Quote:
Originally Posted by The Batlord
That's because there isn't a profound issue like slavery or segregation to confront. Police brutality and racial profiling suck, but they don't affect the lives of black people to such a fundamental extent as slavery and segregation did. Just like how there isn't a huge feminist movement anymore now that women can vote and aren't compelled by society into the role of mother and homemaker.
|
well, i'm not sure about that. i mean you could likewise say that segregation wasn't that big of a deal compared to slavery, but instead you chose to lump them together. there have been varying degrees of oppression or racial tension etc over the course of american history. things have gotten better, i would say, but that's not to say the black community doesn't still have issues to deal with.
but a key difference between say slavery or segregation and racial profiling is that you could fix slavery and segregation using state force and legislation. you could simply make it illegal to practice these forms of oppression. with police brutality/racism it's a bit more complex than that. police brutality is already illegal. really the only way to address these more modern racial issues is to change the way people think/act in a way that i don't think can be easily legislated. at least i don't have any ideas on how you'd improve the situation through legislation. really the only way to stamp out something like racism is through social engineering. which the state already attempts to do to some degree. but basically we live in a country with a long history of racial strife and tension and so it's not that surprising that 50 or so years after we decided to promote black people from second class citizen status we're still dealing with residual racial strife and tension. this problem won't go away for at least a few generations, i would guess.