Originally Posted by W.E.B. Du Bois

I think you could argue that people just get used to strange and foreign ideas.

A mostly white company hires a black guy. Everyone suspects him at first, but then they get to see that he's a decent guy. He's hardworking and punctual, he can tell jokes. He gradually gets accepted and even though people were prejudiced against him, gradually they come to accept him more. For a while the people in the street gawk and stare at him, but after they see him everyday, they don't stare as much. It's not as amazing.

A generation later, little Billy goes to school and the kid in the next desk is a black guy. Since he's a kid and impressionable, he grows up with a lot less prejudice than his parents. Billy hangs out with his black friend all the time. They go to the movies together and shoot hoops.

Nowadays you have interracial marriages, and then you also have the acceptance and promotion of black figures by the media, entertainment and commercials. So we just get more and more used to each other and we get along. You could call it gradual diffusion and acceptance.

Could work the same way for gays.

The question then becomes (possibly) why is resistance to homosexuality greater than it is for racial tolerance?


WEB