r/interestingasfuck • u/[deleted] • 2d ago
Photos of Little Rock central school, Arkansas in 1967 to see how integration was going after the initial effort after the famous "nine" in 1957
[removed]
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u/7thFleetTraveller 2d ago
This is what happens when you just bring people together from the start, instead of manipulating them into thinking humans would have different "races". Nevertheless, instead of having this everywhere from that point on, the USA decided to build ghettos and separate people from each other.
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u/Hotspur000 2d ago
I hate the word 'race' so much. There are different cultures and ethnicities, but there's only one race – human. And we're all way more alike than different even accounting for culture and ethnicity.
I wish society would stop being so obsessed with skin pigmentation and just look at people for who they, how they think, and what they do.
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u/7thFleetTraveller 2d ago
Exactly what I'm always saying. But whenever I criticize the USA for forcing people to even have a "race" stated on their IDs, and I say that artificially produces racism from the start, I usually get downvoted.
I was once there for holiday and in the plane we had to fill out a document before entering the country. It also had that field for "race". What I really wanted was to simply write "human" or "homo sapiens". Just to see what happens. But then I didn't want to bring my mother into a weird situation, being afraid of being kept at the airport for a longer time. It wouldn't have been worth the drama. But things like that make me so angry.
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u/Cart700 2d ago
Genuine question. What would I as a German put in the "race" part? Like is my race german, westphalian, European, Skandinavian (due to blond hair, blue eyes)?
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u/defjs 2d ago
White
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u/Cart700 2d ago
Seriously? It really is just that? How did anyone ever see the US as the most advanced country if they ask people that?
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u/kammycakes 2d ago
Man, your outside perspective of this topic is really eye opening. It just never occurred to me how this is a thing unique to the USA. Really brings to light the absurdity of it all.
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u/domespider 2d ago
It was at least easy for the German person who asked the question above. When I was a graduate student in the U.S. over thirty years ago, I was going nuts over race questions on every form. I mean, who cares for my race if I came to a medical facility with an earache? I am Turkish, from a country which has been a mixture of people coming and going for more than ten thousand years. I had no idea what to write there. I was darker than most of the fellow citizens back in my country, but not as much as North Africans or some Arabs. I didn't have Asiatic features. Anyhow, I choose a different race on every form and started "Not stated" option when political correctness movement made it available.
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u/Cart700 2d ago
You are welcome. I may have realised another thing that many don't really understand. The German word for race is "Rasse". The word Rasse (outside the animal context) is 100% linked to the third Reich. Same as the swastika and the Siegfried runes. If anyone uses the word Rasse in a non animal context they are a Nazi no questions asked.
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u/Citaku357 2d ago
So you actually have to put your race on your ID? But I thought you guys didn't have IDs?
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u/TrekkiMonstr 1d ago
You're getting the causation backwards. There are some backwards people who treat people differently based on race, and it's important to track the effects of that if we want to fix it, so we have to ask. I remember there was a campaign in Puerto Rico when the census was taken, to convince people not to write "Puerto Rican" as their race, because despite the Puerto Rican belief that they're somehow post-racial, there do exist substantial discrepancies between groups that are important to be measured, which can't be as accurately if, whether black or white, you're just writing "Puerto Rican".
As for why not German or Westphalian or Scandinavian, it's because basically no one would discriminate for or against you for being that as opposed to French or Breton or whatever else. Especially after a generation or two, you would look and sound like the rest of white America. This didn't used to be the case -- it used to be that the Irish, Jews, and Italians lived in very distinct neighborhoods from the "regular" white people, but eventually "became white" and those distinctions became much less salient. I'm reminded of the Ancient Greeks, for whom progressivism was not killing and enslaving Greeks from other city-states -- barbarians, of course, were still fine.
Consider also the history of it. Europeans have been a largely white group for a while, and biases and groupings arise within that, especially over long periods of time (e.g. Balkans). In early America, there were broadly three groups of people: white (Dutch, English, French, etc), Indian, and black. The existing racial categorization system arises from that historical context. The white people may have come from many different places, but they work together against the hordes of others who might be internally diverse, but who cares (from the semi-quotational perspective, not mine, of course).
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u/7thFleetTraveller 2d ago
We are forced to state our skin colour as a "race". I was told beforehand that the only correct answer in my case would be "white".
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u/Cart700 2d ago
Thank you for the answer. To ask for skin colour is stupid. To call it race is even worse. And I thought Germany has problems with systemic racism. I am beginning to ask myself why the US where ever regarded as the most advanced country in the world. Clearly they are far behind when it comes to social things.
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u/Pkrudeboy 2d ago
On the other hand, if you don’t collect that information, it can be hard to notice any actual disparity. IIRC, France has an issue with that.
