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Nelson Mandela
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sgt.davis44
sgt.davis44

Well, i live in South Africa. To be honest, most people's minds have not changed much. Unfortunately.

Mostly a small segment of the younger populations tend be more intermingled as the schools are now open to all.

The problem is that many of the older generation raise their children with the same mindset as they themselves grew up. So it carries through in most people. It's not a good situation in general.

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Admiral-165 Creator
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Westonbirt
Westonbirt

His body has decayed, but his memory will live on. Moving on.

Can't speak for everywhere else (not South Africa at least) but since you mention "the western world" as a whole, here's my piece.

What changed since the civil rights era and the apartheid is we have ended 'institutionalized' racism, which is the best we could.

We can't change people's mind by force, you can not force tolerance into bigoted people ; what you can do is fight it back and change the discussion environment so that people don't dare to say "we gotta round up all dem *******". They can't still think it ; and indeed many people still think it.

Racism didn't die in 1964, or in 2008 for that matter. What died progressively was the idea that racism is a a belief you can vocalize openly and defend. All you can hope for is that the next generation will set it right. But you know, the people that control government and industries, and the media are at all time between 55 and 70. It's the funny thing about democracy, the people that live in any time have to live by the rules of the last generation.

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tl;dr version : What has truly changed is institutionalized racism, what remains is the ordinary racism of the masses, and you wont scrub this by force, it will evolve with time.

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sgt.davis44
sgt.davis44

I can very much agree to this sentiment. It is very much unfortunate but I do think that our entire civilization is moving closer and closer to a point where this will not hold true at all.

On the topic of gay marriage for example(of which Mandela was a great supporter just as a side point) which is highly frowned upon in most communities in South Africa is mostly legal. Not something the majority of the previous generation supports.

Change by natural evolution of society is slow, but it does happen and it lasts. Whenever an idea is forced onto people it quickly(relatively) dies off.

I can't say that we will be rid of racism in our lifetimes as a social(if not institutionalized) factor in our lifetimes. or the next, or the next. But come back in a thousand years and most of us would be surprised at what has changed.

Just as another side-point, I think this is something that most people don't consider. Or WANT to consider. I find often when talking to people in a serious way that they have no concept of life outside their own lives, in the future, past or even the present. It is not a factor in their reasoning. Thus they have no interest in change that will be important after we're dead.

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ComradeWinston Creator
ComradeWinston

Never knew much about him until after he died a few days ago, just never really entered my radar. Though if Bill O'Reilly and Rick Santorum think he's a communist, on that basis alone he must've done something right.

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sgt.davis44
sgt.davis44

He was a great supporter of Communism(along with pretty much the entire resistance movement).

As far as I have it he didn't support the entire system though. He was much more for free market(in a limited sense) and in the end decided against turning SA into a communist state in '94. Mostly because the East Bloc was pretty much dissolved for all intent and purposes.

A great man in my opinion. Idolized maybe, but that's quite important too I think.

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LordPancake
LordPancake

Here was a GOOD Godly Christian man, even if he was misguided and deceived by the Communists.

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Cpt.Dann
Cpt.Dann

Here was a GOOD Communist man, even if he was misguided and decieved by the Christians.

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Description

As most of you know, today Dec 5 2013 Nelson Mandela died at the age of 95. A revolutionary, leader and activist.
In his memory I ask this question.

What is the prevalence of racism in the Western world, some claim it is almost non-existent other claim it is as prevalent as ever, how do you see it?