We Do Not Want Equality

Interesting idea. I am from the U.S....it's true that generations ago, my family came from Europe (mostly Germany) but we don't consider ourselves German. We're just Americans. And since people make a distinction, we are white Americans. If I didn't have friends who were members of different racial groups growing up, I wouldn't have known that I had white skin. If I didn't have a video of my great-grandmother speaking German, I wouldn't have known that we were German, either. I think that part of this emphasis on race, color, gender, and faith comes from tradition--or rather, the struggle to figure out what is our tradition! Many people I know are first or second generation Americans. They still have family in other countries, speak different languages, and are figuring out what aspects of their native country's culture they will hold on to as they start families here. Nobody wants to lose their history, and some people want to keep their connection to the old country alive in order to eventually go back and improve the situation there. I used to feel jealous of the rich cultural traditions that many of my friends had. Since American culture is exported so broadly, it has come to feel kind of bland and the things that have not been exported seem kind of silly. I think that what makes me American is the way that I approach relationships, time, change, etc. Those are hard things to teach kids about explicitly.

On this, I feel like you're a kid going to their parents, asking why they get to have Mother's Day and Father's Day, and why they don't get any... where their parents have to come back and tell them, "Because Every day is Kid's Day!" It's not multiculturalism to have everyone in England to feel more British. Every group of people should be admired for sticking to their heritage, and being proud enough to show off who they are, especially when they're being held back in the minority. And it's not like people who aren't from that culture aren't allowed to participate. You can go out to the Chinese New Year ceremonies, or the gay pride parade, or participate in Ramadan, or do whatever it is you'd like. These kinds of things aren't saying that they want to cut off others, they want to stand up for their heritage. And it's not like you won't be doing the same. What about things like St Patrick's Day? Easter Weekend? The Twelfth? St. Andrew's Day? Or even Christmas? These are all celebrations based around your heritage, so wouldn't it be nicer to let people from other backgrounds celebrate their own, too? And besides, out in Britain, every day is British Day!

If I remember History we had a problem with the Irish and being Irish was a bad thing. Now once a year all Americans are Irish and wear green. Slowly them became Americans and then there was the Italians and you did not want to be seen with one, but we slowly began to like their food and then there was the Chinese but again we like their take out. I once read an editorial on when you become a Frenchman it takes about 3-4 generations. The writer went on to talk when do you become an American and his answer was when you learn to speak English. The point is that you can never make things equal or fair, you can only see that everyone has the same opportunity and what decisions they make in life determine their success or failure. There are many cases of people failing and working hard to over come it while others just give up.

being different does not mean inequality. being in a group or belonging to a group does not mean that one group is unequal. you mistakenly attributes our differences from being unequal. there might be some truth in that, but that is not the whole truth of it. we will always be different, but we can aspire and hope for equality in law and life.

The only way to lessen the effects of angry racism is to educate all the different groups within a country, not just the majority group. All peoples must desire better relations. This is not happening in any country that I know of. It has been a very long time since White Americans have been blatantly racist. They are however constantly accused of it. When they voted for hussein obama, they were called racists who were trying to deny their racism. The whole time he has been in office, he and his comrads have pulled the race card. Now that he gleaned a second term, whites are still being called racists even though more of them voted for him than the minorities. Hispanics scream racism when they are deported for crossing into America illegally. If a white American went to mexico, central america, or south america and demanded welfare, food stamps, free medical, a place to live, and the right to stay indefinitely, they would be arrested and thrown in jail indefinitely. By the way, when did hispanic become a race? They are not a separate race...they actually belong to one of the original 5 races. I think that all peoples should respect each others customs. I think that it is a great idea to teach your children and grandchildren your family customs...But, when you move to another country, you must learn the language of said country, its laws, and its customs and honor all of them. You cannot enter another country and then expect them to honor your customs, beliefs and laws to the exclusion of their own. This is ludicrous, but this is being done by many immigrants, both legal and illegal. I think that a persons heritage is very important. It falls under the category of honoring ones ancestors. One should never forget ones roots, but not to the exclusion of everything else. One should also be proud of ones ancestry, heritage, and family customs. Many are tied to religious beliefs etc. and should be honored.

I don't give a darn about equality. There's no such thing. It's not bad it's the way things are; once in a while the scale is balanced and then for some reason things change and either side has most of the burden. People are arguing themselves silly over it. We are all different and will never be equals.

