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Why did the US have segregation?

Why did we have segregation? (check all that apply)

  • Actually, it was a prudent measure to protect people from violence.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • It was just far better to keep people apart who were too different to relate.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • God commanded us to keep difference races separate.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    13

Luna Tick

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Segregation happened before my time. I was sad to find out it went on even in the city where I live (which is not down south). Today, it seems so obvious that segregation was an injustice. It makes me wonder why we ever had it.
 
because there were racist mother ****ers all over this country, who didn't want to be poisoned by the company of black people.
 
because there were racist mother ****ers all over this country, who didn't want to be poisoned by the company of black people.

Okay, the poll is done now. Took me a few minutes. You can vote now if you want.
 
IMO the root cause of segregation, and racism generally, is people who don't have a whole lot about themselves to be proud about that rely on the "well, at least I'm not black/gay/muslim/female/whatever" angle to make themselves feel better about themselves. You get a lot of folks who really don't have anything to offer. They're dumb, poor, ignorant, not well liked, have a dead end job, etc. Many of those types like to think "well, I may not be much, but just by the nature of my race/gender/sexual orientation/religion/etc I am better than everybody who is different from me in that regard". They get very upset when people try to undermine that belief and the go to extraordinary lengths to preserve that belief. Segregation was just one of many manifestations then and now of that problem.
 
IMO the root cause of segregation, and racism generally, is people who don't have a whole lot about themselves to be proud about that rely on the "well, at least I'm not black/gay/muslim/female/whatever" angle to make themselves feel better about themselves. You get a lot of folks who really don't have anything to offer. They're dumb, poor, ignorant, not well liked, have a dead end job, etc. Many of those types like to think "well, I may not be much, but just by the nature of my race/gender/sexual orientation/religion/etc I am better than everybody who is different from me in that regard". They get very upset when people try to undermine that belief and the go to extraordinary lengths to preserve that belief. Segregation was just one of many manifestations then and now of that problem.

That was really well said. Thanks. Seems like it was a form of scapegoating. I worry about scapegoating today. I think gays, Muslims, atheists, socialists and others get scapegoated today. It's easier to just blame people who are a little different than to find thinking solutions to problems.
 
Hindsight is 20/20. It's easy, albeit naive, to try and judge the past with today's views and people really seem to like the easy answers. Fact is, though a law can go into effect instantaneously, societal attitudes are far much slower to respond. Societal attitudes are more of a slow evolution from Point A to Point B. To suggest that society just changes *poof*, short of an extreme situation like a dictatorship taking over, is willful ignorance of how human nature works.

For this reason, I don't believe any of the poll choices is truly accurate, though #2 is probably the closest to being accurate.
 
Hindsight is 20/20. It's easy, albeit naive, to try and judge the past with today's views and people really seem to like the easy answers. Fact is, though a law can go into effect instantaneously, societal attitudes are far much slower to respond. Societal attitudes are more of a slow evolution from Point A to Point B. To suggest that society just changes *poof*, short of an extreme situation like a dictatorship taking over, is willful ignorance of how human nature works.

For this reason, I don't believe any of the poll choices is truly accurate, though #2 is probably the closest to being accurate.

I think hindsight can be valuable because we can see the past more clearly than we see the present. Blacks were ridiculously scapegoated via segregation and other things. So the question to ask is, "Who are we scapegoating today?"
 
I think hindsight can be valuable because we can see the past more clearly than we see the present. Blacks were ridiculously scapegoated via segregation and other things. So the question to ask is, "Who are we scapegoating today?"
"Anybody who doesn't think like me?"

Scapegoating seems to be the trendy strategy for pretty much everything. How I long for somebody to make a Harry Truman-like statement, "The buck stops here.". Even Reagan's, "I take full responsibility" (paraphrasing), while meaningless at the time, is refreshing in hindsight.
 
Segregation happened before my time. I was sad to find out it went on even in the city where I live (which is not down south). Today, it seems so obvious that segregation was an injustice. It makes me wonder why we ever had it.

I'd say it was because, in order for slavery to be "right," blacks had to be considered "lesser than" whites...one step above farm animals. Segregation kept reminding everyone of that fact. The bigger question to me is, "How on God's green earth did we ever think slavery was right?
 
Blacks were kidnapped and brought to the US as slaves. In order to make this practice mesh with US morals, slaves had to be viewed as sub-human. Even if they were able to purchase their freedom or to escape or were freed by their owners, Blacks were not allowed to vote or own property or businesses. They were not seen as fully human for many, many years after slavery was outlawed. This was the basis for segregation in the US IMO.
 
Because race mixing, at that time, was communist....

 
Because race mixing, at that time, was communist....


Oh, brother. I didn't realize they used such a ridiculous argument for it. I thought they at least kept their arguments semi-plausible to someone with an IQ of 80.
 
Segregation happened before my time. I was sad to find out it went on even in the city where I live (which is not down south). Today, it seems so obvious that segregation was an injustice. It makes me wonder why we ever had it. Just two words , ignorance and fear.
Often, I have written "we need a better people"..
Well we do a a much better populous than say 50 -100 years ago.
 
Oh, brother. I didn't realize they used such a ridiculous argument for it. I thought they at least kept their arguments semi-plausible to someone with an IQ of 80.

There weren't any logical arguments for it, so they had to use ridiculous ones.

White people, many of them at least, were brought up to believe that blacks were inferior, were sub human in fact. It took a long time for those old stereotypes to be held up to the light of day and seen to be based on ignorance and prejudice.

Much as black people, at least a few of them, are being brought up to believe that the problems they have are the fault of white people.

It's racism, pure and simple, and has been a bane of humanity for centuries.
 
