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I will be blunt about this. There are just many people out there(some of whom are on these forums) who do not want to be around African-Americans or to be associated with them, no matter what. It could be Bill Cosby and it would not matter. Many people would never admit it, period. It is often at the dinner table that some of these discussions take place. Some say it is about the crime. There have even been people on this forum who justify not wanting African-Americans in their communities. I went on one of the forums and a user justified an African-American family's house getting "egged". Well, why is it that in some places the Black population can get around 20%(without crime occuring) before some people start leaving? So much time is spent discussing the criminals who are African-American that no one ever things about those who are African-American and don't committ crimes. There are many users on this forum who have a more enlightened thought process who know the difference between the criminal elements and those who don't committ crimes, who don't judge African-Americans by the few who do committ crimes. They are the ones who recognize that most Africans-Americans don't committ crimes. They are aware of the issues, but they don't make generalizations. Some go out there and do the research. Those are the decent people, of all races and ethnicites, who know better, who chose not to live in ignorance and bigotry. The truth is out there. To the users who are showing, with evidence, that there are predominantly African-American communities with low crime rates, I applaude you and your efforts.
Personally, the fact that many people don't want to be around African-Americans doesn't shock me. It stopped shocking me a long time ago. I watched the grainy films from the 1960's regarding the Civil Rights movement. What I see today isn't that much different from back then, just more covert. There were people on camera coming out and saying they didn't want to live around Blacks period. One woman said she didn't want to live around them no matter how educated and how much money they made. I recently read a book by Thomas Shapiro called "The Hidden Cost of Being African-American". It spoke about being African-American and being in the middle-class. Some of the people who were interviewed stated that they planned to move out because their neighboorhood was getting "too Black". One many said something to the effect of "I'm not racist, but I don't want to live around alot of Blacks". This book is interesting and it dealt with the issues many African-Americans face in buying homes and people looking for good schools.
Last edited by green_mariner; 01-01-2010 at 07:28 PM..
The facts are the facts African-Americans tend to commit a disproportional amount of crime. However, they, like everyone else should still be judged fairly and on an individual basis because not everyone is the same.
The facts are the facts African-Americans tend to commit a disproportional amount of crime. However, they, like everyone else should still be judged fairly and on an individual basis because not everyone is the same.
Exactly! You are correct we do deserve to be judge fairly but we do commit crimes. Think of all the senseless killings that we have everyday. If someone looks at us the wrong we are ready to shoot. I know from being in school there were plenty of senseless fights. Somebody say something about our hair or what we are wearing, then we are ready to fight. I got the chance to go to a private school my senior year and there were only 5 blacks that graduated out of 75 students. The other 70 students talked like mature people. Whenever they had disagreements they apologized to each other, if something was said that should have not been said. For the ones who did not like each other at all, they did not talk at all. I learned a whole lot being there and all of that was new to me because I was so use to our own kind fighting over nothing. Now many blacks especially the younger generation cannot come to a agreement with each other. We would rather take and steal from another working person, rather then ask that person what are you doing to have what you have.. Now what makes us think this is ok I don't know. But the blacks that are not this way do deserve better treatment within the community. It is not fair for a whole race to be stereotyped due to a few knuckle heads who committed senseless killings. But like this guy just said above me, we do need to cut back on some of these killings. If we did this, then we can not be considered as dangerous people.
God when will people get over the whole race issue? Race is not the issue as much as collectivism is. Treating the black race as one entity rather than as individuals.
I have wasted way too much time online discussing the whole racial issue, and I finally realize that its pointless.
Arguing with a racist person is pointless, hate is an emotion, you cannot change someones emotions by debating with them. Racial issues are subjective to them, they can walk around the world and ignore all the decent black citizens and only focus on the ones causing problems.
They use statistics and "facts" to justify their racism. Statistics which are already skewed because poor people tend to have more kids than wealthier people. Its obvious that none of the black people here on City-Data are criminals or prison inmates. So these "statistics" don't represent them.
If you really wanna know why people break the law, go ask them. Go to their neighborhoods and ask them. There is a TV series about rich white guys who pulled off ponzi schemes and other scams to embezzle millions of dollars. I'd like to know why they did that, but I doubt Billy Bob or Jeff J could answer that.
... Or you could study sociology and cultural anthropology, African American studies, economics, etc... I'm sure then you'd have a pretty clear perspective as to why the way things are.
God when will people get over the whole race issue? Race is not the issue as much as collectivism is. Treating the black race as one entity rather than as individuals.
I have wasted way too much time online discussing the whole racial issue, and I finally realize that its pointless.
Arguing with a racist person is pointless, hate is an emotion, you cannot change someones emotions by debating with them. Racial issues are subjective to them, they can walk around the world and ignore all the decent black citizens and only focus on the ones causing problems.
They use statistics and "facts" to justify their racism. Statistics which are already skewed because poor people tend to have more kids than wealthier people. Its obvious that none of the black people here on City-Data are criminals or prison inmates. So these "statistics" don't represent them.
If you really wanna know why people break the law, go ask them. Go to their neighborhoods and ask them. There is a TV series about rich white guys who pulled off ponzi schemes and other scams to embezzle millions of dollars. I'd like to know why they did that, but I doubt Billy Bob or Jeff J could answer that.
... Or you could study sociology and cultural anthropology, African American studies, economics, etc... I'm sure then you'd have a pretty clear perspective as to why the way things are .
The statement I bolded is key. If any ethnic/racial group was segregated from the main population of a country, denied education and jobs, then overtime it would be easy to see how they would face major problems in the future.
