A black Dallas family 'did everything America said we should' but still endures racism daily

[8won6]

Originally Posted by The Dark Enlightenment

So... how much income to you figure the white man steals from you in an average month? How much should whites pay you to make up for the money you lose due to racism?

there are economists and people smarter than me that can answer that for you. Stop getting an attitude. You're not proving a point. You're just being defensive. Miss me with this mess.

[Chance and Change]

Life and Living and the many elements involved, it takes a lot of work for individuals to live as individuals and function in a civil social environment that has various freedoms as such that exist in America.

People either will look at seeing what is truth or they will not. Truths which aspire to principles, and does not blind itself to variables, but instead defers to principle... will be those whom can stay focused and function in honor of what is truths principle. "Goodwill in the hearts and minds of mankind" - It takes a great deal of work.... it is not easy....but its worth it.

I was not a supporter of Trump, I find it challenging to support anyone with such belligerent conducts as he demonstrated during his campaigning, as being one who should never have been considered for the ascension to the Office of President.
it's OK, that he echo'ed what we all already knew, which is we have crooked politicians and money grabbing systems in our financial community, and people who will sell out their soul for money... But to echo what is already widely known by the people, does not make him qualified to be or become President. We know we need job growth, but Trumps idea is not realistic, but people rejected President Obama's truths of telling us, that we have to build and create "new type of Industry, that meets with the 21st Century and beyond, because the old systems are not what the future is set to be built with. People rejected it, in lieu of chasing nostalgia and making confabulations about the past, and we missed the golden opportunity to become a new and prospering America for the development of the 21st Century of Innovations.

Trumps echoing jobs, was nothing the people did not already know that we need, but people did not listen and fell into thinking this man will recreate the past. When fact is, America in the past 8 yrs broke many records and became the best performing term in the history of this nations existence. Racism may make some want to try to deny such truth, but facts can't be vanquished by the belligerence of racism's aims of denial.

Even saying such, I think his idea of industrial rebuilding in principle is good, but the variables that matter I feel is being ignored, and his methods of trying to do so, is with much questions and does not match with the claims of being able to do so. [i](I think the people are being fleeced so he can push his cut tax on the wealthy agenda (we know he does not like or respect paying his taxes), his aims to set up so as to pass wealth to his kids without tax, and to open the doors where dark money can circle, and be washed without systems of detection's or consequences for such corrupt and deceptive money gathering games).

His Ideas of Job Creation is fiction made of too many challenges. if it was easy, President Bush, President Obama would have done so, even President Clinton would have done so, instead of opening the flood gates for foreign products. One has to go back to the era of Nixon, to see the reality, it was 4-5 yrs after Civil Rights Act, and Nixon was not one of drive to support full integration and certainly not economic equilibrium, but he felt that American could contain and control the Chinese, so he set up to move Ore Processing and Production of Industrial Materials to China, and set the stage for textiles and other goods to be moved to their industrial system, and they felt they had found the 20th century slave models for another Century of wealth without white society working to produce it. At the same time, it cut off the pathways for minority economic equilibrium and began to dismantle the middle class, first by union busting and all the processes that followed up to closing factories. Reagan followed up, with defunding educational systems, removing any and all concern for mental health care, and opening a pipeline to saturate the poor and minorities with a drug epidemic that was set to last for 50 yrs or more. Already it has been more than 30 yrs and it still is have devastating impact on minorities and poor whites. What happen while this is taking place. The wealthy whites went from being Millionaires to being Billionaires and the poor are caught in destitution which has eroded the basic living all across America.
Trump does not have the resources and the nations resources have been squandered on wars and fleecing games, that he does not have the means, the resources, the stature, and certainly he does not have the position of example, to be a lead drive of American Re-Industrialization. When that fails and the options demonstrate it to be less likely, then the next avenue has been and continues to be "war", it keeps people occupied, makes money, culls the population of the poor and the wealthy become even more wealthy. as that old saying, when the streets runs red with blood, "buy up the property".
Such as, we are not to be or become again the mechanical industrial age, nor will we be the coal and petro chemical factories of the past. We have Industrial blight from one coast to the next, and that has to be cleaned up. But if the EPA falls apart, then we only serve to spread and saturate toxicity with more toxicity until we make something that is not easy to fix.

