Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 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.
It isn't? They must have abolished inheritance recently or something...
Everybody has an example of the super-hardworking overachiever guy who goes from poverty to riches to aid against any arguments of "unequal opportunity" but how many people in the world are really like that? Most people are average, they assimilate to the culture around them and make choices influenced as much by circumstances as their own innate qualities. I'd like to see how a lot of the high-and-mighty "I'm well off because of ME ME ME ME ME, what are you doing wrong, poor boy?" types would turn out having grown up in less favorable conditions...
I did grow up in less favorable conditions. Disabled father (who has a lifetime prescription of vicodin) in a run-down townhouse, mother ran away with some idiot 200+ miles away and stopped paying child support. My sister has mental issues and I was left to do all of the chores and go without proper fitting clothes. I went to a low-down run-down elementary school. My next door neighbor was a drug overlord, and there were always police hanging about. Shots rang out from there at least twice a week.
You making enough at 20 to afford a $250,000 home and you don't think being "white" was somewhat of a benefit to that?
Irrelevant.
One of my best friends and old college roommate works for the Florida State Legislature and makes about 2.5X my 44 year old wage-slave white mother makes, and he's black and just turned 25. Of course, he's college educated, attractive, and mild mannered (with a tinge of Marxist black militarism I like to tease him about) ....but he grew up in the Lake Worth ghetto.... I think you're familiar with how crappy Lake Worth is?
I did grow up in less favorable conditions. Disabled father (who has a lifetime prescription of vicodin) in a run-down townhouse, mother ran away with some idiot 200+ miles away and stopped paying child support. My sister has mental issues and I was left to do all of the chores and go without proper fitting clothes. I went to a low-down run-down elementary school. My next door neighbor was a drug overlord, and there were always police hanging about. Shots rang out from there at least twice a week.
How was your childhood?
You sound like quite the survivor, good job... but how did most of your friends from high school turn out? Were you the exception or the rule?
You sound like quite the survivor, good job... but how did most of your friends from high school turn out? Were you the exception or the rule?
Of the ones I actually kept track of, I'd say that most are either living at their parents house while attending college (through aid from the FAFSA and student loans), or are dorming at a college away from home.
There are a few that I know that have their own apartment and are making a living for themselves. And a few others are just bumming off their parents while working part time with no direction. And of course, one girl I knew - she got pregnant right after graduation, got married to the guy.... and it's a whole welfare situation (and she's white).
Overall, I don't see a difference between the different races for the people I know.
Overall, I don't see a difference between the different races for the people I know.
Exactly.
While there will always be some people who would embrace the Klan or the NOI, the prime determinent in our society has ceased to be skin color. Rather, it is culture, bad or good, as well as behavior norms and personal responsibility or lack thereof.
Where there is poverty, there is usually out of wedlock births or failure to even finish high school. Or both. A culture of self destruction will do just that.
Does anyone feel that Caucasians are being discriminated against and why.
I dont know about all caucasians, but my extremely caucasian 9th grade son, has been jumped and is being called racial slurs almost daily by the hispanic kids he goes to school with. Where we live the school is majorally hispanic. My middle schooler doesnt get jumped but they try to start fights, yelling we hate whites!!
it is sad.
Somewhere in this thread or a different racial tension thread, I remember reading that the terms "gringo" or "moreno" are not seen as derogatory terms by the people who use them.
I beg to differ. The basis of derogatory isn't in the mouth of the speaker, but rather in the ears of the receiver.
For instance, the n-word:
I've seen any number of times when two black people greet, they say something along the lines of "Wazzup mah n-word." As soon as I were to say "wazzup mah n-word," I'd be shot/jumped/etc.
"nappy-headed"
This one's been nationalized by Don Imus. How many times do you hear people calling others "nappy headed" in the "BarberShop" movies? But as soon as a white person says it, it's automatically derogatory and therefore heinous.
As for being called a cracker or gringo. I take it just as calling a black person by the "n" word.
Where there is poverty, there is usually out of wedlock births or failure to even finish high school. Or both. A culture of self destruction will do just that.
You say culture causes poverty, I say poverty influences culture and environment to create more poverty. There's plenty of blame to go around -- society, government, individuals in many cases -- human life is so complex that it's often impossible to tell where "personal responsibility" ends and societal responsibility begins. The environment and circumstance of poverty makes choices that worsen poverty more economically appealing -- if your parents didn't go to college and you don't expect to be able to afford it then it may make more sense in the short term to drop out and get a low-paying job rather than finish an education for a higher-paying job you don't think you're going to get... living in an environment with few "success stories" would naturally make it harder to imagine oneself being one.
I said the word "poverty" too much in the above paragraph, but that's okay.
You say culture causes poverty, I say poverty influences culture and environment to create more poverty.
No, I said culture explains it (In America, other places are different) for the most part just as it explains success.
Quote:
There's plenty of blame to go around -- society, government, individuals in many cases -- human life is so complex that it's often impossible to tell where "personal responsibility" ends and societal responsibility begins. The environment and circumstance of poverty makes choices that worsen poverty more economically appealing -- if your parents didn't go to college and you don't expect to be able to afford it then it may make more sense in the short term to drop out and get a low-paying job rather than finish an education for a higher-paying job you don't think you're going to get... living in an environment with few "success stories" would naturally make it harder to imagine oneself being one.
Oh I cannot agree with that. Poverty, if anything, should be a motivation to do better. Look at history. The Irish were once stomped upon and epitomized poverty. In response they followed responsible leaders, organized themselves and slowly placed a premium on education.
And as for success stories, there are numerous ones in the black community. Just one problem- a large percentage reject them. They reject the achievments of black government officials, journalists, writers, CEOs, UN Reps, judges, etc and term them Uncle Toms. There it is- Bad Culture exemplified. Culture is not static, but it takes time to change and they have to want to change it. They can achieve anything they desire, but they have to want it and be able to work for it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 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 2 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.
