Black women visiting Boston for the first time (middle-class, 2014)

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by GeePee

there was a high school wrestler on the news a little bit ago who had to cut his dreadlocks to compete.. The news gobbled it up. Ate it like a sandwich. people were of course shocked and dismayed.

What they conveniently leave out is that in the rule book it is not allowed to have hair longer than an inch. you know.... details.

Except that they could, you know, wear the sanctioned head covering instead. Which the referee, who had also been accused of using a racial slur, denied the wrestler. Details do matter.

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Except that they could, you know, wear the sanctioned head covering instead. Which the referee, who had also been accused of using a racial slur, denied the wrestler. Details do matter.

Yeah but then it would have never made the 5 oclock news. nobody likes that.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by GeePee

Yeah but then it would have never made the 5 oclock news. nobody likes that.

I doubt very much the kid liked being forced to cut his hair and being denied being able to wear the league sanctioned head covering by a referee with a nefarious agenda.

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by timberline742

I doubt very much the kid liked being forced to cut his hair and being denied being able to wear the league sanctioned head covering by a referee with a nefarious agenda.

you asked? I think the coach asked? right? am I missing something?

[Rajana]

Originally Posted by miu

Rajana - Where do you live and why?

According to my black and Hispanic co-workers, they don't feel excluded by those white majority towns, but prefer to live next to those of their own race and CULTURE. And many don't own cars, and so the other deciding factor is public transportation. And when one is limited to bus and trains, living near people of their same "tribe" also factors in.

Any black or Hispanic I've known or worked with, has no problem getting a good job if they are able to speak business English and dress the part. But if they talk ghetto-speak and can't style themselves appropriately during work hours, then they really aren't going to be able to get well-paying jobs with direct contact with a company's customers.

Again, it's never the colour of their skin holding them back, it's that they don't meet the business or type of work's cultural's standards. And my parents' were the ones teaching me when I was young, the importance of separating casual youth culture and the proper behaviour for a successful professional career path. Being well-spoken, following traditional etiquette rules and dress codes is really essential to being hired at a good company. But after work hours can be spent talking slang with ones friends and dressing in any style.

The bolded sentence above is a very interesting to me, mostly because it is one where - even though partially logical- if uttered aloud in a liberal group, the person voicing this opinion would immediately be viciously chastised as a insensitive, clueless privileged person obviously not in tune with the trials and tribulations endured by black people for centuries in the US. Liberals will argue black families don't want to live in high crime, high poverty, low quality public service areas like Dorchester. But they are forced to be there because of prejudice and racism. And that it's horrible to infer the current segregation is the result of choice, and not one resulting from intentional, ruthless, and now systemic oppression by whites.

I don't disagree entirely with the bolded statement, and I believe it to have more than a morsel of truth - of course many people will logically may want to live among those with who they share a common culture, or a familiar history or lifestyle - absolutely.

But, the existence of this logic is exactly why I look at segregated Massachusetts and the very liberal culture that is rampant here as thoroughly tone-deaf; suffering from a feeling of liberal guilt they they feel they should acknowledge, yet don't really want to resolve through corrective action. The Elizabeth Warren types wouldn't entertain the idea that blacks wish to live where they live. If it is accepted that the black population has power to exercise choice, the white liberals will lose purpose, and with that, power. Think about it. The limousine liberal crew (AOC, Warren, Biden) THRIVE on classifying minority groups as victims that they were put on earth to help. If that story-line goes away because minorities do actually have the power to make choices - like what neighborhood to live in, or what to put on their back, well then what is Lizzy Warren and AOC fighting for?

[newmassphd]

Originally Posted by miu

Rajana - Where do you live and why?

According to my black and Hispanic co-workers...

Just curious, what is your sample size?

[miu]

Originally Posted by newmassphd

Just curious, what is your sample size?

I am 60 years old, as to my sample size, I've had close interactions with about a hundred of each over the decades that I have worked in the Metro Boston area.

The other day, I had to check in with the security desk for a job. The guard was a black woman with big fake fingernails. It was painful to watch her slowly and awkwardly type my name and details into the keyboard for my badge. Because she couldn't type with a normal curvature of her fingers, and instead had to type with her fingers straight out... well, my badge had several typos because of it. So any woman who has to have long fake fingernails in order to feel dressed to be in the outside world, is also hindering her keyboard skills... and most white collar jobs (with computers) and cashiering jobs just aren't suited for those with those fake nails. And in food service, they aren't suitable for working with food.

[KoNgFooCj]

Anyways, What's with the mad face on the thread? Lol. Was that Britt?

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by 78Record

We all want to appoint people in positions they are qualified for and reward based on merit. However, institutional racism still affects certain groups in the population. To gain qualifications you may need to go to University, but before that, we need to remove inequality in our school system based on race and socio-economic factors. Until these factors are address, qualifications and merits will be awarded to the people who are given the opportunity. Instead of being defensive acknowledge that yes, there is racism and will always be racism. I think this entire post is filled with exaggeration and generalizations which is causing individuals to take it personally. You don't need to take it personally. You may not be racist however you do need to acknowledge that there are racist around you. Yes, you do need a better representation of your city's population!

I think you have this wrong. Affluent people typically aren't racist. They're classist. They care that their next door neighbor is a college educated white collar professional who shares their educational ethic. The reason we have a permanent underclass is lousy parents, not race. White trash are mired in generational poverty, too. The way you break the cycle of generational poverty is to have the state step in and replace the lousy parenting. That is massively expensive since it requires so many contact hours so it's not done.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Affluent people typically aren't racist. They're classist. They care that their next door neighbor is a college educated white collar professional who shares their educational ethic.

Eh, I have lately not been impressed by the parenting skills of many of these so called "affluent college educated white collared professionals" or whatever you want to call them. Their own HS Diploma blue-collar parents did a much better job raising them than they do raising their own kids IMHO.