Race and politics (salaries, Mexicans, Christmas, statistics)
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.
Racism is absolutely still a problem in America. There are plenty of white people here who don't even want it acknowledged that white America kept black people as slaves, or who claim that life in slavery was better for black people, and that they are simply not capable enough to live as free citizens. Occasionally a thread has even cropped up here raising the proposition that race creates relatively superior and inferior people due to "genetics." Of course, some of the really overt stuff is pretty fringe. Sure. OK.
But my father said in agitated tones during our last phone call that schools "teach kids to hate America!" and just today this administration released a report offering "guidance" that the education system has created the radical left by teaching about slavery and other forms of oppression in our history, and that kids should simply not be taught about any way in which anything in our history was "evil" but rather indoctrinated to the concept of American exceptionalism and love of this country.
So let me get this straight, they want to teach school kids that white people have never done anything evil in the history of America? And in order to be patriotic and love your country, you have to believe that everything was always perfect and nothing should change, or should have ever changed? It really kind of boils down to that...embrace of change, versus resistance to it, with an over idealized conceptualization of what the past was like, that is absolutely centered on the experience of the middle class or better white, hetero, Christian male. If you point out that it was not better if you were black, or a woman, either they get angry and tell you to shut up or else claim that in fact women and minorities were happier under the benevolent rule of the wiser, better, whiter, maler persons who were in power at the time. If only we could have accepted our place! And aren't we sorry we ever fought it? And won't we be sorry when we can't succeed because we just don't have it in us, or when "society collapses" because we fought the natural way of things?
I mean, I've heard it all. Sometimes here, even.
One parallel that comes to mind for me is a relationship...if you must believe that your partner is perfect and flawless in order to love them, then your love is based on a false idealization and it isn't real. Real love is acknowledging that neither they, nor you, are perfect, and doing your best, supporting them in doing their best, and working to make things better together. I find it far more patriotic to acknowledge reality, accept that America (and white America) has a great deal of blood and suffering on its hands, and work to do better, be better, and make life better for everybody who is a part of this whole thing. I don't think that a real love of this country requires me to believe in a false and idealized concept of its history or past, but rather to believe that we are capable of a wonderful future. And that...requires "progress."
And frankly, they have never even gone as far as they could have, in teaching the ugly truths of American history to kids in schools. Tulsa, for instance.
But so long as, when a person of color achieves success, I hear white people suggesting it was surely affirmative action, (because surely there was a white person who was better qualified?) And when a woman achieves success it was probably because she slept her way to the top (because otherwise, who would put a woman in such a position?) Things like that, when the individuals in question have the receipts and can prove that they did the work, they have the qualifications, and probably the person voicing those sentiments NEVER WILL or even close?
Nah, sorry. Bigotry and discrimination are alive and well here. And they still serve to oppress people.
As for whether people of nonwhite races are, themselves, racist? Sure, I've had experiences where people of color seemed to not like me and behaved in hostile ways because of the color of my skin. But what exactly did I think I was entitled to, from them? Friendship? Trust? Why? Should a Native trust a white person offering them a blanket? I raised two sons to adulthood, without ever worrying that a cop, or even a "concerned neighbor" would gun them down just for playing in the neighborhood or wearing a hoodie or something...and would then get away with literal murder. Claims about "reverse racism" are nothing but DARVO, and if you don't know what that is, freaking look it up.
But the way that the white right has acted, it's like if 100% of everything is not ALL about you at all times, ya gotta throw a tantrum, and act like somebody stole your cookie. And as for "patriotism?" If you only love your country when it is all about you, then you don't really love it at all. You only love yourself.
Racism exists. Accusations of racism happen; some are made because one person has indeed said or done something racist.
However, the problem starts when agendas infiltrate policymaking and laws. And a lot of people on the left, whether white or nonwhite, use past historical events to fuel resentment because this furthers their agendas.
This may be my impression, but I sometimes walk away from reading news or seeing interviews or debates that people on the left think conservatives are unmoved by the historical wrongs perpetrated against those who were slaves and then, against their descendants. That's not true. I'm a conservative, and I for one oppose reparations for slavery. But I've made lawful permanent residents in my social circles who are not well-versed in U.S. history to do image searches for lynchings. Every time, their faces reveal an instant shock and horror. I tell them this is what happened in the past.
