Let's talk about race

I was googling something else and ran across this study which has absolutely shook me to the core. One, I didn't know anyone was doing this research. Two, I didn't know this would be the result. And three, I'm horrified by the duality of the sterotypes found by this research. The text of the full article can be found here:

http://www.adl.org/misc/american_attitudes_towards_chinese.asp

The study findings included these gems from the American people:

Findings included:
A significant minority, 25%, of Americans indicated strong negative attitudes and stereotypes towards Chinese Americans.
23% of Americans are uncomfortable voting for an Asian American to be President of the United States. This is in contrast to 15% compared with an African American candidate, 14% compared with a woman candidate and 11% compared with a Jewish candidate.
24% of Americans would not approve of inter-marriage with an Asian American. This number is lower than that compared to an African American (34%), but higher than a Hispanic (21%) and a Jew (16%).
7% of Americans would not want to work for an Asian American CEO. This is in contrast to 4% for an African American, 3% for a woman and 4% for a Jew.

OK, first of all, 25% of the Americans they talked to indicated strong negative attitudes and sterotypes towards Chinese Americans? Are they serious? That's horrible. I don't delude myself, we all have prejudices, yes even YOU Mr and Mrs Liberal Elite...we all have them. But 25%??? That seems outrageously high to me. Makes me wonder though where they sampled from...where they farmed this information. I would like to see the demographics on this study to see who these "Americans" are. I mean, were the people sampled all from some rural population or a mix from all over the country and all socio-economic backgrounds? In any event, this statistic shocks me.

If you read the whole article it doesn't get any better. The sentiments seem to be "Once a communist always a communist." I wonder if they (the responders) feel the same way about Cubans and people from the Eastern Block? China is a communist country, but if you spend any time at all with the Chinese, you'll find they are overwhelmingly a Capitalist society. Even their Communism is colored over with Capitalism. The only vestiges of Communism I see in China is their tight reign on demonstrators and information transfer but that is a symptom of Communism. And for what it's worth, I don't think democracy would work in China. It's too big and too much of the population is uneducated.

That's right, Democracy requires a certian amount of literacy and at least a soupcon of education although our country seems to be limping by even though I'm convinced that like they say on South Park, "one 1/4 of Americans are retarded" if not by the numbers retarded they are retarded by their won stupidity and lack of passion to understand and make things better. Anyway, although Communism isn't the answer for China, I don't know what is. Perhaps a beneveolent dictator or go back to a royalty based system. The Chinese certainly need more freedoms and more civil rights, but without being literate and much of the huge country being rural and without even basic services like electricity and heat, there isn't really a way to get them out to vote so the rural populations would be under represented in any Democratic society and that might make their plight even worse. But I digress...

I don't know People, read the study and then look inside yourself. It's about time people stop being so worried about intermarriage (except religious intermarriage where that causes trouble) but objecting to a marriage based upon the amount of melanine in a person's skin...that's just stupid. We all know PLENTY of same race couples that shouldn't be married to each other, let alone anyone else! Race is NOT a filter for marriage. And I say that even with my own prejudices!

One final word on prejudice. We all have prejudice. No matter how open minded we are. There is some group that we don't like or expect certain things from based upon previous experience or learned response. ALL of us. Its not something to be proud of certainly, but I think the move in this country has been to make prejudice such a bad thing that no one is willing to talk about them and by making the subject verbotten, we have made it so very powerful. I admit to having some personal prejudices...the big one for me in the past has largely been dispelled because I was able to explore it and learn the truth, and even see the ugly truth for what it was. Because of that, I've been able to let it go. The new one is in place firmly, because of almost daily doses of fear delivered by the world news. I'm scared of Muslims of Middle Eastern extraction. I'm not proud of it. I hate that I feel this way, but there it is. But here's the thing, I don't know ONE person, not ONE Muslim of Middle Eastern extraction and I think that's the source of prejudice, limited exposure to that group, the one group we hold our prejudices against, keeps the myth alive and the truth from being found.

Seek out your fears, confront them in the light, and see that in the end, we are all just people. We all have prejudice. We all love our children and our mothers. We eat, we celebrate, and we grieve. This is a lesson I'm trying hard to put into practice with my fear of Muslims...but it's not exactly easy here in the Second Circle of Hell I'm living. But maybe I can do something proactive and put my money where my mouth is...I'll report later.