Actually, those organizations, groupings you listed were started to INCLUDE certain disenfranchised groups. There is no WET because arguably, WET is ABC, NBC, CBS etc. There is no White History because everyday is White History and classes taught in our schools focus on "White History - RE: Western Civilization. As far as "districts", those groups you mentioned did not have a choice. They were forced to live in certain areas. In fact, you can still see old covenants on title deeds restricting Jews to live in certain areas. "Chinese districts" exist because historically, they were not allowed to live anywhere else. Over time, this became tradition. Also, when minorities started being allowed to integrate more, it was/is the whites that leave an area, leaving it a "minority district".
I would argue that many of these groups ARE proud Americans (with the exception of one group), but it is America that does not love them back. Many served in our wars as Americans but were denied veteran's benefits. Many of these groups try very hard to participate in Americana but are denied simply because they are different.
It's a work in progress, I am optimistic.
Hope that clears things up for you.
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Originally Posted by politicophile
I personally agree with you: continued racism can exist only so long as meaningful distinctions between races continue to exist. That said, I imagine a defender of those sorts of practices would say that they exist for the purpose of disclosing the past and continued existence of discrimination in this country and that they merely point out already-existent group distinctions, rather than creating new ones. This is, I think, to underestimate the isolative (I think I made that word up) effects of such group differentiations. BET, for example, supports the notion that blacks are so different from the mainstream that they literally have different entertainment needs. That, my friend, is the road to stereotyping.
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That is a common misunderstanding. BET does not exist to differentiate blacks from the mainstream, but rather, to introduce an element of our society that is missing in the mainstream culture, media etc.
I personally believe that these are stepping stones and will eventually not need it. But for now, we obviously do. I believe, that the mainstream has responded in kind and diversity has slowly, of so very slowly, begun to adapt and respond accordingly.
The new cast of Heroes is a good example - a much more accurate depiction of America. Scrubs has a good cast as well.
The OC is a horrible example - The OC is not all white but if you watched that show, that's what one would think.
CW is good at diversity programming too.
Etc. etc.