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My one reason for not agreeing with dividing the US is that most southern states (one of which I live in, happily) still have lots of black people who will lose
by uncletaco 7y ago
My one reason for not agreeing with dividing the US is that most southern states (one of which I live in, happily) still have lots of black people who will lose federal protections from Jim Crow era laws that have not been enforced since the 60s. So the US staying together is a deterrent to, say, Alabama, enforcing some of its segregationist and racist laws that are just sitting there.
Now, I know the first answer to this is for black people to just pack it up and move somewhere else, and the guy in the interview glossed over it by saying people should "self sort". However large migrations almost always bring with them instability and sometimes war. I think of India and Pakistan as the most egregious example of what happens when populations are told to "self-sort" into separate countries that were once unified.
- murph-almighty 7y agoI would argue that basically all of the recent migrations are self-sorting: you're saying "I can't stay here out of fear for my safety" and doing something about it by removing yourself from that situation. "Self-sorting" is almost a disservice to the amount of effort it takes to remove yourself from a suddenly created situation past your control. This is also why I hold general antipathy towards the sentiment "move back to your country"- clearly they left because something was deeply, utterly fucked. And it's awkward/cognitively dissonant to watch my family, a product of exactly this sort of immigration (context: Hungary and Russia in '55/'56) exhibit that sentiment in the modern day when people are fleeing gang violence in Guatemala and civil war in Syria.