General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This Is the America White People Wished For. This Is the America White People Want [View all]HopeAgain
(4,407 posts)Don't forget the Hutu genocide of Tutsis, for example. I think there is an element of human nature involved. Tribalism certainly must have had some advantages when we were all hunter-gatherers, and people have been enslaving each other since at least the early bronze age. To a degree, all people can suck depending on the situation they find themselves in and how they react to it. To imply it is a frailty based upon the color of our skin would be reverse bigotry (bigotry as in judgment of others based upon their physical attributes). It takes civilization, empathy and education to overcome our lesser natures, and history is loaded with examples where people have fallen way short..
American Whites (of which I am one) claim that America is a land of equality and liberty, however, so that makes our current situation particularly singular and distasteful in that there is loads of hypocrisy heaped upon American racism. I don't talk to other whites by pointing out that racism is wrong, they know that and indulge in it anyway. I like to point out the hypocrisy of America claiming to be the land of equality while they continue to red-line their neighborhoods. They claim to be the land of equal opportunity while they quietly provide schools in white neighborhoods with more of the resources than schools where minorities attend. They claim to be the land of the free while they incarcerate blacks at a rate of 5 times higher than whites.
So I do think the American White Society (recognizing that not all white people suck) sucks in a very special dishonest and hypocritical way.