Racism and America

[thatmariolover]

Originally Posted by Bond

No. I believe my generation has moved beyond racism. In fact, as a country I believe we have moved beyond racism. It will always exist in some pockets of the country, but that is simply the side effect of having such a diverse nation. I believe we are now divided more by class than by race, which, of course, isn't a wonderful thing either.

I disagree. Racism is certainly more prevalent in certain pockets of the country, but it is hardly limited to them. Racists are of no single place, class, or creed. I do firmly believe that assassination will be a fear in the upcoming election, should Obama win. I can only hope that there will be extra measures to ensure his safety because of it. Heck, he hasn't even won and there's already been one highly publicized attempt that was foiled.

I live in Minnesota, where I generally consider most people past racism. And yet just the other day, a girl at work is telling me how she'll never vote for Obama because he's black. When I told her how awful that was she said that it didn't matter. Nobody in her household was going to be voting for a black president. But Sarah Palin! Oh, she's just the light made flesh apparently. When I asked her what she likes about Palin she couldn't offer me a single thing aside from that she's a woman and we need a woman in office. She then tried to placate me, assuming she could appeal to my democratic preference, saying if Hillary had gotten into office she would have voted for her.

Bigotry and ignorance is everywhere.

But to respond to the original question, I think it will do some of both. Not a particularly exciting answer, but I think it's right. In the end if Obama does well, the racists will say it's because he had so many white people under him to fix his mistakes. If he crashes and burns, racists will say that we should have known better and that it was to be expected from a black president. And everybody else will just look at it as another president, good or bad. In the end, I don't think it will change a whole lot for people whose minds are already made up. But I think it could make a significant difference to kids who haven't had their minds made for them yet.