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I had a very interesting conversation with a black woman, and she made some very powerful points regarding this exodus of black Americans from inner cities. She feels that instead of black Americans staying in the inner cities to clean them up and make life better for all of the residents, she thinks that this huge exodus of the black middle class to the suburbs is basically an attempt to ignore the poor blacks left there to fend for themselves. She sees this just as bad as the black politicians who say they are a voice for the black poor when in actuality they are just in office to justify racism and not offer any real solutions to help inner city residents get out of poverty.
If you are black, poor, and uneducated, then there is this attitude that "those people" are sorry, lazy, have this ghetto mentality, so therefore there is nothing we can do for them but forget about them and keep them at bay when they want to riot and holler how the white man is keeping them down in their slang, double negatives, and their inability to agree their subjects and predicates when interviewed.
Also, it seems as though if you are black, well educated, "conservative," articulate, and live in middle class areas, you are uppity, an uncle tom, and a "sell out." The media tends to overlook black Americans who fall in that category because if they show too many conservative, well educated black people who can speak intelligently on tv, then they have to admit that black Americans are doing better than they are deliberately trying not to portray.
It saddens me that in 2010, the media finds it more news worthy to show black people on t.v. looting, hollering racism, and how the white man is trying to keep them down, as opposed to reporting about black people who don't all fit that mold. This catch-22 situation I feel that my people are caught in will continue to prevent us from healing.
On one hand if black Americans try to succeed in this country we are ridiculed for being too ambitious and selfish for not thinking about our poor brothas and sistas who didn't make it, then on the other hand, we have some people who seem surprised that black people can be ambitious, hard working, and want more than a government handout.
In addition, our society sorta still expects black Americans not to be as willing as other minorities to work hard to achieve the American dream because the media and Democratic party keeps those negative stereotypes going, especially when we have a political party that says that it's the voice of black Americans, but at the same time this political party is enabling so many black Americans to stay in poverty, fueling their poverty by not holding these same people TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS, TEACHING THEM A STRONG WORK ETHIC, and PROVIDING THEM WITH THE NECESSARY SKILLS TO BE SUCCESSFUL instead of dependent on the government. How do my people get out of this Catch-22?
On top of that this same democratic party (ie the black caucus) blames the other political party for the poverty of black people. IRONICALLY, the democratic party is keeping our poor black people in this cycle of poverty because they aren't doing anything about our inner city black people attending bad public schools, nor stopping their victimization by corrupt city officials and school administrators. This same party would endorse and support a luke warm black church, that would rather allow corrupt, church leaders to be more concerned about how much tithes their members are paying to HIS/their CHURCH, instead of supporting ministers who are preaching about being responsible for your actions, stop having baby after baby out of wed lock that is destroying the black family, and empowering them through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to believe that their hope lies in nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.
I hope that I am not preaching to the choir, but again that's who I mainly preach to when I post on these city-data threads. So with all of this said, I know that I will be labeled an Uncle Tom, and be told to shut up cause I don't know what I am talking about. But this black man, who grew up in Compton, CA, went to Compton City Schools, and struggled to graduate out of the University of CA system, is thankful that my life experience has allowed me to see that you can't achieve anything as long as some of my people keep thinking that the government is going to one day still give us our 40 acres and mule. I haven't turned my back on my people by moving out of the inner city. Once I realized how much I was behind my college classmates, that inspired me to become a teacher to give back to the very school district I attended. Now, I work in a very similar school district where I hope I am making a difference for all other students that enter my classroom.
An Uncle Tom is someone usually a minority or person of color who engages in subjugation and oppression of their own minority group in favor of the majority group. Uncle Tom's can also be seen as favoring white privilege and holding negative stereotypes of their own minority group and other minorities.
A person of color who establishes and grows relationships of trust with individuals and groups within the community is a good person regardless of their education level and regardless of their past. Living with your mistakes is a part of life. And you can always realign your values to help make a better society. These people may or may not have high levels of education and excellent job status.
I think people know the differences between the two.
Quote:
Originally Posted by antredd
I had a very interesting conversation with a black woman, and she made some very powerful points regarding this exodus of black Americans from inner cities. She feels that instead of black Americans staying in the inner cities to clean them up and make life better for all of the residents, she thinks that this huge exodus of the black middle class to the suburbs is basically an attempt to ignore the poor blacks left there to fend for themselves. She sees this just as bad as the black politicians who say they are a voice for the black poor when in actuality they are just in office to justify racism and not offer any real solutions to help inner city residents get out of poverty.