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u/Cart700 2d ago
No. Don't call it race period. 1. You can call it something else if you really need that information for equality purposes. 2. You don't need to ask people that are just visiting the country. 3. You should be pretty sure you need that information before asking for it 4. Just make it voluntary info. Like if someone wants to be safe and record their skincolor so they can more easily say it was cause of that they got discriminated against all power to them. But don't force people. 5. DONT FUCKING CALL IT RACE maybe this is a mismatch of how I as a German translate the word to how it is actually understood but holy hell that sounds vile to me
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u/Pkrudeboy 2d ago
It is voluntary, and I’m not sure how you translate it because by the US definition almost everyone in Germany is white, which covers ethnicities in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
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u/Cart700 2d ago
The German word for race is "Rasse". The word Rasse (outside the animal context) is 100% linked to the third Reich. Same as the swastika and the Siegfried runes. If anyone uses the word Rasse in a non animal context they are a Nazi no questions asked.
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u/tree-molester 2d ago
👍🏽
This 👍🏽is my actual skin tone, but I am ‘white’. I have been told I am racist for using this emoji and not the standard 👍 white person thumbs up.
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u/TheWoman2 1d ago
What ID in the USA has race on it? Passports don't have it, drivers licences don't have it, and those are the main forms of ID here.
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u/thefinpope 1d ago
For the record, it may be on some state's driver licenses but not all. Michigander here and we only have Sex/Height/Eyes on there for that kind of info.
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u/Hotspur000 2d ago
"But whenever I criticize the USA for forcing people to even have a "race" stated on their IDs, and I say that artificially produces racism from the start, I usually get downvoted."
And yet you are correct. I feel sorry for all the sane Americans who have to live there.
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u/arpedax 1d ago
Using skin color or "race" on ID can be quite helpful when it comes to indentifying a person, just like height, hair color, eye color etc.
In Norway it's a taboo to even mention a person's skin color or background even when it's necessary, for example criminal cases or statistics. Here I actually think America has the better system, as long as it's not used for discrimination of course.
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u/TantricEmu 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’m sorry but this is the most out of touch comment I’ve read about this in a while. One, our state IDs and DLs do not list race. Two, discrimination exists in all societies, whether it’s based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, you name it, humans will find a way to discriminate against it. Three, acknowledging that different races exist does not magically produce the racism, it exists regardless. It always has and always will. Race based discrimination has historically been the discrimination that takes place in the US, similar to ethnicity and religious (but also race) based discrimination in Europe. Solving issues based on that discrimination involves tracking data about it. We need to understand the problem before we can develop solutions to it. Would it be easier to just say we’re all human? Just bury our heads in the sand and pretend that racism doesn’t exist and that every demographic has the exact same lived experience? Sure. Would that do anything to improve the situations that are specific to certain demographics in our society? Absolutely not.
Why is it so hard for Europeans to understand why the US tracks data about race? Why not stop and think “hey there has to be a reason for it, so what’s the reason this is done?”
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u/shinyprairie 1d ago
These people are out here acting like the US specifically invented the concept of race. Wild.
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u/Citaku357 2d ago
Exactly what I'm always saying. But whenever I criticize the USA for forcing people to even have a "race" stated on their IDs,
WTF?! May I ask which state are you from?
I was once there for holiday and in the plane we had to fill out a document before entering the country.
Which country and why?
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u/Citaku357 2d ago
I wish society would stop being so obsessed with skin pigmentation
Unfortunately skin isn't the only way to hate other humans. We Balkan people know this really well
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u/Shelfurkill 1d ago
say this and everyone likes your comment but say “race is a social construct” and suddenly you are downvoted to oblivion
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u/CholetisCanon 2d ago
But people are discriminated against based on their ethnicity. You cool with that?
The "but there's only oNe RaCe" is just semantics when people are not treated as one race. Replacing "race" with "ethnicity" changes nothing about the facts on the ground.
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u/Hotspur000 2d ago
But the fact that discrimination exists does not invalidate my point. It means there are morons out there who don't realize, or refuse, it.
Also, you're sort of missing the point that myself and the commenter above are trying to make here – the more 'race' and 'ethnicity' are constantly being pointed out as a 'defining trait of an individual' (like on US driver's licenses), the more it keeps people thinking about it and aware of it; if we could all just try to put it aside and be more colourblind, we could start to relate to each other as just individuals with personalities rather than 'representatives of one's ethnicity,' or whatever.
We should stop constantly pointing it out and just relate to each other as other people. Any ethnic or cultural differences can be treated as learning experiences (unless they're hateful, obviously).
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u/thefinpope 1d ago
For the record, it may be on some state's driver licenses but not all. Michigander here and we only have Sex/Height/Eyes on there for that kind of info.
