Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: [OT] facism gaining ground in US

[Michael Poole]

Robert Anderson writes:

> You're being willfully ignorant and you know it.  Go into any
> school lunchroom in any school in the United States that has any
> ethnic diversity at all, and you'll instantly see that "tribal"
> differences and "tribal" differentiation are the norm, not some
> foreign hard-to-imagine concept in a fully integrated melting
> pot.  That's just silly.
>
> Are we doing a lot better than declaring war on each other on a
> regular basis?  Most places, yes.  Are we anywhere near being
> blind to such differences?  Of course not.

This is a topic where there's a "damned if you do, damned if you
don't" mentality.  It's wrong to treat members of minority groups in
special ways.  On the other hand, we are encouraged to "celebrate
diversity" -- usually by doing things that highlight the unique
characteristics of minority groups.  We want to be blind to
differences but still remember them, which is somewhere between
undefined and unnatural.

I hope that most Americans (and most citizens of developed countries)
can accept their next-door neighbors as countrymen and treat them
decently even if there is a language barrier.  I think that is the
kind of acceptance and identification that Pierce was talking about,
not an impossible ideal of blindness to differences.

Michael Poole