NOLA & LAVIA - Time out. Go to your corners & sit down. The both of you have been going back and forth for so long I forgot what the hell it was either one of you said 9 f-ing pages ago that spawned this seemingly endless sibling rivalry. I feel like we have to separate you two for 5 minutes.
AONGUS - I can agree to that. See how we were able to meet at a certain level of understanding without taking 9 pages? Get them there.
A few responses I would make would be that yes even in St. Louis (I live in Kansas City) racial discrimination is very much a reality and I wish you had the opportunity to live through a minority's shoes to see it. There's this thing you've probably heard of called the "glass ceiling". I didn't used to think that it existed in the manner in which I had heard so much about until I got into corporate amercia and saw it for myself. So how do I get you to see that it exists. Its kinda like the Matrix...one can not be told about the glass ceiling...
The sad truth is, no matter how Steve Urkel-ish you may come across, there are certain realms where my skin color is not going to permit me in the work place in this country. In 2004, you would be hard pressed to come up with a blatant racial discrimination case such as an employer calling somebody out of their name or something like that. No, that's too easy and too easily detected. Instead, it happens subtly. In most cases, it happens subtly over a span of many years. You may work for 10 years for a company and produce well above your peers and begin to wonder why others who have come in AFTER you have been promoted BEFORE you???
Its really hard to prove. And it has to happen to multiple people within the same company before the courts will recognize enough evidence to grant a class-action suite against the company. But they are very real, Aongus. This stuff happens. Look at Coke about a year or two ago, the just settled a class-action discrimination law suit based on unfair promotion & evaluation practices where Blacks were found to have performed JUST AS WELL IF NOT BETTER than their peers, however they were not promoted as they should have been like their peers were. It cost Coca-Cola $192.5 Million Dollars. I'd say that's pretty real.
Go here for more examples on the reality that we see everyday as minorities:
http://www.counselconsulting.com/mistakes.htmHEADMACHINE - To answer your question...you know I've often wondered what would this nation be like if it truly were color blind??? I don't know that that's what we want necessarily. Because consider what we're asking. We're asking for people to be able to be who they want, yet we are asking for them to not be judged because of it. A blended, monochromatic population would idealy be the solution, but then races would no longer have any identity. If everybody in the nation was of one mixed race population....would we be better off? I think that's the ultimate question. Do we need races? While I don't think its a matter of necessity, the fact remains that people are diverse. We come from many different backgrounds, and as such, if we are to continue living within close proximity of one another, some understanding and acceptance is necessary. We can not close our eyes to other viewpoints and dismiss them simply because WE don't see it like that. Recognize that your view is not the only view (speaking figuratively) and that we have 2 ears and 1 mouth so we should be listening twice as much as we are yacking.
And if all else fails, just go and smack The Choson up side thehead. It will make you feel better.
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