As an American living in Europe I'm surprised you could think that black-white separation in the US is so stark in comparison to Europe. Racism always felt like a European invention to me that the US just executes very well because it's a country founded by a bunch of European rejects. By in large though latent racism seems to be much stronger in the EU. They just aren't as expressive about it because... 1. most EU cities are not diverse enough to warrant much thought on the topic or even present an opportunity for division. 2. Europeans "respect" authority or their place more so the racists keep their mouth shut. But when they do open their mouth, oh my
> From watching TV my impressions are that there's especially a taboo for white guys to date black women, and the prejudice that "vanilla" just isn't cool. Can anyone enlighten me?
For a European, or Northern European, black falls under exotic because it is something so rare. Look at how your countrymen react to turkish, roma or other migrant races of the EU and then you'll hopefully shed a bit of the elitism.
Well, we don't have that many black people, but every day on the train I see, and where I live, I'm surrounded by lots of Turkish people, Polish, Russians, a few blacks (I think the family a few houses down is of French origin), Spanish, Italians, lots of south/eastern Europeans whose language I can't identify...
Most seem to be hard-working families, or working/school youth, and generally seem more or less well-integrated. Of course on average they are less educated than the natives, there is more crime among them, but the same is true for natives from a poor/worker's origin compared to academics.
I've seen a few Roma (or whatever they are; looked like my stereotype of Roma) whose "job" it is to ride downtown and beg for money all day. I suppose (and hope) there are also more integrated ones among them.
Overall, sure there are also prejudices or racism, but the same is true in America regarding Mexican immigrants. As to elitism - I'm not sure what you mean by that. Yes, I'm a white, educated, good-looking guy; I'm lucky. Doesn't mean I think less of people from other backgrounds - on the contrary I respect them a lot if they don't just collect welfare.
There are prejudices and racism in Europe, indeed. Segregation is a much an issue in the EU as in the US but in very different ways. I can speak for Germany with some certainty where segregation can be found starkly in the education system to general social circles, in a manner that seems to come from a long ago era. Discrimination that is so clear and certain one might mistakenly assume it was institutionalised. Perhaps of interest is the Soros interviews from 2013 with teachers and students in Berlin and and General stats for Germany as a whole [1]. More disturbing is the arguments made by Gymnasium headmasters that argue immigrants would not benefit from being permitted in this higher "class" of school because it is dominated by a different culture (aka lets reaffirm our racist environments) and that they were not as capable academically. It's as if they never learned of research supporting the Pygmalion effect [2].
I know you are a modern open individual but just felt your method of using your experiences in Europe as measurement for the US just shows your lack of understanding of the actual situation in both places. This, is what I found to be elitist.
> From watching TV my impressions are that there's especially a taboo for white guys to date black women, and the prejudice that "vanilla" just isn't cool. Can anyone enlighten me?
For a European, or Northern European, black falls under exotic because it is something so rare. Look at how your countrymen react to turkish, roma or other migrant races of the EU and then you'll hopefully shed a bit of the elitism.