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Meanwhile those on the right like to pretend racism doesn't exist and everybody else are just complainers. Unless you're a white male, then you have every right to keep whining about how hard you have it being a white male today. Throw in a little AL Sharpton and Jesse Jackson sarcastic reference and you're in there!!!
You on the Left think racism is just peachy if it is perpetrated by your favorite victim groups. When you loot, vandalize, and burn down the Asian shops, for example. Moderator cut: rude
Absolutely. And the reality of the situation is that lefties are the true racist ones, looking down on blacks and literally degrading them with excuses for their actions as if they aren't capable of making it on their own. Allowing this type of activity, and in many recent cases actually encouraging it, you are making this problem worse. Empowering this victim status is in essence exacerbating racism. It's a whole different sort of racism that will always be denied by those guilty of it. At least conservative racists are usually open about it. Which is worse...?
Most of those accused of being racist are not in fact being racist. They are just defending themselves against thuggish behavior which should be fought against regardless of the color of the person doing it. Allowing one group to get away with it simply because of their color says a little about you...
Btw, I am neither black nor truly white, but judge me all you like. I'm used to it by libs. It's an old pastime.
You on the Left think racism is just peachy if it is perpetrated by your favorite victim groups. When you loot, vandalize, and burn down the Asian shops, for example. Moderator cut: rude
Why do obsess over Blacks? Were you complaining about the Ohio State riots over a football game? How about whenever a sports team wins your favorite victim groups goes on a rampage tearing up cities over a game. Savage thugs.
Absolutely. And the reality of the situation is that lefties are the true racist ones, looking down on blacks and literally degrading them with excuses for their actions as if they aren't capable of making it on their own. Allowing this type of activity, and in many recent cases actually encouraging it, you are making this problem worse. Empowering this victim status is in essence exacerbating racism. It's a whole different sort of racism that will always be denied by those guilty of it. At least conservative racists are usually open about it. Which is worse...?
Most of those accused of being racist are not in fact being racist. They are just defending themselves against thuggish behavior which should be fought against regardless of the color of the person doing it. Allowing one group to get away with it simply because of their color says a little about you...
Btw, I am neither black nor truly white, but judge me all you like. I'm used to it by libs. It's an old pastime.
So conservative racists are better because they openly hate Blacks, Latinos, Gays etc. Where do I sign up!!!
So conservative racists are better because they openly hate Blacks, Latinos, Gays etc. Where do I sign up!!!
Eh at least they're not in denial or inadvertently but directly making the problem worse
Tongue in cheek, of course.
And in reality lumping conservatives all together with the generalization that they're all racist, or hate gays, women, etc is part of the problem in the country right now. Most conservatives aren't like that. Most have very strong ideals that have nothing to do with what people here label them as. And why the need to hate people and put labels on them to begin with...? I just don't get it. This is a very hateful place, but I have finally come to accept it.
Eh at least they're not in denial or inadvertently but directly making the problem worse
Tongue in cheek, of course.
And in reality lumping conservatives all together with the generalization that they're all racist, or hate gays, women, etc is part of the problem in the country right now. Most conservatives aren't like that. Most have very strong ideals that have nothing to do with what people here label them as. And why the need to hate people and put labels on them to begin with...? I just don't get it. This is a very hateful place, but I have finally come to accept it.
You're right , most conservatives aren't but your party has been hijacked by the racists looking to turn the clock back to 1950. Notice I said Conservative racists. Even Colon Powell has talked about this. I actually think most conservatives have views like Powell. Those are real Republicans. Even Regan would be too liberal for the rightwing racist tea nuts. Like with criminals, even 1% can cause damage to a community.
No these are not "sins of slavery." This is systemic stuff that has been happening since reconstruction and still happening today. Our systemic racism permeates every facet of society from education opportunities/access, sentencing and law enforcement, access to government sponsored wealth creation programs like FHA and VA home loans and a whole bunch more.
This idea of "people not taking responsibility" is a huge myth. There are tons of black people that work 8x harder than I do (did) but didn't luck out with the parent and school lottery to get on an easy path to success. I lucked out. My parents could afford to live in middle class suburbia in my formative years giving me access to good schools and a good foundation to go to college and get access to good jobs.
I dunno... I think this is a two-way street now, and I really don't think the "not taking responsibility" thing is a myth.
If it was a myth, then explain to me why crime is so high in inner city ghettoes and why blacks disproportionately commit and suffer from homicides.
Yes, I agree that systemic racism still exists in certain facets, and I agree that it is unfair and bad. But I also think that the toxic culture that blacks and other inner city residents perpetuate plays a major role in preventing them from opening doors to success that would be available to them, even as they weren't historically. It's a bit of a catch 22.. my people have been precluded from opportunities for success in the past; therefore I don't try today. I don't try today; therefore, I don't ever experience success. And so on and so forth.
It is always much easier in a way to always use this excuse of racism for everything in life rather than take a long, hard look in the mirror and recognize that epic failure of black families in inner cities and a consequent mentality that ditches education and sustained effort in favor of criminal lifestyles idolized in violence-worshipping rap music and culture.
If you want to talk about huge myths, here's one: that most successful people had an "easy path." That is a classic belief of the victim mentality. For most of those people, the major benefit they had was a family that support and valued education and hard work; beyond that, the path to success is actually hard work. I busted my ass for YEARS in school - eight beyond high school, to be exact. I made those grades count, did the extra stuff, worked the side jobs. I put in the hours. I took the loans, paid them back. And when my parents escaped from a small, backwards communist country and came here, they didn't have ****; we slept on the floor at first. Other than values, nothing was just handed to me; I knuckled down for years and earned it. And that's what successful black people I've worked with have done, too.
