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I just re-read this post and I have to say that I'm ashamed of myself- especially for the potion in bold. The majority of black Americans are not terrible people...there's just a large concentration of the black underclass that live in Baltimore City.
Thank you for having the ability to take a (long) breath and reconsider. I was really feeling down as I neared the end of this thread. I did not read this thread months ago, but I decided to read it now for some reason. And I regretted it tremendously save for a handful of posts and your recent clarity.
I'm a single, black woman from the deep south, and it literally makes my stomach ache when I see generalizations like this. I have an undergraduate degree and an advanced degree, go to work, pay my bills with my decent salary from my work, and spend my free time going to things like Paint Nite, running 5Ks, and hiking the AT when I can. I mean, I'm getting excited over picking berries this summer and looking forward to CSA shares and burger nights at Koopers....and it is so demoralizing to know that people may see me in a ratty t-shirt and jeans in a Home Depot or walking on a city street and think I am genetically and/or culturally inferior, degenerate, and criminal because I am black. Give black people a break here: we are not a monolith. I do not sell drugs, do drugs, commit crimes, plan crimes....I actually spend my time like many other normal middle class people of any color spend their time.
This is likely futile, but I will say it anyway hoping someone hears and listens: I really wish the overtly bigoted and racist posts like many of those in this thread and elsewhere in the Baltimore forum would or could be stopped. They're truly frightening and demoralizing. This sort of belief system does not make any one bad person wake up one day and stop bad behavior, and it doesn't inspire those who engage in good behavior. It does, however, make those doing or trying to do good to isolate themselves in a way that does not help the city improve. Every hate-filled post on this forum means one fewer grad student, transplant, home-buyer, patron, and middle-class tax payer for the City of Baltimore. And if you essentially yield Baltimore to crime, what have you achieved other than a sort of holding pen you can only futilely hope to keep controlled? What have you achieved other than to cut off your nose to spite your face? The middle class, of any race or ethnic group, is largely missing from the city. You can't actually believe that any middle class, including the black middle class is going to be "tough loved" or berated (or whatever all of these posts are supposed to do) into coming back....do you? Or maybe you just want to see Baltimore burn, better to be right than happy, I guess.
If all you see are bad examples, please look for good examples sometime and consider that good examples do exist before you basically condemn and write off an entire segment of the national population of people over the small sample of people you have had the misfortune to encounter. Seriously. I grew up in rural Mississippi and have seen some crazy stuff, and if I believed that all white people were evil supremacists from some of the anecdotes I could share....I couldn't function. I think I'd just be consumed by my own hate. Even with the crap I have observed or experienced, I knew that all white people weren't like that just because these ones were horrible!
I'm not saying don't criticize Baltimore, but please criticize Baltimore responsibly and thoughtfully.
Side note: And a majority red/conservative leadership cannot get it done either....pretty much every state in the southeastern US is a prime example. Blacks and liberals are not running stuff down there. It's still a WASPy, male, conservative leadership....I don't care how many blacks you see in leadership positions in MS. I don't care if Bobby Jindal is ethnically Indian. That's basically tantamount to complying with the Voting Rights Act: just for show.
Last edited by lanhvtnymd; 05-14-2014 at 09:21 PM..
I'm a single, black woman from the deep south, and it literally makes my stomach ache when I see generalizations like this. I have an undergraduate degree and an advanced degree, go to work, pay my bills with my decent salary from my work, and spend my free time going to things like Paint Nite, running 5Ks, and hiking the AT when I can. I mean, I'm getting excited over picking berries this summer and looking forward to CSA shares and burger nights at Koopers....and it is so demoralizing to know that people may see me in a ratty t-shirt and jeans in a Home Depot or walking on a city street and think I am genetically and/or culturally inferior, degenerate, and criminal because I am black. Give black people a break here: we are not a monolith. I do not sell drugs, do drugs, commit crimes, plan crimes....I actually spend my time like many other normal middle class people of any color spend their time.
This is likely futile, but I will say it anyway hoping someone hears and listens: I really wish the overtly bigoted and racist posts like many of those in this thread and elsewhere in the Baltimore forum would or could be stopped. They're truly frightening and demoralizing. This sort of belief system does not make any one bad person wake up one day and stop bad behavior, and it doesn't inspire those who engage in good behavior. It does, however, make those doing or trying to do good to isolate themselves in a way that does not help the city improve. Every hate-filled post on this forum means one fewer grad student, transplant, home-buyer, patron, and middle-class tax payer for the City of Baltimore. And if you essentially yield Baltimore to crime, what have you achieved other than a sort of holding pen you can only futilely hope to keep controlled? What have you achieved other than to cut off your nose to spite your face? The middle class, of any race or ethnic group, is largely missing from the city. You can't actually believe that any middle class, including the black middle class is going to be "tough loved" or berated (or whatever all of these posts are supposed to do) into coming back....do you? Or maybe you just want to see Baltimore burn, better to be right than happy, I guess.
