It is compared to America. The UK, Germany, and France are more inclusive of blacks into their cultures than America from my vantage point. It isn’t odd to see blacks and whites commingling organically in these countries as it STILL is in the US. In fact, openly-expressed racism and xenophobism in America, if anything, has had a strong resurgence in recent years. It doesn’t just exist, it is crawling out from beneath its hiding place into the light with increasing frequency and boldness.
What do you mean by if? They do have blacks in their countries.
America hasn’t existed for ages, and I don’t know what you mean by forever.
Oh please. Our health care is far more costly than any other industrialized nations, for a dysfunctional and ultimately unsustainable system Republicans refuse to allow us to move away from in order to protect the stranglehold of those who profit greatly from the system, to the detriment of the patients who are suffering under its financial burden. Some exceptionalism that is; exceptionally evil.
Derek - I won’t put this delicately: have you ever been outside of the U.S. borders? Because your conception of other countries, in this and other threads, is totally cartoonish.
Michael Moore’s Where to Invade Next should be watched by Americans who think Europe has no good ideas to offer. (Although, as the Europeans in the film often point out, some of their good ideas arose originally in the U.S. but were abandoned there as the U.S. has lost its way.)
This country was founded and grew, to a significant extent, on two holocausts: the virtual elimination of native Americans, and slavery and its aftermath. The horrible damage done to innocent human beings by these actions has never been fully acknowledged in our common view of ourselves, and as a result of that they remain a cancer on our psyche.
There are indeed many good and even great things about this country. Our constitution is certainly a document which has stood the test of time in preserving our representative democracy and the liberties that go with it. But how can we be so very proud of that when we are still so much in denial about our origins and history?
I don’t say that there aren’t plenty of people who acknowledge and regret these periods in our past*, but they are hugely in the minority. Maybe not on this board, but in the general public. Where is our Truth and Reconciliation? Where is our Never Again?
*Not just in the past. It is my view that most of our current problems vis-à-vis race can be easily traced back to slavery; the aftermath is still going on.
What percent of UK, Germany, and France are black? UK: 1.95%, Germany: .7%, and France, a whopping 3.5% WOW! The US is 13% black. The US is a much more diverse society than those countries and large-scale diversity does usually, in this world, bring group conflicts you know. Also, you’ve probably been to the cosmopolitan cities in Europe, how about the countryside?
How many non-white leaders have any of those countries had? ZERO! Why do those countries have to “fight racism in sport,” whereas in the US, its a given that many of the football, basketball, and baseball stars are not white? Britain has barely had non-whites in parliament, and its mostly been recently non-whites have been serving on a widespread basis, even proportionally, compared to 'Merica. Ditto the rest of that continent.
I’ve been to Europe several occasions, and Mexico too; beautiful places. That doesn’t take away from the fact that as a place to permanently live, and in terms of role in history, America is still better.
There is one Holocaust, the end. Hitler planned to and systematically and industrially exterminated the Jews, 2/3 of Europe’s and 1/3 of the world. His basis was conspiracy theories, not land largely under Jewish territorial control. And yes, intentionality matters. Even for “lebensraum,” he did not genocide those who controlled/inhabited territories he took over; in fact, he got the Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, other Slavs, etc. to all help him build his death camps.
American blacks were not exterminated, so no, black slavery is not comparable, unless you’re trying to downplay The Holocaust. Even with the aboriginals, they largely died of disease, and while yes there were things similar to pogroms against them, like Trail of Tears, it was not The Holocaust nor did a wholesale genocide happen to the aboriginals. What happened to them isn’t much different than how Russia expanded into Siberia.
See now, I like the U.S. - it is after all where I keep all my stuff. I’m not interested in living anywhere else. But the above attitude is just nonsense, even beyond lumping Europe into one homogeneous whole. There are definitely things certain countries are doing better at than the U.S., a reduced religiosity in many European countries these days not least among them IMHO.
Thank you for being a great friend and neighbour, but I’ll take gun control and universal health care over mass shootings and losing my life savings any day.
I’m pretty sure our immigration policies are far better too, especially when it come to accepting refugees.
a great or complete devastation or destruction, especially by fire.
a sacrifice completely consumed by fire; burnt offering.
(usually initial capital letter) the systematic mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps during World War II (usually preceded by the).
any mass slaughter or reckless destruction of life.
Um, no offence mate but I live in “Europe” (France actually - we have separate cultures and stuff ) and I wouldn’t move to America for a big clock.
You seem to have no earthly idea how fucked in the head your country even is, or at least seems to be to just about everyone abroad. From the attitude toward guns to healthcare to absurd wealth disparities and the general “fuck you, got mine” attitude to the dismal state of your workers’ rights & unions to the apparently deliberately dysfunctional government to the crumbling infrastructure to the creationists and assorted religious whackadoodles running amok to the for profit prisons, racially biased justice system and assorted antisocial policies… Big pile of NOPE.
When most people think of “the greatest country on the planet” these days, the Scandinavian area tops just about every chart. This despite a weather you generally wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy’s dog.
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It is compared to America. The UK, Germany, and France are more inclusive of blacks into their cultures than America from my vantage point. It isn’t odd to see blacks and whites commingling organically in these countries as it STILL is in the US. In fact, openly-expressed racism and xenophobism in America, if anything, has had a strong resurgence in recent years. It doesn’t just exist, it is crawling out from beneath its hiding place into the light with increasing frequency and boldness.
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Sorry to pull away the rose-tinted glasses, but France at least is a dismally xenophobic country. We just got *very *good at pretending otherwise.
) and I wouldn’t move to America for a big clock.