What I (and they) didn't do is drop out of school and try to live to "get rich quick" gangster lifestyle, get into drugs, hang out late with criminals, etc.
Look, life is not fair, and there are no guarantees. You can go through the path I did and still get burned. But in today's world, the path to a decent shot at success is through years of education and effort to hone skills in a way that makes you employable in decent job settings. And if you shun the education for the lifestyle idolized in rap music, then your failing outcome is pretty much guaranteed.
The fact is this: you can protest till the cows come home. And you can point your finger across the Bay and scream "RACISM! IT'S YOUR FAULT!" until you're hoarse. But until the real revolution begins in the hearts and minds of inner city residents to repulse the cancerous gangster culture, to really value the long and patient path away from instant gratification that goes through education, and to really rebuild functional family units where sets of sober parents are present to instill values and set good examples for their kids... nothing will really change in inner cities.
White people or anyone else can't give this to them. Even showering them with money and free stuff won't give this to them. They have to find a way to give it to themselves...and even though it won't be easy, perfect, or guaranteed, I bet a lot of doors to success could end up opening if this happened.
But it is much, much easier to turn up the rap music talking about *******, hoes, money, guns, fast cars, tough gangsters and blame everything bad forever on someone else. And that's also a much more appealing and sexy rallying cry for liberal activists looking to have some fun out at Frank Ogawa. And that pretty much ensures that the status quo continues.
^^ notice above, you had no problem brushing all black people with a broad brush of gangbanger/drug dealers who listen to rap and cause problems.
People turn to drug dealing because they have zero opportunity. I met a guy a year ago with the polar opposite background to mine. He has been busting his butt to get a low end job and keeps getting dissed. He ends up doing as hoc contract gigs and stuff on task rabbit/Craigslist to pay the bills.
It is really hard to get an interview if everyone has already decided you are a lazy person who deals drugs before you start talking!
^^ notice above, you had no problem brushing all black people with a broad brush of gangbanger/drug dealers who listen to rap and cause problems.
I wouldn't say all black people. Plenty of well-educated, hard-working, and successful black people one could point to. But it should be obvious to everyone who is intellectually honest that black people who predominate inner city neighborhoods have a disproportionate tendency towards such behavior. Are you going to tell me this isn't a serious problem characterizing ghettos from Oakland to Philadelphia? It is serious enough to point to a broad enough cultural problem in inner city black communities to register in a variety of statistical evidence.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jade408
People turn to drug dealing because they have zero opportunity. I met a guy a year ago with the polar opposite background to mine. He has been busting his butt to get a low end job and keeps getting dissed. He ends up doing as hoc contract gigs and stuff on task rabbit/Craigslist to pay the bills.
That may be so. But the question is: is it always that people have zero opportunity and therefore turn to drugs? Or is it also that people turn to drugs because of deteriorated cultural norms around them and therefore end up with zero opportunity? I'm sure that one looks around and sees zero opportunity in the immediate environment, and that's part of the problem...but that does not mean it doesn't exist anywhere. Funny thing is, you won't see it until you go through the multi-year preparation process first.
The people who are turning to drug dealing are generally not the ones who were working really hard to stay in school, take those extra AP classes, earn over 3.7 GPAs, score high on those SAT/ACTs, submit great applications to universities, get merit and/or need-based scholarships, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jade408
It is really hard to get an interview if everyone has already decided you are a lazy person who deals drugs before you start talking!
True, and I don't doubt that there is a good dose of prejudice involved. But it gets a hell of a lot easier if you come across as an eloquent and articulate person who can demonstrate that he/she did the aforementioned things I just mentioned. Not all that many people in inner city world doing it. And they technically could. With financial aid and ease of access to student loans, together with affirmative action and diversity initiatives, universities would bend over backwards to get well-qualified black students.
Where I really do feel sorry for the individual is that it isn't strictly their fault; it's really a failing of the entire proximate social system. How can you focus on excelling academically and seriously preparing for a high-skilled career future in a setting where you have little family support, few positive peer examples, constant pressure to do the wrong thing, frequent dealings with disruptions and violence, and a lack of immediately visible opportunities, as you put it? It unfortunately stacks the deck against you, starting with your world perspective, and that's a really sad thing.
Oh well.. this is all just my $.02. I'm not going out there telling people how they must live their lives or that they must agree with me. To each his/her own... I'm just speaking from the perspective of what I find has worked in my life.
You happen to have it backwards. Again, I mostly lucked out. I am also pretty smart. I had some teachers (and school districts) assume I wasn't and treated me accordingly. I had a school district accuse my parents of forging my test records (they were too good to be believed apparently). Now lucky for me I had parents who knew this behavior was wrong and knew try right things to saw to beat the system.
Our school track and treat many black students as troublemakers from preschool on setting a culture (in the school system) of low expectations. When your teachers think you are dumb they don't push you to excel or even give you the opportunities they give other students.
I have run into bright peers later on in life who were treated poorly in school and still succeeded but they would have gone a lot further without systemic racism.
The guy I mentioned earlier speaks well, dresses appropriately and so on. That isn't enough. There are loads of studies that show black unemployment is double white unemployment at all levels. From high school dropouts to PhD's. Even when accounting for majors and comparing peers. That doesn't look like a sign of laziness to me!
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