a topic i touch upon pretty often.

what happens when the day comes that all races are truly equal? that there exists a world where the majority of people are accepting? i mean, do all the activists go, "job well done" and go on to living normal lives as corporate drones? i mean, we're quickly getting on track to racial equality in a legal sense; and we're starting to grapple the social issues that face us today as a multicultural nation. i mean, i worry that once we achieve that type of status, the groups will be doing more harm than good (which i actually think is happening now to a certain extent); how would YOU like if your livelihood depended on something, and that thing was solved? i have a feeling some people will create scenarios in order to keep their jobs rather than accept the fact that equality has been reached.

and on another note, i *know* there will be someone who thinks, "racism will never be solved. there will always be a need for activism." spare me that. that's an overtly pessimistic view, and i think that it will be overcome with time.

and what if we're not meant to be a melting pot? it's been obvious that there's a lot of effort to maintain the distinct cultural identities of ourselves; does this obsession with keeping your cultural identites stand in the way of a melting pot? it seems that setting yourself aside as "different" just lends itself to more of a mosaic of different cultures rather than a melting pot.

to me, that term lends itself more to "giving" up a part of your identity and accepting other cultures into your own life; you have to give up a little bit of your identity to join a melting pot. a mosaic allows you to remain as a separate cultural group without leaving the group itself.

racial integration (between races) is still a generation off. as much as people would like to simply force everyone to mix with each other and achieve this melting pot nirvana, i think that the main barriers remain with traditional thought. many people don't consider dating outside their race (or marriage on a more serious level) simply because of their traditions. it's not racism; there's no inherent hatred or misconception about other races, but you just want to hold with tradition.

i know my parents want me to marry korean. they're ok with me dating whomever, but they're only ok with it because there's an unsaid stipulation that eventually I will marry korean. i'm pretty sure that this holds with a lot of other people - more so for guys than girl's (see han's recent entry).

my parents are not racist, but they just want to hold with tradition. i know i won't care who my kids marry as long as it makes them happy. but this is probably an upbringing thing; being exposed to many different cultures makes me more accepting.