I have the thought that racial divisions are even more stark elsewhere, although in cases across different lines. I would, for example expect a lot more Chinese in to positions in that country alongside far lower diversity.
Is it not this way? How about where you are from, since you're "not from the US"?
Most countries have ethnic divisions, but they're not the US race categories and not based on skin colour. I am of my ethnicity and this affected how I was treated, whereas the US flattens that to "white" and treats me as such.
(More baffling is how the US is in complete denial of its class system - so much so that anyone who tries to talk about class is immediately told they're talking about race)
Exactly. Looking from outside, US just paints literal colors over what is really a multitude of ethnicities and cultures and thinks it’s progressive and inclusive. This black, this black, this white, this white, this asian. Awesome reduction.
Looking at it from the inside as a black American, I 100% agree with you. My experience as a black person in the US has been wildly different from someone who grew up in the 'hood or someone living with his nephew in Bel Air :-)
But yet, we're all mushed into the same category and expected to think alike and have the same ambitions. It's frustrating, but there's not a whole lot that I can do about it other than engage with people using my own perspective.
You similarly reduced all Americans to a stereotype with this comment. If you get your idea of Americans from internet discourse, you may come away with this impression, but it's a shallow view of a diverse country.
FWIW: while you are absolutely correct that many activists will replace class discussions with racial assertions, it is not universal here. Many of us are quite aware of and discuss our extreme divides and the mechanisms that keep ratcheting them, perhaps including this redirection habit.
> I have the thought that racial divisions are even more stark elsewhere
While race is of course an issue in all countries, few countries hold on to their racial divide as strongly as the US.
Nonetheless, I didn't mean that discussion about race wasn't relevant or interesting to me. I simply meant that discussion about the racial divides in the US aren't relevant to me.
Since I hear and read about US specific race issues a lot I usually avoid the topic and was a bit annoyed that this post baited me into investing so much time before it revealed what it was about.
Divisions here are between the Irish, British, French, Italians and so on -- each with their own prejudices, to say nothing of people coming from eastern Europe.
Each and every one of these groupings have faced discrimination in one context or another, and all of them would be described as 'white' in American terms. Actual Asian people are too far out of context to really be considered on more than an individual basis; there aren't a lot of them here.
Is it not this way? How about where you are from, since you're "not from the US"?