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Yup. It's always easy to make stereotypical judgements about people based on clothing or other factors. About 20 years ago I was at a small indoor shopping mall in northern Virginia. A homeless guy came up to me and said, "If I could just get 20 more dollars, I could get a motel room for tonight." I don't usually give to beggars, but in this case, since the temperature that night was forecast to dip to around zero, I decided to. About 2 months later I was at the same mall and going down the escalator. A guy coming up the opposite escalator looked at me and said, "Wait for me at the bottom. I need to talk to you." It was a perfectly safe location; so I did. "I think you're the man who gave me $20 a while back to get a motel room on a very cold night." Ah. I told him I was. He paid me back the $20, said he had since gotten a fairly decent job and was doing okay now. You never know.
If I have cash, I normally give to beggars. I know some of them are charlatans, but I can't help it. Many of them are mentally ill and unable to work. A few dollars to me is a great help to them. I often wish I had more. You never know about people, their situations, or motivations.
Last edited by katygirl68; 07-11-2016 at 05:55 PM..
We here in the big states already know what it's going to be like in a few years, and that it isn't going to be the end of the world. We like the diversity. I wonder what it will be like when people in Minnesota or Iowa suddenly start noticing that there's a lot of people of different ethnicities and races all the sudden. It hit me like that one time. I was just standing in a Walmart and noticed that I was just about the only white person there. There were East Asians, Asian Indians, Middle Easterners, and of course we've always had a lot of black and Hispanic people. It didn't bother me, it just occurred to me suddenly is all. I would say it's just the area I live, but really it's all over the city of Houston and the suburbs.
Exactly - heck, I noticed that the other day at the mall in Tyler!
I'll answer you. As I recall your earlier post, the AA men you mentioned were working and doing their job with you as customer. Perhaps they were as nice as you perceived them to be. Perhaps they were just doing their jobs. I'm not sure the situation was conducive to being sure either way.
Well, I appreciate you answering me, since the OP didn't.
To clarify, since the other day, I've had numerous interactions with "people of color" over the course of several days. Some of them were store clerks, some were just regular customers like myself.
No issues whatsoever. Nor did I expect any. Should I?
By the way, I don't care WHAT people think of me as long as they treat me decently.
This whole thread reminds me of a personal story: I am a white guy, about 10 years ago I worked with 3 black men in a professional setting. The 4 of us got along just fine. In fact, one of them was one of the most intelligent and articulate people I have ever met and I looked up to him professionally. Anyway, we were all in the same organization and would do lunch at least once a week together outside the office. One day, the 3 of them are talking about going out to lunch without me. I felt a little left out that all of a sudden they didn't want me to join them.
They explained that they were going to a Caribbean restaurant for lunch in a black area and it wouldn't be good if I came along and that next week we would all go to another place together.
This was at a fortune 500 company.
I understood and forgot about it. They were good guys, they were trying to protect themselves and me. I guess that was the first time I felt "discrimination" based on my race.
Hmmm, I go to good restaurants in bad neighborhoods often. Should I be worried? Why wouldn't they feel you would be safe as long as you were with them?
I was invited by my neighbor to go to a black church in the 5th Ward of Houston many years ago. My mom was fine with me going, and I was a white girl in the early '80s in Texas. It was a great church, and everyone there was very nice to me.
But, nope, business as usual. They still smile at me in passing and say "Hi there buddy" or "how's your day going?"...as if our nation isn't flirting with a race war.
I was thinking the exact same thing as I smiled and did a hi, how are you, in passing with a black guy at work. I can only imagine what kind of crap he deals with in the day to day. He's a huge man. Young too. The exchange felt a bit unreal.
The elitists like Hillary put blacks in the projects far away from their elite neighborhoods.. give them a welfare check which black people barely exist on.. the black men can't find a good job or any kind of job.. thanks to Nafta.
Blacks are getting educated. I believe they are becoming smarter, stronger, and more independent. But we have those who are trapped in the projects, women who are trying to raise their children alone. There are good mothers and try their best and it is not easy. Raising kids without a father is tough. Peer pressure is pulling these kids into crime , drugs and it is destroying them. I see the potential in these kids to be successful and strong.
We need more jobs , better jobs and stop the global takeover of our economy. I don't want to see a bunch of Detroits around the country. When jobs leave , poverty sets in..
I also see many white neighborhoods too where every person is on welfare because that last factory closed and went to Mexico. I have talked to the towns people in PA.. some towns have the entire main street area closed. No pizza parlor. no movie house, because they don't have the money to buy a pizza and go to a movie. There houses are old and crumbling.
Same with black neighborhoods. It is hard..
The elitist of this nation give lip service only . They are allowing jobs to disappear and poverty follows.
Good post hit the target head on. For many of these people a job would be the first step to being independent and doing something positive. I do believe many of these people need a job. And I believe that Peer pressure these days, runs rampant. And thus the problems created by drugs, and crimes and then no way out. We do need jobs in spite of what is being said to us, many stores still as Sport's Authority and some others are closing shop. We need more jobs back in this Country
Will this solve all the problems, of course not, but jobs is a start to something positive not negative.
And I am sorry but Hillary has done not one thing or Obama to help the situation of jobs in the black communities I remember on tapes we taped of Obama, stating that he would do this.
That has not happened. It many not solve all these problems, but a job is a beginning to becoming independent and that can't possibly hurt.
I sincerely believe that Hillary cares only about Hillary, because with all her many years of experience, I do not see black communities prosper, I see them going down hill and fast. She is a paid lip service and says what she has to at the moment.
I was thinking the exact same thing as I smiled and did a hi, how are you, in passing with a black guy at work. I can only imagine what kind of crap he deals with in the day to day. He's a huge man. Young too. The exchange felt a bit unreal.
The fact that you even consider that is much appreciated. It's folks that choose to pretend race means absolutely nothing which irritate most of us.
Being colorblind is not a bad thing, but it's not a cure all.
The fact that you even consider that is much appreciated. It's folks that choose to pretend race means absolutely nothing which irritate most of us.
Being colorblind is not a bad thing, but it's not a cure all.
I agree being colorblind is the ideal. It's just not real. I don't think it's only a matter of color either. I work for an international company, so at least half my colleagues are here on either work visas, student visas, or currently getting citizenship. My work friend from Ethiopia, for example, has not had the same experience as African-Americans. So, it's not just color. It's a complex history that has had consequences that span generations. Pretending otherwise is so obtuse. With that said, one of my closest momma BFs is a black woman and I don't even know what to say to her. Although, I'm gonna text her right now.
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