http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/68/lincolns-second-inaugural
There is a minor rule in this world that white guys can not talk about race. It's an even bigger rule out there that you can't talk about racism being gone, or things possibly being fixed, we're going to break out of those standards and just say it.
As a white kid, being surrounded by minorities while growing up, by being surrounded by different ethnicity and seeing what it is that they had to go through, I think that in some places racism is a thing of the past.
Of course, there is always going to be some idiot who is dragging their feet and can't give up their slave owning, racial hating ways, but it's getting to be less. Now, despite what the news media would like to lead me to believe, I don't think that race is a key aspect to every single crime, I don't think that the world is out to hurt one skin color over another, but I do know that in some locations, with some bigoted people that are close minded and refuse to see the world in any other way than 'us versus them' racism is still there. Yes it needs to stop, yes that is something that we should see and get rid of, but let's compare some stats.
50 years ago - how many crimes were race related? How many deaths were race related? How many jobs were absolutely banned for specific ethnicity just because of their skin color?
20 years ago - same questions?
10 years ago? 5 years ago?
In my opinion, I think that the US is getting better. The reason that the news media jumps on a racial crime so fast and just won't let it go is because it's such a rarity in the general populous that we are shocked to see that something like that is happening.
The number one thing that I can't wait for is the baby boomer generation to finally bite the dust. They are some of the most closed minded, racial people that exist. Without fail the older generation will say offensive things about people of other races, they will insult immigrants even though their own family line is full of immigrants, and they want nothing to do with any culture besides their own. Not everyone is that grandma who complains about people who speak Spanish. I hate to spoil this, but America doesn't have a national language. It's TOTALLY okay for them to speak Spanish. It's even okay for signs to be in Spanish. Just because you can't understand what is going on does not mean that you are right and they are wrong. Have you ever considered racist grandma that your English all the time is unnerving to them the same way their Spanish is unnerving to you?
I've rambled a bit, and I'm still trying to skirt the issue, but when it comes to race, I do not think that we are as bad as we were even 20 years ago. We're not perfect, it's not 100%, but there are places out there where race is not an issue. Where we are living the dream and we are doing what people have been dreaming about.
Unfortunately, Utah is not one of those places. The neighborhood I am currently in and the society that I am part of is one of the least accepting and understanding of outsiders that I have ever seen. Love one another seems to only apply when they believe like us, look like us, and don't do anything differently, and it irks me. We're getting better, but we sure aren't at 100% yet.
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