I totally understand where you are coming from. Although part of me stopped caring a long time ago what people think about us, it is still demoralizing to read this stuff. No matter how much you put it out there that most black people in america in fact employed and not criminals, it still keeps coming. It just wears you down after a while. I myself take long breaks from these boards for that reason.
Thank you for having the ability to take a (long) breath and reconsider. I was really feeling down as I neared the end of this thread. I did not read this thread months ago, but I decided to read it now for some reason. And I regretted it tremendously save for a handful of posts and your recent clarity.
I'm a single, black woman from the deep south, and it literally makes my stomach ache when I see generalizations like this. I have an undergraduate degree and an advanced degree, go to work, pay my bills with my decent salary from my work, and spend my free time going to things like Paint Nite, running 5Ks, and hiking the AT when I can. I mean, I'm getting excited over picking berries this summer and looking forward to CSA shares and burger nights at Koopers....and it is so demoralizing to know that people may see me in a ratty t-shirt and jeans in a Home Depot or walking on a city street and think I am genetically and/or culturally inferior, degenerate, and criminal because I am black. Give black people a break here: we are not a monolith. I do not sell drugs, do drugs, commit crimes, plan crimes....I actually spend my time like many other normal middle class people of any color spend their time.
This is likely futile, but I will say it anyway hoping someone hears and listens: I really wish the overtly bigoted and racist posts like many of those in this thread and elsewhere in the Baltimore forum would or could be stopped. They're truly frightening and demoralizing. This sort of belief system does not make any one bad person wake up one day and stop bad behavior, and it doesn't inspire those who engage in good behavior. It does, however, make those doing or trying to do good to isolate themselves in a way that does not help the city improve. Every hate-filled post on this forum means one fewer grad student, transplant, home-buyer, patron, and middle-class tax payer for the City of Baltimore. And if you essentially yield Baltimore to crime, what have you achieved other than a sort of holding pen you can only futilely hope to keep controlled? What have you achieved other than to cut off your nose to spite your face? The middle class, of any race or ethnic group, is largely missing from the city. You can't actually believe that any middle class, including the black middle class is going to be "tough loved" or berated (or whatever all of these posts are supposed to do) into coming back....do you? Or maybe you just want to see Baltimore burn, better to be right than happy, I guess.
If all you see are bad examples, please look for good examples sometime and consider that good examples do exist before you basically condemn and write off an entire segment of the national population of people over the small sample of people you have had the misfortune to encounter. Seriously. I grew up in rural Mississippi and have seen some crazy stuff, and if I believed that all white people were evil supremacists from some of the anecdotes I could share....I couldn't function. I think I'd just be consumed by my own hate. Even with the crap I have observed or experienced, I knew that all white people weren't like that just because these ones were horrible!
I'm not saying don't criticize Baltimore, but please criticize Baltimore responsibly and thoughtfully.
Side note: And a majority red/conservative leadership cannot get it done either....pretty much every state in the southeastern US is a prime example. Blacks and liberals are not running stuff down there. It's still a WASPy, male, conservative leadership....I don't care how many blacks you see in leadership positions in MS. I don't care if Bobby Jindal is ethnically Indian. That's basically tantamount to complying with the Voting Rights Act: just for show.
Maam you have just won the internet and this the single most important post i have ever read on this forum. Please continue to come back and post.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lanhvtnymd Thank you for having the ability to take a (long) breath and reconsider. I was really feeling down as I neared the end of this thread. I did not read this thread months ago, but I decided to read it now for some reason. And I regretted it tremendously save for a handful of posts and your recent clarity.
I'm a single, black woman from the deep south, and it literally makes my stomach ache when I see generalizations like this. I have an undergraduate degree and an advanced degree, go to work, pay my bills with my decent salary from my work, and spend my free time going to things like Paint Nite, running 5Ks, and hiking the AT when I can. I mean, I'm getting excited over picking berries this summer and looking forward to CSA shares and burger nights at Koopers....and it is so demoralizing to know that people may see me in a ratty t-shirt and jeans in a Home Depot or walking on a city street and think I am genetically and/or culturally inferior, degenerate, and criminal because I am black. Give black people a break here: we are not a monolith. I do not sell drugs, do drugs, commit crimes, plan crimes....I actually spend my time like many other normal middle class people of any color spend their time.
