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Is The Government Helping To Fuel Racial/Ethnic Animosity?

Is the US government helping to fuel racial and ethnic animosity?


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PoS

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On almost every government form that one has to fill out, whether its for welfare, the census, job applications or whatever, one must fill out an entry for race/ethnicity. Is the government in fact overemphasizing race and helping to fuel animosity between different ethnic groups? Are government programs like affirmative action still viable or should they be dismantled because of a backlash or perhaps they may no longer be needed?

Should the government stop taking information about race/ethnicities? Could this be in fact part of the solution to the problem? What do you think?
 
I think whether or not we should have affirmative action and whether or not the government should track the races of the people it hires are two different things. I am on the fence about affirmative action. But I think there is utility in the government monitoring the diviersity of its work force. If a group of people are under represented in the work force it doesn't hurt to ask why. The reason may be benign or it might be a symptom of institutional racism. If it is the latter than steps can be taken to correct it. But to do that you need to know the numbers.

Various studies seem to indicate that all other things being equal, a black person is less likely to be hired for a position than a white person. Whether we like it or not, we don't yet live in a post racial society.
 
Is the federal government doing so? No for the most part.

Is state and local government doing so? Very very much and that is the main problem.
 
Yes, our government and plenty of others fuel racial animosity. Been going on for a very long time.
 
On almost every government form that one has to fill out, whether its for welfare, the census, job applications or whatever, one must fill out an entry for race/ethnicity. Is the government in fact overemphasizing race and helping to fuel animosity between different ethnic groups? Are government programs like affirmative action still viable or should they be dismantled because of a backlash or perhaps they may no longer be needed?

Should the government stop taking information about race/ethnicities? Could this be in fact part of the solution to the problem? What do you think?

If the United Nations stopped taking information on world food shortages, wouldn't that stop global hunger?
 
On almost every government form that one has to fill out, whether its for welfare, the census, job applications or whatever, one must fill out an entry for race/ethnicity. Is the government in fact overemphasizing race and helping to fuel animosity between different ethnic groups? Are government programs like affirmative action still viable or should they be dismantled because of a backlash or perhaps they may no longer be needed?

Should the government stop taking information about race/ethnicities? Could this be in fact part of the solution to the problem? What do you think?

The only question is to which extent the various players realize it.
 
I think where the animosity comes in is when skin color is considered over qualifications or skills. Companies are given incentives through tax relief to hire minorities. We had a problem with our city fire department over this a few years back...the minority candidates did not score as well on the assessments and were hired over those who scored well. I see the intention of affirmative action but I can see the divide as well.

Work Opportunity Tax Credit
 
I don't think it is fueling it. People fuel it well enough on both sides. But the government allows it to happen.

The government partly fund Teach For America, who are, apparently paying for some of our "professional protesters".
 
The idea that not identifying ones race on forms and/or collecting broad data on ethnicity will cure ethnic animosity in any meaningful way is hopelessly naive.
 
I'm in agreement with PeteEU that the actions of state governments are more responsible for fueling racism than the actions of the federal government, at least when considering current actions.

As far as Affirmative Action, it has its benefits but I find its promotion of racial discrimination troubling. I would favor eliminating Affirmative Action programs and replacing them with public works that would ideally, provide everyone with a right to a job.
 
On almost every government form that one has to fill out, whether its for welfare, the census, job applications or whatever, one must fill out an entry for race/ethnicity. Is the government in fact overemphasizing race and helping to fuel animosity between different ethnic groups? Are government programs like affirmative action still viable or should they be dismantled because of a backlash or perhaps they may no longer be needed?

Should the government stop taking information about race/ethnicities? Could this be in fact part of the solution to the problem? What do you think?

Yes, but my yes is from a different slant. Since the government is responsible for the police, judicial, and penal systems, and those systems, that have historically held a very strong racial bias, weigh hugely on the futures of individuals and communities and businesses,... government is very responsible for stoking racial unrest.
 
I'm pretty sure the government's complicity in ensuring racial inequalities from 1776 until the 1960s probably have fueled racial and ethnic animosity far more than simple census measurements.
 
On almost every government form that one has to fill out, whether its for welfare, the census, job applications or whatever, one must fill out an entry for race/ethnicity. Is the government in fact overemphasizing race and helping to fuel animosity between different ethnic groups? Are government programs like affirmative action still viable or should they be dismantled because of a backlash or perhaps they may no longer be needed?

Should the government stop taking information about race/ethnicities? Could this be in fact part of the solution to the problem? What do you think?

In a number of different ways the government requires us to be extremely conscious of race and ethnicity. It is so un-PC to say so, that nobody dares even say it anymore, but until we have a government who treats everybody as equals impartially and without prejudice, it is the government who keeps racism alive and well and shamefully exploits it for the personal advantage of those in government.

If we want to limit racism, we need to start treating skin color and ethnicity as having no more importance than hair color or eye color. Everybody is required to sink or swim on their own merits and we treat crime the same whether it is white on white, black on black, or any combination. If we don't note hair color or eye color on the periodic census, we don't note skin color either. Skin color ceases to exist as an issue period.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeixtYS-P3s
 
Are there political ideologies and parties that are pushing racist ideas? Absolutely. When those parties are in power, they absolutely use the government to push forward their aims. I don't think you can say that the federal government is, all the time, doing so though. It's bad ideologies behind the leadership that are the problem, not the government itself.
 
Are there political ideologies and parties that are pushing racist ideas? Absolutely. When those parties are in power, they absolutely use the government to push forward their aims. I don't think you can say that the federal government is, all the time, doing so though. It's bad ideologies behind the leadership that are the problem, not the government itself.

