It is hard not to be condescending here (Phoenix, Tempe: credit, vs.)

[movin'on]

Originally Posted by Artliquide

I completely agree. Some of my smartest friends are horrible spellers.

Well, I'll tell you this much. Once I hit 40 my spelling capabilities just went downhill, along with my eyesight. Such is life

[FunkyMonk]

It's all about what's in a person's heart and their intentions. Not what their educational level is.

Some of the most amazing, inspiring, and interesting people i've ever met were in places like Thailand or rural Mexico. Where they lack all education and don't even have any money at all. Yet they have a purity and a humanity to them that is unmistakable. And it's usually because they havn't been corrupted by greed and other illusions of modern life.

However, there are some areas in which people are lacking in both..... Where the people are uneducated and rotton to the core. Full of negativity, aggression and hate. Some places i've visited in the south are like that. And did I mention Texas? Texas.... my God, maybe I just went to the wrong parts?

Maybe Pheonix is such a place? I dunno, I've only been there once, it is pretty close to Texas after all. I can see how it could maybe be such a place. There are lots of places in which the people are just uneducated, ignorant, and full of hate and bigotry. Is Phoenix such a place?

[azriverfan]

I will acknowledge the schools in Arizona are clearly substandard. For example, there isn't one true magnate school in the Phoenix area. There is no Arizona School of Math and Science. Even Arkansas and Oklahoma have schools for Math and Science. Also, how does Phoenix only have one university: ASU? I understand that ASU is large but there are no small liberal arts colleges or other established private universities for a city of this size.

I understand you can't just create liberal arts colleges but the governor could create some very elite and selective magnate schools but there are no talks of that. Instead we are more concerned with building a rock n roll amusement part in Eloy.

[Artliquide]

Originally Posted by xenourtv

I went to school in Kansas State and traveled to Iowa at times. Some of the whitest parts of the country, very homogenous. I will tell you that as a minority I was suprised to be in an environment where I felt comfotable, accepted, and respected. I was able to enjoy myself at times because the natives and the people who grew up there learned how to respect other people regardless of what environment they came from. They were taught not to discriminate other people based on the color of their skin, and were educated on civics, ethics, and morality. I do not know what they are teaching in Arizona schools, but it is definately not black history. This is not surprising since your senator rejected the idea of MLK being a national holiday years ago. One homeless guy called me the N word, for no apparent reason and when I confronted him he blamed my people for his undoing

People here just do not know how to react or adjust to different situations, instead they decide to just let it be or in your words become "tolerant". I am not surprised with the adults, but concerned about the children because that is a skill that you need if you want to compete in today's society. I think it really all comes down to the fact that since I am presumably more intelligent than my counterparts here in the Phoenix area they see me as a threat, cause I have a high vocabulary, knowledge, could enunciate words with eloquency at times, and black. In the past a person like me would have been seen as a threat, but it is great to know most places in this country have gotten over it and can handle a black male being smarter then them. However it appears that people here have a hard time dealing with it, because chances are most people who live here probably had no interaction with black people throughout their time in grammar, elementary, junior high, and high school. The balancing effect to neutralize prejudices and racial tendancies would be the school system, but obviously they are not teaching racial harmony So they go to the media and use stereotypes, so when they have a run in with a person who happens to be black, what do you think happens. They do not follow the rule of getting to know a person, they automatically assume, let be, wonder, and go on with their contentable ways.

You make many assumptions...based on what, exactly? Personal experience? Every single human being has a unique life experience. If you have been oppressed by a homeless man due to the color of your skin, how does that determine the nature of the attitudes of all other people living in Phoenix? Individuals may do and say ignorant things to others, but that does not mean that the rest of the world is just like them.

As far as what they teach in public schools, from my experience, there may not be a chapter dedicated to black history (actually, there might have been, it's been a while), but neither was there a chapter dedicated to white history.
Personally, I prefer history to be racially unbiased on all counts. I do remember learning about the civil rights movement in the 60s, and wishing that I could have been a part of it.

I also had friends in school who were black, so your claim that those who go to school here haven't been exposed to black people is false.

I don't understand this sense of entitlement some people have. If everyone is to be truly equal, then we should stop playing the race card in the first place. Life's tough and you'll meet stupid people, but for every ignorant person, there is one who is not ignorant about racial equality and respect. Maybe you should venture out, meet some more white people, and you might change your mind about how rampant racism is/is not in Phoenix. I've been neighbors with black, asian, mexican, white, etc people. I have never had anyone assume that I am racist because I am white, and I never did the same to them. We were genuinely friendly with each other, and that's what really matters, isn't it? Not what skin color we were.

And regarding respect: people don't respect you for what you know (perhaps they admire you, however). They respect you for how you act.

