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Baybook, I remember the news coverage on the civil rights movement, when it was news. I always thought that Dr. King was a good man. I remember when the NAACP was very well respected by most people.
I lost a lot of respect for the NAACP when they did not push for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Aren't roughly half of the people who the organization purports to represent women? Have you heard the organization push for gay rights? Many people who I know have lost respect for the NAACP for the same reasons.
I don't know anyone of any race, in real life, who respects Al Sharpton. That's who the NAACP seems to be using as their model now. If you're offended, I'm sorry, but this is an explanation of what I said earlier & I did my utmost to not use "they" or "them".
Snow days have to be made up & by state law those days have to be made up by June 10th. No one knows if there will be more snow days.
Instead of being offended, the NAACP should make up balanced & accurate educational material, take it to the states & offer that if there are snow days to be made up on Martin Luther King Day, that the organization would like to send qualified people in to make presentations.
To thank both you and Baybook for both your pleasant exchange with each other, and for making insightful comments about the issues at large...and Southbound, the last paragraph of your post spoke VOLUMES...well said, sir...
Now, having said that, let me expound on a few other things, which I happened across upthread, none of which you or Baybook said, but I wanted to make sure my feelings were known...
1) I am my mother and father's son...which means I am nobody's damn 'victim', and the only 'card' I play is during friendly games of 'go fish' with my younger nieces and nephews
2) Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the potientially irrelevant NAACP, and a holy host of others folks want to trot out at times like this (caps coming) DON'T SPEAK FOR ME OR MOST OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY AT LARGE!!! Period, ipso-facto, end of story...if I have a problem of that nature, I am a grown man, and I have a spine and active vocal cords, thus don't need others to talk for or fight my battles for me, thank you very much...
3) I spend every single day of my life trying to live by things that Dr King spoke on, and my parents raised me to believe...especially when it comes to matters of race, and dealing with others who are not of my race...contrary to popular opinion, educated, intelligent upwardly mobile blacks don't waste their time 'hating whitey' or really giving a good-doodle-damn about what Jackson, Sharpton, and the NAACP are doing...they are living their lives, even trying to interact with other races, and making Charlotte and anywhere else they might be a better place to live...
And to stay on topic for a moment, the NAACP, in this case, needs to have a coke and a smile and shut the expletive up, and come back when they ACTUALLY have something RELEVANT to b***h about...it's been a long time since my parents' day, when they actually stood for something, but this whining and faux outrage every 10 seconds gets on my nerves...
Finally, some of you really need to cut it out with this thinly veiled codespeak...I don't do politically correct---if you have a problem with or about blacks, or anything in the black community, then by-god SAY SO, and quit with this tired 'well, you know what they say about them!' routine... Open up a dialogue and actually try to engage blacks in conversation, instead of sitting behind a computer and throwing snarky asides onto a chat forum, or choosing to deal in stereotypes and soundbites and potentially useless surveys...if you have black neighbors, and want to discuss this or any other issue with them, then talk to them! Don't hide behind your picket fences and gossip amongst yourselves...because all that does is build the fences higher, and then NOTHING gets done...
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,684,299 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by captaincatfish
To thank both you and Baybook for both your pleasant exchange with each other, and for making insightful comments about the issues at large...and Southbound, the last paragraph of your post spoke VOLUMES...well said, sir...
Now, having said that, let me expound on a few other things, which I happened across upthread, none of which you or Baybook said, but I wanted to make sure my feelings were known...
1) I am my mother and father's son...which means I am nobody's damn 'victim', and the only 'card' I play is during friendly games of 'go fish' with my younger nieces and nephews
2) Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, the potientially irrelevant NAACP, and a holy host of others folks want to trot out at times like this (caps coming) DON'T SPEAK FOR ME OR MOST OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY AT LARGE!!! Period, ipso-facto, end of story...if I have a problem of that nature, I am a grown man, and I have a spine and active vocal cords, thus don't need others to talk for or fight my battles for me, thank you very much...