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u/kermitthebeast 2d ago
Because it's fiction. There's no 'race' in the scientific classification of animals - kingdom / phylum / class / order family / genus / species
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u/Overbaron 2d ago
Biologically speaking, you can use ”race” to refer to humans or ethnicities or even subgroups of ethnicities.
It’s a very informal term.
So while it’s understandable to hate the word for its vagueness, saying ”the only race that exists is human” is incorrect in multiple ways.
Even ethnicity is a poor term and extremely inaccurate. People of african descent are genetically rather diverse.
Honestly, the only term that accurately portrays what the US considers ”race” is actually ”skin color”.
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u/MercenaryBard 1d ago
This comment is ignorant on many levels, chief of which is the foundation of Race Theory from which the term directly derives.
Race theory is a pseudoscience, period. Ethnicity is also not biological, so I’m not sure why you pointed out that people of African descent are genetically diverse—of course they are lol. That’s not what ethnicity means.
Scientifically there is only one race—human. Socially there are many races created by racists based on arbitrary attributes, and which are sustained by ignorant, useful idiots.
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u/Overbaron 1d ago
Race is not a ”scientific” term, unless you’re talking about some branches of social sciences.
Humans are a species.
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u/Someone-is-out-there 2d ago
C'mon, man. What you're suggesting would give the insanely rich more work to do to replace race as some stupid bullshit to distract us from the eternal Class War. It's like you don't even care about making them work harder. What a jerk.
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u/Teresa_461 1d ago
People who hate the word race are soon going to hate the existence of race. And expect it to be eliminated.
Which turns out to be rather 'racist' in the end. Anti-racism is just a code word for anti-White.
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u/CholetisCanon 2d ago
Wow.
- This only happened because racism was rampant and enforced by law.
- This was busing kids form one area to another to force integration, not just "bringing people together".
- Conservatives raged against this. This is the same diversity, equity, and inclusion they rage against today and they remain deadfast against it.
- Ghettos were built because of conservatives forcing segregation and channeling black folk into projects while denying them ownership. Google redlining.
- Conservatives are so full of shit when they deny being seeped in endless racial thinking and being the core people in this nation who engage in racial thinking via their white supremacy. Any nonsense about being "color blind" is only possible through vast amounts of revisionist history where they erase their consistent and ongoing role in being the people promoting racial segregation and promoting racism.
So, fuck them. And if you are conservative...
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u/PGnautz 2d ago
Approval rates of the right-wing party AfD in Germany are the highest in regions where the least foreigners live.
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u/7thFleetTraveller 2d ago
I know, it's an absolute mess. Those who scream the loudest most often have no idea what they are actually talking about.
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u/Anxious-Grab-2150 1d ago
unfortunately, humans are tribalistic by nature , we find the smallest differences to ostracise each other, the only way i could see us being untied under one race is fi another sentient species existed, the racism would direct toward them instead of each other. racism is also helpful to those at the top who want to keep us divided ,that way we keep being focused on fighting with each other instead of enacting really changes in society
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u/Teresa_461 1d ago
Freedom of association is a basic freedom. Do you agree that people have the right to choose who they associate with, and how and when?
What happened in 1957 denied that. People have, and do continue to choose to live in homogenous communities, based on (among other things) race, ethnicity etc.
When integrationists talk about the races, they really mean only the White race. No one cares if Chinese and black people have to mingle.
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u/ladyebugg 1d ago
Integration was more than forcing people together. There never was truly separate but equal. Black people had limited or no access to things that White people had regardless of class. Black folks were living in a underclass status.
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u/MrDrProfTeddy 2d ago
What were the feeding the track team back then
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u/zipline3496 1d ago
Have you seen how big high school athletes are these days? These guys looked great, but kids are getting on creatine, supplements, and routines younger now. Some absolute behemoths are being created right now.
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u/LowestKey 1d ago
The absolute size of Brock Lesner. I'm sure his supplements were more supplementy than other supplements tho
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u/teezepls 1d ago
By the way they’re taking off, looks like they might be sprinters. I haven’t been in HS since mid-2010s but our sprinters were even more jacked than these guys
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u/Compuoddity 2d ago edited 1d ago
Kids don't care. It's the adults that do.
"Hey, wanna play?"
"Sure."
"Cool. Let's go."
It's generalized and doesn't apply to all kids and the parents play an impact as to what a minority's role will be in the "game" but yeah.
I've seen the same behavior around other groups focusing around a commonality. Typically especially in those areas that are a little more taboo like smoking, kinks, etc. but you also see it in sports for example. Or politics...
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u/MyMiddleground 1d ago
It's almost like we're all just human beings, and children inherently lack any racist ideologies🤔
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u/Skyhun1912 2d ago
Skin color is just a reason, even if it weren't for that we would find something else to hate, and if it weren't for that it would definitely be something else.