But as much as my heart is grieved when I see pictures of lynchings or read about how slaves were treated and how their children also faced a lot of discrimination, I cannot agree with a lot of what the left is doing today in the name of fighting racism. Just because very bad things happened in the 17th and 18th and 19th Centuries, and during the 20th as well, it does not justify some of the things which are done nowadays, and that includes but isn't limited to forcing white people to kneel because they have "white privilege" (a notion I find, to put it charitably, lacking in fact and in truth).
In my assessment, in January 2021 America, although whites are the majority, overall whites are not too opposed to nonwhites being here. Sure, many privately don't want a Korean neighbor or a Hispanic boy dating their daughter or an Iranian as their local sheriff. But America is today home to millions of Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Asian Indians, Vietnamese, black Africans, Caribbean blacks, Middle Easterners, and Hispanics. There are Korean-born federal judges. There are Asian Indians making six and at times seven figures in IT. There are Chinese who own multi-city Asian grocery chains living in absolute luxury. There are minority real estate agents who cater to their communities and live lifestyles few of us can even dream of. Are white people up in arms about this?
Again, racism exists, but to keep feeding the flames of resentment at a time whites are slowly decreasing in number to the extent that sometime between 2040 and 2045 they will be a minority (and this considering that in 1965, they were 90% of the population), and given that there have been numerous incidents of fabricated racial crimes, most if not all of which were perpetrated by those who first made the allegations - people of color themselves - all this bashing white people and harping about how racist America is will have negative consequences.
One of them, which I have come to conclude after a lot of reading, is that actual racism by whites will increase; white people who were originally apathetic towards minorities are now beginning to resent if not to hate them because they are tired of being bashed and told they are racist because they're white and that they have privilege because they are white. And while statistically white crimes against minorities (not due to reasons such as robberies or theft or burglaries but as real and actual racially motivated violent crimes) remain low, if this increases, it won't be because of black or Hispanic or Asian success. It won't be because of Donald Trump. It won't be because they're "bitter clingers." It won't be because they are "uneducated rednecks."
It will be because all this bashing of white people and white history (attacks on statues) will make some white people, at some time and place, reach their breaking point.
The left will have nobody but itself to blame for this, even though it will yet again scream and shriek about "white supremacy." This is why I oppose the left, among other reasons: it is drunk in its belief it is morally superior and it is too arrogant to see that its policies and positions could backfire and result in blowback.
No, I saw them storming the Capitol, and the T-shirts they were wearing. I will post videos if you like.
15 thousand people I think it was were at the rally. 200 maybe acted a fool, film footage is being analyzed and arrests will be coming. As they should be. We don't know how many actual real racists were at that event, no matter how many times Joy Reid says it, it doesn't automatically make it so.
They weren't saying it until the late 80s. Prior to that, rappers battled each other. They rapped about life being tough and trying to get ahead. Then there was a time where the rappers infused some rock n roll into their songs... and then they did a bunch of love rap songs. MTV also gave exposure to both black and white music. I can't tell you how many times I saw the video with Twisted Sister. But MTV Raps came on the scene to give exposure to that genre as well.
Speaking of MTV Raps - within the last year Dr Dre lost his vision and had a leg amputated because of diabetes. Sad.
Anyway - I don't doubt it didn't get better in some locales - but it didn't manifest itself nationally.
Rap music did get violent in the 1980s. It was a product of what was going on for a long time. The violence found during the early 1990s was a culmination of things that had been building up for decades. And there was something else manifesting itself nationally---The Crack Era.
Look at racial make up of the two political parties in Congress, it will tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about them.
Over 40% of dems in congress are women, and/or minorities.
Over 80% of repubs are white men.
The political representation for one party is overwhelmingly white men. The political representation for another party is drenched with women and racial diversity.
What else is there to discuss?
Numbers are one thing. But this needs to be asked. Why is the Republican Party 80% represented by White males, and the Democrats represented 40% by minorities and women?
15 thousand people I think it was were at the rally. 200 maybe acted a fool, film footage is being analyzed and arrests will be coming. As they should be. We don't know how many actual real racists were at that event, no matter how many times Joy Reid says it, it doesn't automatically make it so.
You are being too kind, I think it was way more than that.
Numbers are one thing. But this needs to be asked. Why is the Republican Party 80% represented by White males, and the Democrats represented 40% by minorities and women?
The Republican party have some rebranding to do, if the want to salvage the damage Trump have done.
Numbers are one thing. But this needs to be asked. Why is the Republican Party 80% represented by White males, and the Democrats represented 40% by minorities and women?
