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Something that made me question the U.S.A.

JOEJOEJOEJOEJOEJOE Posts: 10,619
edited February 2008 in A Moving Train
Last night, I saw some footage of the South in the 1960s. I had obviously seen such scenes in the past, but the older I get, the more it effects me.

How on earth did people see fit to insist on separate drinking fountains, restrooms, schools and lunch counters for "colored" people?

Why did it take so long to give everyone the right to vote?

I know that, even as we speak, there are many atrocities committed around the world, but to ponder how some of our citizens were treated barely 40 years ago is very frustrating to me.
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Comments

  • PJamGrunge10PJamGrunge10 California Posts: 596
    It is very weird to think how short of a time ago segregation was in place... I can't really understand it either.
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  • macgyver06macgyver06 Posts: 2,500
    PJamGrunge10 wrote:
    It is very weird to think how short of a time ago segregation was in place... I can't really understand it either.


    i can understand it...

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  • hrd2imgnhrd2imgn Southwest Burbs of Chicago Posts: 4,899
    that a country that calls itself the moral authority of the world, one that promotes freedom and liberty.....

    just 40 years ago had segregated schools, and PUBLIC places.

    We have a lot to be proud of in America, and a lot to be ashamed of, but at least we eventaully snap out of it unlike some other countries.
  • ByrnzieByrnzie Posts: 21,037
    hrd2imgn wrote:
    that a country that calls itself the moral authority of the world, one that promotes freedom and liberty.....

    just 40 years ago had segregated schools, and PUBLIC places.

    We have a lot to be proud of in America, and a lot to be ashamed of, but at least we eventaully snap out of it unlike some other countries.

    It wasn't a case of you - i.e, 'the white's' - snapping out of it'. Rather, it was a case of coloured people standing up for themselves abd fighting a long fight for their rights. The civil rights movement didn't succeed over night.
  • MasterFramerMasterFramer Posts: 2,268
    JOEJOEJOE wrote:
    Last night, I saw some footage of the South in the 1960s. I had obviously seen such scenes in the past, but the older I get, the more it effects me.

    How on earth did people see fit to insist on separate drinking fountains, restrooms, schools and lunch counters for "colored" people?

    Why did it take so long to give everyone the right to vote?

    I know that, even as we speak, there are many atrocities committed around the world, but to ponder how some of our citizens were treated barely 40 years ago is very frustrating to me.

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  • spongersponger Posts: 3,159
    I don't see why it has to be a question concerning the USA per se. Racism is human nature and it's been around probably since the time people gained the ability to decipher between races.

    The southern lifestyle was built on the backs of slaves, and those slaves represented a lower class of human being. Were it not for the power that we all possess to view one another through a looking glass of our design, it would not be possible to stomach some of the things that we witness on a daily basis being enacted upon people all around us.

    In psych speak, it's known as "distancing." When we see other people falling victim to unfavorable circumstances, we immediately begin distances ourselves from those people by rationalizing their situation as being somehow befitting of those people.

    Probably the most widely promulgated example of this is religious indignation. Throughout history, it was easy for people of one religion to view people of another religion as "inferior" for whatever reasons.

    So, as blacks were put into slavery, a common rationalization for their horrid conditions may have been that they were godless heathens among other things.

    A culture built on that mindset then took foothold over generation after generation of southern whites until it became practically permanently ingrained.

    Of course, religion and southern states aren't the only examples of this characteristic of human nature. They are just obvious extremes that make it easy to highlight the fundamentals.

    According to the theory of implicit association, every single one of us harbors racism or other judgmental perceptions of some sort, which are kept in check by the current liberal social norms.

    Take the test and see for yourselves what a bunch of racist pigs we all are.

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  • My3rdEyeMy3rdEye Posts: 927
    We're still segregated. The only difference is you don't see signs over bathrooms and water fountains anymore. Its less of an institution and more of a state of mind.
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