Quote:
Originally posted by Averett
I think you're onto something Bentley...
We're all animals right? You don't see too many animal species hanging out together. Not going to find a lion playin cards with a zebra. Might just be natural that people may be more comfortable with people who look like them.
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Ugh, no!!! There's a difference between different species who happen to eat each other, and people who belong to the same species and whose only real differences (aside from the cultural ones) are essentially cosmetic. People might be more comfortable sticking to their own kind, but I don't think we as a society or as a planet are better off. Insulated cultures stagnate and die, while a diverse society tends to be adaptable and flexible. Segregation might be an easy answer - far easier than conquering our own fear of The Other - but I don't think it's the best one.
Further, if you segregate people based on race, they'll just find some other characteristic within the racially homogeneous group to focus on - sexuality, ethnicity (Irish vs. Scottish, Basque vs. Spanish - they're all white, but that hasn't really kept things happy), hair color (Aryan blonde, anyone?), religion, gender, etc. The fear of "otherness" is universal and deeply ingrained, but that doesn't mean we should capitulate to it. The urge to bash someone's head in if he pisses you off is also universal and deeply ingrained, and yet we've decided as a society that that's not behavior we want to encourage.
Exposure to difference inevitably breeds first, fear; second, acceptance; third, incorporation whereby each group modifies the other in some way. We're only a generation out from Jim Crow - I think it's a little early to declare integration a failure.