[WS:} The "peculiar institution" is as American as the flag and apple pie, so I am not sure who is seriously denying it. I also do not find debating this very interesting, it is like debating whether the earth is round or the sun rises in the east.
To my mind, a far more interesting question is why segregation patterns persists long after the "peculiar institution" and its legal vestiges have been gone. Blaming it on people's attitudes looks like evading that question. When you look at from another angle, other countries, like Brazil, also have a large ex-slave populations, yet they seem not to be as segregated as the US. Even we assume that Brazilians have different attitudes than Americans, it begs the question why?
I do not have any definite answers to it, this is not really my area of specialization, but I have a strong feeling that it has something to do with the operations of the market, which seems to permeate the U society to a much greater degree than elsewhere. There are a lot of ways in which the market can contribute to solidification of prejudices, chief of them being catering to those prejudices to market stuff for sale, and people being able to act on those prejudices to design their entire way of life i.e. where they live where they shop what kind of culture and entertainment they buy etc.
I mean, prejudice of "others" is very common across all social groups, yest most of those groups do not have an option to shop for ways of life that embodies and solidifies their prejudices. For example, Croats and Serbs might have prejudices against each other but they also did not have the luxury of buying into products (like housing) that further exaggerated these prejudices. They may be telling ethnic jokes about each other, but lived in the same neighborhoods, went to same schools, movie theaters etc. It is only when the market gives people a choice to design their way of life based on their prejudice - payed out by marketers - is when they do start separating people.
In any case, these are my two cents on the issue.
Wojtek
On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 2:58 PM, c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:
> [WS:} I am not saying that segregation is not true, I did not need the
> maps to know that. I was saying that I do not think it is racist
> prejudice that is the main reason of that segregation, but rather the
> market and cultural identities.
>
> wojtek
>
> ^^^^^^^^
> CB: I see your point.
>
> I think the terms "white supremacy" and "racist prejudice" must
> always be used with heavy historical consciousness or consciousness
> that the present is still shaped by history. Though is has made
> progress, US society is still shaped by the racism and white
> supremacy of its history. The denial of this is part of the American
> extreme anti-historical/presentist consciousness.
>
> But I think your point is important. The racism of the present is not
> at the same level or the same type as it has been historically. But it
> is at a level such that it prevents overcoming things like preexisting
> residential segregation and racially endogamous marriage and mating.
>
> It will take one more leap of anti-racist progress to change that.
>
> On your market and cultural identities, I'd say racism is cultural
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