2009: Oakland crime decreased twice as fast as nat'l average (Los Angeles: fit in, renting)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
His point though that black dominated communities have lots of crime is spot on. That can't be denied.
The only denial going on here is the strange memory loss by you and others like you who seem to have forgotten that your smugness when it comes to blacks is really based is not really based on your physical and mental superiority to blacks, but rather a 200+ year old system that gave youpreferential treatment. The original Affimative Action.
Need I remind you that the economic, social and political infrastructures of the United States of America has been solely dedicated to WHITE advancement for most of our history.
You've been milking the economic system on the back of blacks since we were still colonies. That extended into the new nation when blacks were still your slaves and then after they were 'freed', you were allowed to treat them like crap, rape, lynch, hang, burn, beat and spit on them without so much as a peep from the law.
My family never owned slaves, nor did we participate in the enslavement of Africans. That aside, black communities tend to have higher crime. That's a fact.
Additionally, I notice that you didn't address that Oakland has a very high dropout rate compared to other school districts around the country but are willing to point out a single charter school that has high API scores. That's very misleading to new people who are browsing City Data and looking for a place to live.
High crime, and a skyrocketing dropout rate, yeah, seems like a great place to raise a family. Maybe you can go to all those so-called great restaurants to forget that half the kids in the city aren't even enrolled in school.
Status:
"It's the first page of the 2nd chapter"
(set 7 days ago)
Location: Richmond, CA
8,377 posts, read 5,694,907 times
Reputation: 3507
Quote:
Originally Posted by 18Montclair
The only denial going on here is the strange memory loss by you and others like you who seem to have forgotten that your smugness when it comes to blacks is really based is not really based on your physical and mental superiority to blacks, but rather a 200+ year old system that gave youpreferential treatment. The original Affimative Action.
Need I remind you that the economic, social and political infrastructures of the United States of America has been solely dedicated to WHITE advancement for most of our history.
You've been milking the economic system on the back of blacks since we were still colonies. That extended into the new nation when blacks were still your slaves and then after they were 'freed', you were allowed to treat them like crap, rape, lynch, hang, burn, beat and spit on them without so much as a peep from the law.
Status:
"It's the first page of the 2nd chapter"
(set 7 days ago)
Location: Richmond, CA
8,377 posts, read 5,694,907 times
Reputation: 3507
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Fantastic
My family never owned slaves, nor did we participate in the enslavement of Africans. That aside, black communities tend to have higher crime. That's a fact.
Additionally, I notice that you didn't address that Oakland has a very high dropout rate compared to other school districts around the country but are willing to point out a single charter school that has high API scores. That's very misleading to new people who are browsing City Data and looking for a place to live.
High crime, and a skyrocketing dropout rate, yeah, seems like a great place to raise a family. Maybe you can go to all those so-called great restaurants to forget that half the kids in the city aren't even enrolled in school.
too desparate and defensive--and definitely not convincing
No one who lives in Oakland needs to be convinced that Oakland has a crime problem. We live here, we're well aware of it. Some of us, or our friends, have been victims of it. Don't you think it rather telling that we choose to stay here despite the existence of crime? I could live elsewhere in the Bay Area, instead I choose to commute 70 miles a day to work and live in Oakland. We live here because we think the good outweighs the bad. We live here because we want to help change the place we love, even if it's just by supporting local business or planting a tree in a nearby park. We live here because our neighbors are friendly, restaurants tasty and varied, hills are beautiful, buildings are quirky, produce fresh, festivals of art and music plentiful, and a million other reasons and motivations I couldn't begin to guess at.
It would be idiotic to say we don't want our crime situation to improve. Of course we do. That's such an obvious given, no one who actually lives here bothers to say it. We don't want to see our neighbors suffer, and we don't want to suffer ourselves. Some of us are active in the community and working for change, whether through volunteerism, donations, voting patterns, letters to our congressmen, or whatever other small thing that individuals feel they can do to help. We don't need to be galvanized - we are galvanized. So if you think you're doing anyone a favor by pointing out what is extremely obvious, here's a news flash: you're not.
In the original post in this thread, Oakland's reduced crime rates are given. We're trying to be hopeful, and imagine that our efforts are one of the reasons that this conclusion has been reached. We're still wary that perhaps it will not change, and this is a fluke, but we want to hope. We're tired of watching the news, and seeing mothers cry over their children that have been killed. Our hearts ache for them every time. We want to help, but many times feel helpless.
Back the hell off. We deal with people's misperceptions every day, we don't need to see it in a place where we come for community.
Status:
"It's the first page of the 2nd chapter"
(set 7 days ago)
Location: Richmond, CA
8,377 posts, read 5,694,907 times
Reputation: 3507
Quote:
Originally Posted by lmk1707
No one who lives in Oakland needs to be convinced that Oakland has a crime problem. We live here, we're well aware of it. Some of us, or our friends, have been victims of it. Don't you think it rather telling that we choose to stay here despite the existence of crime? I could live elsewhere in the Bay Area, instead I choose to commute 70 miles a day to work and live in Oakland. We live here because we think the good outweighs the bad. We live here because we want to help change the place we love, even if it's just by supporting local business or planting a tree in a nearby park. We live here because our neighbors are friendly, restaurants tasty and varied, hills are beautiful, buildings are quirky, produce fresh, festivals of art and music plentiful, and a million other reasons and motivations I couldn't begin to guess at.