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u/JCMS85 2d ago
So little taught facts about the aftermath of this is that the following year the Governor closed all the public schools in Little Rock as a protest/tantrum. Called The Lost Year, this resulted in many students not attending school and many of the white students going to private schools. To this day Little Rock has an insane amount of private schools for its size and most white students attending them.
I went to Hall High School in the early 2000s the second best public high school in the city and was part of the 10% none black student population. All my white friends, especially the ones from the area had gone to private schools their entire life.
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u/snapbackswtf 1d ago
your mixing being white with being wealthy
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u/Feisty-Resource-1274 1d ago
In a community where for generations only white people could receive quality education, why wouldn't white = weathy?
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u/The_Ikoris 1d ago
This is not true what so ever... Most of the private schools in little Rock are under some religious diocese, the Catholic Diocese of little Rock will help financially with getting into a class. But it is true that it's mostly white, wealthier families. I cannot speak for baptists or prodistants but catholics around here are mostly white.
Source: been there done that attended both sides private and public in LR
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u/RolandTower919 1d ago
No one is born racist or religious, that’s engrained into them by their elders.
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u/LegendaryHooman 1d ago
I was brought up in a country that encouraged people of different races to mix. Our local neighbourhood schools even wanted international students from anywhere to attend and mix around.
Racism is more alien than just hanging out with someone who just happens to grow up where you didn't.
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u/Sensitive-Abroad7594 1d ago
I’ve never felt more patriotic than when I looked at these photos. It reminds me of my own childhood
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u/theclawisback 1d ago
So normal kids getting along? What scientist had to come up with this genius idea?
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u/ultralitebiim 2d ago
This looks like AI ngl
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u/keholmes89 1d ago
All photos are real; I found the source here
Some of the photos are not from Little Rock Central as I suspected.
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u/Hufflepunk36 2d ago
The runners are SHREDDED
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u/Elite_Jackalope 1d ago
This is what I came to the comments to discuss too lmao
Every one of those dudes is pure lean muscle. Has the theory around running workouts changed that much over the years or what?
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u/kammycakes 2d ago
It does sort of have a dream-like or maybe uncanny vibe to it now that you mention it.
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u/ultralitebiim 2d ago
I think it’s the recoloring that’s throwing me off. Has a similar “glow” to ai in some photos.
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u/VictorTheCutie 1d ago
Agreed. But the hands all look real and I can't find anything specifically wonky ...
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u/BanginOnWax805 1d ago
The 1st pic is on the album cover for the late 80s hardcore/straight edge band Insted, Bonds of Friendship. Had no idea where the image came from, I always thought it was just hand drawn.
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u/the-bearcat 21h ago
The one girl in pic 6 looks like her friend just told her there's a surprise physics test next period
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u/Gold-Perspective-699 1d ago
I'm sure photos of the opposite will be happening soon again because of Trump. Yay segregation. /s
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u/tattoophobic 1d ago
A friend said rap music made afro-american people more violent. I said cia didn't help with crack. Are we wrong or right?
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1d ago
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u/PM_ME_SUMDICK 1d ago
Are you white?
As a Black person, I had experienced racism before kindergarten.
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/Mustard_Rain_ 2d ago
Um, what. who is 'her'?
there are dozens of people in these photos. are you a bot
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u/Teresa_461 1d ago
What a profoundly dishonest post.
In terms of the realities then, and the harms done right now. Only willful blindness, ideology, and virtue signalling would enable one to take such a selective posting on this.
Has this forced integration done damage to many people?? I suspect here on reddit the only answer is 'no one is allowed to disagree with how great it was'.
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u/beantownregular 1d ago
Are you suggesting schools should not have integrated? I don’t think anyone is arguing it was a walk in the park particularly for black children and their parents but I don’t really know what you’re getting at here.
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u/Grolsxh 2d ago
Just watched that documentary where one of the "nine" goes back to visit. She was so upset to see the classroom was still segregated 70 years later with black kids sitting on one side of the room and whites sitting on the other. It's almost as if it happens naturally and integration can't be forced.
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u/FijiPotato 1d ago
If integration can't be forced that segregation shouldn't be enforced either. The ability to choose to integrate should be that, a choice, not an enforced law. Especially not when those laws are created to give people of a certain group a lesser quality of life.
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u/jo_nigiri 1d ago
Yeah it's almost like American culture still has remains of the segregation and cultural divide between races, no way
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u/keholmes89 2d ago
Photos 1 and 2 can’t be from Central High as the kids are too young. Also, photo 7 does not match the landscape surrounding Central.
Source: I went to Little Rock Central High School and still live in the area.