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Such a response doesn't surprise me. It's typical of a bigot. Now answer this for me. Why should I care what you think of me as a Black person? Name one reason why I should. I don't think I should care because frankly, it's bad for my health.
I apologize if I offended you, but lets face the facts, until the black community fixes itself whites on a large scale will not think of blacks positively. Personally I am sick and tired of the media and people beating around the facts. I mean seriously I mean no disrespect but lets be real, Blacks represent 13% of the population but commit 50% of the murders. I am sick of not being able to live peacefully in many areas of big cities because of blacks and violent crime. Does this mean every black person is violent, no absolutely not. As hypocritical as this may sound, I am a 27 y/o white male and no joke my best friend is a black male. I am in no way racist, but I am also very educated and street smart so I am not going to sugar coat it. Trust me there are tons of whites out there who are pieces of ****, I am just saying that on a macro scale we are not as violent and that's a fact.
I apologize if I offended you, but lets face the facts, until the black community fixes itself whites on a large scale will not think of blacks positively. Personally I am sick and tired of the media and people beating around the facts. I mean seriously I mean no disrespect but lets be real, Blacks represent 13% of the population but commit 50% of the murders. I am sick of not being able to live peacefully in many areas of big cities because of blacks and violent crime. Does this mean every black person is violent, no absolutely not. As hypocritical as this may sound, I am a 27 y/o white male and no joke my best friend is a black male. I am in no way racist, but I am also very educated and street smart so I am not going to sugar coat it. Trust me there are tons of whites out there who are pieces of ****, I am just saying that on a macro scale we are not as violent and that's a fact.
So what do you expect every Black person to do? Go to the ghetto and babysit hood rats? No. The Black people who have their act together, they've voted with their feet and gotten away from the hood rats. As far as I'm concerned, those hood rats won't listen to anyone, not even when a fellow Black tells them "get your act together". I'm very well aware of the crime statistics. I'm also aware that the perps are underclass types, the thug/hood rat types. You don't see the average Black person doing this.
You think you are the only one having problems living in the city? Black flight is taking place from cities. Blacks who have enough resources are leaving the cities as well. In fact, if anyone is in the most danger of being victimized by Black crime, it is Blacks themselves, but no one seems to care. It is only why Blacks cause crime that anyone cares.
As for certain factions of the media, stop right there. Since when has the media NOT addressed Black on Black violence? And furthermore, if you know anything about journalism, you can find plenty of good stories as well as bad. Guess what? Bad sells alot more than good.
And that "I have Black friends" stuff, I'm hip to that talk. I've heard it all before.
And you haven't answered my question. Caring what others think of me as a Black man is bad for my health. Causing anxiety issues, depression issues, raises the heart rate. Give me one reason why I should care what people think of me as a Black man. Answer that for me. I don't think I should.
The other challenge for lower income and middle class or so called "good black people" as it is being described is that there are stronger both direct and indirect relationships between "good black people" and "bad/thugs" that happen to be black and the fact that those "bad actors" will likely move,populate, or orbit around "good" predominately black areas thus infecting the entire community thus causing more generalizations and sterotypes.
I would use my own sterotype and call it the "PG County Effect". There are thousands of lower, middle and upper income well to do and productive african americans living in PG County yet the County is often defined primarily by the areas inside of the beltway but outside of DC...that are filled with poverty, crime, and violence. I had one friend that lived in an affluent Mitchellville subdivision with homes well over $500k and full of executives and professionals that had been plagued with daytime burgularies.. The reason why the Cops couldnt catch the perps was because they had a difficult time "profiling" potential suspects other than determining that they were likely juveniles. Why? Because the children of many of these affluent folks, though not "thugs", dressed in the same trendy hip hop fashion often associated with that lifestyle and were often visited by friends from other (often troubled) neighborhoods. The Police were either afraid or incapable of differentiating if someone was walking through the neighborhood because they lived there versus who was casing the community. They were slow to engage anyone for fear of retribution from some of these affluent and potentially politically influential parents on why their child was stopped or even followed. Thus sometimes crimes went on longer or unsolved.. which may be more a reflection on the Policing but it does impact the neighborhood and its image and adds to the often general sterotype of crime, bad neighborhoods, falling property values regardless of the income, education, or socio economic status of blacks.
