Can Black men do anything they put their mind to?

[SWCM7950]

Originally Posted by skepticratic

This isn't a dick measuring contest, and even if it was, I can see where this leads. You say Neil Tyson can't count because he's a product of the west. That discounts a lot of people. Given the topic at hand, that shouldn't matter. The question is can a black person accomplish as much as a white person, and the answer is yes. But if you're basing your views on this on where they're from, it's almost impossible. In the time in which great recognition for brilliant insights is more easily recored, the West has influenced everywhere. I could say Nelson Mandela, but the existence of South Africa is the result of Western influence creating their conception of nation-states everywhere else on the planet. You've given me an impossible task, which I assume you did on purpose so you can feel you've won.

But reality is that Neil Tyson is smarter than most white people. Nelson Mandela has done more to benefit humanity than most white people. W. E. B Du Bois is a better writer and scholar than most white people. I would imagine there are more influential white people than black people. But why? Can it truly come down to one race being objectively superior than the other? Africa was less technologically developed than Europe. Is it really because white people are smarter or is it because white people created a need for these development. A lot of technological innovation is not the result of some beautiful human ingenuity but rather some awful reason. A lot of technology is developed by the military as weapons of war or some equivalent. And it's always been like that. For example, the idea of a nation-state, which was the inspiration for a great deal of the thinking in the enlightenment, was formed because it was a more efficient way to make money to fight wars. Once cannons came along, single sovereign rulers realized that castles only get you so far. Forming powerful empires was the solution not because they wanted to make the world better, but because there were people to be killed (and in fairness, those people thought the same about them).

Do you see what I'm saying? Western culture has done amazing things and is the most influential of societies, but can that really come down to 'white people are better?' I mean, statistically, Asians are smarter, and I'd actually argue that Eastern philosophy is more human and moral that Western ones. I'm a huge fan of the enlightenment and liberalism, but honestly, Aristotle's idea of good is worse than Laozi's in many ways. Buddha is better than Jesus. At least what Buddha says can possibly conform to reality in some way. Many Christians still think that evolution is a lie simply because Jesus says he believed in Genesis (which interestingly enough, the idea that evolution and religion have been at odds since evolutions conception isn't actually true; the church wasn't overly reluctant to allow evolution in; the level of resistance we see now is actually higher than it was in 1860, which is horrifying). The Dalai Lama said, quite seriously, that Buddhism should change is science proves one of it's claims wrong. Would you ever here the Pope say that? Not even hippie dippie Pope Frank would say that.

So, to wrap this up, I think your idea that the West is objectively superior is totally subjective. There isn't one clear way to measure superiority. And even so, this does little to make a certain claim that some races are clearly better than others, for more or less the same reason. Gandhi was a better human than most white people. Hitler was a worse human than most black people. Your asking me to name special people isn't a worth while assignment for reasons like that. For every influential white person you can name, there are 100 white people who never did anything noteworthy. Influential people are exceptional; not evidence of racial superiority.

Nelson Mandela is an anti-white racist. Have you even A CLUE as to what is happening to South Africa now that his party has controlled the country? Once a nation to be admired, an economic powerhouse, an agriculture pillar of Africa.....it's becoming another third world crap hole. The black farmers are begging the displaced whites to help them farm because they can't do it. I won't even respond to the rest of your brainwashed clap trap of information as it's so utterly childish.

[SWCM7950]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

FYI, most hip hop followers are young white people - not black.

Black people predominantly listen to R&B music.

Here's a Darwin award.........................

[MaseMan]

Here's the report complaint I just sent:

Why the hell would such a blatantly racist thread/poll be allowed? Is this really a second, less overt, version of Stormfront? Someone should be embarrassed to have this on City-Data.

[SWCM7950]

Originally Posted by MaseMan

Here's the report complaint I just sent:

Why the hell would such a blatantly racist thread/poll be allowed? Is this really a second, less overt, version of Stormfront? Someone should be embarrassed to have this on City-Data.

Why is it blatantly racist? Race is not a social construct.

[SeasonedNewbie]

Of course, changes must be made. Brothers need to start pooling their dollars in the community. They need to study real estate and how to build businesses to create wealth, instead of spending their money on useless trinkets and companies that don't give a **** about them.

Originally Posted by wvtraveler

While this is undoubtably true, I do think the almost religious following of hip hop culture plays a role too. It embraces the thug lifestyle heavily, and a great many subscribe to it, hook, line, and sinker. Most young Whites that I've encountered that were hop hop orientated weren't exactly what I'd call model citizens. When I lived in South Florida there were many black folks from the islands in the Caribbean that weren't as influenced by American HH culture and they just seemed to have their heads on a lot straighter than their American counterparts did, so I don't believe race has anything to do with it. This is, of course, anecdotal evidence, but it's what I saw with my own two eyes over the years.

As one born during the cultivation of hip hop (1984), the "thug lifestyle" isn't really indicative of the culture. It's more of an offshoot gimmick of the corporate world. Hip hop culture was more about telling a story of life in the 'hood and creating solutions to uplift the people. Corporate America bigwigs got their grubby little hands on this musical phenomenon and corrupted it, making shuck-and-jive caricatures out of these rappers.

[diallomacedo]

Originally Posted by Gunion Powder

Just wondering what the general consensus is here.

Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer

Don't tell me
I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying 'Go slow!'

But that's just the trouble
'Do it slow'
Washing the windows
'Do it slow'
Picking the cotton
'Do it slow'
You're just plain rotten
'Do it slow'
You're too damn lazy
'Do it slow'
The thinking's crazy
'Do it slow'
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don't know
I don't know

- nina simone

You have to change the discourse in america.

There are still a lot of racists and racism in america, 94% of people in my estimation are infatuated with a white supremacy mindset--regardless of color--If you say you like lightskin women (or men for the women) you're racist. Why? Because africans have the largest genetic diversity of any group on the planet, that means for every european asian or mixed person, there is an african with the exact same facial features and body type. That being said, if you say you aren't attracted to blacks, that means you don't like them for the tint of their skin, and that's racist. Simple as that.

Just like you have to kill the idea of violence in islam, you have to kill the idea of discrimination based on race. They discussion need to change from "it's their fault" to "it's a set of historical circumstances fault". Everyone knows the truth, but no one talks about it.