Cementing my assessment of race issues...My wife's sister has recently taken to traveling the country, having married a white guy, and thus ending up herding a gaggle of mixed-race kids. Her line:
"Did you know that when you leave Texas, there are still race issues in the country? People care about mixed-race familes? I've never seen that before.?"
So long as there's a booming economy, and enough jobs...ain't nobody got time for race issues, and they make folks poorer. It's just when scarcity pops up that race is an issue. If the jobs are all political...then there's race issues. If you destroy enough jobs with business regulations, minimum wage, etc., that leads to race issues. If you destroy enough jobs by putting tariffs up...that leads to race issues. But a rich, free market simply can't afford 'em.
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My wife and my best couple friends are mixed-race. We met them in Seattle, which is (of course) very not-racist.
The problem for our friends, was that everyone there wanted to demonstrate their non-racism . . . and what better way is there for them to do so besides being extremely nice to the mixed-race couple?
They moved to DC a while ago. Nobody here seems to give it much thought - though they have said that DC is better than Maryland or Virginia.
Foseti,
As before, my wife (and most of her family) is rather hyper-sensitive to emotional changes.
In Texas, parts of rural North Carolina, and downtown Atlanta...the expectation is that no one notices that the mixed race couple is different. Race is NO factor in the decision.
In parts of California, and much of the West Coast, race IS a factor, and while the super-SWPLs are factoring race differently, it's still heavily factored.
While that's better than in our experience throughout the Midwest (non-whiteness, mixed-raceness is an issue, and it's bad)...it still inhibits socialization rather strongly.
So...in typical long-winded fashion...I agree.
There's race-negativity, race-awareness, and effective race-blindeness.
AFAICT, in DC, the core divide is by class/income, not by race.
Riffing further,
I think this supports my hypothesis. IN DC, if you're well-dressed, well-spoken, and well-educated, there are no shortage of jobs. In fact, I believe there may be too many? Hence...there's no economic danger in DC to adding someone of a different race...so there's no race issue.
Similarly, the tech industry has a jobs glut, so we have really little concern over the fact that in a typical tech job, the ratio is 1/3 indian, 1/3 oriental, 1/3 white, and 5-10% black. Who cares race, can you code?
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