black president now, but don't forget the vicious, thinly veiled racist attacks, the idiotic "birthers," and others of their ilk. I guess I'm being a "glass half empty" person, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if things even get worse--that race becomes even more of an issue, even if it isn't openly an issue--before they get better as the U.S. becomes more and more a minority majority nation. I would love to be proved wrong, but I won't be surprised if I'm right.
--- End quote ---
I don't forget the vicious, thinly veiled racist attacks, etc. I'm not saying racism (or homophobia, or sexism) has been banished from our nation. Far from it!
But in 1963 those racist attacks would have been a lot more vicious and not at all veiled. In 1963, people who tried to help black citizens vote, let alone run for office, were not just called ugly names, but could have been murdered (the murders in Meridian, Miss., happened in 1964), and when when they went to trial juries could let them go (of the 21 men initially charged by the FBI in Mississippi, seven were found guilty, none served more than six years).
Maybe racism will never go away. But if it's no longer openly an issue, it's a lot less of a problem than when it was when we were kids.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on August 29, 2013, 09:48:20 am ---Maybe racism will never go away. But if it's no longer openly an issue, it's a lot less of a problem than when it was when we were kids.
--- End quote ---
That's where we disagree and I'm not so sure. Of course there is no such thing as "good racism," but at least in 1963 it was open. Now it seems to me that much of it has gone underground. It's still there, but now it's sneaky and invidious. I suppose I think that racism that's underground and sneaky may be more of a problem rather than less of one. George Wallace on the steps of whatever he was standing on the steps of at least had the virtue of making himself look odious in the eyes of the entire world. But the white waitress who makes black customers wait longer for service than white customers is, in my opinion, a lot more difficult to deal with--even if those black customers can now sit at the same lunch counter as white customers.
Of course I'm not denying that great strides forward have been made since 1963. I just don't think we're as far out of the woods yet as you seem to think we are, perhaps because now we have to deal with racism on the individual level, which I think is a lot more difficult than dealing with it on the institutional level.
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