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What do you think about a possible overhaul in the SNAP program under the new administration? The Republican Party has all the seats for the first time in a while. As someone who does this line of work, I'd like to see the stipulations be a bit more strict for some recipients.
I would say said persons are thinking irrationally. Said persons must have some kind of fear.
I literally believed that Trump could never win because of his nasty rhetoric. He didn't get the popular vote. He got the electoral vote.
I think about that "take our country back" stuff. I never hear Blacks speak like that. That kind of speaking is something I only hear from White conservatives. It makes me wonder what said persons really mean.
I don't wonder. I've been where they want to take it back to.
I don't wonder. I've been where they want to take it back to.
I remember you mentioning where a pool in your hometown was drained/filled with concrete rather than integrate. I am quite familiar. That is what scares me. I understand that as a Black man, life is better for me now that it would have been in the 1950s. It would not make any sense to bring those bad old days back.
I remember you mentioning where a pool in your hometown was drained/filled with concrete rather than integrate. I am quite familiar. That is what scares me. I understand that as a Black man, life is better for me now that it would have been in the 1950s. It would not make any sense to bring those bad old days back.
Yes and no.
The black American community was STRONGER pre-integration. There were more black owned businesses and community self reliance. The black family was more united with lower divorce rates/more men headed black households. There was a greater sense of pride collectively; look at the beautiful way that black people groomed themselves and dressed. The main downfall of integration was that instead of building a stronger black community "we" ran to the white community begging for their acceptance and begging to be let into "their" spaces instead of making our own equal or better.
The black American community was STRONGER pre-integration. There were more black owned businesses and community self reliance. The black family was more united with lower divorce rates/more men headed black households. There was a greater sense of pride collectively; look at the beautiful way that black people groomed themselves and dressed. The main downfall of integration was that instead of building a stronger black community "we" ran to the white community begging for their acceptance and begging to be let into "their" spaces instead of making our own equal or better.
Truth is many black communities were in urban areas and as cities moved away from the urban core our communities also declined. Integration needed to happen in the sense of eliminating the laws that restricted us from going where we desired. Had it not been for integration, I wouldn't have been able to go to the college in my hometown. Also, how about black enclaves on what parts of the city? Under segregation laws, they were unable to go to the grocery store by their own home. As far as "begging"to be a part of white spaces......if black women were good enough to breastfeed Caucasian babies, clean Caucasians houses then they were certainly good enough to live there.
For one, I'd like to see the elderly and the disabled members be treated better on this program. They live on a fixed income and often have to choose between their food and their medicine. ALSO, I think these work programs need to be more enforced. Sometimes there is no good cause (justification) for not participating.
The black American community was STRONGER pre-integration. There were more black owned businesses and community self reliance. The black family was more united with lower divorce rates/more men headed black households. There was a greater sense of pride collectively; look at the beautiful way that black people groomed themselves and dressed. The main downfall of integration was that instead of building a stronger black community "we" ran to the white community begging for their acceptance and begging to be let into "their" spaces instead of making our own equal or better.
Self-reliance in a petri dish. Yes, our schools had black teachers and principals, nice for us kids who never knew but black authority figures, but those bright people with their college educations could go nowhere else and do nothing else--there was one black high school, one black elementary school. We had our one black doctor and our one black pharmacist. We lived in the one area whites allowed us to live, nice that the teachers and the doctor and the pharmacist lived in the same neighborhood as the janitor and the housekeeper...but that neighborhood was also easily targeted for abuse and neglected for services.
We had just as much as whites allowed us to have, no more. Yes, we could have Al's Burger Shack, but we could not have Pizza Hut or McDonald's (I mention those because I was in high school before I ever entered one of them--they were on the white side of town). Nobody was financing anything significant in our part of town, our businessmen weren't getting the loans. If we began to get big, they crushed us down...violently if necessary, but economic strangulation was usually sufficient.
There is never just one thing happening. At the same time we were beginning to see what integration could do for us: The Vietnam War happened, the decline of American global economic power happened, the War on Drugs happened, the Feminist Third Wave happened.
If you really want to know what happened to us and why blacks who could flee urban areas (remember--most blacks at the time were not in urban areas, btw) did flee those urban areas look to those factors, not integration.
