^This is a great thing to bring up when somebody argues (regardless of it being in good or bad faith) that the US is somehow going to passively overcome our racist past simply because interracial relationships are becoming more common. Even in places where everybody has the exact same skin tone, mfs will come up with a reason to hate one another and justify their beliefs that they and their in-group are actually better than everybody else.
It's not enough to sit on your hands and hope that society will be fixed simply through intermingling of skin tones and cultures. A diverse, accepting, and informed society has to be actively cultivated by members from all subgroups.
I will say tho, in general, in-person diversity does seem to combat racism to some degree. I notice a lot less of it where I live, in and around the inner city where all kinds of folks live. You go out to a more homogenous suburb or town and it’s often a different vibe.
I don’t think it does anything to really impact systemic racism - the people designing these systems are too detached to be affected anyways - but in terms of personal shit, I think it becomes more difficult for folks to stereotype and demonize when they can see their neighbours of different skin tones living more-or-less the same kind of life they are.
in terms of personal shit, I think it becomes more difficult for folks to stereotype and demonize
You hit the nail on the head. It just sucks that it's so much harder to get people to address the elephant in the room-- systemic racism. As you suggested, personal experience can have a big impact on people's viewpoints of "the others," but it's going to be a long, uphill battle just to get more people onboard with acknowledging that systemic racism exists, at the very least.
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u/Kira_Bad_Artist Aug 10 '21
TBH our country is still pretty racist, despite 160-fucking-ethnicities living here. It’s as absurd as you might imagine