3) I spend every single day of my life trying to live by things that Dr King spoke on, and my parents raised me to believe...especially when it comes to matters of race, and dealing with others who are not of my race...contrary to popular opinion, educated, intelligent upwardly mobile blacks don't waste their time 'hating whitey' or really giving a good-doodle-damn about what Jackson, Sharpton, and the NAACP are doing...they are living their lives, even trying to interact with other races, and making Charlotte and anywhere else they might be a better place to live...
And to stay on topic for a moment, the NAACP, in this case, needs to have a coke and a smile and shut the expletive up, and come back when they ACTUALLY have something RELEVANT to b***h about...it's been a long time since my parents' day, when they actually stood for something, but this whining and faux outrage every 10 seconds gets on my nerves...
Finally, some of you really need to cut it out with this thinly veiled codespeak...I don't do politically correct---if you have a problem with or about blacks, or anything in the black community, then by-god SAY SO, and quit with this tired 'well, you know what they say about them!' routine... Open up a dialogue and actually try to engage blacks in conversation, instead of sitting behind a computer and throwing snarky asides onto a chat forum, or choosing to deal in stereotypes and soundbites and potentially useless surveys...if you have black neighbors, and want to discuss this or any other issue with them, then talk to them! Don't hide behind your picket fences and gossip amongst yourselves...because all that does is build the fences higher, and then NOTHING gets done...
Captain, your post was well articulated & reflects sentiments that I have heard many times by friends & co-workers who happen to be black.
For the record, I'm white & female. I grew up in the midwest seeing the civil rights movement unfold on the news, so did not experience it in the same way that I would have in the southern parts of the US. However, that doesn't mean that I don't understand discrimination. When I graduated from college in 1973, segregated want ads were still quite legal. By segregated want ads, I mean Help wanted Male (the good jobs that paid a decent wage), Help wanted Female (the crap jobs - good luck making a living with those jobs) & Help wanted Male or Female (the mid-ground)
We've come a long way, & things are so much better. Things are not perfect, but life is like that.
I've had a lot of interesting & informative discussions with others of all races & both genders. I can not recommend your suggestion of talking to people highly enough. I also agree with you that the constant finger pointing & hopping up & down does a dis-service. It gets on people's nerves & most people ignore those who do that. It's the old "Chicken Little" syndrome. Keeping that behavior up guarantees that if there's a real problem, you will be ignored.
About 15 years ago I crossed paths with someone on MLK day who though I didn't know then I still remember now. I was a sales manager for a wholesale food company who delivered directly to grocery stores. One of my employees was african american and took off on MLK day so I was covering his accounts. I went to one account and the girl there was african american and asked where "Bob" was and I told her he took off for MLK day. She told me that MLK fought for equality and that she didn't know of any white people taking the day off so the best way to honor him was to be equal and work. I told her what a great and level headed outlook she had and that I was glad to have met her.
Same thing is going on in Fort Mill, except a group called THUG is involved too.
Civil rights group to protest at Fort Mill School District office | Fort Mill Times - Fort Mill, SC (http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2011/01/13/1401544/mlk-day-wont-be-makeup-per-bill.html# - broken link)
GMAFB.
Same thing is going on in Fort Mill, except a group called THUG is involved too.
Civil rights group to protest at Fort Mill School District office | Fort Mill Times - Fort Mill, SC (http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2011/01/13/1401544/mlk-day-wont-be-makeup-per-bill.html# - broken link)
GMAFB.
And I just shook my head...they couldn't come up with a better acronym than THUG, considering how much negativity is attached to that word?
The obvious solution to this whole problem is to widen the window that the counties use to get in the required 180 or 185 school days. The state legislature comes up with these dates and it doesn't give the counties enough "flexibility" to manage the school year. Will civilization as we know it end, if CMS goes to June 15th and Avery County finishes up on June 18th? Hey, it's hot on June 10th as well as June 15th if lack of AC is the problem. The individual counties should determine when their school year ends and all of the hue and cry of what holidays got cancelled would go away. If the state said the school year had to end by June 20th would we even be having this discussion?