Truth is many black communities were in urban areas and as cities moved away from the urban core our communities also declined. Integration needed to happen in the sense of eliminating the laws that restricted us from going where we desired. Had it not been for integration, I wouldn't have been able to go to the college in my hometown. Also, how about black enclaves on what parts of the city? Under segregation laws, they were unable to go to the grocery store by their own home. As far as "begging"to be a part of white spaces......if black women were good enough to breastfeed Caucasian babies, clean Caucasians houses then they were certainly good enough to live there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk
Self-reliance in a petri dish. Yes, our schools had black teachers and principals, nice for us kids who never knew but black authority figures, but those bright people with their college educations could go nowhere else and do nothing else--there was one black high school, one black elementary school. We had our one black doctor and our one black pharmacist. We lived in the one area whites allowed us to live, nice that the teachers and the doctor and the pharmacist lived in the same neighborhood as the janitor and the housekeeper...but that neighborhood was also easily targeted for abuse and neglected for services.
We had just as much as whites allowed us to have, no more. Yes, we could have Al's Burger Shack, but we could not have Pizza Hut or McDonald's (I mention those because I was in high school before I ever entered one of them--they were on the white side of town). Nobody was financing anything significant in our part of town, our businessmen weren't getting the loans. If we began to get big, they crushed us down...violently if necessary, but economic strangulation was usually sufficient.
There is never just one thing happening. At the same time we were beginning to see what integration could do for us: The Vietnam War happened, the decline of American global economic power happened, the War on Drugs happened, the Feminist Third Wave happened.
If you really want to know what happened to us and why blacks who could flee urban areas (remember--most blacks at the time were not in urban areas, btw) did flee those urban areas look to those factors, not integration.
I am not in disagreement with any of the above but my point is that "we" did not take the gains of the CRM to make what we already had BETTER. During segregation we had to have our own businesses to service our communities; we had to recycle black dollars but once the opportunity came to patronize any business establishment "we" decided that the white man's ice was colder and black wealth drained from our communities.
I think that blacks left their communities because they were now able to live in nicer communities opposed to the poor conditions that they were living in. I think that bussing schools was pursued in error. Once integration passed, we should have focused on making our schools better (i.e., better equipment and better textbooks) so that our children would get a quality education. The black community was more unified during segregation but when one is confined to a certain area of town, one really doesn't have a choice.
I am not in disagreement with any of the above but my point is that "we" did not take the gains of the CRM to make what we already had BETTER. During segregation we had to have our own businesses to service our communities; we had to recycle black dollars but once the opportunity came to patronize any business establishment "we" decided that the white man's ice was colder and black wealth drained from our communities.
As I look back on it now, certainly there were things we did very wrong.
For one, we should have moved first and strongest to gain and consolidate political power of our own rather than continuing to depend on white politicians, with an understanding (that the Democratic Party does not have even yet) that holding the low-level offices is absolutely essential in maintaining the machine and the base that brings in the votes for higher officers.
For another, we should have kept better control of our own education. Gaining those local officers, we should have improved our own schools instead of sending our children out of them. We should have continued to promote our HBCUs.
We should have maintained control of our own image rather than handing it to Hollywood. We should have used the newly opened avenues of investment to invest in our own production companies--and kept our image-manufacturers in Atlanta and Memphis and Detroit.
But self-segregation is ultimately just as tragic as enforced segregation because the Petri dish is too small.
Did you watch "Hidden Figures?" What were those brilliant women going to do if they remained in the black community? Teaching grade school? Doing CPA for Al's Burgers? Even if we imagine an upswing in black businesses, the Petri dish is still too small.
Would you say that star black athletes should all have become high school coaches in black communities rather than play for the national leagues?
Should black doctors have eschewed opportunities to learn cutting-edge medicine in the best hospitals?
Those black people who had the potential to be astronauts, generals, CEOs, computer scientists...the Petri dish was and is too small for them.
There are certainly ways we could have used integration with a lot more savvy...but to say that integration, per se, was an error is playing right into the hands of our enemies and failing to understand where we were.
We should never let ourselves be quoted as saying integration was a mistake. We didn't do it as smartly as we should have, but it was certainly not a mistake.
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