I don't know if it's a chicken and egg thing here, but I see some democrat's openly talk about not wanting white males in the party. I forget, some congressman was on film talking about it. I happen to be a white guy and I've noticed ever since the Obama era it is socially acceptable to openly dump on white men. I'm not whining or feeling personally persecuted but there is something there. I know that black people have had it rougher than whites but we shouldn't be going too far the other direction. We need to uplift all.
I think the Democrats' are desperate to keep black folks loyal to the party and I think are pushing the race narrative too much in my opinion. It's become a weapon and it is politicized now.
There is no power in talking about unity, it's fear mongering power grab tactics at play here.
Racism is absolutely still a problem in America. There are plenty of white people here who don't even want it acknowledged that white America kept black people as slaves, or who claim that life in slavery was better for black people, and that they are simply not capable enough to live as free citizens. Occasionally a thread has even cropped up here raising the proposition that race creates relatively superior and inferior people due to "genetics." Of course, some of the really overt stuff is pretty fringe. Sure. OK.
But my father said in agitated tones during our last phone call that schools "teach kids to hate America!" and just today this administration released a report offering "guidance" that the education system has created the radical left by teaching about slavery and other forms of oppression in our history, and that kids should simply not be taught about any way in which anything in our history was "evil" but rather indoctrinated to the concept of American exceptionalism and love of this country.
So let me get this straight, they want to teach school kids that white people have never done anything evil in the history of America? And in order to be patriotic and love your country, you have to believe that everything was always perfect and nothing should change, or should have ever changed? It really kind of boils down to that...embrace of change, versus resistance to it, with an over idealized conceptualization of what the past was like, that is absolutely centered on the experience of the middle class or better white, hetero, Christian male. If you point out that it was not better if you were black, or a woman, either they get angry and tell you to shut up or else claim that in fact women and minorities were happier under the benevolent rule of the wiser, better, whiter, maler persons who were in power at the time. If only we could have accepted our place! And aren't we sorry we ever fought it? And won't we be sorry when we can't succeed because we just don't have it in us, or when "society collapses" because we fought the natural way of things?
I mean, I've heard it all. Sometimes here, even.
One parallel that comes to mind for me is a relationship...if you must believe that your partner is perfect and flawless in order to love them, then your love is based on a false idealization and it isn't real. Real love is acknowledging that neither they, nor you, are perfect, and doing your best, supporting them in doing their best, and working to make things better together. I find it far more patriotic to acknowledge reality, accept that America (and white America) has a great deal of blood and suffering on its hands, and work to do better, be better, and make life better for everybody who is a part of this whole thing. I don't think that a real love of this country requires me to believe in a false and idealized concept of its history or past, but rather to believe that we are capable of a wonderful future. And that...requires "progress."
And frankly, they have never even gone as far as they could have, in teaching the ugly truths of American history to kids in schools. Tulsa, for instance.
But so long as, when a person of color achieves success, I hear white people suggesting it was surely affirmative action, (because surely there was a white person who was better qualified?) And when a woman achieves success it was probably because she slept her way to the top (because otherwise, who would put a woman in such a position?) Things like that, when the individuals in question have the receipts and can prove that they did the work, they have the qualifications, and probably the person voicing those sentiments NEVER WILL or even close?
Nah, sorry. Bigotry and discrimination are alive and well here. And they still serve to oppress people.
As for whether people of nonwhite races are, themselves, racist? Sure, I've had experiences where people of color seemed to not like me and behaved in hostile ways because of the color of my skin. But what exactly did I think I was entitled to, from them? Friendship? Trust? Why? Should a Native trust a white person offering them a blanket? I raised two sons to adulthood, without ever worrying that a cop, or even a "concerned neighbor" would gun them down just for playing in the neighborhood or wearing a hoodie or something...and would then get away with literal murder. Claims about "reverse racism" are nothing but DARVO, and if you don't know what that is, freaking look it up.
But the way that the white right has acted, it's like if 100% of everything is not ALL about you at all times, ya gotta throw a tantrum, and act like somebody stole your cookie. And as for "patriotism?" If you only love your country when it is all about you, then you don't really love it at all. You only love yourself.
No, when you teach American history or any culture's history the traditional way is to state the facts and try to explain it and understand it from the perspective of the people at the time. Not criticize it, focus on the negative, make moral judgements and paint a picture that whites are morally inferior and others are morally superior, which is racist itself by definition. So if you are talking about the Civil War era you talk about abolitionist, Radical Republicans, southern Democrats etc, not give a pseudo-religious sermon.
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.
