We, as a species, tend to gravitate towards others like ourselves. It seems to be “human nature” if you will, to form “tribes”.

Even in these tribes, we further break down into more and more specialized groups.

In my mind, we love ourselves most of all. We recognize in other those traits and qualities that most reflect our own and we desire to surround ourselves with those traits and qualities. They make us feel comfortable in their familiarity. They are our “happy place”.

This is not to say that those that congregate are mere clones of one another. We humans (and we Americans most of all) idolize the “individual”. We also tend to be somewhat advesarial and do so enjoy the art of conflict. So, even in our tribes, there is not complete harmony. But with those most like ourselves, we can usually agree to disagree in the end.

There are plenty of other tribes that are not like ourselves. We may not hate them, but we don’t want to be them. We may see their standards as lower than our own or their habits too unusual or uncomfortable for us. We willingly distance ourselves from the ther tribes. Many people in today’s society (like Mr. Holder) see this as inherently wrong. I do not. I see this as providing a very necessary safety buffer and avoiding undue conflict or even downright hostility.

My neighbors are Mexican. Yes, Mexican. They are good, hard-working folks that take good care of their place and love each other dearly. They have good, strong family values and truly aspire to be valuable (if quiet) members of the community. In short, they are good people.

When we see each other we always smile and say hello or hola. We even take a few minutes from time to time to chat as neighbors sometimes do. Their kids and my kids attend the same school so we have a few things in common. Sometimes I mow our collective lawn, sometime my neighbor does (we share a duplex). If one of us is gong to not be around on Sunday night we can count on the other to take our garbage can to the curb and if we’re still not back by Monday evening, we can count on the other to bring the garbage can back. We are patient and friendly with each other and even go out of our way to help each other from time to time.

But we do not “hang out” with each other.

In many ways they are very like me. But in too many ways they are not. I recognize and respect the differences but see no need to try and overcome them. Why do the differences need to be overcome? Is there something wrong with us being different? Is just being friendly and helpful with one another not enough? Do I also need to absorb and be absorbed by their culture?

These days the word “diversity” gets bandied about with nauseating frequency. But the fact is, those that most often and most loudly preach diversity are doing everything that can to destroy it. My neighbors are good folks. They have strengths I lack just as I have qualities they do not. Why must we seek some sort of common lowest denominator to remove the strengths and make everyone equally weak?

Regardless of how he feels, or how I feel about it, race is a very consequential factor in American life today. I actually believe we were making great progress at blending our cultural heritages such that members of the many races were not too concerned about the other guy’s race. That was until politicians, bureaucrats and other ne’er-do-wells learned the awesome power of race to change the political landscape. Are you losing the argument? Drop the race card. Did your opponent catch you in a lie? Drop the race card. Want to be President? Drop the Race Card.

If you doubt that last one, look at the numbers. Mr. Obama won the election with 69.5 million votes (52.9%) to Mr. McCain’s 59.9 million votes (45.7%). Mr. Obama received over 96% of Black vote (which amounted to 13% of the total vote). If you remove that 12.4 million black votes from Mr. Obama and the 500,000 black votes from Mr. McCain and then add back 6.9 million votes (52.9%) for Mr. Obama and add back the 5.8 million votes (45.7%) for Mr. McCain, you have a new winner. Mr. McCain wins by 65.2 million to 63.9 million for Mr. Obama.

What does this prove? It proves an exceedingly high correlation between race and the vote as to blacks. Does this mean black voters are racist? No. Does it mean that race was the most important factor in their vote? Probably.

I don’t know how we change and move toward that “post racial society” that we seem to long for. I do know that as long as playing races against one another has such huge power, it will not stop.

How do we blend better? I think we do it the old fashioned way. We meet each other. We get acquainted and learn what we have in common. We learn from each other about our different upbringing, customs, likes, dislikes. We find that we have enough in common to become friends, or, we don’t. At some point, the color of the skin has faded into noise level and we are just two different people, not two different races. At some point we have admiration for the other guy for who he is, not for the color of his skin.

As long as our ruling class continues to use race for power (to divide and conquer), I think there is slim chance we will make true progress –and I am an optimist.

I think the answer to many of your questions have to do with the difference between black and white. The white community (whatever that is) is not monolithic. We vote from various perspectives, we listen to a wide range of music, and we spread ourselves out across the country.

The black community is defined by their voting habits (98% for Obama?). They claim hip hop as their own and then set about populating the genre with rhymes about bitches and shooting people. The black community tends to remain in an urban area they claim to be unhappy with, do nothing to improve, and then idolize for it’s survivalist lifestyle ignoring the fact that the only thing they have to “survive” is each other and their own self-imposed poverty. The black community, as the media defines it, is monolithic.

While any half-intelligent person knows there are exceptions, we’re not talking about the exceptions. When reports come out on how the black community has a disproportionately high crime rate due to whites forcing them into urban ghettos, the reporters are not including Bill Cosby, Colin Powell, and Condoleeza Rice in that group. While I don’t know about Condoleeza, I do know that Cosby and Powell had to overcome poverty when they were younger and, with the help of solid values, THEY DID. They didn’t HAVE to sell drugs, they worked in a shoe shine stand and furniture store, respectively.

One of the problems is defining what it means to be black or white. When I was growing up, Hispanic was a race. Then, through the wonders of affirmative action, Hispanics began pushing blacks out of the running for jobs in California. Wasn’t too long before Hispanic was an ethnicity and no longer a race.

I’m about at the end of my patience concerning race in this country. The pendulum seems to have swung not back to center, but far over to the other side and is beginning to tread on my rights as a human being. There is a single word in the English language that dare not even be spelled out completely as if it’s the true name of a demon and speaking it summons him to damn you eternally. On second thought, it’s not as if. That’s actually what happens.

In order to show my pride it must be in conjuction with a nationalistic approach. Such as an Irish Fest or Scottish Highland games. I can say I’m proud to be Irish, or a Scott, or German, (all concidered white countries). I cant just say “I’m proud to be white” this would have a serious negative connotation attached to it. But if a black man was to say “I’m proud to be black”, that is perfectly acceptable. He can even be semi militant about it and just be concidered as standing up for his rights. A militant whiteman? He’s automatically labeled a Nazi, or white supremist even if he made no negitive mention of black people. It would be automatically assumed that he is anti black.

I’m a proud Whiteman, white people have made many of the advances that we enjoy in all of the arenas of our lives. So have all the other races, we all did it together. There’s room for us all to be proud.

Aaaackk! hkaugh! ggaaahhh… ok, ok… though really, I don’t feel much better after choking on what is likely the truth. The scary part of this for me is simply that I’m not sure what to do to change the status quo… OH! Shit, I forgot, conservatives are supposed to argue FOR the status quo…

I’m not sure putting a bullet in the brain would stop any legislator these days. They appear capable of operating without them.