[wardaddy]

I do not consider my self a racist(as in being a Supremacist) but I am a chauvinistic regionalist and a believer that the British traditions that founded our nation are paramount and the world's best....far and away so.

But I must confess. My moral compass does not instinctively flutter between RACIST or NON-RACIST regarding any synapse of thought that passes thru me feeble mind. Maybe it's age or generational. I'm 47 now and I was very idealistic and judgmental of imperfection in my youth...alas a liberal once obviously.

But no....I don't think racism or ethnocentricity are the absolute worst humanity has to offer. Racism can produce very bad things but I have never known anyone who did not identify with their race, ethnicity, religion or even usually gender. This "new man" devoid of the usual human flaws sounds mighty messianic and humanist and all that sort of stuff and I just don;t buy it.

And I have lived in environments where race matterd very much...even down to tribal affiliation in matters of life and death.

Only in America are we so naive...or perhaps arrogant to think we are above or beyond it all.

We are not. Just examine our cities for a second. Much of them are unsafe for me at nite in place simply because I am white. In a perfect world...I would prefer colorblind but that is not going to happen now. The allure of victimhood is a siren call for too many....the victims and their vicarious sympathizers.

[Pelham]

This "new man" devoid of the usual human flaws sounds mighty messianic and humanist and all that sort of stuff and I just don;t buy it.

New Soviet Man, newly discovered and now embraced in the ever evolving Big Tent.

[unbalanced but fair]

Identifying with one's race and ethnic heritage is not racism. A Racist believes that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that one race is superior to the others. I'm glad that you don't consider yourself one.
Life experience too has taught me many lessons, more than I have time to discuss. I have never been a Liberal so I can't share your experience there. I too have traveled to and lived in many places, some where Racism was truly evil. And I have seen in places like Selma, Montgomery, and others that America is not "above and beyond it all."
But after living 60 years, I still see the good in people as well as the bad. I still believe in our country. To me illegal immigration is a slap in the face to all the hard-working immigrants who came here legally, including my parents. If that makes me a "new woman" or "messianic" then so be it. But I am definitely not a humanist.
For now, you have your opinions and I have mine. Let's leave it at that. It's late and I have to work tomorrow.

[djf]

Your post hits on alot of key points. And I think it is a valid and reasonable issue.

Why is it that there is less and less of a place left in this world for people like me? WASP folks, I mean.

Our country has a certain history and attitude about things (I don't mean the country in toto, I mean American history).

My gr-gr-gr-gr grandfather is a civil war veteran.

I don't think that means boo to the Hispanic world. Or the Chinese world. Or the Arab world.

But it means something to me. And I see these heritages and lessons being washed away.

Americans are still predominantly of european descent.
We have this country, and the Hispanics have Mexico.

But tomorrow, we might wake up, and they'll have Mexico, they'll have America, and we will be outsiders in our own land.

I don't think asking these questions makes me a racist.
But it seems more and more that if you're white, you're not allowed to be proud of anything.