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  1. Not giving up on trying, Davin, I honestly think that for many hard-right wing people, we just have to literally wait until they die before the world will be rid of them. The southern states (in this case, california) twists and breeds its own perspective, and gathers its own momentum like it is its own little world – I don’t think any effort would ever make any difference down there.
    Much of the southern United States’ social, legislative and judicial structures are founded upon wealthy white people enslaving blacks and other visible minorities, and as most of the US straightens itself out, those whose families were based upon elitism are finding themselves increasingly segregated. As a result, they are afraid of the change, because it makes them feel like the minority; that their beliefs are not being recognized, that they are being marginalized. They feel they need to fight for what is/was right for them, which is/was racial superiority.
    I am not a mean person, but I simply can’t handle exclamatory racists.

  2. Something else I find off is the fact that they aren’t really good singers. I know they’re young, but they aren’t special or anything.

  3. “I’m just giving them my opinion” — the mom’s doing a lot more than that by homeschooling them and reinforcing her sorry excuse for a viewpoint.
    Craig, waiting for them to die off is fine, but if these two girls start families and pull a repeat of their mom’s actions, this’ll take awhile.

  4. Hey Neil, how’s it going!! I see your point.
    Just so you know, I’m not giving up or being irreverent. My point is less of excuse and more of the feeling that there will be less and less of these people as generations pass, because undeniably, even the most hard-line views will moderate somewhat; not because they are taught, but because they are quietly forced into submission. Many quiet voices have greater impact than few loud ones (consider the Dhali Lama). The more these people are seen to be ridiculous and laughable, the more they will bend under the pressure of humility. Not because they were forced. It’s scary right now because each group believes in themselves so completely – just as you and I think it’s bullshit, so do they think we are from an opposite perspective. Ultimately, this has to settle down because I think no matter what, a global society forms and shapes individuals regardless of their family or immediate community cultures.
    Africans weren’t considered ‘people’ at the beginning of the 1900’s (and in America up until the 50’s). For us nowadays, this seems incomprehensible. Even archaic. I don’t think there was a massive summer camp where whites were taught differently, rather day after day after day they found themselves to be considered more and more ridiculous. They weren’t made to be wrong, they were made to be irrelevant.
    It’s BS now, and there will be more BS to come, but inevitably, within a few decades (and within our lifetimes) we will see this issue dilute itself into (hopefully) irrelevancy.
    This is, obviously, easy for me to say, however. I lack significant perspective.

  5. I don’t know, you get white supremacists almost everywhere. Don’t think there aren’t any in Canada – because there are – and there are even some in enlightened parts of the world like Sweden, and places that should know better, like Germany. They’re bad, and they’ll probably be around for a long time. Don’t blame California, or even the US.
    The truly scary thing is how people sometimes don’t even notice that prevailing social attitudes are racist. Not many people think that it’s overt racism or sexism that is holding back black people and women in the US any more. But what is left when you fix up these problems is something much more difficult to eliminate.

  6. I agree with Joke and before we start bashing Americans and their history of racism, let’s take a look at ourselves in the mirror. Canadian racism is fully functional. Look at the way society treats First Nations peoples, not to mention Indo-Canadians, African-Canadians, Asian-Canadians, and that is only a few. Hey Craig, don’t you find it interesting that Calgary, a city of nearly a million in population, has very few visible minorities? Enough of my rants. Thanks for the opportunity Dav.

  7. (Davin, sorry for dragging this on here, but thank you for allowing this discussion)
    Kev, I’m sure you and I could have a great conversation about this in person, and my words are often misinterpreted over the internet. Perhaps we can have a chat soon. I think we are in agreement about this, and I’d rather not obliterate Davin’s bandwidth with an essayed reply.

  8. What an interesting conversation!
    It’s unfortunately true… racism is alive and well (?) right here, right now. The spectrum is vast… from neo-nazi hate groups (yes, they exist on Vancouver Island, scary I know) to everyday occurences that are extremely subtle and sometimes hard to notice (because racism is so woven into our society).
    However, conversations like this cause us to become more aware and start challenging ourselves and others. We can then begin looking at the world differently… and I think that’s when things will start changing.

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