An interesting interview, thanks for sharing. There's some weird parts where they start in on parallels with blacks in this country that get unfortunately skimmed, but I guess it's understandable as that's not the author's focus. I guess the biggest parallel is to the self-fulfilling prophecy—that gangs and "hood culture" came along the problems in urban America, and in turn was seen as the major cause, and as a result helped perpetuate the problem. There's always been a certain amount of "expect the worst from people and they'll never disappoint" related to image issues in race relations, and that's certainly one of the ways that the old civil rights movement confronted that—beating up a bunch of people quietly sitting at lunch counters in their Sunday best isn't exactly speaking to the image of "the delinquent Negro" and other stereotypes which sadly linger in updated form today.
I've heard it proposed a couple of places, most definitely printed in the Post as an op-ed a few years' back, that they didn't think whites would actually become a minority in the country because the definition of "whiteness" would expand to include minorities such as east Asians, just as it had expanded outside of the classic WASP mold to include the Irish and Mediterranean Europeans. I'm wondering how much true there might be to that, and how much is just hopeful optimism that we can strike down another racial barrier (or if it's even all that helpful, as it's still leaving people on the outside.)
Quick question. When Americans say asian, do they only mean east asians?
What are south Asians called?
Obviously it will depend on the crowd and who you're talking to, but generally if you're talking about South Asians, it's disambiguated as such. Ask someone about who an Asian is, and you'll probably get Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and China as the most common countries of origin, aka the places that had the most immigration here.
Thats the only way I see the world becoming united. There would still be racism here and there, but at the threar of a completely alien being, even that would dwindle as time went on.
Problem with the
Watchmen line of thinking is that people get acclimated to all sorts of stuff way too easy. Wouldn't be long before we'd all be back to fighting unless there was some other factor at work besides just "aliens are coming".
Ironically Star Trek basically uses the same turning point as the way humanity digs itself out of World War III, but there at least the aliens are helpful and basically help spur development of all the tech that obviates the need for war or poverty, as opposed to just threatening us to get our shit together.
