What's that you're saying? Race issues isn't really about race or skin color but instead about how we perceive race? That race is largely a cultural fiction and all that makes us uncomfortable is the extent that fiction is ingrained in society?
Oh. Yeah, OK, I can get behind that.
Pretty much. I had the occasional black classmate in Canada, and shared an office with one. Never had any problem at all. Some of my closer friends, in fact.
Been living in the states for four years: got mugged by a couple black men, and had a few other uncomfortable experiences with black men on the bus, and so it's to the point that I actively try to avoid running into black men on the street.
A huge part of this is not cultural, though: it's economic. The black people I knew in Canada were all white-collar nerds. In many American cities, however, race 90% of the time indicates a socioeconomic gap, which in turn tends to also indicate an education gap.
Now, there IS a cultural element on top of this. I haven't had trouble with illegal Mexican immigrants, for all that they are probably just as poor, and likely had even worse access to education. For that matter, the short time I spent in Georgia I had no real trouble with black people I interacted with. The SF ghetto seems to be antagonistic just as a culture.
However, I would argue that the socioeconomic/education gap is bigger than the cultural barrier. For instance, while I've had no quarrels with illegal mexican immigrants, it's not like I've chatted with them about Touhou or research mathematics or X360 shader pipelines or FFT hacks. Bridging a gap over cultural antagonism sounds doable, but having nothing to talk about once the gap is bridged is a barrier that I'm not sure how to deal with.
