Segregation, and how it works.

[guillaumeb]

Segregation can be codified into law, segregation de jure, as it was in the US for many years. And that is the most obvious, the most blatant type because it is written into the law.

But segregation can also be unwritten, segregation de facto, and that type of segregation is just as obvious to the victims, but more deniable by the oppressors because intent to discriminate can be denied.

In my area, in 1980, a divorced woman with a Greek last name moved into an all white area, working and middle class . When people found out that the woman with the Greek last name happened to have black skin, her car was fire bombed and she moved from her rental unit immediately.

There was no law forbidding her to move into the area, no covenant that forbade her to move into the area, no signs, but none were needed. She got the point.

In another Chicago neighborhood, an area heavily populated by white police, firefighters, and other city workers, black families that attempt to move into the area have graffiti painted onto their houses and cars. They get the message as well.

So when we speak of moving on, and times changing, yes, things do change, but the damage is done.

[SunSeeker]

1. K & R

[guillaumeb]

3. Thank you.

The racists in my area do not wear white robes, but some fly the Southern flag.

[tishaLA]

2. It's sad that this even has to be explained

[guillaumeb]

4. Amen to that.

I live in an area that has changed from majority white to a rainbow of colors and beliefs. Some of the long time residents complain about that, but many of us welcome the diversity. The US civil war was 150 years ago, and the racist side supposedly lost.

[Blue_true]

5. Florida public schools and universities integrated because a new Governor said they were going to.

In Georgia around roughly the same time, a man named Jimmy Carter was fighting it out with a deeply racist governor and Legistlature.

The point is that leadership either brings about change or allows the status quo to remain in place. Public policy DOES change minds, it just takes courageous leaders to force that policy into place, like Jimmy Carter in Georgia and Reuben Askew in Florida did at the very same time that Biden was fighting an important initiative. I am sure that if polls had been taken in Georgia and Florida at that time, they would have shown overwhelming resistance to what Askew and Carter did.

[guillaumeb]

6. True.

But the fact that some GOP politicians openly stated that President Obama did not know what it was to be an American tells us all we need to know about racism in the US.

When people need to be forced to acknowledge that non-whites are equal, racism flourishes.

[Blue_true]

8. And the GOP lost two elections to President Obama.

If the people that call themselves the most and purest progressives had not thrown a fit in the 2010 midterms, President Obama likely would have had a strong democratic Congress (both Chambers) to drive home and codify the important changes made during the first two years of his Presidency.

Why do you think the GOP is working it's ass off to prevent POC and students from voting? It is a dying party that must use anti democratic tactics and foreign assistance to remain relevant.

Maybe I read to much into what I observe. But what I am seeing locally is hate is losing. I don't see a lot of confederate flag decals. A White person is as likely to show a Black person the same curtesy they show a White person. Certainly there are problems below the surface, but I am a southerner by birth and rearing, things ARE different and better now and I don't expect that path to change. Even the asshole DeSantis is so far trying to lead in a moderate way, because if he doesn't that spells trouble for him.

[guillaumeb]

9. Great response.

The racism is sometimes more subtle.

But yes, the racists are losing, and the GOP cannot win without cheating. And that is part of the hateful atmosphere.

[tulipsandroses]

7. I will move on when White supremacy, racism, white privilege has moved on

Tell me when that happens

[guillaumeb]

10. Oh yes!!!

Over 100 years after the US civil war, the same racists are still fighting the same fight, but without the open rebellion.

But Kamala Harris' parents were educated so every thing must be good. (sarcasm)

[zentrum]

11. K&R