If you are black, poor, and uneducated, then there is this attitude that "those people" are sorry, lazy, have this ghetto mentality, so therefore there is nothing we can do for them but forget about them and keep them at bay when they want to riot and holler how the white man is keeping them down in their slang, double negatives, and their inability to agree their subjects and predicates when interviewed.
Also, it seems as though if you are black, well educated, "conservative," articulate, and live in middle class areas, you are uppity, an uncle tom, and a "sell out." The media tends to overlook black Americans who fall in that category because if they show too many conservative, well educated black people who can speak intelligently on tv, then they have to admit that black Americans are doing better than they are deliberately trying not to portray.
It saddens me that in 2010, the media finds it more news worthy to show black people on t.v. looting, hollering racism, and how the white man is trying to keep them down, as opposed to reporting about black people who don't all fit that mold. This catch-22 situation I feel that my people are caught in will continue to prevent us from healing.
On one hand if black Americans try to succeed in this country we are ridiculed for being too ambitious and selfish for not thinking about our poor brothas and sistas who didn't make it, then on the other hand, we have some people who seem surprised that black people can be ambitious, hard working, and want more than a government handout.
In addition, our society sorta still expects black Americans not to be as willing as other minorities to work hard to achieve the American dream because the media and Democratic party keeps those negative stereotypes going, especially when we have a political party that says that it's the voice of black Americans, but at the same time this political party is enabling so many black Americans to stay in poverty, fueling their poverty by not holding these same people TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS, TEACHING THEM A STRONG WORK ETHIC, and PROVIDING THEM WITH THE NECESSARY SKILLS TO BE SUCCESSFUL instead of dependent on the government. How do my people get out of this Catch-22?
On top of that this same democratic party (ie the black caucus) blames the other political party for the poverty of black people. IRONICALLY, the democratic party is keeping our poor black people in this cycle of poverty because they aren't doing anything about our inner city black people attending bad public schools, nor stopping their victimization by corrupt city officials and school administrators. This same party would endorse and support a luke warm black church, that would rather allow corrupt, church leaders to be more concerned about how much tithes their members are paying to HIS/their CHURCH, instead of supporting ministers who are preaching about being responsible for your actions, stop having baby after baby out of wed lock that is destroying the black family, and empowering them through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to believe that their hope lies in nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.
I hope that I am not preaching to the choir, but again that's who I mainly preach to when I post on these city-data threads. So with all of this said, I know that I will be labeled an Uncle Tom, and be told to shut up cause I don't know what I am talking about. But this black man, who grew up in Compton, CA, went to Compton City Schools, and struggled to graduate out of the University of CA system, is thankful that my life experience has allowed me to see that you can't achieve anything as long as some of my people keep thinking that the government is going to one day still give us our 40 acres and mule. I haven't turned my back on my people by moving out of the inner city. Once I realized how much I was behind my college classmates, that inspired me to become a teacher to give back to the very school district I attended. Now, I work in a very similar school district where I hope I am making a difference for all other students that enter my classroom.
She feels that instead of black Americans staying in the inner cities to clean them up and make life better for all of the residents, she thinks that this huge exodus of the black middle class to the suburbs is basically an attempt to ignore the poor blacks left there to fend for themselves.
You have to keep in mind that the Black middle class is made up of large numbers of people employed in government work. So the Black middle class isn't represented by large numbers of business owners who could be providing jobs for those poorer Blacks in the inner city. I mean,I once read how Asians actually own more businesses in Detroit and Washington DC than Blacks and both cities are majority Black. I don't see enough changing for Black-Americans economiclly until Black entreprenurship numbers increase. High unemployment leads to other social problems.
They say Asians have the lowest unemployment numbers. Maybe that's because Asians have the highest numbers of self-employment? Blacks have the highest unemployment numbers. Maybe it's partly because Blacks have the lowest self-employment numbers?
I am a white male w/college degree (can't get any more un-PC, huh?). I'm also under-employed after facing a decade of tough times. Yes, I own a house, but my wife and I have struggled to keep above water in order to achieve that. Now, I have two children (NOT out of wedlock). Both of them were delivered by black doctors. I had every faith in both of them as medical professionals to do the right thing. My wife and newborns' lives were in their hands. There were slight complications in both births, but they were both born healthy babies and are doing fine now years later.
Now, both of those OB-Gyns who delivered our children were held in high esteem among the community. I don't believe they were handed their medical degrees by government quotas. I have every reason to believe they earned it. I didn't ask if they grew up in government housing to unwed mothers because I considered it irrelevant. But chances are, they grew up before Johnson's "Great Society" programs. I believe both of them were taught about work ethic and achievement, and honesty. Perhaps a few activists might call them "Uncle Toms" for not spending their youth in gangs beating up on 'crackers' and 'honkies' or robbing convenience stores, and spending some of their adult life in prison or minimum-wage jobs.