[azriverfan]

Originally Posted by xenourtv

You just do not understand, and you can not gauge a persons intelligence based on how a person types. This is a message board, im not going to proofread everything i say and look into all the grammatical errors I made. You people can be so meticulous at times Anyways, I am not saying everybody who lives in Phoenix is not intelligent, that would be naive for me to say. If you read my first post I clearly stated the overall environment and based off my observation. If you analyze your surroundings a little bit more, and just did not look at everything as black and white you would be able to see that people here seem to be lacking in intelligence. Everything is not always what they appear to be, remember that. I am done

You have every right to post your opinion about the IQ level in Arizona. I'll respect that. However, if you are taking it upon yourself to speak so candidly about the IQ of Arizona residents, I'll certainly take the liberty to say that you don't strike me as a very intelligent person. My comments are not based on your grammar but rather your failure to express yourself intelligently. Yes, you can guage a person's level of education based on how they type. I'm assuming you are a college graduate who took an English composition course?

[Artliquide]

Originally Posted by xenourtv

To all you haters who insulted me , it is ok you do not know me. This is strictly an opinion based on my observation of being here, and so far I strongly believe I am smarter then most people here. It is the educational system here and off my observation, people here are not smart. When I moved I was aware that I was going to coming to a place where their were not many black people and the majority of the population was strictly white and hispanic/latino. I just did not expect people here to be so "out of touch" and ignorant. I did not expect that people value having a lot of kids and what home they can get out in the valley to be there number one priority. In my previous work environment, I was with intellectuals who were already on top but still wanted to make it big, like going back to school to get there masters or phd, become leaders, and volunteering to make the community a better place.

Bottom line is that you can not expect everybody to like you, but you better respect me. Cause it is not fun being condescending and when you peeps say you feel sorry for me, I feel sorry for yall who embrace this type of lifestyle cause there is more to life than having many children, and remaining content. I am not miserable yet, I like the women here, and I heard the weather is nice during the winter time and I know I will have great times once I want to assert myself fully in this environment. I have already adjusted, and I do not care if people do not like me, but to you Phoenicians out there if you do not respect me I will show you the same kind of disrespect in a manner in which you will remember for a long time .

Ok troll.

First, you just moved here, since you have only heard about nice winters here. How in the world can you make any kind of judgment regarding the residents of a location when you have only lived here a few months?

Second, you must live close to mormons? I don't mean offense to mormons, but that is the primary demographic here that has more than 5 kids per family. If that's the case, why don't you travel around town a bit and widen your perspective. You are clearly not as educated as you say, since you form your conclusion before testing your hypothesis (<--scientific method...look it up)

Third, demanding respect, accompanied by threats, following numerous discourses stating that you're so much more intelligent than the rest of us. That, friend, is the sure way to not earn any respect whatsoever.

Again, actions earn respect (or disrespect), not education or skin color.

[Artliquide]

Originally Posted by azriverfan

I will acknowledge the schools in Arizona are clearly substandard. For example, there isn't one true magnate school in the Phoenix area. There is no Arizona School of Math and Science. Even Arkansas and Oklahoma have schools for Math and Science. Also, how does Phoenix only have one university: ASU? I understand that ASU is large but there are no small liberal arts colleges or other established private universities for a city of this size.

I understand you can't just create liberal arts colleges but the governor could create some very elite and selective magnate schools but there are no talks of that. Instead we are more concerned with building a rock n roll amusement part in Eloy.

what are you talking about?? There are several universities and colleges around town (Grand Canyon, Thunderbird, University of Phoenix, etc.)

[kdog]

Originally Posted by xenourtv

I strongly believe I am smarter then most people here.

Perhaps you mean smarter than.

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by kdog

Perhaps you mean smarter than.

You can't pick on him being a bad speller as a sign of him being unintelligent.
I agree totally that just because a person is uneducated wouldn't mean he is not intelligent BUT bad speller doesn't necessarily mean uneducated either. I have worked with many Americans with Associate or Bachelor's degree that couldn't spell worth a sh.t and even asked me for correction.
If you know you are a bad speller and you don't even bother doing a quick spell-check of your text, then, imho, you are....
Don't say, he made a typo because the location of the letters A and E are not close enough to convince me that it was a typo. If he had typed thsn or thn then I would accept the typo possibility or think the letter A key didn't take. I generally ignore people's spelling errors because most of my posts are full of typos or other odd error that make me say "What the F was I smoking when I typed that?" to myself when I them later on...
After all I am a foreigner with decent English education but over the year as I've become more American, my English accent got thinner, my waist got thicker and my spelling and grammar went to Hell.

Back to the argument of the original poster, if he prefers feeling 'same' or 'stupider' than most around him then that is his choice.
Some choose to serve in Heaven while some choose to rule in Hell.

[tolovefromANFIELD]

What an intelligent debate amongst the most intelligent of the forum All of 13 pages.