Originally Posted by Oneironaut
I believe that might be an over-simplification. Would it not depend on other variables, such as which percentage of those races were actually running, which are qualified, and which had policies that the majority of the people would agree with?
All else being equal.
Originally Posted by Oneironaut
And I don't believe that anyone has considered it a mark of shame that there had been only whites elected. I believe, more, that there is just overwhelming elation over proof that the "80%" chance hadn't been boosted to closer to 100% because of racist ideals which do exist.
I don't think that's even remotely true, when I consider all the black and white commentators, after the election, talking about the black man getting in. They made it sound, and very unambiguously I might add, that if McCain had won, it would have been a racist election.
Originally Posted by Serkat
Yeah but if, as is the case with almost all black Americans, you are fully a cultural American and have never even set foot on Africa, there's no point in using an oversimplifying label that misses the point. As I said, "African" isn't even an ethnicity or culture or anything like that. Africa is probably one of the most or even the single most diverse continent in terms of cultures, societies and languages so the only thing that really makes people African is their genetic ancestry and even so, indigenous black people are all over the globe, so it's really a mundane exercise in superfluous labeling when you could just say "black".
I think there's a cultural notion that black people are economically disadvantaged in the US, which they may be. But when they say "African American", they really mean in terms of economic heritage, not ethnic. There is, of course, a correlation, due to the fact that most blacks began as slaves rather than rich Europeans. However, there is an interesting double standard here, as whites and hispanics or any other race that are equally disadvantaged do not get special treatment.
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