>Great Britain is involved in the Middle East too, and has been our ally in that war since Tony Blair. >The U.S. has socialized medicine. >Gay Marriage is legal in how many states now?
You're mixing up your personal definition of a "perfect" democracy with democracy. There are many other recognized forms of democracy that are not direct democracy (or whatever you're conceptualizing), and the US is almost universally recognized as an electoral democracy (although I will have to check out that paper that someone pointed out earlier in this thread). It doesn't matter, anyway. Countries all exist along a spectrum of democratic versus undemocratic. There are no countries currently that are completely democratic, and I don't think that the "best" option is always to try to get as close to a complete democracy as possible in all circumstances. To determine how democratic a country is, I prefer using Andres Schedler's "chain of democratic choice" in his paper, The Menu of Manipulation. He lists seven links in the chain of democracy that combine to determine how democratic a country is. They are: 1) Elected officials have a high scope of power; 2) Citizens are free to form, join, and support parties, candidates, and policies easily; 3) Citizens must be able to learn about the issues and candidates they are voting on; 4) All full members of the country have equal voting rights; 5) Citizens must be free to express their electoral preferences; 6) Every person has the same weight attached to their vote; and 7) Elections have lasting impact (those elected are given power). And to bring it back to Ferguson, there has been a lot of infringing upon democratic chain link #5 with the violent tactics used by the militarized police against protestors.
Maybe I'm not in the right loop, but I've heard that the term African-American is no longer acceptable. Maybe someone can chime in here. I don't want to be offensive to anyone out there, especially if it can be easily avoided.
It's always tough to try to speak for a race, whether you are a member of that race or no, since no one person can do that. From what I've heard and read, African American is still acceptable if you are talking about someone who moved from Africa to the United States. In the Caribbean, many local populations distinguish between African Americans and blacks. In fact, some people get offended if they are are called African American when they are only black. That's why I generally use the word "black," which is more generally applicable and is commonly used.
Black is fine. African American is fine. But the only non racist use of "race" is if it's immediately preceded by the word, "human".
The correct terminology, if one has to refer to race, is Black. There happen to be people of color all over the world that are not African.
I direct your observation to my previous comment. Thus: Black race White race Jewish race Superior race Inferior race
I'm saying the right wing faction that are convinced this cop was justified in shooting, and Zimmerman was justified in shooting, and the cops that gunned down the guy with the air rifle in the Walmart were justified in shooting have a preconceived notion that young black men are inherently dangerous and more likely to attack people than not. This same right wing faction that believe themselves to be pro-America had the preconceived notion that Clive Bundy was justified in not paying the fees for grazing his cattle on public lands. So what do you think the difference is?
But that goes back to the original question. If you refer to someone of the Black race, is it correct to capitalize it all the time like you would Hispanic or Caucasian?
I'm pretty sure the OP was making the point that protesters against the police that were there for Mike Brown were waving American flags. Not people there to protest for the cop.
Technically @Jack Asher is right, there are ethnic groups but the identification of genetic races doesn't meet biological science standards for any sub-species divisions.
No! Bad! What you might be missing is the implication that the other race is less human then the one to which you belong. That's the racist part. There's no reason you can't use "community" instead and let everyone know that you don't have a Skynrd t-shirt.
Black is a race. Jesus you would think I asked what the meaning of life is. It was a simple question. If you call someone Black is it proper to capitalize it?
No. Human is a race. Black is an ethnicity. The idea that black people are a separate race is actually really racist.
Well then their are several pieces of legal documents that are racist. You still haven't answered my question.
No, Lewdog! It's an ethnicity, not a race! And no, you don't capitalize 'black'. Ever. Just never ever. That's your answer. You don't capitalize 'black' or 'white'.
There are, most notably the constitution. We're working on that. Black would be capitalized if you were referring to a community as a whole, but not when referring to an individual.
That's just it, I don't understand why you would capitalize others like Native American, Caucasian, or Latino, but not capitalize Black.
I could be wrong, but I think it's because they refer to a specific group of people with their own culture. When we say Latino, we mean someone from the Latino culture.