This is likely futile, but I will say it anyway hoping someone hears and listens: I really wish the overtly bigoted and racist posts like many of those in this thread and elsewhere in the Baltimore forum would or could be stopped. They're truly frightening and demoralizing. This sort of belief system does not make any one bad person wake up one day and stop bad behavior, and it doesn't inspire those who engage in good behavior. It does, however, make those doing or trying to do good to isolate themselves in a way that does not help the city improve. Every hate-filled post on this forum means one fewer grad student, transplant, home-buyer, patron, and middle-class tax payer for the City of Baltimore. And if you essentially yield Baltimore to crime, what have you achieved other than a sort of holding pen you can only futilely hope to keep controlled? What have you achieved other than to cut off your nose to spite your face? The middle class, of any race or ethnic group, is largely missing from the city. You can't actually believe that any middle class, including the black middle class is going to be "tough loved" or berated (or whatever all of these posts are supposed to do) into coming back....do you? Or maybe you just want to see Baltimore burn, better to be right than happy, I guess.
If all you see are bad examples, please look for good examples sometime and consider that good examples do exist before you basically condemn and write off an entire segment of the national population of people over the small sample of people you have had the misfortune to encounter. Seriously. I grew up in rural Mississippi and have seen some crazy stuff, and if I believed that all white people were evil supremacists from some of the anecdotes I could share....I couldn't function. I think I'd just be consumed by my own hate. Even with the crap I have observed or experienced, I knew that all white people weren't like that just because these ones were horrible!
I'm not saying don't criticize Baltimore, but please criticize Baltimore responsibly and thoughtfully.
Side note: And a majority red/conservative leadership cannot get it done either....pretty much every state in the southeastern US is a prime example. Blacks and liberals are not running stuff down there. It's still a WASPy, male, conservative leadership....I don't care how many blacks you see in leadership positions in MS. I don't care if Bobby Jindal is ethnically Indian. That's basically tantamount to complying with the Voting Rights Act: just for show.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bmoregrimey
Maam you have just won the internet and this the single most important post i have ever read on this forum. Please continue to come back and post.
Yes, this is a very good post, and I agree with the content. However, you ruined it with the "side note" at the end. Maybe you haven't been up north long enough to see how the crooked politics of a one party system for fifty years in such places as Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark or Detroit has ruined these cities. You provide an interesting, though racist, reason for why the same crooked politicians keep getting elected. Don't you blame the crooked politicians for the chaos in this city? You surely don't blame it on the poor black folk in the less prosperous parts of town, do you? So like a true racist you blame it on the whites who left for the suburbs, right? Since you like the one party system so much, you should try living in China or Cuba.
A city can't turn you into a racist....I think you have some soul searching to do.
Lifelong white Baltimorean here and your depiction of "most blacks" doesn't sync with my 50 + year experience. The hard core underclass hasn't changed much in my lifetime but I have seen a many black folks move out of those areas and pursue the American dream like the rest of us (Where do you think all those vacant houses came from?). I grew up in the bubble of Baltimore whitedom on the north side of town, and knew some real racist folks... but when I grew up and put my big boy pants on and began interacting personally and professionally with fellow Baltimoreans of all walks of life I saw how pretty much the majority of people were pretty much the same...the good the bad and the ugly. Most of us work hard to stay afloat in the changing economy, care about our families, love the O' and Ravens, and enjoy cracking crabs with our friends on a steamy summer day. And each groups "underclass", so to speak behave pretty much the same....
It is sad to see you develop so much disdain for people that frankly hasn't been my overall experience at all.....sure there are some supremely dysfunctional folks in this town....but alas human nature probably isn't going to change anytime soon....
Quote:
Originally Posted by lanhvtnymd Thank you for having the ability to take a (long) breath and reconsider. I was really feeling down as I neared the end of this thread. I did not read this thread months ago, but I decided to read it now for some reason. And I regretted it tremendously save for a handful of posts and your recent clarity.
I'm a single, black woman from the deep south, and it literally makes my stomach ache when I see generalizations like this. I have an undergraduate degree and an advanced degree, go to work, pay my bills with my decent salary from my work, and spend my free time going to things like Paint Nite, running 5Ks, and hiking the AT when I can. I mean, I'm getting excited over picking berries this summer and looking forward to CSA shares and burger nights at Koopers....and it is so demoralizing to know that people may see me in a ratty t-shirt and jeans in a Home Depot or walking on a city street and think I am genetically and/or culturally inferior, degenerate, and criminal because I am black. Give black people a break here: we are not a monolith. I do not sell drugs, do drugs, commit crimes, plan crimes....I actually spend my time like many other normal middle class people of any color spend their time.