There are a mix of ideas here, and I feel you are partly right but also partly wrong. For instance, the 'Black Lawyers Association' have been made to look foolish over the Chelsea Football Club affair. Anyone with an ounce of impartiality could see that the Mark Clattenberg complaint was going nowhere. This leaves you thinking 'Why do we have a Black Lawyers Association whereas to have a White Lawyers Association would be unthinkable...'. I think this probably is the crux of your argument and I agree with the sentiments, but its not that simple. In the not-so-distant past, I think it is fair to say that black people experienced discrimination fairly widely in society, and hence groups began to help redress the balance. It becomes a problem when we get to the stage of introducing 'positive discrimination' which emerged in about the 80's and 90's. However by and large I think the UK is still a good example of an integrated society. The contrast with the US is fairly acute - the ghetto culture is far more widely seen in the US, national and cultural identity is more important in this relatively 'new' country. I sometimes laugh at particularly arrogant White Americans who say 'Mexicans should learn the language when they some to the US' and I wonder which of the native languages of the US they are talking about... Sioux maybe? I also particularly abhor the thinking that came up with the idea that if you great grandparents were black, that makes you black... that's just crazy logic. You could be 15 parts white to 1 part black and be identified by society as 'black', but no-one seemed to see that being 15 parts black and 1 part white was the reverse and yet would still be 'black'! I think people should be able to celebrate their heritage without having to worry about the labels that society wants to give them. Yet at the same time, where there is discrimination, there should be movements to help redress the balance. One day we will all be olive-skinned, and the whole idea of race will be a mystery, it won't happen in my day, but the sooner people see that this is the case, the less hung up they will be... For the record, I am white anglo-saxon traceable to the doomsday book, I am happy with my identity, I don't think I am in any way superior to any other culture, and would not be in the slightest bit worried to find a relative in my family tree who was a different colour or race. Did you see that story about the right wing anti-semetic politician who discovered his grandma was a Jew? (I think it was in Poland??). He tried to keep it quiet and then resigned his position - that is one of the saddest things I have heard for years. I think he is now trying to come to terms with his own ridiculous prejudice..

It is ironic; it's not "equality" at all to separate people for the sake of equality. Here in America, our Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP and special Native American and Women's and Latino divisions and groups and coalitions and on and on -- it does nothing but separate people. I agree that it only becomes an issue when people in charge make it an issue by separating everyone. I've probably told a version of this story a dozen times on myLot, but as kids going to school, we all got along -- black and white and Asian and whatever. But we were systematically taught that white = slave owners, black = oppressed, anything minority = second-class, and so on and so forth. Kids started to feel as if they should stick to their own, and so we did as we got older. The people who do this--or who allow it to happen, more accurately--aren't interested in "equality." They're more concerned with not upsetting minority groups pushing to have their own way of doing things. The trouble with this is that, if the minority ever becomes the majority, we get the same issues that the majority brought to the minority in the past. And what the majority is still doing in some awful places around the globe. It's appeasement. Not appeasing minority groups and those who want separate treatment, but rather guilt appeasement. It's about people who feel 1 part guilty, 1 part too cowardly to stand against it, and 1 part too detached to care what it does to society. By allowing people to be separate and have different standards based on race, gender, sexuality, etc, we're basically saying that the evils majorities do are okay. If it's okay to separate at all, it's always okay, regardless of what comes out of it. That's the message it sends.

I agree. Special interest groups get special treatment and ultimately there WILL BE a group at the 'bottom'. As for diversity, I think we should celebrate our differences, not in that it makes one better than another, but that we are all enriched by the differences. I am American. We used to have the melting pot thing down pretty good. You have explained the problems of our modern age very well. It is POLITICIANS who divide us into opposing camps by putting one group's wishes over and above all the others.

I think you got it right there Rob. There is no true equality, at least not here in America. They say America is supposed to be a free country, but in reality it is not. Not everyone here is free to be who they are. Thats why I am a democrat. I believe in a free country and a free world. And a progressive society. But it seems to me that the republicans here are the ones that have a major problem with blacks, asians, gays, etc... They do not like anyone that is not just like them. Religious nuts, white and generic pinheads. They do remind me a lot of Hitlers regime. I agree that separating certain groups and giving them rights only as a group is not fixing the problem of equality. I agree, if you're born in any country, thats who you are. My family originally came from Italy, but I have no clue about Italy. I was born here in america so I am american. Morgan Freeman is right, he is not an african american. He is american. Nice!!!