[ExI] are we not just one race, the human race?

[Olga Bourlin]

From: "MB" <mbb386 at main.nc.us>
To: "ExI chat list" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 2:01 PM

> Lee wrote:
>>
>> About a century ago, half of what you and I want really was
>> true!  Everyone who'd emigrated there had the half that said
>> "I am an American".  Especially the Italians.  When the statue
>> of liberty came into view, they'd start cheering, and practically
>> would not stop cheering until they got through Ellis Island, at
>> which point they'd proudly proclaim, "Now *I* am an
>> AMERICAN!"

A century ago when the experiences of newly arrived immigrants and the 
dangers posed to American consumers inspired Sinclair Lewis to write The 
Jungle?  When lynchings were in flower?  When we had segregated military 
forces?  When we had "miscegenation" laws?  Are you people daft ... or what?

And (about 50 years later), when all was nice and perfect in the 1950s? 
(except for the fact that some American CITIZENS couldn't go to certain 
restaurants, use certain drinking fountains, swim in certain pools, go to 
certain schools, sit in certain places on busses ...)

MB: > Ah - I recall back in the 1950s coming in from Europe - by boat - and 
seeing The
> Lady standing in the harbor. It brought tears to my eyes, and to this day 
> that
> memory will do so. I was young, and America was perfect.
>
> When we disembarked in Hoboken I was horrified. It was the dirtiest 
> filthiest place
> I'd about ever seen and the people I saw were loud and rough and rude.

However, even if Hoboken were the most beautiful and cleanest place you'd 
ever seen, and even if Hoboken were populated with the kindest and most 
courteous citizens known to humankind ... America in the 1950s had one 
cancerous eye (de jure segregation in the South), and one black one (de 
facto segregation just about everywhere else).

All right, Spike :) ... I am done talking about this subject except to say 
that the white privilege viewpoint seems to be more recalcitrant that I 
thought.  I give up.

(But for those of you who may be interested in investigating  - instead of 
writing off certain citizens in USAmerica, as if they and their experiences 
didn't exist - I would recommend the book "Why Are All the Black Kids 
Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?"  And maybe also: "Afraid of the Dark," 
by Jim Myers.)

Over and out,
Olga