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How many first generation immigrants come to this country with a welfare mentality? I believe that is the best answer I can give to your question.
I am enjoying having this discussion with you and you have some very interesting viewpoints. But as a counter point to that, I don't think welfare can fully be used as an excuse or crutch when you have people from third world countries where conditions are FAR worse than they are in the worst and poorest neighborhoods here in the U.S. Have you ever been to countries like Mexico, Vietnam, Haiti, Sierra Leone, or Jamaica and seen what their ghettos look like? That's why they work so hard to leave their countries and come here; even our ghettos are like palaces to them. That's why I don't think a lot of Americans truly know what it is like to REALLY be poor and why I still say no excuses. If they can do it coming from the conditions that they do, then we certainly can.
Last edited by Carlito Brigante; 03-20-2013 at 08:35 AM..
I doubt it in rural New England, there's not really much of a history of racial tension. At worst they'd considered a curiosity. Having less blacks does not equal more disapproval, I don't they're even connected.
I know people from New England, having fewer blacks there makes people even more suspicious of them. Racial tensions in New England seem to be since there are so few of them. And most of New England is pretty rural, their biggest cities are Boston and Portland.
I remember growing up in the midwest and working at at a retail store one of my customers shook his head disapprovingly and mentioned "Salt and Pepper don't mix" referring to a white male with a black female wandering through the store.
And most of New England is pretty rural, their biggest cities are Boston and Portland.
I found that there was far more racism in Boston than anywhere else in New England. Far more than in the rural areas. Northern New England has a real "live and let live" bent.
I am enjoying having this discussion with you and you have some very interesting viewpoints. But as a counter point to that, I don't think welfare can fully be used as an excuse or crutch when you have people from third world countries where conditions are FAR worse than they are in the worst and poorest neighborhoods here in the U.S. Have you ever been to countries like Mexico, Vietnam, Haiti, Sierra Leone, or Jamaica and seen what their ghettos look like? That's why they work so hard to leave their countries and come here; even our ghettos are like palaces to them. That's why I don't think a lot of Americans truly know what it is like to REALLY be poor and why I still say no excuses. If they can do it coming from the conditions that they do, then we certainly can.
I agree that the poor here are not really that poor when you compare the conditions they live in with those of people in other nations. That is probably why so many choose to take the scraps that the welfare system throws at them instead of striving to do better. My point was more about the welfare mentality than the actual poverty. I know plenty of people who grew up poor (working poor) but were very hard workers and had parents that insisted that they get an education so that they would be better off. Poverty does not make one trifling, but when you have generations of people who are given something for nothing (welfare); they tend to not take advantage of the opportunities we have in the US. Their mindset has conditioned them to settle for a life in relative poverty (by US standards). This mindset is not limited to black Americans. The same mindset can be seen in white Americans in Appalachia and urban Hispanic populations. Welfare and entitlements are kryptonite to hard work and motivation. The only thing that will change this mindset for a large chunk of this group is a massive overhaul of the welfare system. We need a safety net for those who are truly unable to provide for themselves (i.e. the disable), but there is no reason for able body people to be getting a check and an EBT card without an honest days work. In cities there are vacant lots than need to be cut, trash that needs to be picked up, and various other tasks that many municipal governments need help with, but we feed and cloth able body people to sit at home. This is why crime is so high in poor urban areas. When people have so much idle time to sit around and think about ways to get the stuff that they don’t have they tend to get into all kinds of mischief.
Welfare and entitlements are kryptonite to hard work and motivation. The only thing that will change this mindset for a large chunk of this group is a massive overhaul of the welfare system. We need a safety net for those who are truly unable to provide for themselves (i.e. the disable), but there is no reason for able body people to be getting a check and an EBT card without an honest days work. In cities there are vacant lots than need to be cut, trash that needs to be picked up, and various other tasks that many municipal governments need help with, but we feed and cloth able body people to sit at home. This is why crime is so high in poor urban areas. When people have so much idle time to sit around and think about ways to get the stuff that they don’t have they tend to get into all kinds of mischief.
I found that there was far more racism in Boston than anywhere else in New England. Far more than in the rural areas. Northern New England has a real "live and let live" bent.
I was pretty surprised at the racism in Boston / urban New England too. Sometimes it was subtle and veiled - for instance I heard on multiple occasions people suggest that the black community still owed northerners some sort of debt of gratitude for "saving" them from slavery.
I was pretty surprised at the racism in Boston / urban New England too. Sometimes it was subtle and veiled - for instance I heard on multiple occasions people suggest that the black community still owed northerners some sort of debt of gratitude for "saving" them from slavery.
I was pretty surprised at the racism in Boston / urban New England too. Sometimes it was subtle and veiled - for instance I heard on multiple occasions people suggest that the black community still owed northerners some sort of debt of gratitude for "saving" them from slavery.
Yep I was a bit surprised as well, my wife was called the 'N' word in Cambridge as we stepped out of the subway station into Harvard Square. Mind you this was unprovoked, we never seen this guy before nor had any encounter with him. Later as we strolled around the area we run into this guy again speaking on open microphone on the sidewalk blaming black folks for this counties problems, and again yelled out racial epithets. Not one person in the crowd of pedestrians said a word against him. Now I'm not saying LA does not have it's share of racism, but this would have not been tolerated here, not personally I don't even think this would be allowed in this day even in parts of Orange County, someone would have spoken up.
BTW I too am African American and of mixed race, but most people wouldn't catch that by my appearance. Many times my wife and I are mistaken for being an inter-racial couple.
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