Last edited by TheEmissary; 01-14-2011 at 02:14 PM..
Frankly I am tired of it all. I am black and it does not matter to me if I have to work on or if my kid has to go to school on Monday. Some people have no choice and have to work on Monday as well, so what is the big deal. Although the last school district that I worked in made us come school on Memorial Day (mind ya not a make up day) and I was pissed. Needless to say half of the kids did not come to school and the parents confronted the school board and they did not try it again. MLK was always a teacher workday there.
Just wanted to add again, that I didn't realize it MLK was a holiday for Black people. I thought it was a national holiday for all Amercans. I keep reading about Black people observing or not observing or caring...whatever.
But if you want to go down the road that the feelings of Black people matter more on this issue than everyone else, I would say that where you were born matters. if you weren't born in America, you probably have a different point of reference when it comes to MLK and the Civil Rights Movement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bajanqueen
Frankly I am tired of it all. I am black and it does not matter to me if I have to work on or if my kid has to go to school on Monday. Some people have no choice and have to work on Monday as well, so what is the big deal. Although the last school district that I worked in made us come school on Memorial Day (mind ya not a make up day) and I was pissed. Needless to say half of the kids did not come to school and the parents confronted the school board and they did not try it again. MLK was always a teacher workday there.
Just wanted to add again, that I didn't realize it MLK was a holiday for Black people. I thought it was a national holiday for all Amercans. I keep reading about Black people observing or not observing or caring...whatever.
But if you want to go down the road that the feelings of Black people matter more on this issue than everyone else, I would say that where you were born matters. if you weren't born in America, you probably have a different point of reference when it comes to MLK and the Civil Rights Movement.
First of all where did I say or mention that the feelings of Black people matter more on this issue than everyone else? Yes I was not born here but I know enough I have spent more than half of my life and all of my adult life here. Yes I may have a different point of reference. Where I am from had slavery as well but it was abolished before the US. We have/had our share of racism there as well, not to the extreme of the US but racism is racism. A holiday does not make anyone more important or more significant if what they stand for is not acknowledged. I do not need a holiday to understand what someone stood for or to give them the respect they need.
Also other races have also mentioned that they did not care, you just know I am black because I mentioned it, if I did not you probably would not have said a thing. The last person to to talk bring up that black people rhetoric to is me I just mentioned color here because the talk is about how the black community is responding to decision to have school open.
My point, is that your race, my race, the next commentors race does not matter. It is a holiday for all. The fact that one may be Black does not give them any more or less authority to speak than the next person.
BUT...
if you want to go down that road, Blacks from other countries do not have the same point of refernce as Blacks born and raised in America - and it doesn't matter how long you have lived here. That would be the same as saying the Russian that moved here when was a young man was the same reference points as John with ancestors that go back to the Nina. I believe you've said this yourself in more than a single thread so I'm not sure how what I am saying is any different.
As you just said, the conversation tends to center around the Black community as if they are the only people observing the holiday. See my first point.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bajanqueen
First of all where did I say or mention that the feelings of Black people matter more on this issue than everyone else? Yes I was not born here but I know enough I have spent more than half of my life and all of my adult life here. Yes I may have a different point of reference. Where I am from had slavery as well but it was abolished before the US. We have/had our share of racism there as well, not to the extreme of the US but racism is racism. A holiday does not make anyone more important or more significant if what they stand for is not acknowledged. I do not need a holiday to understand what someone stood for or to give them the respect they need.
Also other races have also mentioned that they did not care, you just know I am black because I mentioned it, if I did not you probably would not have said a thing. The last person to to talk bring up that black people rhetoric to is me I just mentioned color here because the talk is about how the black community is responding to decision to have school open.
Last edited by baybook; 01-14-2011 at 03:39 PM..
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LOL...I Just Read That
