Judith: well of course white people expect precisely that (where they don't expect superior treatment, that is), *right now*. I assume black people think it would be a good idea.
You're missing my point, and maybe it's worth missing, but let me apply it to your statement above.
The "white people expect ... where they don't expect superior" has racist assumptions, in my opinion. It reduces whites and blacks to stereotypes -- the haughty entitled white, the aspiring hampered black -- and keeps the racist ball rolling. Not that you are anyone here is racist; rather, we carry these racist memes or tropes in our analysis of social issues.
In the world I live in, there's a lot of work for an organization whose chairman of the board is black, and which also has two black vice presidents of four. These three guys and gals don't merely think equality is a good idea; they expect it. Everyone at the organization expects it, from board level all the way up to the mail room, to the very pinnacle of the night janitors ... all expect it as a matter of course.
Which is again the point: we should all expect equal treatment. Maybe I'm channeling N. Berdaeyev here, but I think everyone should regard themselves as aristocrats. Everyone should feel massively entitled, and resist not only racial inequalities but also class demarcations as though such things had come into the world as fresh evils. Treat them as though somebody had started witch burnings and heresy trials.
I think the new generation knows this so well, it doesn't have to be said, but our generation is a little queasy about it.
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