You are trapped in the liberal mentality of keeping people in stereotypical categories. This creates the cycle you see where people self-segregate and end up living the culture they are told they must fit in. You do have a lot of community self-segregation though attitudes that you must 'keep within your category' and act the culture you are 'expected' to act. This results in the 'other side of the tracks' mentality that seems to have segments of cities and communities that have higher crime, etc.
Free individuals living as individuals, not bound by what or how others say they must act and who they must associate with is the only way to break that cycle. It destroys the collectivist/statist attitudes where the 'controllers', be it government, community leaders, or just attitude, keep groups segregated and acting the way others define them.
You are also way off base with your 'lions and gazelles' analogy. We aren't talking about separate species here, we are all one species who happens to have slightly different traits in things like melanin content.
No offense, but a lot of what you say is just a reflection of that old collectivist, categorization attitude that keeps the cycle going- it allows others to categorize you and define your behavior by your category instead of you being and acting like an individual, not bound by your category, and not having a category to blame for your actions.
You missed my point about the Serengeti. I was using the comparison of inter-species harmony as a colloquy, not an analogy. The conversation here transposes perfectly since we’re all part of the same world, the same nation, state, city, neighborhood, but we ARE separated by unique differences in how we pray, where we eat, with whom we associate, and what we do on our weekends. The importance of the interactions lies in the ability for us to live harmoniously.
Unfortunately, the white communities have adopted a sort of NIMBY mentality with section 8 housing, for instance, and as a result the poorer black communities seem to think whites have a chip on their shoulder. Not so! I just don’t want loud music, parties, or gunfire in the middle of the night REGARDLESS of the race of the offenders.
I don’t appreciate being categorized. It’s easy to say you’re not racist, but to live that and practice it is to practice colorblindness, and I don’t believe that’s inherent in any of us. It’s a noticeable trait. Children see color, they make assumptions based on behaviors, they understand that there are differences among us. FORCING us to integrate is not the way to go. That’s my point.