On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 12:32 AM, Thaths <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 8:20 AM, Charles Haynes <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On Feb 27, 2012 12:06 AM, "Thaths" <[email protected]> wrote: >>> On the other hand, if there is any country that can come closest to >>> achieving a post-racial society, it is the United States. >> You make the case that the US is close, sure, but "closest?" I see many >> countries with multi-racial societies, why do you think the US is closer >> than all others? > Good point. What I also had in mind, and left unarticulated, was "at > sizable scale". I'm still not sure why you think the US is "closest." It seems to me that "post-racial" isn't linear, there isn't just one road to "post-racial" with different societies at different places in their journey. Instead I'd say that racism takes many forms, and different societies have more or less of the various forms of racism. Brazil for example, appears to me to be much less racist than the USA along some significant dimensions, particularly about "race mixing." The various races in Brazil find each other attractive and there is no stigma associated with having a partner of a different race. It seems to me that this, more than anything else, will wipe out racism in Brazil in short order. The US on the other hand, still has a huge way to go in this regard. Further I see structural and institutionalised racism in the US evidenced by the large and disproportionate number of young black men in prisons. The US justice system is certainly not "post racial" and I see no evidence that it is moving in the right direction. Which raises an interesting question. What are appropriate metrics for measuring the racism of a society? There are two suggested above - what is the incidence of inter-racial partnerships in romantic relationships (measured by proxy by marriages.) What is the relationship between the racial distribution of people at different stages of the justice system (arrest, indictment, conviction, imprisonment) versus the general population. Given the US justice system, and recent anti-immigrant laws in places like Arizona and Alabama, I have to say I don't share your optimistic view of race in the USA. -- Charles
