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Talion
I agree that living in a neighborhood that's predominantly of a race other than white does tend to depress property values, in the belief that such a neighborhood is a ghetto (if it's predominantly black) or a barrio (in the case of neighborhoods like mine). My neighborhood is loaded with Latin Kings and other Hispanic street gangs - many whites feel uncomfortable coming into the neighborhood for that reason - but unfortunately, in my culture (I'm white), others like me seem to assume that (name the race or ethnic group) spells "criminal." I find that others of my race just tend not to associate with non-whites or members of non-English-speaking ethnic groups, for many of the same reason religious separatists stick to their own religious group(s). Therefore, they don't "think outside the box," or expose themselves to members of other ethnic or racial groups (who often think differently and have different customs from us).
posted by
kidnykid
on December 27, 2006 at 3:19 PM
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SoloWriter
The Watergate scandal is very complex, equivalent to Clinton's Whitewater scandal in terms of complexity. It took me a while to understand it, but I eventually aced that unit in American history class (which I finished a few months before Ford took office). Our involvement in Vietnam is far easier to explain. I don't know all the details of why the French first became involved in what was then known as Indochina, but we became involved in the Vietnam conflict, taking over from the French, for one simple reason: it was a part of the Cold War strategy of preventing the encroachment/infiltration of Communism. Many of our attitudes toward Communism, even as late as when I was in junior high in the late 1960s and early 1970s, were influenced by the anti-Communist sentiment of the 1950s McCarthy era, just as our attitudes (at least on an official level) toward the conflict in Iraq are influenced by our anti-terrorist attitudes since 9/11/2001. In fact, that's about when we really started sending "advisers" over to Vietnam - during JFK's administration, I think, or maybe during Eisenhower's in the 1950s. We got out of Dodge - er, Vietnam - in April 1975, when it was apparent that we'd lost the battle to keep Communism out of South Vietnam.
posted by
kidnykid
on December 27, 2006 at 3:13 PM
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kidnykid
You could call the neighborhood where I live integrated (I have white neighbors next door), but it's slowly going black. It's only a matter of time before it crosses the point of no return, the day it will officially be considered a "black neighborhood." It's the kiss of death for property values and such. In too many's minds, a
black neighborhood is synonomous with
ghetto.
posted by
Talion
on December 27, 2006 at 2:23 PM
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I don't think I'll ever understand the Watergate scandal or the Vietnam conflict, much less learn a lesson from them.
posted by
Jenasis
on December 27, 2006 at 12:57 PM
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