We've been doing this for 200 years. And we're currently backsliding after some steps forward. Saying this does nothing but further distance is ignoring that distance isn't being filled *anyway*.
Which is exactly what I meant by not on a wide enough scale and slow as molasses. And then that one incident has to fight against their parents constant reinforcement and them not wanting to be ostracized from their peers.
I love how being called a racist is now a slur. It's incredible. Again this doesn't change what I originally said. This is slow and on such a small scale acting as though it's some silver bullet to racism is off.
I agree that incidents like that will have to fight against the parents' constant reinforcement. I'm not trying to paint being civil as being some kind of silver bullet to racism, and I'm not saying that racists need to be coddled. Racism should not be tolerated. I agree with you that the country looked like it was going in the right direction for years, but suddenly has been set back by decades because of Trump.
Racism is wrong, sexism is wrong, and homophobia is wrong. I fucking hate Trump and all of his views with a ferocity that I can't put into words. The general progress against bigotry that civilization as a whole has doing well against until now has been set back by decades, and I place the blame purely because he and his
fucking filth has been on the world stage constantly over the past year.
But I don't think fighting hate with hate is the answer. The racist and bigoted views are deplorable and the actions based on them are deplorable, and they should not be tolerated. But you can't dehumanize the people who hold those views because they will never change if you do. Attack the views, but not the people. Attacking the people would probably create more racists in the long run because all the racism would be enforced with "Look, they hate us anyway." It's not logical but from the perspective of racists, it would just reinforce their views that minorities should be hated.
I think the younger generation is generally more accepting of race and sexual orientation because they grew up around it more. It's hard to be a racist when you grew up hanging out with minorities and seeing that all the bullshit that your parents may spew towards you about them is completely unfounded. But if everyone steps up the hate towards each other, it will reinforce those views.
Saying "dude, that's racist" is different from saying "dude, you're racist." One can be detached from the person. The other can't.