We need to look forward, but what Trump has failed to consider. When we changed from the Mechanical Industrial Age to the Digital and Data driven age and robotic function, what did we do? We spent the bulk of the 1970's re-educating society, data processing, became the full circle coast to coast programming of job culture, we prepared society for the transition. Now we stand at the change where data and robotic's merge with AI (Artificial Intellegence), and we are not training people, yet we are talking about Job Creation?
There is a falseness in the premise, that does not match with the claimed principle. One need only look around, self driving fork lifts, trucks, cars, robotic machines packing boxes, wrapping products, attaching labels, and what ever else that digital processing robotics can engages, even ones home now has modules that work via the cell phone.
Yet, what is it that we don't do? We don't make computers on American Soil, We don't produce Phones on American Soil and many of the parts to make what we do produce come from International Locations as does the computing units that we use in our business environments. How many billions of foreign made computers fill the offices of America? How many foreign made laptops fills the hands from kids to university classrooms to laying on the bed surfing the internet.
Products are made to be disposable, therefore we repair nothing, we dispose and replace, and where do we buy it from, if not foreign manufactures.
Where are the Old Brick Making Factories, or the Lumbers Mills, we import now fake wood, fake marble and other things by the ship loads, we can't even make drywall when its the basic unit used in construction.

Trump can't bring back jobs, when he can't even have his own companies to produce products with his name on it in America.

Now, as to white people, I have never thought all white people to be bad, because through history of American there have been white people who did not support or condone slavery, segregation or any ill conduct and attitude toward blacks or others. They remained somewhat low key and even silent, because their lives were threatened by the belligerent and boisterous whites who detested any white people who did not support the bigotry and racism that was dominantly promoted. Today, more white people are no longer afraid of the bigots and racist, but they are certainly aware of them and they are certainly aware of what extreme acts such types will engage, and they will kill whites who don't support racism and bigotry as quickly as they will kill a minority whom is their first target of racism's aims.

As to people, no one has to prove themselves "black" or "black enough", one only has to live and uphole the values they believe in which supports the respect of humanity. That includes, one need not go out nd have conflict with racist, they will segregate themselves unto themselves. It does not mean drop your guard and be void of being cautious, but it also includes knowing how to discern that not all white people are of such racist driven ideological aims. Group think can and does at times suck some in, whom would other wise not support such madness, and that is always a challenges, the same as with the nature of black people, where some may engage to join in attitudes they don't fully support, by trying to be "black enough".

History is a challenge that many are simply not of the strength to stomach in the real truths is holds and presents for review.

I know many things about racism, I grew up in a Jim Crow function of madness on society, but what I do know is that one has to deal with people as individuals, but also be aware of what is group think and how group think and pressures have impacts on the fragile nature of the human being. self preservation many make the most non racist person become silent, in the face of a group of driven racist who seeks to recruit.
Therefore, the world is mixed up of much, and it takes a lot for people to become and be themselves beyond the influences and pressures that push and pull them in many directions. Therefore, again... I come to the point of "Truth and Principles", if one aspires to the Principles that Support Truth, then work within that frame and be aware to steer clear of that which does not.

[Chance and Change]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

You kind of described me except that I've never been called any "coon" or "sellout" or "Uncle Tom."

I have been called a "black Republican" though lol and it was said to me first by an old black woman who would have cussed at me if that wasn't beneath her standards lol. I saw it in her eyes.

For me, there is never a "wrong type" of black person. I also went to an HBCU and like you, I am an atheist. I consider myself a secular humanist. I am also a woman and black women in general are very hard on all black people and especially black women if we are non-believers.

I do not discuss religion at all, unless I am asked, with any black people. Those in my family know my views. They also know I am pretty well versed in the Bible - reading and studying it caused me to see that religion was not for me. So my family especially just doesn't talk to me about it anymore. They did for a good 5-7 years though and because of my knowledge and being able to refute their position and explicitly state my own without disrespecting them, they no longer approach me with the subject of religion. I have been told on this subject and others, since I was a child that I "think too much" or that I "read too much" and for me that is a compliment. But regardless being a non-believer is a huge thing because my family is ultra religious, stereotypical fawning black mama in church and all that. Both sides of my family historically also established "the black church" in the city I'm from - the AME church and the Baptist church - the first ones here were created by some of my ancestors and my grandparents/great grandparents' names are still associated with those institutions and so it was a shameful thing for me to be an atheist since I am one of the more "successful" of my generation.