We may not be that far apart on this issue, but I have to ask, who is the government if it is not the political parties in power and ideologies behind the leadership?
 
We may not be that far apart on this issue, but I have to ask, who is the government if it is not the political parties in power and ideologies behind the leadership?

The government is the legislative arm of society. Without society, there is no government.
 
The government is the legislative arm of society. Without society, there is no government.

I agree that technically, the government receives its authority from the people. But that legislative activity doesn't happen without people representing political parties and people motivated and guided by ideologies who make up the government. The government IS those people. So you can't really say that the government is not promoting racism when it is obvious that it does.
 
"If a tree falls in the woods and there's no one to hear it, is it racist?"
 
I'll admit I've thought AA had uses and silly to get rid of, but have come around (thanks to some, seemingly, intelligent folk on youtube) to that it probably does more harm then good at this point. I'd have to look into more information on how much race can affect (or is it effect?) hiring decisions when AA is ignored but my feeling currently is that racism in hiring is probably slim.

I'd probably agree that is much more important to focus on giving everyone equal opportunity to get the job, meaning using say STEM as an example, finding ways to improve pre-college education and ways to make college affordable for everyone who is willing to put the effort into going to college/getting a degree. Hopefully makes a bit of sense?
 
Yes the government fuels race tension by involving itself in something such as race that it can't truly "fix" as some would argue it could. Human racial tribalism isn't going away because forms are changed.

The hard fact for many is race is a structural part of our civilization. If you tore all the buildings down, the nations down, the armies away, the economies, race would still be going strong. Very strong. Like it or not, race is a massive part of human nature and won't be changed by government ever. Race might very well be the one true thing that cannot be controlled or manipulated by government whether governments like that or not (clearly many do not).

Example: In 500 years nobody will be talking about modern nations but race will still be a very big factor.
 
Yes the government fuels race tension by involving itself in something such as race that it can't truly "fix" as some would argue it could. Human racial tribalism isn't going away because forms are changed.

The hard fact for many is race is a structural part of our civilization. If you tore all the buildings down, the nations down, the armies away, the economies, race would still be going strong. Very strong. Like it or not, race is a massive part of human nature and won't be changed by government ever. Race might very well be the one true thing that cannot be controlled or manipulated by government whether governments like that or not (clearly many do not).

Example: In 500 years nobody will be talking about modern nations but race will still be a very big factor.
Using an example from the future isn't really using an example.
 
If the United Nations stopped taking information on world food shortages, wouldn't that stop global hunger?

What does world food shortages have to do with race/ethnicity?
 
Using an example from the future isn't really using an example.

Okay here's an example:


MANY (as in literally millions by various US Mexican authors own indignant outrage over it) US Mexicans choose "White or white non-Hispanic option" on forms over Hispanic or Native American. There's literally dozens of articles on this and it's pretty well known. They do it because many of them actually do feel they are in fact some version of white without going into that any deeper.


That's just one way that the forms are already "flawed". Anyone can mark anything they want on them and there's no way to possibly tell who is really who anyways. Another example: "Hispanic" is not a race. It's a cultural term. So that option (and numerous others) are totally bogus and meaningless anyways.



I've actually had this debate with various European nationalists on the DNA testing level over the years and I can tell you that there does arise a basic problem with govt. being involved in race-anything. In order to even REMOTELY achieve an accurate picture of racial demographics in any country (but esp a large one like USA) you'd have to have a massive DNA testing be mandatory. Basically a racialist state would have to be created just to test everybody. (Which would obviously make race a HUGE part of that society). In other words, you can't ever hope to achieve an even remotely accurate sense of race through government unless you're basically willing to recreate Nazi Germany Esq race testing.


There's Asians that mark white on university entrance forms to get accepted.

There's whites that mark black on university forms to get accepted.

In other words, government is extremely bad at dealing with race on any level. There's numerous studies that prove that affirmative action Esq policies have actually helped white women far more than any other group, including minorities. Government race policy almost always backfires.


Point in case, a Mexican and his video makes my point better than I can hope to:

 
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Okay here's an example:


MANY (as in literally millions by various US Mexican authors own indignant outrage over it) US Mexicans choose "White or white non-Hispanic option" on forms over Hispanic or Native American. There's literally dozens of articles on this and it's pretty well known. They do it because many of them actually do feel they are in fact some version of white without going into that any deeper.


That's just one way that the forms are already "flawed". Anyone can mark anything they want on them and there's no way to possibly tell who is really who anyways. Another example: "Hispanic" is not a race. It's a cultural term. So that option (and numerous others) are totally bogus and meaningless anyways.



I've actually had this debate with various European nationalists on the DNA testing level over the years and I can tell you that there does arise a basic problem with govt. being involved in race-anything. In order to even REMOTELY achieve an accurate picture of racial demographics in any country (but esp a large one like USA) you'd have to have a massive DNA testing be mandatory. Basically a racialist state would have to be created just to test everybody. (Which would obviously make race a HUGE part of that society). In other words, you can't ever hope to achieve an even remotely accurate sense of race through government unless you're basically willing to recreate Nazi Germany Esq race testing.


There's Asians that mark white on university entrance forms to get accepted.

There's whites that mark black on university forms to get accepted.

In other words, government is extremely bad at dealing with race on any level. There's numerous studies that prove that affirmative action Esq policies have actually helped white women far more than any other group, including minorities. Government race policy almost always backfires.


Point in case, a Mexican and his video makes my point better than I can hope to:


So you're arguing that a social construct is being socially constructed.
 
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