Pertaining to the US, what is your opinion of race relations? From your experience, how do you percieve them to be? How does this perception affect your daily life?

Mr Bass thinks that racism is just more covert than what it was during the Jim Crow era and believes a lot of people are in denial about racism. People seem to have underestimated the true full effect of white supremacy in America. People need to be more open about what goes on in their mind, Mr Bass would rather deal with an overt hate spewing racist than deal with one who smiles in his face and discriminates behind his back

I agree with your last sentence, but not the rest. I don't think it's nearly as bad as those who make a leaving ensuring it's kept on the front page would have you believe.

The hatemongers NEED someone else to blame for their own failures. So long as they exist, and can't admit their failures are their own fault, racism will exist. So will gender bias. So will political hatreds. Especially nowadays, people just refuse to accept the fact that hey, it might JUST be me.

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You can't always be first .... but you CAN be NEXT

I live in one of the the Whitest, poorest, places in America.

The people here are some of America's oldest and fattest populations, too.

Racism is obviously not much of a problem.

Oddly, despite the fact that this is one of the poorest places in the nation, crime isn't really much of a problem, either.

Now, one might be tempted to think that minorities and a high crime rate are somehow inextricably linked, but I think the explanation for crime is much more complex than that.

The expectations of the people here are just different than they are in most of American where I used to live. (New York, PA, FLA, CA, MA, CT)

Despite the fact that the native population here is about as xenophobic (not racist.. xenophobic) as anyplace I've ever been, there's a general live and let live attitude which I think explains some of why people manage to live in peace with each other.

People aren't very ambitious here.

Their expectations are fairly modest, and they expect that life will be a hard row to hoe, hereabouts.

People don't expect to get rich here.

Given their modest expectations, they're not likely to take shortcuts (like crime and aggressive business practices) to get ahead.

Gettin' by seems to be the number one ambition of most people hereabouts.

I can't help but think that living in one of the more beautiful places on earth can't hurt to keep most people fairly easy going, either.

Most of us are armed to the teeth, but there's very little violence.

If you are going to be killed in Maine the odds are that you're going to be killed in a domestic violence situation.

I think we had nine murders in Maine so far this year. Seven of them were domestic violence.

Maybe there just isn't anything worth stealing, here, I can't be sure.

but I do think that it's not just that there are no minorities, I think that all the things I've mentioned, age, race, population density, expectations, familiarity, hell even the weather, all play a part to keep this place what it is.

If this place's population was 98% Black, but Blacks with the same history as the poor Whites here have had, I expect it would be, much like this place, a gentle easy going place to live, too.

How could it be covert? You ever heard of affirmative action? We have racist discrmination de jure in this country. You can't get more overt.

Oh, wait, that doesn't fit into your blame white mentality, where a minorities every failing-- the only reason everyone is not tiger woods or michael jordan, is because bubba's got a confederate flag on the back of his pickup.

Plenty of racism left in the country, all coming predominantly from hypocritical assholes in glass houses, people like you.

Name one place on the planet that's 98 percent black and a "gentle easy going" place to live.

Zimbabwe?

Washington Heights?

Bronx?

South Central?

South Africa?

D.C.?

Wherever blacks are found, problems are found. That's because blacks have the lowest IQ's of any group of humans in the world, save perhaps the aboriginies of Australia. They are programmed by evolution to have quick tempers, tendencies to violence, short time horizons, and a general inability to plan for the future. They are small-brained, alarming-looking human beings who simply cannot maintain or create the civilized cultures of whites or Asians, period.

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The two biggest virtues of our time are "tolerance" and "zero tolerance."

Mr Bass is correct and I posted Racism II which studies it. I see it often and I think in the end if Obama loses it will be because of racism and I know no one wants to hear that as they are all color blind.


Amazon.com: The Culture of Make Believe: Derrick Jensen: Books

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"We have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our students and our schools. We must make sure that people who have the grades, the desire and the will, but not the money, can still get the best education possible." Barack Obama

Indeed. He will lose because of racism. His own and the dumbocratic party's racism.

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Barack Obama -- living proof stupidity cannot be cured and that education merely reinforces it.

When I was younger, talking about race with someone of a different race was just about as taboo as talking about sex or religion. I now live around the corner from where some years back a landlord refused to rent to me because of my race. In my experience race relations have improved greatly. There is still lots of hate around but poor people aren't as easily tricked anymore into fighting each other rather than face the real causes behind economic oppression.