Do you think the younger generations will be more accepting of minority groups? Do you think films/books/tv shows have anything to do with it?

Yes- I see that already.

Yes, certainly.

Oddly, this makes me think of a conversation today about land prices.
They go up, they fall back, then they hit new heights.

I thought we were chugging along on race relations, but there is a current plummet in the US. I think we’ll be a good part of the way there when the new height tops.

Consider that I’m 53. 38 years of rational observation? Inter-rational couples were rare, and gawked at. Today the norm.

Me too, @ibstubro . I recall seeing on tv when I was little, back in the 70’s, a black man kissing a white woman. There was huge buzz about it. I don’t recall the movie, or who was involved. Maybe it was an episode of a series. None of that stuck with me, just the chatter. That doesn’t happen now. Not so much, anyway. Remember this commercial?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VifdBFp5pnw

I truly believe it.

Yep, each generation will be better. This is not human potential at all what we have now.

Yes, it’s already happening.

Yes. But I am curious to see if we can maintain the balance between colorblindness, gender equal and respectful of life partners while still celebrating cultural diversity not becoming androgynous or unisex. Maybe my concerns are unfounded. However I am having trouble visualizing how it will work and where the lines should be drawn.

I can see it happening already. If anything, movies, books, and TV shows are lagging behind real life. Our media is mostly made by older white people with money. They’re more likely to see stories or marketing with non-white people as a risk. So you get things like the black best friend, where the story revolves around the white person, and the black person is there to add “diversity.”

What’s happening in real life, that maybe older people aren’t aware of, is an ongoing debate over how to better ourselves. Like, here’s an example. Over the last year, there’s been a huge uproar over unarmed black men being killed by police. Older people seem very divided over it. A lot of them are finding all kinds of ways to defend the killers, while picking apart the behavior and motivations of the dead. A HUGE part of the mainstream media has been doing that, too. One of the most egregious examples was after 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot by police, where headlines said he came from a broken home.

With people my age, there seems to be a near-consensus about these killings. Not just that they’re wrong and race-based, but that they’re a symptom of bias and inequality that are so entrenched in our daily lives that we don’t even see it. To my generation, believing that injustice is wrong is just, like, a starting point. It’s the bare minimum.

Among ourselves, we talk about things like understanding your own white privilege, representation in the media,, and intersectionality. We want to understand the underlying issues and actively make things better, starting with ourselves.

On the other hand, bigotry in older generations becomes kind of a punch line. Like when a republican governor photoshops a smiling black woman into his website (to show that black people love him sooo much!) or when Mitt Romney has binders full of women.

Hopefully someday my kids will look back and think I’m totally out of touch with the times. Because that means things will be getting better.

Most of the people I know are liberal and artsy fartsy, though. We’re a little outside the mainstream, but not that far.

@Haleth GA. I’m 29 and I have very similar conversations with my peers.

The flip side, there are more child killers now than there ever were, gang related mostly with ready access to guns/knives.
It’s not all a bed of roses, regrettably.

I’m 47 and I think the majority of my generation is accepting. My grandparents and their friends were accepting. I do think the number increases with each generation, so the trend is good, but there are still pockets of the country who feel threatened by minorities. The chosen group shifts. 100 years ago in America people didn’t like the Irish. Now we have some “racism” towards people from Latin America. All along there has been racism against black people. All of it continues to improve. Economic factors are the most important I think for ridding the country of racism. Also, intermarriages I think chip away at stereotypes and the us and them ideas.

Yep. One of my 19 year old straight grandson’s best friend is gay. I asked him how he handled that. He said, “I just make sure that he understands I’m not into men and he better not hit on me!”

I suspect this is already happening. Almost all of the homophobic/racist/sexist comments I have heard were made by people older than forty.

My generation wasn’t so accepting. My parents weren’t racist, but they became dismayed when I developed a crush on Link from the mod squad.

Man this is so sad the way we’re talking about this. Like it’s so current and real, even though many have moved on from it.

I can just imagine little kids in school centuries later, they may be baffled we even act this way, but to us it’s so normal that we tolerate and even in some cases accept racism as a normal thing.

I wish I could have been born long in the future where things like this would actually be a relic of the past. Like…..when being called a 21st century human” would be a grave insult.

@Blackberry , did you see the link I provided above? I think there is hope there.
We are an evolving human race. Evolution takes time. People wanting to not be offensive buffoons is at least heading the right direction.

@Haleth and @DrasticDreamer, what you need to be talking about is how to make the stereotype obsolete. How, specifically, to break the cycle of violence and poverty for black Americans.

We need to get to a point where there is a clear distinction between a cop killing someone is justified regardless of race.

“Black lives matter” meets “Lives matter.”

Yeah. We know what we have isn’t working. Propose feasible alternatives?

@ibstubro Yes, lives in general matter, but it is important to make a distinction between “black lives matter” and “lives matter”, because black males face the most danger. To ignore that is to ignore very specific injustices.

@DrasticDreamer I don’t know. I do see your point, but to be devil’s advocate, I’m not sure if separating out groups helps. Then the minority is reinforcing the us and them idea. Maybe we need people, white people, not to see the image of the black person being abused by a cop over and over, but for them to close their eyes and now imagine that happening to their white child. The problem is people can be dismissive, because they don’t identify with the victim.

@JLeslie Anyone who can see a 12 year old black kid being killed for no reason and not think, “That could be my kid if only he were black” has very little imagination in their soul. Right now, until this injustice is remediated, “Black Lives Matter” has to be the focus of this campaign

@janbb I think a lot of people lack the ability. Sadly. They brush it off that the black child was probably doing something wrong. Or, they argue their own child would never be in that same situation. I’m not stating what I think. I’m stating what I hear.

I’m fine with black lives matter. I’m completely horrified by the NY case. I haven’t learned the details of the Ferguson case.

I wonder how often white people die at the hands if the police being irresponsible or too quick to use deadly force? I have no idea at all.

I also think it’s important because we can’t pretend that we face the same potential injustices that black men do – because we don’t. The reason that matters is because to say “it’s the same for everyone” is to take the injustices they suffer out of their hands and to act like everyone else has it as bad – and that just isn’t true or fair. The only way to change the injustices that they face is to recognize that they do have it worse, otherwise you wind up with people saying, “It’s not that bad – everyone suffers.” Which, with police brutality, is true more and more – but, not everyone suffers even close to the same degree.

@DrasticDreamer I absolutely agree with that.

@Here2 4
Yea great video. I totally agree that wanting to not be offensive shows we’re at least making improvements.

This is only anecdotal, but it seems the mean sports jock stereotype in high school is reportedly dying out as well. Things really are getting better and I’ve always believed that. I never understood how some people can look at the progression through time and still say we’re going to hell in a handbasket.