Exactly! You are correct we do deserve to be judge fairly but we do commit crimes. Think of all the senseless killings that we have everyday. If someone looks at us the wrong we are ready to shoot. I know from being in school there were plenty of senseless fights. Somebody say something about our hair or what we are wearing, then we are ready to fight. I got the chance to go to a private school my senior year and there were only 5 blacks that graduated out of 75 students. The other 70 students talked like mature people. Whenever they had disagreements they apologized to each other, if something was said that should have not been said. For the ones who did not like each other at all, they did not talk at all. I learned a whole lot being there and all of that was new to me because I was so use to our own kind fighting over nothing. Now many blacks especially the younger generation cannot come to a agreement with each other. We would rather take and steal from another working person, rather then ask that person what are you doing to have what you have.. Now what makes us think this is ok I don't know. But the blacks that are not this way do deserve better treatment within the community. It is not fair for a whole race to be stereotyped due to a few knuckle heads who committed senseless killings. But like this guy just said above me, we do need to cut back on some of these killings. If we did this, then we can not be considered as dangerous people.
The fact still stands that all most people concentrate on is the violence in the African-American community. It isn't just a matter of people not wanting to be around African-Americans, but it is also about numbers too. African-Americans make up about 13 percent of the USA population and the usual protrayal is either that of violence, gangsta rap, or something else degrading. While that does exist, it is only true for a small segment of the population, and the persons who aren't like that are ignored alot. While the violence is bad, people should be judged individually. Sadly, just because someone should be judged individually doesn't mean someone will be judged individually. Fair might be fair, but that doesn't mean someone will play fairly.
I recently had a conversation with a guy who grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta. He said that there are violence issues in the African-American community and that it needs to be solved because African-Americans do live there and should have safe places to live. It shouldn't be about "bucking a stereotype", but rather, so that African-Americans themselves can live in safer communities. His worries were about the decent persons living in the areas afflicted with violence. He also added that those kinds of pathologies can exist in predominantly White areas too. He was telling me that the big difference between what happens in alot of predominantly African-American areas and the predominantly areas was the nature of it. According to him, what he found in predominantly Black areas was mainly personal stuff, mainly one-on-one stuff, or gang shootings, which is still bad. What he found in the predominantly White areas was the "wholesale violence", mainly school shootings.
There are alot of problems that need to be addressed. There is also a need to stop listening to all of the stereotypes that are out there. You had your experiences. My own, well, I have seen both Black kids and White kids get violent in my old high school.
The fact still stands that all most people concentrate on is the violence in the African-American community. It isn't just a matter of people not wanting to be around African-Americans, but it is also about numbers too. African-Americans make up about 13 percent of the USA population and the usual protrayal is either that of violence, gangsta rap, or something else degrading. While that does exist, it is only true for a small segment of the population, and the persons who aren't like that are ignored alot. While the violence is bad, people should be judged individually. Sadly, just because someone should be judged individually doesn't mean someone will be judged individually. Fair might be fair, but that doesn't mean someone will play fairly.
I recently had a conversation with a guy who grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta. He said that there are violence issues in the African-American community and that it needs to be solved because African-Americans do live there and should have safe places to live. It shouldn't be about "bucking a stereotype", but rather, so that African-Americans themselves can live in safer communities. His worries were about the decent persons living in the areas afflicted with violence. He also added that those kinds of pathologies can exist in predominantly White areas too. He was telling me that the big difference between what happens in alot of predominantly African-American areas and the predominantly areas was the nature of it. According to him, what he found in predominantly Black areas was mainly personal stuff, mainly one-on-one stuff, or gang shootings, which is still bad. What he found in the predominantly White areas was the "wholesale violence", mainly school shootings.
There are alot of problems that need to be addressed. There is also a need to stop listening to all of the stereotypes that are out there. You had your experiences. My own, well, I have seen both Black kids and White kids get violent in my old high school.
All of my black friends from high school went on to college(Frostburg, Bowie State, Howard University, University of Maryland, University of Virginia, and Hampton University)
Only one black friend went to prison for robbing a 7-11. His mother was murdered when we were in middle school over domestic violence so that was probably the contributing factor.
But how do you think "statistics" and "facts" represent my black friends?
All of my black friends from high school went on to college(Frostburg, Bowie State, Howard University, University of Maryland, University of Virginia, and Hampton University)
Only one black friend went to prison for robbing a 7-11. His mother was murdered when we were in middle school over domestic violence so that was probably the contributing factor.
But how do you think "statistics" and "facts" represent my black friends?
I said it in the last two posts. People like your friends are often the ones who get ignored because people take those "stats" and "facts" and concentrate mainly on that. Those stats are often used to make your friends look bad. In fact, that is how alot of people use them. Rather than try to solve the problems that have been prevalen in many communities, those stats are used so that some low-life will say "they are all like that".
I think it seems to me at times there's a desire to make black people monolithic or almost a worry that treating them as diverse some how weakens "the black cause."
Blacks have all kinds of backgrounds and views. Although something like 80-90% of them are Democratic that doesn't mean they're even all of the same politics. Although most blacks believe in a large government that provides many services on other issues blacks in polls have a variety of views. Some are very conservative on "family issues" and others are socially liberal. A high percentage of blacks over 40 object to most rap music and same-sex marriage. As I recall a slim majority of blacks oppose the death penalty, but a strong minority supports it. Although generally speaking blacks are "to the Left" on economic issues there are a fair amount who think taxes are too high and are pro-business. (This is from Pew and Gallup)
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