It would be idiotic to say we don't want our crime situation to improve. Of course we do. That's such an obvious given, no one who actually lives here bothers to say it. We don't want to see our neighbors suffer, and we don't want to suffer ourselves. Some of us are active in the community and working for change, whether through volunteerism, donations, voting patterns, letters to our congressmen, or whatever other small thing that individuals feel they can do to help. We don't need to be galvanized - we are galvanized. So if you think you're doing anyone a favor by pointing out what is extremely obvious, here's a news flash: you're not.
In the original post in this thread, Oakland's reduced crime rates are given. We're trying to be hopeful, and imagine that our efforts are one of the reasons that this conclusion has been reached. We're still wary that perhaps it will not change, and this is a fluke, but we want to hope. We're tired of watching the news, and seeing mothers cry over their children that have been killed. Our hearts ache for them every time. We want to help, but many times feel helpless.
Back the hell off. We deal with people's misperceptions every day, we don't need to see it in a place where we come for community.
Are you paying attention to this?
Everyone in this thread is fully aware of Oakland's problems as imk so eloquently stated it (+1 for this by the way). Mr. Fantastic, if you would just give Oakland a reasonable chance, you might see why so many of us, both who live there and used to live there love it so much and defend it so much. In Oakland there really is a good sense of community and wanting to help out in any way possible. I am a former City Of Oakland volunteer myself and know first hand what this means to the city and to the community.
If you don't care to help the city of Oakland, that's fine. If you don't like the city of Oakland, that's fine too. However, state actual believable reasons why you may not like it rather than being such a bytchy drama queen with your head up your a$$.
My family never owned slaves, nor did we participate in the enslavement of Africans. That aside, black communities tend to have higher crime. That's a fact.
Its also a fact that whites in this country spent 300 plus years stomping on black people, threw them in a ditch that they are still trying to claw their way out of.
Many have made it out, but many are still trying. 300 years of damage is going to take some time to overcome. And you are just going to have to deal with it. Their recovery is not going to be based on your timetable, but on theirs.
You do not get to piously generalize about all black people and all black communities without first confronting the insurmountable obstacles placed in their way by YOUR KIND.
Quote:
Additionally, I notice that you didn't address that Oakland has a very high dropout rate compared to other school districts around the country but are willing to point out a single charter school that has high API scores. That's very misleading to new people who are browsing City Data and looking for a place to live.
Yes but how it must hurt that Mission Viejo's best falls short when compared to Oakland's best.
ha.
ha.
ha.
Quote:
High crime, and a skyrocketing dropout rate, yeah, seems like a great place to raise a family.
Definitely preferable to the glorified trailer park where you reside.
As someone who has lived in S.F, that's simply not true, the Richmond isn't really full of bars
The Richmond isn't exactly a nightlife or tourist destination, and there are a great deal of Russians there, but there are some Irish bars left over from the old days.
I still think it's a more interesting area than the Marina, which I don't find interesting at all. Just like I don't find the Sunset Strip or Beverly Hills to be very interesting areas of Los Angeles (although the Strip WAS interesting at one time, before it became "East Beverly Hills") and I don't find Newport Beach to be an interesting area of OC.
There are even still bars in the Mission (which IS a nightlife destination at least west of and including Valencia) that have down to earth "Joe Average white guys", don't know how many live in the neighborhood but there is one that I really like. As I value my privacy on C-D I'm not going to identify it by name.
Quote:
People think San Francisco is full of multiculturalism, but San Francisco is actually pockets of "culturalism".
Well, living in the Haight I do feel really old going to the bars around here.
Quote:
It's still better than Oakland where most of the swill bars are simply cover ups for prostitution rings and drug cutting operations.
If you got nothing in your hood you can't slag others' hoods.
We all know Oakland has many problems but it also has a great deal to offer.
How many of these places have you been to? (And yes, I know not all the bars on this list are in the oaktown - it includes bars in Berkeley, Fremont, Albany, and Alameda as well - but you might want to spend more time in Oakland before you diss it.)
At one time I used to define Oakland by its admittedly severe problems, before I spent more time there and realized that it has many good things about it in addition to the bad things. Spend more time across the bay and you'll see Oakland in less negative terms.
I have received a few PMs about my last posts and I would like to clarify some things because we are an otherwise nice and friendly group in the SF Forum.
Its highly unfortunate that I should have to be so petulent but after several conversations with Mr Fantastic, I have come to realize that the only way to cause him to reflect on his statements is to throw them back in his face.
If you are someone who is not racist, and your family is not racist, and you had nothing to do with anything I mentioned-then obviously I am not talking to you.
99.9999999% of the white people I know don't seem to have a racist or classist bone in their body.
They are not whom my comments are directed to.
I am however speaking to those who, as in the case of Mr Fantastic, take it upon themselves to condescendingly bash and put down Black people, in Oakland, or elsewhere, for their plight, when its a fact, much of why many blacks are in that position stems from generations and generations of being treated like 2nd class citizens.
That is a fact, and people like Mr Fantastic need to be reminded of that lest they get confused into thinking it has anything to do superiority.
So my apologies to you if took any offense. I will tone down the rhetoric out of respect for you and the other forumers in the SF forum whom I also respect and will attempt to treat this issue with more tact.
Cordially,
Kalen
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $53,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
