Japan was completing its high speed rail in 1964, a year before the civil rights act was passed. Not that Japan doesn’t have racism, indeed much of the east is only now starting to grapple with internal racial diversity more than historically, but it still always sticks out to me as a measure of priorities and how backassward the US is and what a drain on progress in other areas these reptiles are.
My grandparents would’ve been ~13 at the time. Crazy to think about. The past is often closer than we think.
Japan was completing its high speed rail in 1964, a year before the civil rights act was passed. Not that Japan doesn’t have racism, indeed much of the east is only now starting to grapple with internal racial diversity more than historically, but it still always sticks out to me as a measure of priorities and how backassward the US is and what a drain on progress in other areas these reptiles are.