> is not a massive change
In fact marriage equality, and the increasingly broad acceptance of homosexuality in America, is an extraordinary accomplishment. And it's only going to keep getting better. That contrasts sharply with the majority of the world, that is the exact opposite and opposed to marriage equality.
> If you exclude the places where murder happens most, of course you appear to have a low murder rate.
Not excluding at all. The whole of the US has a murder rate 1/3 that of Russia, and on par with Amsterdam. Few Americans as a percentage live in very high murder rate neighborhoods or areas. Those areas have extremely high murder rates, the other 99%+ of America where most people live does not. That's an exceptionally critical distinction. The worst areas of eg Chicago do not threaten most of the people that live in Chicago, most of those citizens are under very little risk of being murdered or harmed by that crime. It's context dropping to pretend otherwise. To pretend that all of Chicago suffers from an equally high murder rate is absurd.
> Perhaps you have not paid attention to the news. Quite literally hundreds of black people have been shot by US police this year so far.
In fact I do more than just watch the headlines, I read the stats. Police caused deaths have been falling for 40 years. The US is almost so diverse at this point, that it will soon have no majority. The parent comment claimed unarmed minorities were being killed left and right. In fact, there are typically around 500 police caused deaths per year in the US, a small fraction of which are unarmed minorities that are shot, and a fraction of which are unjustified in terms of use of force. Nearly half of those deaths are white people, not minorities. To put these numbers in context, China executes 2,500+ people per year, with some record execution years that are truly astounding. They've executed more people in the last 10 years, than cops have killed in the US total in the last 100 years.
> Asians in America are a relatively privileged minority. Now look at how other ethnic groups fare. Not so rosy.
I find it fascinating how you excuse the success of Asian Americans by slandering them as privileged. Fact: Asians in America are among the richest Asians on earth; Blacks in America are the richest blacks on earth; Latinos in America are the richest Latinos on earth.
> If you're rich.
Nope, America has the world's largest middle class, and has good upward mobility:
"A surprising and increasing number of middle-skill workers are moving up rather than down the economic ladder."
The fact that the US has one of the highest standards of living, median incomes, and median disposable incomes, proves the point easily. You very clearly don't have to be rich at all to do well in America. The US also has one of the highest rates of college degree acquisition in the world.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/some-hopeful-job-news-for-a-hard...