The hypocrisy has reached new levels

[ShadowHM]

*Somehow* the Welsh and the Scots and even the Irish (*grin*) became "respectable" and even became The Man, here in America.

Would that be Lace-Curtain Irish or Shanty-town Irish? :P Not too long ago there was a definite difference between the two here in Ontario, in social status and job opportunities.

In many ways I agree with your assessment that 'race' is an all-too-easy moniker for the tendency of all humans to assume the 'other' is inferior and find all manner of ways to bolster and propagate that opinion. It sure helps to think someone is inferior when you are profiting nicely from keeping them in that status, whether by slaughtering them to get their land (attitudes toward Native Americans come to mind) or by keeping them in 'their place' for employment purposes (attitudes toward the Shanty-town Irish and the Chinese workers imported to build our railways come to mind).

Lazy minds or minds that are following the genetic imprinting that wants to view the 'other' as not worth the same consideration as 'us'? Or both?