Another example is that I have often heard among lower income but mostly middle income blacks that "those ghetto (endearing racial epithet) have moved into the house down the street and brought the entire neighborhood down " or "Mrs Jones took in her nephew who is a thug and move him out here to our nice neighborhood so he could stay out of trouble and go to a better school" only to find out that he brought his troubles with him and now impacting the entire neighborhood.
That doesnt seem to happen as much in white neighborhoods. "red necks" or whatever other term one uses to describe other whites of a less desirable stature... generally stay in neighborhoods with folks of their ilk and dont move into other areas (mostly by choice) dominated by other type of lower or middle income whites while in the black community many seize the opportunity to "move up" to another black community (versus a similiar white neighborhood) of greater status when given the opportunity thus the mixing the good and the bad actors. The exception being in cases of gentrification in places like Hampden.. but then its the reverse.. white middle income/upper income residents or yuppies are moving into lower income white neighborhoods that may be attractive to them for various reasons
So what do you expect every Black person to do? Go to the ghetto and babysit hood rats? No. The Black people who have their act together, they've voted with their feet and gotten away from the hood rats. As far as I'm concerned, those hood rats won't listen to anyone, not even when a fellow Black tells them "get your act together". I'm very well aware of the crime statistics. I'm also aware that the perps are underclass types, the thug/hood rat types. You don't see the average Black person doing this.
You think you are the only one having problems living in the city? Black flight is taking place from cities. Blacks who have enough resources are leaving the cities as well. In fact, if anyone is in the most danger of being victimized by Black crime, it is Blacks themselves, but no one seems to care. It is only why Blacks cause crime that anyone cares.
As for certain factions of the media, stop right there. Since when has the media NOT addressed Black on Black violence? And furthermore, if you know anything about journalism, you can find plenty of good stories as well as bad. Guess what? Bad sells alot more than good.
And that "I have Black friends" stuff, I'm hip to that talk. I've heard it all before.
And you haven't answered my question. Caring what others think of me as a Black man is bad for my health. Causing anxiety issues, depression issues, raises the heart rate. Give me one reason why I should care what people think of me as a Black man. Answer that for me. I don't think I should.
As a Black woman, I highly agree with everything that he said.
I've been saying what he's bolded for ages. There are parenting courses out here to help our single mothers. However, we can not force them to seek help from these organizations.
Also, there are many organizations out here who are trying to better Baltimore City for low income Black folks who wish to better themselves and wish not to rely on government assistance and/or a minimum wage job for the rest of their lives.
As a Black woman, I highly agree with everything that he said.
I've been saying what he's bolded for ages. There are parenting courses out here to help our single mothers. However, we can not force them to seek help from these organizations.
Also, there are many organizations out here who are trying to better Baltimore City for low income Black folks who wish to better themselves and wish not to rely on government assistance and/or a minimum wage job for the rest of their lives.
I agree that we can't babysit thug/hood rat types. No one tells people to live off of welfare, have children out of wedlock(with no father in sight), or commit crimes. In fact, there are Black people telling other Blacks not to do these things. Some listen, some don't. There are things out there.
Whenever I hear someone say "the Black community has to straighten up", I find this condescending, and these are the reasons why.
1) To say "Black community" basically assumes every Black person, as if we are all the same way. It doesn't take into account the segments within the Black population.
2) Which "Black community"? There are many Black communities out there.
3) With the segments within the Black population, this is what we have. There are many Black people taking care of business, being diligent, actually being decent. And then you have hood rats/thugs/underclass types. These are the ones causing the trouble within the Black population. If there is anyone whom should be told to "straighten up", it isn't us. It is those hood rats/underclass types who need to be told this.