On political issues, I agree many black people are how calli has been describing (see "white" as superior and have a desire to live in a "white"/better environment and to impress white people) and their views of someone going outside the confines of what is considered mainstream black political thought is a symptom of this - what I call the "black inferiority complex." They believe we have nothing, we are not powerful, we control nothing, and that is due to white racism. IMO they are giving away their power in having such an inferiority based mindset.

Due to that, people like yourself and I need to be very well versed on being black from a cultural and historical perspective as it relates to black Americans. I believe that I've never been accused of the things you have stated primarily because 1- I am not a presumptuous sort of "bougeoisie" person, I am to an extent but in general I am very down to earth. 2 - I live in the inner city and have for the majority of my adulthood. 3 - I am very aware that racism/white supremacy ideology is at play in our culture as Americans both historically and today 4 - I am very knowledgeable about black history and black intellectual giants and their positions - some who are not as well known as others - like Hubert Harrison a black atheist who is considered the "father of black nationalism." 5 - Based on #4 I use examples to show that a diverse viewpoint in political thought amongst black Americans is vital for problem solving and organizing in the demographic and 6 - I engage in very respectful conversations with these people - I question them and where they got their information and many times they "see the light" so to speak about a variety of subjects of which we are discussing. Those who do not agree with me, they will just not speak to me again about the subject, but I am frequently re-approached by people and I recommend reputable reading material and authors - usually black authors so that they can expand their mindset.

I'll also note that I went to an AUC HBCU in Atlanta and my professors frequently spoke of political issues as they related to current and historical time periods and as a result we engaged in a lot of debates on issues that are still relevant to black Americans politically and those in the past that have an effect on us to this day. The positives and negatives of integration in particular is one that we discussed a lot. The debates between WEB DuBois and Booker T Washington regarding economics, education, and civil rights and if they should or should not be achieved side by side or one at a time. Due to the confines of our debates being primarily in class, I do feel that those discussions never delved into immature name calling like how you describe. We also went to other HBCUs and participated on panel discussions at the request of our advisors and instructors. I discovered via those tours that all HBCUs are not the same and some do a better job of encouraging critical thought regarding the diverse issues and solutions that effect black America.

Not sure if you are older or younger than me, but honestly, I have had the feeling of late that with the younger crop of students, they are not getting a diverse amount of views in their institutions of higher learning and it is troubling to me. I speak to young people I mentor about this and recommend they read essays by WEB DuBois about the need of blacks to have a diverse point of view within the demographic and that debates are necessary to grow as a demographic and to not be afraid to engage in conversations about controversial topics like today and the rise of the alt-right and white supremacy being more mainstream. DuBois didn't like Marcus Garvey's approach, which was much more focused on black nationalism and pan-Africanism (even though DuBois was also a pan-Africanist and believed in "Africa for the Africans") versus working within the legal confines to ensure black people's rights were upheld in this country as well - something that DuBois was heavily focused on in his career for the majority of his life. But he appreciated the fact that Garvey and Harrison and others who were a part of the black nationalist/pan-Africanist movements in their infancy provided a different view of issues and different solutions to problems versus himself. He saw that exchange as positive. I tell people this when we discuss politics and solutions for issues facing the demographic and I also focus on "unity." Something that many black people say they are "for" yet they are willing to not include certain types of blacks into the mix or their issues - like black atheists (FWIW we are probably seen as worse than a sell out or uncle tom lol).

I believe in the existence of God, its formless and there is no worldy picture in my mind as to what God would look like.... But I belive there is a power greater than all things we see and know within and of the Universe.

As to Religion, people may need to be of care in what and how they consume and what they digest. Again "principles matter", one may need to be of care not to get lost in the ways of man to manipulate the variables that associate and how they associate or relate to the principle. That is something an individual must lean for themselves and their interactions with the vast knowledge base which exist in society and the history of societies. Therefore to be discerning, before becoming consumed in passions and make ones self drive into devotions, of which they may not be aware of what they are enjoining themselves into or unto.

I've long held many questions that concern the King James Version, as well, inquired as to what motivated him to develop his VERSION .

~ Version = (a particular form of something differing in certain respects from an earlier form or other forms of the same type of thing.)

This could be a very long subject that in fact is endless..... so... again, I say, one should be with great care in what they ingest and how they chew and what results to digest within themselves. "We are what we eat, in all respects".