161–170 of 350 posts
I grew up in the Midwest and moved to Silicon Valley. I think that people here don't understand what this author describes as "Midwestern history is a study in racial quarantine." I would go as far as to say that racial is the wrong word to describe what happens in the Midwest. I think that communities in the Midwest have tighter cultural restrictions on what it means to be "one of us." This can be affected by where…
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As a Midwesterner, this is incredibly accurate. I personally don't like multiculturalism, and I don't know of many people in my area that do. In my opinion and experience, multiculturalism in society makes a sense of community very difficult if not impossible to create. Having standard methods of communication, standard social and moral norms, and standard goals and beliefs makes empathizing with my neighbor so much…
This is a question of which came first the chicken or the egg? Is the fact that cultures are represented unevenly in society the fault of the non-dominant cultures or the dominant culture? Is poverty and chronic stress cause by culture or is it caused by racist systems? It might be a cycle but if people weren't racists then it might be easier to break the cycle. Personally, I love multiculturalism. Being a white guy…
Oh, I absolutely believe that the uneven distribution of certain races in those poverty cultures is due to historic racism. I'd have to be deluded to not believe that. When an entire race was suppressed just a couple generations ago, it makes absolute sense that that race would continue having an issue with poverty.
However, I don't think race is the issue anymore. I think the issues are culture and poverty, with poverty being the much more significant of the two.
Proof of this IMO is in the white trash culture. White people born and raised in poverty in a culture of hopelessness tend to have terrible college graduation rates, low average income, and high crime rates. There's no systemic racism keeping them down, yet they don't succeed.
> Is the fact that cultures are represented unevenly in society the fault of the non-dominant cultures or the dominant culture?
Jewish and Asian cultures are non-dominant, yet they succeed in our country. Dominance isn't the issue here, I don't think.
> Personally, I love multiculturalism... Dealing with people from other cultures is a lot more fun than dealing with people like me.
That's great! I don't have an issue that some places and people think like that. I just don't see why that kind of mentality needs to be brought to places that think differently. There are always acceptable limits of variance within a culture. Some cultures disallow women from showing their hair, others stone gay people. Neither of those aspects of a culture would be allowed here. Why shouldn't different regions of the country have different bounds for allowed cultural variance?
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>Does anyone have suggestions on how to fix this? One option would be to have the cultures integrate so there are not sub communities for PoC. This doesn't seem to have worked. But the other option is that you expect Midwesterners to treat people from outside their community the same as people inside their community. That isn't going to happen. So it seems like it is an impossible situation. From my outside perspecti…
You can think something is ridiculous all you want, but that doesn't make it inaccurate. You feel it's all a proxy for racism? Fine. Tell me, then: between an F-150 and a Silverado, which one is the "white" truck?
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>Does anyone have suggestions on how to fix this? One option would be to have the cultures integrate so there are not sub communities for PoC. This doesn't seem to have worked. But the other option is that you expect Midwesterners to treat people from outside their community the same as people inside their community. That isn't going to happen. So it seems like it is an impossible situation. From my outside perspecti…
So, you are arguing that New Yorkers don't make a distinction between themselves and not-New Yorkers? I've never lived in New York; what about all those sitcom references to the differences between Manhattenites and Brooklyners? Or the Bronx? How can I, as a random Texan, tell the difference between someone from Gramercy Park and someone from New Jersey? (The part of me that wants to watch the world burn would like t…
Like, New Jerseyans think New Yorkers are snobby, New Yorkers think New Jerseyans are sleazy and uncultured, but you'd never, ever expect people to have a problem working or living together because of the difference. Everyone is so mixed-up that "stick to your own kind" becomes nearly impossible. Saying that we live in the same neighborhood and send our kids to the same school, say, but attend a different church, and so we're not really members of a common community, would just not make sense. If you tried that, you'd run out of "people like us" in about five minutes.
I grew up in the Midwest and moved to Silicon Valley. I think that people here don't understand what this author describes as "Midwestern history is a study in racial quarantine." I would go as far as to say that racial is the wrong word to describe what happens in the Midwest. I think that communities in the Midwest have tighter cultural restrictions on what it means to be "one of us." This can be affected by where…
That would explain the slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching, and segregation...
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As a Midwesterner, this is incredibly accurate. I personally don't like multiculturalism, and I don't know of many people in my area that do. In my opinion and experience, multiculturalism in society makes a sense of community very difficult if not impossible to create. Having standard methods of communication, standard social and moral norms, and standard goals and beliefs makes empathizing with my neighbor so much…
"I personally don't like multiculturalism" I'm pretty sure it was the offspring of people who "don't like multiculturalism" who beat me up in middle school for being part of geek culture rather than the prevailing rural culture of my hometown. I personally am a big fan of respecting others despite cultural differences.
Any ideology taken to a violent extreme is bad. There are people who are getting beaten up for believing there should be a southern border wall. Those people beating them up are in the wrong, but that doesn't mean their opinion is baseless, merely their method of expressing their opinion is wrong.
> I personally am a big fan of respecting others despite cultural differences.
Yet there are bounds to what is acceptable, is there not? If someone walked down the streets naked, would you not think they're crazy? If a man wanted to stone a gay person, or shun a woman for exposing her hair, would you not look at that person with disdain?
Given that there are bounds in variance for acceptable behavior, then why shouldn't there be regional differences in acceptable variance?
I grew up in the Midwest and moved to Silicon Valley. I think that people here don't understand what this author describes as "Midwestern history is a study in racial quarantine." I would go as far as to say that racial is the wrong word to describe what happens in the Midwest. I think that communities in the Midwest have tighter cultural restrictions on what it means to be "one of us." This can be affected by where…
(It's worth noting that, while this sort of thing comes up a lot in the context of the midwest, the midwest isn't special in this regard.) > I think that communities in the Midwest have tighter cultural restrictions on what it means to be "one of us." The genetic basis for delineating "races" is sketchy at best. The cultural aspects are as important as skin color to the definition of race, which is why either the fir…
This is so well said, I think it deserves to be singled out
So many people get personally offended when one is discussing these matters.
I grew up in the Midwest and moved to Silicon Valley. I think that people here don't understand what this author describes as "Midwestern history is a study in racial quarantine." I would go as far as to say that racial is the wrong word to describe what happens in the Midwest. I think that communities in the Midwest have tighter cultural restrictions on what it means to be "one of us." This can be affected by where…
>Does anyone have suggestions on how to fix this? One option would be to have the cultures integrate so there are not sub communities for PoC. I find it a bit insane that people think that this is even something that needs to be fixed - why can't different ethnic groups live among themselves, instead of being required to lose their ethnic identity and become part of the larger group? Do you seriously think that's wha…
Probably because segregation leads poorer conditions for PoC.
>In 2015, 17.3% of blacks in Milwaukee were unemployed compared to 4.3% of whites, the report found. And many blacks in the city were earning much less than whites. According to the report, the median household income for blacks in Milwaukee was $25,600 compared to $62,600 for whites.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/16/news/economy/milwaukee-black...
>Among 20- to 24-year-olds, the Chicago area's employment rate is 47 percent for blacks, the lowest among the big cities, and 73 percent for whites, which is among the highest. Only Philadelphia comes close to that gap, with a 48 percent employment rate for blacks and 66 percent for whites.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-brookings-disconne...
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I don't buy into this big-R, little-r racism but "well if they'd just work harder, or get a better job," and "they" refers to black people, that's racism. > Racism is very much a matter of intent. No. Unconscious bias, which by definition does not include intent, can still be a form of racism. I do agree that sometimes other forms of bias or prejudice is taken for racism. Many times it's a class issue; many richer pe…