[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Mixed Couples on American TV

Mary Jennings macloudt at hotmail.com
Sun May 12 08:20:35 UTC 2002


What an interesting thread!  I'd like to throw my 2 knuts in:

Jenny from Ravenclaw wrote:

>We all know that segregation here in the US is not legal and hasn't
>been for a while.  However, segregation is very much a part of life
>here; so much, IMO, that most people don't even notice it.  On the
>east side of Manhattan, when one goes above 96th street, suddenly all
>the doorman buildings turn into projects - I kid you not.

In 1987, while in high school in Toronto, I went on a school trip behind the 
Iron Curtain.  This involved flying from Toronto to La Guardia (sp?) airport 
in NYC, and taking the bus from LG to JFK airport.  Bearing in mind that 
Toronto is as ethnically diverse as NYC, we were *shocked* at the 
segregation between neighbourhoods.  Sure, Toronto has Chinatown, Little 
Portugal, Little Italy, etc., but still you find people from all ethnic 
backgrounds in every neighbourhood (the posh white neighbourhoods have 
growing Asian populations, for example).  But these neighbourhoods in NYC 
were either white, or they weren't.  Period.  Even though Canada is 
bombarded with American TV channels, never mind shows, and we "knew" about 
the American racial divisions, it was still a *major* reality check for us.

This, however, does not mean that non-whites are less hassled by Toronto 
police than whites.  Not at all.  And don't get me started about the 
treatment of First Nations people.  Grrr...

I now live in a seaside resort town in southwest England, where *I* 
(Canadian with Dutch background) am considered delightfully foreign.  I can 
count the number of non-white kids in my daughter's school on two hands.  
But interestingly, most of the black kids have one white parent.  The school 
is fantastically open-minded (not too surprising; the headmaster is gay) and 
doesn't tolerate bullying or prejudice of any kind, but there have been some 
nasty racist incidents in the town over the years.  A few years ago one 
harassed family was featured in the local paper.  They were ex-Iron Curtain 
immigrants (can't remember which country) and the harassment was so bad that 
the 10-year-old son wanted to commit suicide.

Racism is based on fear and ignorance.  There is no excuse for it in *any* 
situation.  *At all*.

Mary Ann
(who will probably throw up the next time she's told she has a "darling 
accent")





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