Interesting that some of my own coworkers who are black will also gripe about their hard-earned tax dollars going to fund non-working but able-bodied people who simply spawn for handouts.
Perhaps the problem is that popular media presents an achievement-oriented lifestyle and in-tact families as 'white-man's ways' and since the white man is the enemy according to some activists, urban blacks might feel compelled to avoid that. I'm just guessing. But even M.L.K. Jr. himself warned the black community about the problems of absent fathers and appealed to men to stay loyal and dedicated to home and family.
I think all this thread proves is that regardless of race, people want to live where they feel it is more safe. They want their children to be able to attend the best schools possible. In all but a few rare clases, these areas are not located in the poverty and crime ridden inner cities. Thus "white flight" is really "middle class" flight of all people who take it upon themselves to improve both their conditions and their lives.
I guess the OP's post may surprise some liberals but I don't think it is surprising to those of us that understand liberal policies of dumping money into poverty stricken areas not only has has not helped but has been a historical failure since the 1960's.
Uncle Toms and Aunt Jemimas are people who subjugate minorities in institutional settings. They propagate institutional oppression by feeding into it and looking the other way. The term is judged on by their character, integrity, and professionalism.
"Acting white" by earning an education and working an honest living is not being an Uncle Tom or an Aunt Jemima. There is a huge difference that most people know. I've even heard educated black men with doctorate degrees talk pejoratively about "Uncle Toms." Sometimes they are referred to as gatekeepers for white employers. For example during a job interview I was once screamed at by a hiring manager for "having an education." She was furious with me, looking at me with disgust as if she smelled spoiled cheese, and refused to hire me because of my "education." Can you explain why a black woman was screaming at me for "having an education." Well guess who her bosses were? A bunch of white people. She was an Aunt Jemima.
Quote:
Originally Posted by edspace
I am a white male w/college degree (can't get any more un-PC, huh?). I'm also under-employed after facing a decade of tough times. Yes, I own a house, but my wife and I have struggled to keep above water in order to achieve that. Now, I have two children (NOT out of wedlock). Both of them were delivered by black doctors. I had every faith in both of them as medical professionals to do the right thing. My wife and newborns' lives were in their hands. There were slight complications in both births, but they were both born healthy babies and are doing fine now years later.
Now, both of those OB-Gyns who delivered our children were held in high esteem among the community. I don't believe they were handed their medical degrees by government quotas. I have every reason to believe they earned it. I didn't ask if they grew up in government housing to unwed mothers because I considered it irrelevant. But chances are, they grew up before Johnson's "Great Society" programs. I believe both of them were taught about work ethic and achievement, and honesty. Perhaps a few activists might call them "Uncle Toms" for not spending their youth in gangs beating up on 'crackers' and 'honkies' or robbing convenience stores, and spending some of their adult life in prison or minimum-wage jobs.
Interesting that some of my own coworkers who are black will also gripe about their hard-earned tax dollars going to fund non-working but able-bodied people who simply spawn for handouts.
Perhaps the problem is that popular media presents an achievement-oriented lifestyle and in-tact families as 'white-man's ways' and since the white man is the enemy according to some activists, urban blacks might feel compelled to avoid that. I'm just guessing. But even M.L.K. Jr. himself warned the black community about the problems of absent fathers and appealed to men to stay loyal and dedicated to home and family.
I had a very interesting conversation with a black woman, and she made some very powerful points regarding this exodus of black Americans from inner cities. She feels that instead of black Americans staying in the inner cities to clean them up and make life better for all of the residents, she thinks that this huge exodus of the black middle class to the suburbs is basically an attempt to ignore the poor blacks left there to fend for themselves. She sees this just as bad as the black politicians who say they are a voice for the black poor when in actuality they are just in office to justify racism and not offer any real solutions to help inner city residents get out of poverty.
If you are black, poor, and uneducated, then there is this attitude that "those people" are sorry, lazy, have this ghetto mentality, so therefore there is nothing we can do for them but forget about them and keep them at bay when they want to riot and holler how the white man is keeping them down in their slang, double negatives, and their inability to agree their subjects and predicates when interviewed.
Also, it seems as though if you are black, well educated, "conservative," articulate, and live in middle class areas, you are uppity, an uncle tom, and a "sell out." The media tends to overlook black Americans who fall in that category because if they show too many conservative, well educated black people who can speak intelligently on tv, then they have to admit that black Americans are doing better than they are deliberately trying not to portray.
