On February 21, 2018, our HIST 390 class discussed the strange phenomenon of cultural and racial segregation that plagued the United States.  At the same time minstrel shows became popular (and even possibly before that), American politics and attitudes had become viciously segregated while American music had been hybridized.  It had been so easy for music of different cultures and different types of races to band together and integrate with one another, so why couldn’t American politics do it?  Was it possible that political and legal culture were actively trying to keep away from mixing or integrating?  A little bit of yes and a little bit of no.  The fact of the matter was that race and culture made people different from one another, and people, via basic human nature, simply like to categorize everything in their lives.  And why wouldn’t anyone?  It’s certainly easier than thinking and keeping track of everything individually.  The boundaries of these categories are arbitrary, making things even more complicated and divisive.  Everyone wants equality, they just can’t agree on what equality is or what the steps are necessary for said equality are, and in a time like this, feeling of segregation had become almost natural and accepted.  People back then had to consciously think in order to go against segregation, it wasn’t a natural or impulsive thought.  It was so bad that it makes one wonder if people truly were against racism or not.  After all, if people were honestly against it, then there wouldn’t be calls to action to combat it, right?  If anything, people sort of rely on it.  After all, there are very few real performers who don’t use politics or important social issues to express their own thoughts and opinions on the subject and gain an audience based on those opinions, the same can be said for politicians and social activists.  These people would lose a significant amount of their jobs if all of the political and racial divides just happened to disappear one day.  While steps towards fighting such racial and political differences have been made throughout the history of the United States (one such example being the case of Loving v. Virginia), the sad fact is that mental segregation is a part of our lives, whether we wish to acknowledge it or not.

For me personally, I’d say that segregation has always been a part of human history, not just in that of the United States.  We used to have tribes and tribes would simply fight one another, whether it be a moral argument, conquering the other one, or fighting over resources, there has always been an “us vs. them” mentality.  I’d actually even go as far as to say that racism doesn’t even really exist, or, at the very least, it’s just simply a small part of tribalism.  I’ve always found the idea of racism to be too simple, silly, and petty for it to truly be a thing, with the whole, “My race is better than your race” and all that.  I’ve never looked at another person of another race and think, “Man, I am so much better than that guy,” and if I were to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, I would have to assume that, unless there is evidence to the contrary, that everyone else thinks more or less the same way.  Usually when people hate or treat someone else differently, it’s due to personal problems or reasons or it’s based on what they or people just like them have done.  No one thinks, “I hate black people for the sole purpose of them being black” or, “I hate black people because they haven’t done as much as my race.”  Heck, I doubt anyone cares enough about that to really keep score.  And even with the latter of the two, no one is going to make accomplishments up.  They’re going to list actual accomplishments.  That’s pride.  That’s being proud of being part of a group.  Being proud of your “tribe”.  The U.S. being comprised of multiple “tribes” whether it be liberals, democrats, conservatives, republicans, white, black, Asian, Christian, Muslim, pro-life, pro-choice, sports teams, musical preference etc. is, what I think, the true reason for why the U.S. population can be so segregated all the time.  Everyone’s a part of thousands upon thousands of tribes and that constantly makes everyone opinionated and divisive about everything.  In order for feelings of segregation to disappear, or at least go down, we all have to agree to be part of one “tribe”.  We all have to agree on one end goal or else we’re all just going to argue about everything for the sake of arguing about everything to bring honor to our own “tribes”.  In order for us to be united, both politically and personally, we all have to agree on at least one goal, or else we’re never going to get anywhere.