This is likely futile, but I will say it anyway hoping someone hears and listens: I really wish the overtly bigoted and racist posts like many of those in this thread and elsewhere in the Baltimore forum would or could be stopped. They're truly frightening and demoralizing. This sort of belief system does not make any one bad person wake up one day and stop bad behavior, and it doesn't inspire those who engage in good behavior. It does, however, make those doing or trying to do good to isolate themselves in a way that does not help the city improve. Every hate-filled post on this forum means one fewer grad student, transplant, home-buyer, patron, and middle-class tax payer for the City of Baltimore. And if you essentially yield Baltimore to crime, what have you achieved other than a sort of holding pen you can only futilely hope to keep controlled? What have you achieved other than to cut off your nose to spite your face? The middle class, of any race or ethnic group, is largely missing from the city. You can't actually believe that any middle class, including the black middle class is going to be "tough loved" or berated (or whatever all of these posts are supposed to do) into coming back....do you? Or maybe you just want to see Baltimore burn, better to be right than happy, I guess.
If all you see are bad examples, please look for good examples sometime and consider that good examples do exist before you basically condemn and write off an entire segment of the national population of people over the small sample of people you have had the misfortune to encounter. Seriously. I grew up in rural Mississippi and have seen some crazy stuff, and if I believed that all white people were evil supremacists from some of the anecdotes I could share....I couldn't function. I think I'd just be consumed by my own hate. Even with the crap I have observed or experienced, I knew that all white people weren't like that just because these ones were horrible!
I'm not saying don't criticize Baltimore, but please criticize Baltimore responsibly and thoughtfully.
Side note: And a majority red/conservative leadership cannot get it done either....pretty much every state in the southeastern US is a prime example. Blacks and liberals are not running stuff down there. It's still a WASPy, male, conservative leadership....I don't care how many blacks you see in leadership positions in MS. I don't care if Bobby Jindal is ethnically Indian. That's basically tantamount to complying with the Voting Rights Act: just for show.
Yes, this is a very good post, and I agree with the content. However, you ruined it with the "side note" at the end. Maybe you haven't been up north long enough to see how the crooked politics of a one party system for fifty years in such places as Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark or Detroit has ruined these cities. You provide an interesting, though racist, reason for why the same crooked politicians keep getting elected. Don't you blame the crooked politicians for the chaos in this city? You surely don't blame it on the poor black folk in the less prosperous parts of town, do you? So like a true racist you blame it on the whites who left for the suburbs, right? Since you like the one party system so much, you should try living in China or Cuba.
I will keep this short because I tend to use too many words. I think we likely agree more than we disagree here, and perhaps my point in the side note was not clear. The first sentence in the side note says "And a majority red/conservative leadership cannot get it done either..." I thought that was a pretty clear contrast (several posts up-thread implicated all the liberals are holding Baltimore back) to illustrate that an extreme is not getting it done....anywhere. I've spent about 10 years out of the deep south and about 20 years in it. I have definitely seen the effects of 50+++ years of essentially a one party system in MS, AL, LA, GA, AR, and TN.
I agree with the need to get the right people in the right positions with the right support to get things done. The ideal solution is liberals and conservatives regardless of race or ethnicity working together and compromising to improve Baltimore so it is more comparable to other relatively successful cities in the region.
Yet another thread for people to bash Baltimore. This city has so much potential. It was built for 1 million plus inhabitants. Stop focusing on the crime, and the poor blacks in every thread. That's all I hear about in every thread. "The city needs to stop wasting our tax payer money on services for blacks that do nothing for the city" or "its the blacks fault that there's so many vacants" even blaming blacks for the crime. Really??? Crime is everywhere, with a city of 600,000 plus there's going to be crime committed everyday. Don't like it? Than move no ones holding you back. You will find the same crime problem in any other Major City on the East Coast. There's no way around it. No one seems to talk about the poor whites in the city that have just as many problems in there neighborhoods. But its all about the poor blacks right? These Baltimore threads are so petty! Im not criticizing any white citizens of Baltimore. Im only criticizing the ignorant!
This city is going to be unrecognizable as gentrification continues in the next 40 years I promise you. People want urban living nowadays not suburbs. Just wait!
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