>> I worked in a paper bag factory for two years in Emoryville which is half black that did not hire blacks at all.
>> I was a kid and too stupid to realize how bad that was.
A lot of things happened when you and I were kids that doesn't happen today. To the extent government can do anything about it, it has. Any remnants of that era are isolated. Most people in this country work for businesses that simply have too much to lose to be discriminatory in their hiring. Any indication of systematic discrimination can be the basis of a lawsuit costing the employer thousands if not millions. While some rogue managers may do it, that's why substantial businesses have HR departments.
>> They were mostly from Arkansas.
They, who?
>> Don' t tell me there is no racism. Every single country in Mississippi is against interracial marriage. Today. That is racism dude.
While there is still considerable opposition to interracial marriage in MS and AL, more than half in both states, according to polls, indicate no opposition (and that it should be legal).
The numbers of interracial marriages in the US is VERY, VERY low -- low single digits. This isn't all coming from TINY Mississippi. And in fact, according to polls, 29% of MS residents oppose interracial marriage, while 17% nationwide do. You don't get 17% nationwide without getting some of those big states like CA and NY and IL.
It is important to recognize that many of these beliefs persist during a lifetime based on the environment people were raised in. My parents, and my in-laws, all dead now, were certainly opposed to interracial marriage. They weren't racist; it was just a foreign concept to them, and the reality is those people were going to their graves opposing interracial marriage. Gay marriage would have been totally out of the question.
I would also point out that a large number of blacks have, at some point in their lives, opposed interracial marriage. These are transitions that take entire generations to work through. People have to be reasonable about it, and given where MS is coming from, lagging the national average by about 10 percentage points isn't bad. |
