because there were racist mother ****ers all over this country, who didn't want to be poisoned by the company of black people.
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.
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.
"Anybody who doesn't think like me?"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?"
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.
Often, I have written "we need a better people"..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.
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.
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.
Okay, the poll is done now. Took me a few minutes. You can vote now if you want.
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.
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.
People fear "different".
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