Good News in Race Relations

It has been my contention that we no longer need "Affirmative Action" and "Equal Hiring" laws because the attitudes of people toward race have changed in the past 30 years. Even though I live in the Deep South and we are probably the farthest behind in this area, my experience has been that racism is a thing of the past.

Many people say they are impressed that we chose to adopt bi-racial children. We don't see it as any big thing because our attitude toward "race" is that it does not exist. There is no such thing as race in our world. Sure, there is different skin colors...but there are different hair colors, eye colors, body types, etc. "So what? Who cares?" has been our attitude.

Anyway, a recent poll shows that 95% of Americans aged 18-29 see no problem with interracial dating. This shows the complete transformation of public opinion in 30 years of the attitudes of people toward race relations. This means that Mihaela and Noah will not encounter the problems that so many people predict for them as bi-racial children raised by white parents (they will have problems, but they won't be as wide-spread as people tend to think).

Of course, this does not mean our so-called "race" problems are fixed in America. However, it is important to distinguish between "racism," "bigotry," and "prejudice." These are three words that get bantered about freely by the "race warlords" and they treat all three words as synonyms. This is not the case though. All three words mean something different.

• Racism is the belief that a certain race of people is genetically superior to all others. This, of course, is just plain wrong. This would be like believing that blond hair, blue-eyed people are better than bald, brown-eyed people. It is ludicrous to even think about. Science and societal influences have pretty much defeated this kind of thinking in the modern American mind. Sure, there are still pockets of people that believe this...but they are ridiculed and neglected by the public at large.

• Bigotry is being intolerantly devoted to one's own opinions and beliefs. Notice, this is not a blind, basic fundamental belief in genetic superiority. Rather, this is the idea that my ways and my culture is better than yours and then using force to impose my ideas on you. The main evidence of bigotry is when you deny others the same rights that you claim for yourself. Many people in the south 40 years ago were not racist (i.e., they did not believe they were genetically superior to other races) but were bigots in that they denied minorities the right to vote, use public facilities, etc.; all the while claiming those rights for themselves. Bigotry exists outside the realms of race relations. You can have Environmental Bigots, Vegetarian Bigots, Religious Bigots, Intellectual Bigots, etc... These are people who believe that anyone who does not believe/act they way the do is evil. Now, of course rational people understand that not everyone is going to agree on everything.

• Prejudice is the making assumptions about what the future actions of a group of people might be based on past experiences. Everyone does this all the time. I believe that if I drop a pen then it will fall to the floor. I am pre-judging the behavior of the pen based on my past experiences. When I go to Wal-Mart, I will by-pass a short line with a girl with a top-knot pony tail and long, manicured, decorated fingernails running the register and instead find a little bit longer line with an older lady with white hair because my past experiences have taught me that the first person tends to be rude, have bad customer service skills, and doesn't want to be bothered while the latter person is usually polite and kind. I will go through the line of old black woman before going through the line of an old white woman because my past experience has taught me that she will (more than likely) be friendlier. This is prejudicial of me. How dare I make decisions of individuals based on past experiences, right? If this is the case then we need to make a law that disbands every research agency and polling company. They look at demographics (age, race, sex) all the time to figure out how people of certain demographics will react. It is almost a law among them that people of similar demographics will behave the same way. Is this racist of them? Sexist? Ageist? No, they are not saying one group is genetically superior to another. Are they bigots? No, they are not denying these people any rights. The worst that can be said is that these kinds of companies are prejudicial because they thing they can predict the future actions based on past experience. Many of us would call this common sense. Don't we have a saying, "Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me." We consider it part of maturity to learn from the past to predict the future.

While racism is a thing of the past, bigotry and prejudice still abound. I think in the next generation though we will pretty much rid ourselves of blatant racial bigotry (religious bigotry will never go away, although if there is one area that it should it would be there...but that is a post for another day). However, we will never be rid of racial prejudice because it is part of the maturation process. Wise people, though, are able to distinguish their prejudices of groups and rise above them when they are dealing with individuals.

We are moving toward a color blind society. Studies like the one mentioned above show it. Most of the people I know and deal with are color blind. We deal with individuals, not groups.