"It's the old quote -- "The past is never dead. It's not even past."Right, how very true. One of my aunts married a French soldier at the end of WWII and went to live
in France. She often told me La Révolution française was far from settled, just scratch the surface anywhere in France and you'll still find much contention. BTW, it was ≈235 years ago.
I've been to the US many times, have relatives who live there and have even worked there so I'm somewhat familiar with many of those events you've.mentioned. I suppose I'm still surprised by the intensity and vehemence of the attacks—whether verbal or physical—towards both the black population and the various underclasses/undeprived. That's not say this country I'm in is lily-white by any means—we've had our fair share of atrocities in the past—but present-day vitriol and animosity towards certain peoples certainly isn't as intense as I've seen it in the US. The question is why.
Let me give you two instances that come to mind (and I've more) that I think wouldn't be commonplace here (but that's not to say they couldn't happen as sometimes they do). First, I was the only person in a manually-driven elevator and its driver was black and as I was alighting I said to him "thank you very much sir" and with a great big smile he said "and thank you too sir, not many people are so nice and say that to me these days". I've never forgotten the encounter.
The other example is some years back I was traveling around California in a minivan with about a half dozen of my compatriots after having been to a computer conference and we were in Redwood City and had to refuel. At the servics station we were served by a local who asked where we were from and we told him. He then went into a tirade that I'll never forget which I won't repeat in full here to the effect "you're fucking lucky that down there you don't have any of those… (you can guess the rest), and that was only a small part of his outrageous and vitriolic tirade. It wasn't just his tirade that so surprised me but that he was so open to strangers who he'd never met previously. BTW, that exchange was well after the 1960s civil rights stuff—mid 1980s in fact.
Despite me agreeing with your quote, as I said I suppose I've never been fully reconciled to or able to get my head around why the US continues to cycle over these issues with such intensity for so long. One would have thought that after 150+ years things would have settled down much more than they actually have. That said, I accept that discrimination and racism never seem to fully go away no matter where one is, although nowadays in many places it's softer and more nuanced that it once was.
My position is pretty straightforward, that is I've found there's a small percentage of bastards in every country and racial group on the planet (certainly in ones where I've been for some length of time to know) but almost without exception most people with whom I've met have been kind and nice to me. I always try to be nice to those who I meet and deal with and again—almost without exception—they reciprocate similarly—no matter who they are and where they come from.
That's the rough outline, I'd like to develop that discussion further and make specific comments on the issues and instances you've mentioned. Trouble is, to make my position clear and not be misinterpreted and or misunderstood would take some considerable effort and lots of text not to mention the large amount of time involved—and anyway it'd be too much for a HN post.
One thing I've learned online—and HN is no exception (albeit it better than most)—no matter how neutral or impartial one is when discussing these matters at any reasonable depth it's almost impossible not to upset some people, they'll often take great umbrage at the slightest provocation and or at the most innocuous comment for reasons I find unfathomable.
Once I was taught formal argument and debating, they've structure and people can (mostly) say what they want without fisticuffs breaking out. Unfortunately, this art of debating propositions in an orderly manner on the web is almost unheard of. It's why I usually steer clear of such topics.