🚀 go-pugleaf

Dave> Perhaps. But how to separate "prejudice" from "business practices"?

You cannot separate from business practice if in that include some prejudice
attitude. Slavery was a business practice... 

>However, I still think that the law should (and do in some countries)
>prevent deliberated discrimantion against some groups. For instance,
>in the US we have Equal Opportunity, Privacy Act, etc.etc. All those
>laws were created to protect "people".  
Dave> This may sound like heresy, but has that *law* had made the U.S. a
Dave> kinder gentler place to live? I don't think so. 

At least, for me (a US permanent resident), those laws are working
good enough. Of course, there are many holes, but at least I have
some protection and worked well many times . Even for my wife
(she herself a taiwanese-american) the law worked very well giving
her opportunities that she couldn't received if she stayed in other
country without those kind of laws. Those laws are not totally effective,
but seems to be doing something to people who really do efforts to
integrate in the US.
If the US is not that kinder gentler place to live the main reason
is the deep-rooted "prejudice behaviour" inside some "white" americans,
IMHO.

Dave> IMHO, since people's behavior can be quite different that what the
Dave> law says it should be, as long as they are prejudiced in their
Dave> hearts and minds, passing laws isn't going to do a lot of good to
Dave> change the situation for the better. 

Laws are not intented to change people's behaviour in a short run. 
I cannot agree that "passing laws won't make any change". Passing
laws is only the first step. The next one is to give conscience to
those minorities group that they have rights. Even more than 100
years from the freedom of the slaves in the US, we have dual societies.
Would it be better if we didn't do that? 

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