America is a lot less racist and we should be proud

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Growing up in America I witnessed 1st hand the ugliness of American racism and being from the most hated group in America, Middle Eastern, it was REALLY ugly. Im talking things like regular rednecks brandishing guns at our house, throwing a chopped pig head at our lawn, white Iraq War veterans threatening to rape my sister (I kid you not), fist fights and street fights with racist white kids at school (I won most but I lost some since I was at a size disadvantage even with martial arts), much more vociferous and shameless demonization of minority groups from TV pundits, social media was completely unregulated so hate was everywhere, and even on this forum there was a lot of racism. All of that sucked and there were many moments either me or family members were almost killed.

Now though America has made so much progress 90% of the stuff I grew up witnessing is gone and no longer present.

I think the dream of a completely post racial society is upon us and that give it 10 or 20 more years racism will be gone.

Any thoughts? I dont see why not. I mean ever since the Civil Rights movement racism has been on the steady decline, and if we look at the 2020 protests as its own civil rights and racial reckoning what's there to suppose this won't pay off in eliminating racism down the line?

The old adage of racism being an inseparable part of human nature is becoming less true by the day

Yay progress I guess.

All I can say is, I hope you're right that American racism is truly on its way out.

Unfortunately I suspect that the more subtle forms of institutionalized anti-black racism (e.g. in the real estate business) will stick around for at least another couple of generations.

I also suspect that the white nationalist movement, including neo-Nazis, will get a lot stronger in the near future before finally, hopefully, going away for good.

I'm very glad to hear that things have gotten better for Arab-Americans at least.

One reason for this, I would guess, is that 9/11 is no longer a recent memory. Alas a lot of folks jumped to ridiculous conclusions about Muslims in general, Arabs in general, and turban-wearers in general (even Sikhs!) in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 30 May 2021, 8:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

For racism to go away, then *fear of others* needs to go away.

I don't think that will happen.

It's good if that's how it is, but have you wondered why racism has lessened? Are Americans in general less racist now than they were 20 years ago, or does the fear of being shamed and held responsible for practicing visible racism causing racists to keep low profile? I think that kind of fear plays a part in this, even though some people actually do overcome racist attitudes. But of course, there's also the fact that kids raised today will get a more racism judging model from the society around them than the kids from twenty years ago, so even racist parents are less likely to raise another generation of racists.

I think this might be a bit too optimistic. Sure, down right hate crimes motivated by racism might become nonexistent by then, but smaller forms of practicing racism that are harder to prove will likely persist, like companies not wanting to hire from a certain race as much as they would from another, a little longer.



Good point. I mean, some of the adults today weren't even born yet when that happened, so it makes sense.

Guessing China will become more important in the next decades and more rivalry with the US is likely, the propaganda will increase.
My guess is anti-chinese sentiments will grow.

In 2003 President G. W. Bush, possibly being manipulated by his Vice President Dick Cheney, began a long, bloody, expensive conflict in which the enemy was almost exclusively Arabic-speaking Muslims. Before this, we were at war with predominately Pashtun enemies but Americans really don't know very much about those people or the geographic area where they live. All these wars put together became collectively known as the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and there was a lot of peer pressure among Americans to show visible support. Since then, Americans have for the most part become disenchanted with that whole phenomenon but there has a been a curious lack of public expression about that disenchantment. As a rule, when a Republican President initiates any sort of military operation, Americans are expected to put aside their differences and stand behind that President's decision. I am not exaggerating about the Republican part of this. Try to think of one example where a Democrat President initiated any sort of military operation and got that sort of public support.

Well when you're literally at war with any sort of ethnic group, be it the Germans, the Japanese, the Vietnamese, etc. then that group and its culture become fair game for public acts of animosity. The fact is, war against Arabs of any sort e.g. Libyan, Iraqi, etc. is largely in the past and Americans really choose to forget it, so it's no question blatant acts of violence against them are now less common.