Primarily for other African-Americans, but input from others welcome...

Well two things here.

1) The South isn't ALL bad. The South is merely where you'll find the most openness on the evidence of racism.

2) The North isn't ALL good. Sometimes you can find more racist people in the North than you do in the South and I have seen it first hand on numerous occasians.

Racism isn't always blatant and more often than not, is institutionalized.

I'm talking about the south because never ever experience the kind of stuff i experience there in the north of the US...or in others parts of the world that i have been.

For sure prejudice and racism are all over but my own worse experiences were in the south of the USA. Its not rudenes or lack of education or good manners because i can deal with that and can choose to ignore - its just plain hate. i could feel that.

I'm not shy and not scare of confrontations but was atonished for what found there & being there a while everytime had the oportunity ask black americans (most from the north) if i was crazy or they felt the same as i did about it because maybe their experience was different than mine (they are black americans they "belong here", they are not foreigners speaking with an accent ) & all the ones i ask said: yes!

For sure i dont know everything about the american experience and ways but i know what i live in my own skin here.

I'm white Canadian and I can tell you that statement about the NORTH is true here.

"Polite" hidden racism is probably ultimately worse than the in-your-face kind. At least you know where you stand with the overt kind and can possibly do something with it. How do you battle a phantom?

I know a lot of people who are hypocrites and keep their ugly opinions carefully hidden. They reveal themselves inevitably.

My wife is Asian, and we have a daughter, so I'm more sensitive to my wife's perceptions.

I'm not sure if too many people realize this, but Hispanics and Latinos aren't a race. They're a linguistic-based ethnicity.

Well, there is evidence (however slight or questionable) that the various races and/or linguistic groups are gradually assimilating each others' lifestyles and culture, due to greater contact via the internet, the media (t.v., movies, arts, music) etc. Whether the things being assimilated are the best characteristics of each culture remains to be seen, but it is happening.

Case in point: A country music video I saw last night called "Honky Tonk Badonka" or something like that. I don't t know the artist's name (I'm not into country and western, nor hip hop or rap, for that matter), but it was the oddest thing I've seen in awhile. That's because even tho it was a c & w song, and the setting in a country dance hall (i don't know what such a place is called), the gestures of the singer, the way the video was produced, and everything else about it looked just like a hip hop video.

There were the low camera angles with the singer leaning down in your face, the gestures and symbols with the fingers, the body posturing, the obligatory close up ass shots of women dancing... the singer even had "bling" on his fingers in the form of rings which read "honky tonk". Aside from the cowboy hat and tight jeans, one would've thought one was watching a hip hop artist.

I don't know, maybe i missed the point. Maybe the video was supposed to be parody or satire. But there are other signs as well, in the way people of all races use the language, in the terms used, in the music, in the gestures used, in the way many carry themselves. The culture is changing.

We're obviously having an influence on each other, be it for better or worse.

"Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" is the latest hit by Toby Keith.

Use that information wisely.

A "hit"? Well, i rest my case.

Trace Adkins!!! I meant Trace Adkins, not Toby Keith.

Fuck, there go my smartass credentials.

awww, that's too bad

and look at what you could've won

Again.

Race is a man-made construct.

However such man defines it is how it may be. Hispanic and Latino may not be a race, but then again if that's the case, neither is Black...or White.

Race is merely a defination of a category of people. Hispanics and/or Latinos, therefore, are such and a race. Based on definition.

Regardless, this topic is talking about removing racial barriers and stereotypical connotations. Not defining or arguing about their credibility.