Freedom of Association

A conspecific recently suggested to me that the term "freedom of association" is "code" for "racial segregation".

I never thought of it that way, but I must concede that a likely outcome of the application of a right of association might well be de facto segregation. In fact, if I look at my own life as an example, it appears that I have, without any conscious effort on my part, chosen to segregate myself from African-Americans (or they have chosen to segregate themselves from me or both).

I do not have any close friends who are African-American, although I have in the past had relatively close friendships with members of that racial category. My cricket team was West Indian of mainly African descent, and we were quite friendly and sociable. The matches are too far away for me to particpate now, and I have not kept in touch (my bad, but I don't keep in touch with anyone). I am friendly with my African-American co-workers, but we have never socialized outside of work or work related social events and are unlikely to do so. This is also true for me with everyone else in the office except my car pool partner. The African-Americans in the office don't eat lunch with the European or Asian Americans.

I suspect that none of the members of my church are African-American (I can't think of any), and I think my most proximate African-American neighbor is a weekender family about a mile away. The next proximate is unknown to me, as I have never really taken a racial census of my zip code. I have no known African-American kinsmen. I just don't run into African-Americans very often other than traffic relationships, especially now that I live in the outback. I would really have to make an effort to cultivate a trans-racial relationship under the circumstances.

I don't think this makes me a racist (doubtless someone will claim that my failure to think I am racist defines me as such), and I don't think the serviceable and important phrase "freedom of association" should be allowed to be pejorated into a racist shibboleth. To me, it means that I get to choose my friends, to choose my church, to choose the clubs and organizations I support or join, and otherwise to deal with or avoid anyone I please for any reason I please no matter how stupid. Moreover, nobody should be able to make me do otherwise. This does not mean that I should be immune to charges of bigotry when I am a bigot, and folks should rightly shun me or attempt to persuade me to change my ways if they find my views offensive. But one should not conflate freedom to associate with racism even though it may be and has been used in advancement of racist causes.