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The quoted NYTimes article in the OP's post is just political opinion crap, what an extremely hate filled and ugly racist piece, ironically written in the guise of fighting racism.
Glad that no wasting time reading it. It doesn't belong here.
However the brevity of history is a good topic.
How far did you get?
We all ought to read this and other things that challenge our ideas and convictions. As clearly stated, this is an opinion piece but from a particular and valid perspective:
"I am on America’s side, but as my grandfather said, love involves chastisement. I love the idea of an America that is free and equal. But we are not there yet. For too many Americans, systemic oppression remains a practical reality. For too many Americans, it remains a sacred ideology."
There is a lot of history written from challenging perspectives. By refusing to read or be acquainted with these other perspectives, or to dismiss them outright, keeps us in a bubble that is narrow minded and exclusive. History happens to people and people have their own perspective of how and why things happen and are the way they are. Sometimes that broadens our understanding.
One other story, which is really wild, is that Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the grandson of John Tyler--yes, our tenth president--is still alive. Tyler was born in 1790, had children by his second wife at an advanced age in 1853, and his son had a similar experience, fathering Harrison when he was 75.
I had a job working with elderly folks back in the 1970s and met the sheriff of Tombstone AZ who delighted in pulling up his shirt to show his bullet hole scars. Also a Manhattan Project worker with a medal for something and a letter from FDR for work on the atomic bomb. Being shot a few times or working with plutonium didn't seem to slow them down.
My aunt worked on the bomb, though she did not know it of course. I have her certificate recognizing her contribution signed by Henry Stimson. After the war, the jobs went back to men and she became a hand model in NYC. Her hands were very petite and they liked to make the appliance knobs and hand irons look large...at least that was her explanation of how she got work.
How far did you get?
We all ought to read this and other things that challenge our ideas and convictions. As clearly stated, this is an opinion piece but from a particular and valid perspective:
"I am on America’s side, but as my grandfather said, love involves chastisement. I love the idea of an America that is free and equal. But we are not there yet. For too many Americans, systemic oppression remains a practical reality. For too many Americans, it remains a sacred ideology."
There is a lot of history written from challenging perspectives. By refusing to read or be acquainted with these other perspectives, or to dismiss them outright, keeps us in a bubble that is narrow minded and exclusive. History happens to people and people have their own perspective of how and why things happen and are the way they are. Sometimes that broadens our understanding.
After I got to "so much of white America is deeply racist, in ways that are impossible to quantify but that are nevertheless felt, and that bear out in the vote." Actually I perused through the rest of it, almost threw up when I got to "Those who voted for the Republican — a staggering 70 million as of Friday evening ...must never lose sight of who they’ve revealed themselves to be."
So yeah, she is called 70 million americans racist pigs - black, white, doesn't matter. They get labeled by who they voted for. The irony. Thank you lady.
Hate is not understanding.
Blatant racism, by either side, is not "challenging perspectives".
Modern politics, which really was the intent of the article, is not history.
Since we can't discuss such specifics here, particularly modern politics, maybe posting that article in Great Debates is a better option.
Yesterday I was watching the Looney Tunes on YouTube. These particular episodes were clearly from WWII, and I originally would've watched them probably in the early 80s as reruns on Saturday morning cartoons. So 40 years had passed. And now, 1980 itself was 40 years ago - so me watching the Looney Tunes cartoons about WWII in 1980 is like a kid watching The Smurfs, Thundercats or He-Man today.
The article is just garbage. An anecdotal diatribe which concludes that half the country are racist white supremacists since they voted Republican. The article is just random thought, there's no cohesive argument using any kind of logic or reasoning.
It's also playing into the victim mentality that is hampering some populations in the U.S. Let's look at every problem we have as a people today and blame it on something from the past. Then let's go on to blame people we don't agree for the same problems. Certain areas of the country have been voting Democrat for a long time and it doesn't seem to have helped the situation in any way.
The phrase is fine, though the rearview mirror thing has been overused. My favorite use was from Ace Ventura.
It's hard to compare our own lifetime experience to historical events from 50, 100, or 1000 years ago. Social, technological, and other types of change can happen quickly. I think back to 1990 and how much has changed since then. When I study politics from the 1960s and 1970s, it's not completely comparable to today. There are similarities, but so much as changed when you delve deeper into the issues.
However, when you think well, I knew my great-grandmother pretty well and she was born in 1912, so she was a teenager from 1925 to 1931, it just kind of blows your mind. I met my great grandfather, didn't know him that well, and he was born in the late 1890s. When you think about it this way, it doesn't take too many generations to go back to Napoleon, Mozart, Bach, Queen Elizabeth I...
It happens for me in movies or tv shows when all the main characters have died.......
Bonanza, all dead except Pernell Roberts
Pernell Roberts died in 2010.
It surprises me sometimes to learn who is still alive. There were stories a few years ago that Winston Churchill's parrot was still alive and had a lot to say about Hitler.
Betty White will be 99 next month. She started "appearing" on TV in 1939 for a local experimental transmission in LA before the FCC had even established standards for the technology.
I remember when Nelson Rockefeller could not get the 1968 Republican nomination for President because he had been divorced and remarried, which was considered inmoral. Instead, we ended up with Richard Nixon.
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