I live in an integrated neighborhood in the Deep South (as deep as you can get). So i found this thread intellectually challenging and of great interest. Thanks to all who contributed .
There seems to be, mostly anyway, agreement that one's social behavior is influenced by culture to a far greater extent than racial genetics. If we accept that, then we acknowledge that very strong correlations between race and behavior in some populations are not due to cause and effect; yet practically speaking, this is a correlation that proves so terribly damaging to relationships between the races. Thus if a black man approaches me, whom i do not know, and asks to rake my yard for money, I am inclined not to hire him, because i have learned both from experience and statistics that he is
more likely to be slacker than is some other person of a different race. Upon talking to that person, however, if they evidence some degree of mental acuity and a modicum of education and manners, I may, in fact, change my mind and hire the person. This is in spite of knowing intellectually that race is not related to behavior as cause and effect.
The point here is that even though race does not cause antisocial behavior, from the standpoint of everyday interaction between the races, it might as well.
It seems to me that the only way this unsatisfactory situation can be rectified is for the Black man to come to the realization that it is their culture, not their skin color, that is creating their difficulties.
So, I would argue not from a moral position, where i am clearly wrong, but from a practical position, where my personal everyday experience has proven me to be right, that there exists today a rational as well as an irrational racism. Both exist in the confines of everyday personal interaction and thus between the cracks of our individual constitutional protections.
The White, Hispanic and Asian racism toward the Black man is statistically rational, though morally reprehensible. The Blackman's racism, on the other hand, is irrational and self-defeating, because it is based, at best, on the false assumption that their situation is caused by external factors that they can do little about. And most destructive and self-defeating is the idea that the White man is (present tense) at the root of their problems and actively conspires against them.
(Note: "man" in the context here means mankind, not its sexual connotation.)
P.S. I am cheered by the prospects of Mr. Barack Obama being my next President. Ironically, much closer to being an African American then the millions of Americans who, rather curiously, want to be referred to as "African American."
There seems to be, mostly anyway, agreement that one's social behavior is influenced by culture to a far greater extent than racial genetics. If we accept that, then we acknowledge that very strong correlations between race and behavior in some populations are not due to cause and effect; yet practically speaking, this is a correlation that proves so terribly damaging to relationships between the races. Thus if a black man approaches me, whom i do not know, and asks to rake my yard for money, I am inclined not to hire him, because i have learned both from experience and statistics that he is
more likely to be slacker than is some other person of a different race. Upon talking to that person, however, if they evidence some degree of mental acuity and a modicum of education and manners, I may, in fact, change my mind and hire the person. This is in spite of knowing intellectually that race is not related to behavior as cause and effect.
The point here is that even though race does not cause antisocial behavior, from the standpoint of everyday interaction between the races, it might as well.
It seems to me that the only way this unsatisfactory situation can be rectified is for the Black man to come to the realization that it is their culture, not their skin color, that is creating their difficulties.
So, I would argue not from a moral position, where i am clearly wrong, but from a practical position, where my personal everyday experience has proven me to be right, that there exists today a rational as well as an irrational racism. Both exist in the confines of everyday personal interaction and thus between the cracks of our individual constitutional protections.
The White, Hispanic and Asian racism toward the Black man is statistically rational, though morally reprehensible. The Blackman's racism, on the other hand, is irrational and self-defeating, because it is based, at best, on the false assumption that their situation is caused by external factors that they can do little about. And most destructive and self-defeating is the idea that the White man is (present tense) at the root of their problems and actively conspires against them.
(Note: "man" in the context here means mankind, not its sexual connotation.)
P.S. I am cheered by the prospects of Mr. Barack Obama being my next President. Ironically, much closer to being an African American then the millions of Americans who, rather curiously, want to be referred to as "African American."