It saddens me that in 2010, the media finds it more news worthy to show black people on t.v. looting, hollering racism, and how the white man is trying to keep them down, as opposed to reporting about black people who don't all fit that mold. This catch-22 situation I feel that my people are caught in will continue to prevent us from healing.
On one hand if black Americans try to succeed in this country we are ridiculed for being too ambitious and selfish for not thinking about our poor brothas and sistas who didn't make it, then on the other hand, we have some people who seem surprised that black people can be ambitious, hard working, and want more than a government handout.
In addition, our society sorta still expects black Americans not to be as willing as other minorities to work hard to achieve the American dream because the media and Democratic party keeps those negative stereotypes going, especially when we have a political party that says that it's the voice of black Americans, but at the same time this political party is enabling so many black Americans to stay in poverty, fueling their poverty by not holding these same people TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS, TEACHING THEM A STRONG WORK ETHIC, and PROVIDING THEM WITH THE NECESSARY SKILLS TO BE SUCCESSFUL instead of dependent on the government. How do my people get out of this Catch-22?
On top of that this same democratic party (ie the black caucus) blames the other political party for the poverty of black people. IRONICALLY, the democratic party is keeping our poor black people in this cycle of poverty because they aren't doing anything about our inner city black people attending bad public schools, nor stopping their victimization by corrupt city officials and school administrators. This same party would endorse and support a luke warm black church, that would rather allow corrupt, church leaders to be more concerned about how much tithes their members are paying to HIS/their CHURCH, instead of supporting ministers who are preaching about being responsible for your actions, stop having baby after baby out of wed lock that is destroying the black family, and empowering them through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to believe that their hope lies in nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.
I hope that I am not preaching to the choir, but again that's who I mainly preach to when I post on these city-data threads. So with all of this said, I know that I will be labeled an Uncle Tom, and be told to shut up cause I don't know what I am talking about. But this black man, who grew up in Compton, CA, went to Compton City Schools, and struggled to graduate out of the University of CA system, is thankful that my life experience has allowed me to see that you can't achieve anything as long as some of my people keep thinking that the government is going to one day still give us our 40 acres and mule. I haven't turned my back on my people by moving out of the inner city. Once I realized how much I was behind my college classmates, that inspired me to become a teacher to give back to the very school district I attended. Now, I work in a very similar school district where I hope I am making a difference for all other students that enter my classroom.
Your post is very reminiscent of the messages of MLK. Simply throwing money at a problem has been the traditional liberal response without regard to measuring outcomes, and it's failed miserably for the poor black community. I wish that more successful black men and women of prominence would work for change instead of playing the victim/racism card like the Jessie Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the the world. They give poor black communities a reason for their poor circumstances without giving them the information and motivation to change their personal circumstances to better themselves. When you (anyone of any race) feel that you have been victimized by society, you feel less control over your own life and are less likely to try to break out and succeed.
Uncle Toms and Aunt Jemimas are people who subjugate minorities in institutional settings. They propagate institutional oppression by feeding into it and looking the other way. The term is judged on by their character, integrity, and professionalism.
"Acting white" by earning an education and working an honest living is not being an Uncle Tom or an Aunt Jemima. There is a huge difference that most people know. I've even heard educated black men with doctorate degrees talk pejoratively about "Uncle Toms." Sometimes they are referred to as gatekeepers for white employers. For example during a job interview I was once screamed at by a hiring manager for "having an education." She was furious with me, looking at me with disgust as if she smelled spoiled cheese, and refused to hire me because of my "education." Can you explain why a black woman was screaming at me for "having an education." Well guess who her bosses were? A bunch of white people. She was an Aunt Jemima.
I completely understand your frustrations. My family never lived in the inner city, and I always faced problems because of that. When my parents moved to a suburb of Detroit for my Dad's job, and I ended up attending all white schools where I was the only black person in my classes for most of my education. When I started volunteering in Detroit late in high school and during college, people there made it a point to tell me that I did not belong. I remember working the poling stations during the 2004 election and having people ridicule me because I sounded "white". It got so bad that my supervisor had to move me to a nonspeaking role. This was not an isolated incident.
There are plenty of middle class black people (including myself) who want to do things to improve the lives of the poor living in the inner city, but if we have to face ridicule whenever we try to help, people (like myself) are simply going to stop.
The media completely overlooks the divide between the middle class and poor black communities. To most media outlets, black people are homogeneous. A while ago, Essence Magazine did have an article on problem, I don't think it got too much attention in the mainstream though. Unless something changes, I think the divide is going to get much worse.
She was so jealous that she couldn't see straight. Her supervisor got a tongue lashing from me too. I lectured her for 25 minutes on how a job interview should be conducted. That made me feel better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aveojohn
Maybe she was jealous she wasn't as educated.
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