by Edward Hall

Created on: February 16, 2010

First, separating along racial, ethnic or cultural lines is never really a good thing. Separation leads to ignorance, ignorance leads to mistrust, mistrust leads to defense and aggression and that leads to tragedy. The more we know the more we understand each other and the more we understand the easier it is to accept one another.

When you hear people making broad racial, ethnic or cultural generalizations it is always about "them other people". A group they stay away from. If they leave me alone, I'll leave them alone. Frankly, if it were up to me, we would all be required to have little "get to know you" meetings where Bikers sip tea with the elderly while people of African descent share recipes with Hispanics. If nothing else, this would result in some really GREAT food.

Luckily, it’s not up to me. It’s a free country, if a person does not want to mix with a variety of people, if he or she is happy with their Xenophobia, that is none of my business.

The drive for desegregation was never meant to force individuals to mix. At its best it was meant to assure the opportunity for all people to be treated equally under the law. That was it. A person of African or Asian descent should have access to as much opportunity as a person of European descent. That was the ideal and while the ideal may seem unattainable that does not mean we should not move steadily in that direction.

Segregation defined as the forced legal separation of different groups is wrong. It can't be right because someone in that bargain is being denied their rights. Segregation defined as the voluntary separation of people into sub-cultures is probably also wrong but it is natural, an individual choice and any attempts to intervene by the government would also be wrong.

Doctor King had a wonderful vision. It involved a society where individuals were judged by the content of their character and not the petty differences of pigment, religion, age, ethniticity and other things we tend to fixate on. I believe we should strive for such a society and make it clearly unconstitutional for our government's (local, state or federal) to do otherwise.  

However, while this discussion is about society let's not forget that the country is about individual rights. We can do what is right and get the government out of everyone's way without regard to race, creed et al. We as a society do not have the authority to tell franchised citizens they must work and play well with others.

Learn more about this author, Edward Hall.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.