Furthermore, I don't even think I should have to explain any of this to anyone. One does not tell someone "the Black community needs to straighten up" to a Black person or a group of Black people who already have their act together. One goes to the individuals who are actually causing the problems.
The other challenge for lower income and middle class or so called "good black people" as it is being described is that there are stronger both direct and indirect relationships between "good black people" and "bad/thugs" that happen to be black and the fact that those "bad actors" will likely move,populate, or orbit around "good" predominately black areas thus infecting the entire community thus causing more generalizations and sterotypes.
I would use my own sterotype and call it the "PG County Effect". There are thousands of lower, middle and upper income well to do and productive african americans living in PG County yet the County is often defined primarily by the areas inside of the beltway but outside of DC...that are filled with poverty, crime, and violence. I had one friend that lived in an affluent Mitchellville subdivision with homes well over $500k and full of executives and professionals that had been plagued with daytime burgularies.. The reason why the Cops couldnt catch the perps was because they had a difficult time "profiling" potential suspects other than determining that they were likely juveniles. Why? Because the children of many of these affluent folks, though not "thugs", dressed in the same trendy hip hop fashion often associated with that lifestyle and were often visited by friends from other (often troubled) neighborhoods. The Police were either afraid or incapable of differentiating if someone was walking through the neighborhood because they lived there versus who was casing the community. They were slow to engage anyone for fear of retribution from some of these affluent and potentially politically influential parents on why their child was stopped or even followed. Thus sometimes crimes went on longer or unsolved.. which may be more a reflection on the Policing but it does impact the neighborhood and its image and adds to the often general sterotype of crime, bad neighborhoods, falling property values regardless of the income, education, or socio economic status of blacks.
Another example is that I have often heard among lower income but mostly middle income blacks that "those ghetto (endearing racial epithet) have moved into the house down the street and brought the entire neighborhood down " or "Mrs Jones took in her nephew who is a thug and move him out here to our nice neighborhood so he could stay out of trouble and go to a better school" only to find out that he brought his troubles with him and now impacting the entire neighborhood.
That doesnt seem to happen as much in white neighborhoods. "red necks" or whatever other term one uses to describe other whites of a less desirable stature... generally stay in neighborhoods with folks of their ilk and dont move into other areas (mostly by choice) dominated by other type of lower or middle income whites while in the black community many seize the opportunity to "move up" to another black community (versus a similiar white neighborhood) of greater status when given the opportunity thus the mixing the good and the bad actors. The exception being in cases of gentrification in places like Hampden.. but then its the reverse.. white middle income/upper income residents or yuppies are moving into lower income white neighborhoods that may be attractive to them for various reasons
What can be gathered from this is that Black people have a harder time getting away from hood rats and underclass behavior. The Black people who are looking for better things sometimes have to worry about the trash encroaching.
This isn't limited to Baltimore. Middle and upper-middle class Blacks in metropolitan Detroit are having this issue. Many moved out of Detroit to get a better quality of life. Among the places they moved to was Southfield, a majority-Black suburb. Many Blacks are not happy with the ghetto elements creeping in from Detroit, where they sought to get away from.
What you mentioned about "taking the nephew in", that actually happened when I was a teenager. Years before, my father bought a house in a predominantly White area (90% White) for a low price. A few years later we got new neighbors, a Black couple. They were good people. They had someone staying with them who was a hood rat. My father, who was born and raised in a rough area, knows hood rat when he sees it. He told me not to spend time around the "neighbor's kid" or whoever that person way. Later on, the guy who was stay with that couple went to prison for armed robbery. At the time, it was embarrassing for me. I felt that because of his behavior, it could effect how I'm perceived. I shouldn't feel that way at all. It should be "I have no respect for that man because he hurt some people", not "Oh boy, a Black guy had to commit an armed robbery, and he lived next door to me as well. How embarrassing".
I'm kind of humor challenged, particularly if it's typed.
Lol Yeah the lines can be a little blurred online when it comes to whether or not one is actually initiating a joke.
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