Unit 6

Race....

Race is a complex issue in today's world. I grew up in California, an urbanized ethnic mixing pot. I lived in and around Sacramento until I was close to thirty. Sacramento was, and perhaps still is, one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country. Sacramento, for all it's pluralism, had some problems of it's own. The very diversity which also gave the city so much of it's strength also gave rise to it's darker sentiments. The closeness of the "other" led to the old refrain "familiarity breeds contempt". The twin spectres of racism and separatism raised their heads. While admittedly, not as terribly as in other California communities.

I wonder as i write this how much of that division was based on class more so than race. Yes, there was a division of neighborhoods; this neighborhoods a white neighborhood or that neighborhoods a black one. But, the neighborhoods of the upper crust seemed to be more ethnically diverse than that of the poor. Rich and affluent Caucasians mixed with and live alongside equally rich and affluent Hispanic, African American, and Asian neighbors. It was only when you slid down the pole did you see residential division relevant to race.

Why is this? Could it be that the oppressor class seeks to keep the masses divided? Is it little more than the old idiom, divide and conquer? Could it really be that simple?