On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 6:40 AM, ARLO J BENSINGER JR <[email protected]> wrote:
> [Sharath] > I think with every generation there has been more & more acceptance of > minorities into the main stream and I don't think affirmative action has > anything to do with it... > > [Arlo] > Well I'm looking back at the pre-1960's (the decade of origin for "PC", > regarding human rights, equality, etc) and I don't see much evidence (if > any) > that blacks were gaining acceptance. What evidence would you point to? Sharath: I can't comment on pre-60's I wasn't born then and like I said before I am new to your country and I can only make current observations based on my current experience. But I'm not denying the injustice that was done then, I'm 100% sure there wouldve been large scale discrimination of non-white races. But even with all that I am not too convinced that the entire country purported it. Say like in South-Aftrica or even in India the British practiced apartheid and that was very open and the *majority of the country participated in it. Of course there are many people in every place who don't care whether someone drinks water next to a black guy or something else unless someone from the other race is marrying their daughter or something. My logic is simple - if majority of the people in a region did really practice the extreme form of discrimination then I'm pretty sure it would've still existed (whether or not someone smart and intelligent in the govt wanted to get rid of this). Tell me why don't you ( I assume you are a white man from the US) practice discrimination or do your friends or your parents generation do ? or are you trying to be just PC :P ? I dont know much about your country's history ..but it's just a justification as to why most of the current generation don't really care and I think their parents and teachers didn't really care about race distinction as much as getting them a decent education and keeping them healthy. Again you may have a different view ..but I think even in the 60's there were white people who were supporting the black movement...obviously they and their friends and their families would've been more tolerant..I can't go back to that generation and check. Yes an uncle of mine did immigrate here during the 60's and I don't remember him ever mentioning any sort of discrimination. In fact the muslim taxi driver in Missouri who greeted me on my first time arrival - specifically told me people are nicer here than his home country and didn't bother where he was from [ iran]. Well I could guarantee you couldn't say the same thing if you were to live in other countries. But c'mon the way the society is setup there is bound to be discrimination. I am a short guy *but* posses more than an average basketball skill, I'm of course discriminated by basket ball players at the gym ..and they would select someone taller even though he may not be all that great..Why..the whole world is obsessed with tall men. Everyone is discriminated in some way or the other. [ gay, single, women, christians, chinese, blacks, mexicans, whites, teens, seniors, teachers, intelligent, stupid, priests, beggars, artists, politicians the list covers everyone no ?] I know this is the problem and the challenge I believe is whether people are emotionally and rationally competent to overlook their cultural biases and make intelligent decisions..I frankly don't know what the solution is but I don't believe govt can enforce laws for forcing business or organizations to hire people from different races. In India we have this law and it has been so badly misued ..our govt sector is wrecked beyond repair. I wonder is there any evidence on whether forcing the majority population to stop using some words or mandating hiring of minority races into an organization really changed the fundamental way in which they thought about them. I think there are bigger problems than race discrimination right now at least. I feel greed has a lot to do with why there is an unfair wealth distribution in the world. And the sort of greed where people just don't have control and buy and live in excess for no real reason. I feel people here must be real lucky compared to where I came from, unfortunately people here take many things for granted. The courteous traffic system found in the US is something that is not found anywhere ..I'm not sure how much of that has to with PC though but I suspect it is just basic courtesy. I might not have been coherent enough to clarify all your points and haven't answered some of your specific questions and instead went on a tangent. I just don't have the time and energy today :) sorry. good day Arlo! --Sharath ============================== Ping-pong & life are similar - both a quest for perfection. ============================== Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
