I am a bit reminded of the Litle Britain sketch - "I am the only gay in the village".

It may be difficult but does not really help if you approach any situation from the position of being black, gay or whatever first, especially when you are addressing the culture of a land different to your own.

There must always be the possibilty that you may actually come across a group or society that is intergrated and accepting. One that is not overtly racist, sexist or whatever. If you should ever come across this rarity - there would be little point in trying to turn it into a society that is openly divided, just because you may be able to understand it better. But there are degrees of intergration. I don't think that anyone is claiming our society to be all-inclusive and perfect in its treatment of minority groups - it is far from that - but it is plainly different here to the USA.

White middle-class males with beer-bellies as a qualified as black middle-class males or anyone else in the UK, to speak of how they may view their society. However, we probably are not qualified to judge and comment on US society. We can however, all learn from these differences.