Affirmative action policies were put in place *because* of systematic racism - you do know it wasn't *that* long ago, that African-Americans weren't even allowed *into* some schools, and jobs, etc. The laws were changed - you think that makes it any easier for them to get in? Unless you specifically tell someone they didn't get in because of the colour of their skin, you can pretty much carry on with segregation, just disguised as something else. Now, I've never agreed with policies that insist on a certain percentage, but yes, I think there should be a system in place to compensate for the fact that people and society don't change on a dime just because the law does. How many people do you know that went from fighting tooth and nail against Same-sex-marriage who suddenly loved it because it was now the law of the land? I bet absolutely none - yet, it's now the law.
Yes, there was an African-American president. How did some "good Americans" react to that? Let's see - making it official party platform to block every single one of his initiatives - *even* those that were recognized to be for the good of the country as a whole (as leaked by retiring members of the GOP - that was the party line). Some people referred to him as the "******-in-chief" - no racism there, of course. Let's not get into the whole referring to his wife as a ape, or the fact that there are still people who are convinced that everything bad that happened was his fault - even when he was cleaning up the mess caused by the previous "white republican" that they so desired as President. Then there is the DOJ who even *themselves* admits that African-Americans are more frequently jailed for crimes that "white folk" get off for, and the fact that # of African-Americans shot by cops "fearing for their lives" is statistically out of line with the percentage of the population, *and* the fact that with increasing bodycam usage, we are seeing more and more footage of the cops doing despicable, evil, and flat-out illegal acts with respect to African-American suspects. (I.e. stomping on the head of someone who is kneeling, handcuffed, and not doing anything - no tendency to treat them differently at all ...no...no...) Given the *historical* behaviour of mainly white cops in the USA to Hispanics and African-Americans, I'm not surprised at all that some have been killed execution style, in fact, I'm surprised there haven't been more! It's like killing a rabid dog that keeps attacking people, since we keep seeing many incidents of flat out racist cops behaving more like criminals than cops, getting away with it, and their white coworkers not encouraging, but not stopping them either. (Mind you, that's more of a problem with the gang-like police *union* - we have the same problem in Canada - good cops don't stop bad cops for fear of reprisal, because they expect all cops to support all other cops no matter how criminal their actions)
One can love one's country *without* being in agreement with everything it does. It is, in fact, one's *duty* as a citizen to try to make one's country better, and to protest those actions and behaviours that are seen to be wrong, and to try to improve them, and sometimes that means a symbolic act act that other people don't agree with. I'm sure Rosa Parks offended a whack-load of people by not knowing her place, and refusing to give up the seat she took on the bus, but she was right to do what she did. Would you have told her "You don't like segregation - leave"?
