"Are you guilty of self-segregation" on the next Paula Zahn.

Holy shit. Where do we start? The forboding narrator says, "Do most of your friends look just like you?" Just when you're picturing a country club full of anglo-Americans, the t.v. flashes a video of three black girls at the counter and the narrator asks, "Are you guilty of self-segregation?"

What can I say, but holy shit! What the heck do you want from us? Some of us would prefer to be alone, than to compromise our ethics. A big table, mind you, where the mostly white participants show you're welcome by sharing all their prejudices about your race/culture. And, for their kindness in giving you a chair at that table, they expect you to agree with them.

So, my response to Paula Zahn: People tend to gravitate to people that make them feel good about themselves. Do the math.

But, I'm not going to dominate this subject. What do you all think about Paula's next show.

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/paula.zahn.now/

Some of us prefer to be around "others", but we're the exception. I remember the first time I lived in a city with a large Asian population, I was shocked that groupism(?) was so prevalent. The Chinese hated the Koreans, who hated the Filipinos, who hated the Vietnamese, and everybody hated the Japanese, and I couldn't tell who was who (of course as the only White guy I can only imagine what they said about me).

Except the formula is more simple. Everybody hates the Argentinians and Cubans.

the real question should be; Do we as people have the ability to recognize that it is wrong and work to do something about it? Personally, I really think that people who limit themselves to association with "their own kind" are really depriving themselves of growth as a human.

But there are so many variables in that question. For example, how much would you put up with if your salary depended on it? Quite a bit for most, I'm sure. I've met other people from minority groups who seemed like they were very happy and looked comfortable among the white colleagues when they went to school, only to find out thirty years later that they remember their college years as lonely and bitter.

See, having only one or two minority members in a fraternity, doesn't change a damn thing for the white people in that organization, and it puts those one or two minority members under a tremendous amount of pressure, that they may not even be aware is affecting them, until years later.

While I think our reptilian 'minds' easily equate the unknown with a threat and a threat with animosity, I also regard the 'social clues' of gender, race, religion as learned attributes - social constructs. They're the flip-side of the presumed positive of tribal affiliation - strength in numbers against all manner of 'external' threats. From body markings and clothing and 'jewelry' and dietary taboos (and even secret handshakes), tribes adopt rituals and customs specifically designed to identify "trusted insiders" from all others ("the enemy"). In doing so, some 'elite' gain power over the tribe whether that 'elite' are witch doctors or priests or 'royal' chieftans. The age-old 'inherent' problem is not the external object of enmity but the 'enemy in our midst' who would rule and gain privilege. There's nothing more 'unifying' (for the purposes of accruing power) than a common enemy. Thus, I believe, ALL enmity for "the other" is sown by those who'd rule us. I.e.. ... it's taught.

He said that it was natural to gravitate to your own and be suspicious of anything or anyone who was different.

I say, it's imprinting. Human beings are not any more complicated than ducks. Ducks will imprint from birth to anything that moves. Which proves the exception to the rule, if it quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

I choose my own friends.

treated differently, but I think what you'll find is that they're hinting that you need to network with white folk in order to get ahead.

You realize that this is promoting cronyism? At least, that's what it sounds like to me.

are more jobs than people to fill them, a situation that is unlikely to ever happen again, thanks to the corporatist rule we live under.

:grr:

I like variety in all things - the more diversity the better. I've been blessed with a wide range of close friends and lovers. There is one immutable truth, however ... I don't have the only 'vote' on selecting friends. Indeed, it's more like fraternity voting than anything else ... since there are many folks who can "black-ball" a relationship ... family and already-close friends.

In my opinion, Pulla Tooth is peddling a right-wing disinformation ploy: "we're all racists and it's OK." Nonfuckingsense.

It's human nature.

And of course exhortations that we should seek friends outside of our particular race or ethnicity are only applicable to whites.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

Besides, I see many members of minority groups trying to bust into these groups in a sports capacity, and first, prejudice does keep them from getting too far up the ladder of success; and secondly, when they do get accolades, everyone calls them a token.

So this show really comes as no surprise.

In Rio, that would be the borough of Barra da Tijuca, the upscale place where every idiot* who has money moves to to be away from them brown people. I do NOT like that place. I'd rather live in places that look like they're part of a city, thank you.

* or has enough idiots in the family whining loud enough to move there to the point when s/he just gives in.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402346.html

Splitting: CNN anchor Paula Zahn, 51, and real estate developer Richard Cohen after a 20-year marriage, her rep confirmed to Radar online.

and follow what she preaches.