Is racism still an issue in this country?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

Poll question: Is racism still an issue in this country?

[iconoclastic cat]

1. I honestly can't see how anyone could say that it's not an issue.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

2. Of course!

I just wanted to yell - so I started a poll!

:)

[liberalnurse]

3. Yes, between the

Democratic Race and the Republican Race........

[Fovea]

4. It is often cloaked in other rhetoric

but if you don't think it is, look at the Republican Senate race.

However, Race is only one element of the culture war.
Currently reading 'What's the matter with Kansas'... and while the author does not really mention race so far, he is right on the social anti intellectualism and shadenfruede of the right.

[AmerDem]

5. answer to your question

just look at the shrub, his repuke party and the southern inbred FAUX News watchers he calls his base!

[2Design]

6. Yes whites continue to be discriminated against for jobs

they are qualified for and financial aid and other issues. There are lots of scholarships for minorities and even teaching assignments now are aimed toward minorities.

[ProfLefty]

10. Not Discrimination.

Affirmative action conducted lawfully in order to hopefully detoxify a society poisoned by the ill effects of its racist past and present does not in itself constitute discrimination. It is in fact a rather mild palliative effort at erasing inequities created over very long periods of time and reversing the atmosphere of institutional racism created by our society's history of tacitly accepting or winking at those inequities. No matter how confused or disrupted your life may be and regardless of how much you would like to lay the blame for that disarray on affirmative action or "reverse racism" what little actual inequity you perceive is miniscule when compared to the effects of our nation's history of racism, slavery and its legacy of prejudice and hatred upon those citizens of our country who are African American.

[Misunderestimator]

11. Bullshit.

Give me some examples of how whites are discriminated against for being white. Underprivileged white people have many opportunities for scholarships, as do underprivileged black people.

As for teaching assignments... :wtf: There is a SHORTAGE of teachers in this country nearly everywhere. I would love to hear of a white person being turned down for a teaching assignment that is instead given to a (and this is important.... LESS QUALIFIED) black person. Please do expand.

[Nikia]

12. Th real world opened me to looking at things from another direction

There seem to be all these idealistic people who think that most jobs are given to the most qualified person.
Most jobs are given to someone who the hiring manager personally knows. This person is not necessarily the most qualified. Hiring people that the hiring manager knows is already a type of discrimination. If you don't know people who are in the position to hire, you have a disadvantage in the job market. In the recent past, there were no hiring managers of color in most major companies and segregation was the rule. There are presently a few more hiring managers of color and segregation still happens socially.
Many people hold assumptions about people of different races. For example, let's say a factory is hiring 10 people for a job that requires learning some technical skills. The skills are specific to their machinery and the new hires will have to go through a few months of on the job training before they can run the machines on their own. If the person doing the hiring and interviewing assumes that blacks are not as competent as whites or less willing to learn a complicated process, the black applicants will be less likely to be hired for those jobs.
Some companies did make discrimination their policy in the recent past or allow their work environment to be unfriendly to people of different races (or female for that matter). As a result, even if their managment was able to become completely non biased, people of color might not want to work at those companies as much as they would want to work at more diversity friendly companies. It might help to hire a few people of color if they are qualified and do happen to apply in order to encourage diversity.
It is an advantage to have some service providers like hospitals and police departments to be diverse. I am not saying that people should be served by only people of their own race or background, but it can be helpful, especially with immigrant communities or when there have been problems with race relations in the past.
As far as higher education, higher education, especially from a good college, is a bigger assett to minorities and people from poor backgrounds than it is for upper and upper middle class whites. A college education is a credential that does help establish competence and it also allows students to make contacts with people who could help them with their career. Financial aid is available to people of all races and many selective colleges will read and offer preferential treatment to the poor white student who writes an essay about financial hardship in rural West Virginia.
Just some thoughts.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

14. Hahahahaha - I love that one! Funny stuff!!!

:thumbsup:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Gosh, don't you wish you were black and living in the ghetto?

According to your analysis, those durn minorities have it pretty good.

[Vladimir]

22. You know what is hilarious?

I have been discriminated against a lot in my life - because of my nationality, my ethnicity, my family's financial position. There is one thing though, that I have never ever been discriminated against because of. Guess what it is?

[ulysses]

29. the horror of it all,

that after all the years of American history during which scholarships, teaching jobs and pretty much the whole wagonload of things one might use to get ahead in life were aimed exclusively at white folks, some of these might be aimed at someone else.