Oh my, that's brings back painful memories. I remember when all of this was going on and the sort of people seen picketing here were blocking doorways to schools and attacking black children as integration began. It was a dark, dark time in our history and it wasn't all that long ago.

I'm glad that most here cannot remember this period and am proud to have had a small part in helping get those wretched laws repealed.
 
Ironically, one of my young adult grandchildren asked me about segregation last night because her 3rd grade daughter is studying it in her history book. She just couldn't wrap her head around the idea that people would be singled out for discrimination solely on the basis of something like skin tone.

While I was trying to help her understand what the US was like back in the 1950s we ventured off into McCarthyism and the demonetization of all people who had any connection whatsoever (voluntary or not) with Communism. My granddaughter said "Oh, this is sort of like how some people demonize all Muslims based on the actions of a few radicals". Out of the mouth of babes.....

We then discussed the recent spate of 'illegal immigrant' laws which are pretty much based on skin tone and racial characteristics and allow law enforcement to demand paperwork from Hispanics that would land them in court if it were demanded of blond-haired, blue-eyed people.

She finally understood. Hoping this will help some here understand how and why segregation took place. We need to be vigilant so that this never happens again.
 
Okay, the poll is done now. Took me a few minutes. You can vote now if you want.

Everything is slanted toward the outcome you desire. This is not a good poll.

How about "it existed so that people today can feel good about themselves because they didn't live then and would have been caught-up in it due to class structure and tradition."

sanctimonious comes to mind...
 
Blacks were kidnapped and brought to the US as slaves. In order to make this practice mesh with US morals, slaves had to be viewed as sub-human. Even if they were able to purchase their freedom or to escape or were freed by their owners, Blacks were not allowed to vote or own property or businesses. They were not seen as fully human for many, many years after slavery was outlawed. This was the basis for segregation in the US IMO.

Not only did whites own blacks, blacks owned blacks...here and in africa. Many war tribal factions were included in the sale of which side won. The ones who lost, got sold to the white man as slaves. And even in tribal villages, enemies of the more powerful were sold to slavers. But that's a whole new thread and this one is about why blacks were segregated. In my opinion, it was to try to keep control even after the civil war and blacks given their freedom. They might not be owned any more, but by golly, they were going to keep in their "proper place" with restrictions and made to feel less than anyone "white".

Kind of like what Nazi's thought of Jews. Subhuman.
 
Not only did whites own blacks, blacks owned blacks...here and in africa. Many war tribal factions were included in the sale of which side won. The ones who lost, got sold to the white man as slaves. And even in tribal villages, enemies of the more powerful were sold to slavers. But that's a whole new thread and this one is about why blacks were segregated. In my opinion, it was to try to keep control even after the civil war and blacks given their freedom. They might not be owned any more, but by golly, they were going to keep in their "proper place" with restrictions and made to feel less than anyone "white".

Kind of like what Nazi's thought of Jews. Subhuman.

yes, up until 1964 and 1968, blacks in this country truly were "untermenschen".
 
Everything is slanted toward the outcome you desire. This is not a good poll.

How about "it existed so that people today can feel good about themselves because they didn't live then and would have been caught-up in it due to class structure and tradition."

sanctimonious comes to mind...

I've got another word to use for your opinion, hopefully its just sarcasm, but my doubts about that should tell you how people view you on this forum.

Anywhoooooo Do you have an intelligent comment to add that's not sarcasm so we can get a better idea of your thought process and opinions? Do you disagree with the options in the poll? Do you think the poll in itself only exists so we can judge the past by a modern standard? Do you think segregation had some merit?

Here's the thing though that you may not realize, if you reply with only sarcasm and arrogance you're not going to get a lot of replies from people. People will inevitably ignore you like your post was never there at all, even though you scream and rage through it. In other words, you'll be the loudest mute on the forums because while you'll make a bunch of noise you'll have no voice.

Food for thought.
 
Blacks were kidnapped and brought to the US as slaves. In order to make this practice mesh with US morals, slaves had to be viewed as sub-human. Even if they were able to purchase their freedom or to escape or were freed by their owners, Blacks were not allowed to vote or own property or businesses. They were not seen as fully human for many, many years after slavery was outlawed. This was the basis for segregation in the US IMO.

I wouldn't think it was a requirement to view slaves as sub-human, or rather I don't think it was a consciousness decision but rather a natural evolution of perspective based on their traditional rolls in society at the time. In other words, if you only see black people working the farm, only see how uneducated they are, how poorly they live, etc etc. You're going to naturally develop some stereotypes about what kind of people they are.

It's a natural function of the brain in a very complex world to make stereotypes so it knows how to react in similar situations to the one's its encountered before. I'm taking a very broad view of what is a stereotype here, for example knowing that every time you touch fire you get burned is a stereotype of fire, just like how if every time you talk to a black person they sound like an uneducated slob its a stereotype. And once all those stereotypes are negative, its another natural reaction to want to avoid contact with it. The same way many people are squeamish about touching someone who has HIV or AIDs, or using the same toilet seat for example. There's no reason to think its dangerous, because its not, but that part of their brain says its dangerous and should be avoided and separated.

Of course there are other factors at play that made segregation and racism what they were, but I think this is a big part of it.
 
People fear "different".

That about sums it up, doesn't it? Blacks are different, Muslims, gays, all different. We can't associate with those people, because they're "different."
 
Some excellent ideas on why racism existed in this thread.

About the stereotypes - when I was a small child I asked the question every white kid eventually asks (even today): why is that person brown? I was told (not by my parent) that they were brown because their ancestors bred with apes. I don't think the person who told me this was trying to sway me toward racism - he actually believed this was the reason for the dark skin tone.
 
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