I'm sorry, but we've still got it pretty damned good by comparison, affirmative action notwithstanding.

[Massacure]

7. yes, there is still racism

I notice it in my parents and grandparents. It pisses me off, but there isn't much that I can do about it.

[Nikia]

8. It is a social issue in most of the country

There may be some happy racially diverse neighborhoods and companies where race is a non issue. I am happy for all of you that live and work in such places, but don't be ignorant about how most of the country is. Most of the country is still segregated socially. Most people make assumptions when they see people of different races. Most people feel uncomfortable if they are "outnumbered" if they did not grow up in that situation.
Read the article in the Wisconsin forum about people in a Milwaukee suburb worried about building a Best Buy there while closing one where many blacks currently shop for an example about how racism is still an issue.

[Selwynn]

9. The only people saying no (in society) are white people.

[cheezus]

13. Edwards was in ND and talked about race

But he seemed clueless that our primary (pretty much ONLY) minority is native. As a student at UND (home of the "Fighting Sioux"), I've seen plenty of racism firsthand.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Yes. Racism is alive and prospering.

Just look at some of the threads regarding "illegal" immigrants right here on DU. The justification used by some here for the occupation of Iraq that Iraqis are too uncivilized to deal with their own country.

Not to mention the more obvious allusions by the RW'ers to "ragheads", "camel jockeys", etc. Or, the veiled references to the poor (re: blacks and hispanics) contained in the No (white)Child Left Behind nonsense. The attacks on Affirmative Action because it's "unfair to whites".

Anyone who thinks that racism isn't an issue in this country has to be willfully ignorant or racist.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

17. It's just more hidden and "genteel" - which makes it harder to stop.

You can't fix a problem that you don't even know is there. A HUGE percent of the black population says there's a problem but overall we just "scoff" at them and treat them like they're "crazy" whiners.

Americans are all "nice and cozy" in the belief that we have everything fixed....

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. Yeah, nice and cozy. As long as "they" don't move next door.

Or, want to marry into the family. Or, are hired through affirmative action. Or, if there are too many of "them" at "our" schools. Or, if they have bi-lingual education. etc, etc.

As long as the underclass are kept at a safe distance, we lordly whites can point at "all the progess we've made" and complain about "them".

[sendero]

19. Yes....

... it's alive and well.

In fact, I have an unpleasant task to deal with in the not too distant future.

I'm starting a new line of work, and will be working with a new partner to do so. This guy is from the middle east. I like him, he's smart and hardworking, and willing to teach me a lot.

But he is fond of using the N word, and makes racist comments way too often. He apparently does not know I have a black stepson, perhaps if he did he'd put a lid on it.

At some point I have going to have to confront him and ask him to stop talking like that around me. The guy's a bit of a hothead, but I think if I approach it right I can get him to stop. But I have no illusions about changing his heart on the matter, I just want him to stop saying N near me. It's kind of funny, half the people in America would just as soon call him "towel...." or "sand n...." - those people make me sick too. But it seems like everyone has to have someone to look down on. :(

[Nikia]

20. Go ahead and tell him

You can even be nice and polite and say "My step son is black and that word offends me."
The alternative is being offended.
The other alternative is not being nice and polite, but it seems that you have reason to not want to take that approach.

[H2O Man]

21. Yes

even within the democratic party.

[Vladimir]

23. It is an issue in every country n/t

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

25. Agreed - your comments about Venezuela in regards to this matter

are succinct and correct!

:thumbsup:

[Vladimir]

27. The education I have recieved,

largely thanks to well informed and helpful people here at DU, about Venezuela has been of the utmost quality...

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

28. Definately - folks like JudyLin, AP, the Magistrate and others

Including yourself - have made all the difference to me

[Nimrod]

24. Racism will always be an issue

We have ye olde "melting pot", but no idea how to get along with each other. It's an issue in every country, ours is just glaringly obvious because we live here and have a diverse population. Homo Sapiens is an inherently xenophobic and cowardly species unlikely to evolve anytime soon.

I'm very aware the majority will disagree with me, but them's be my two cents.

[LWolf]

26. absolutely

We are still divided by color. In my experience, even the most racially open of us still harbor vestiges of racism somewhere; you can intellectually move on without having evolved emotionally or socially.

We are also deeply divided along class lines, and those divisions support racial divisions at this point.

[Terran]

30. It's an issue at DU

so yes, it's clearly an issue for the country. We've made some progress--significant progress--in the past 40 years, but it will take centuries, IMO, before it's no olonger an issue.