It is reported that hate for President-elect Barack Obama spans from the East to the West coast.
A lot of people may not be aware of the hate that breathes, wafting its foul smell toward Obama because big newspapers don't cover it, only local papers.
People are talking about assassination of Obama. In a convenience store in Maine customers were betting on when Obama might be assassinated and the person who guesses the date, or is closest to the date, wins the pool of money. People are wearing KKK outfits, burning American flags, assaulting African-Americans.
I pity these feeble-minded people. When will America let go of her bigotry? Did Americans know that everyone, in which I mean any color, has six genes that give pigment to their skin? Now, here's the punch: All six genes are identical. It doesn't matter what color your skin is, inside we are the same. "POW! Right in the kisser." -- Peter Griffin (Family Guy). Here is another interesting factoid: There are more genetic variations within a race than between. That means Caucasians are more genetically different when compared to another Caucasian. And when compared to another race they are more similar.
If people would educate themselves on their spare time instead of zombie out in front of the TV watching shows that promote teen pregnancies, maybe America could actually hold the Constitution proudly in the air.
Some of you may be pulling up statistics that show people of color ranking low in education, or high-wage jobs. I’m not arguing against the numbers but I’m arguing against the cause of the numbers. It is not because people of color are inferior to Caucasians. It is because of the social inequality that America has created. By viewing people of color as inferior, they are not treated equally. They are given less opportunities – education, job offers. How are people of color suppose to move upward in social mobility when they aren’t even given the chance?
There is no doubt that Obama being president-elect is a giant leap for mankind but there is still much work to be done to alleviate America of her bigotry.
a terrorist organization just released a tape calling for attacks during the Obama presidency. What these folks don't realize is that their words and actions are not those of "true Americans." Their true bretheren are hiding in hills and caves in the Middle East, making theatening video tapes.
"How can we win where fools can be kings" Muse
Wow a terrorist organization of what affilation made the video tape? was it american ?
that is absolutely disgusting that someone or organizations would promote murdering of our very own president.
people need to learn that prejudice is based on ignorance and unexperience. but how are they going to understand if they are ignorant?
When will people be judged on character instead of on assumptions?
i think through education, promotion of social equality. and changes in government policies i.e. projects or ghettos shouldn't be densely populated in one specfic area people will learn.
through time I genuinely believe that we will judge people by character instead of assumptions, and Obama is just another step towards progress.
but I posted that after being up all night working on essays.
The tape was made by al-Qaeda. They refered to Obama as a "house slave" and other derogatory terms
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7737710.stm
I was drawing a comparison between the al-Qaeda tape and the death threats made by American citizens against Obama. If you are interested, I posted a simmilar blog:
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/50346-facebook-groups-seek-preemptive-i...
In it, I highlight many of the racist, hyperbolic, or just plain stupid things being said about the Obama victory by many rightwingers.
"How can we win where fools can be kings" Muse
I understand the guy from Al Queda's point. You have to look at it from a brown person's perspective. America is basically in the middle under the guise of "spreading democracy" to people who "need" it. That is an insult to every single person in the ME, and it is something that groups of Western Europeans have been doing a very long time. Invading countries of non whites and forcing their ideology on them/us. In a way, Obama is "betraying" not only Muslims, but blacks, Asians, Indians, Aborigines, and every other group of people who have been victims of European colonialism. That's why I would never want to be president of this country as it i. I would never want to continue that White supremacist tradition. He is a "house negro" (to al qeuda) because he would rather help his oppressors than help his fellow oppressed. Not that I necessarily agree with this, I just understand and I don't think this statement is as crazy as the people who call Obama the anti Christ/terrorist/end of white civilization.
my point was that the people who are betting on Obama's death in Maine are no better than the Al Queda terrorists threatening his life in the Middle East.
"How can we win where fools can be kings" Muse
Canvassing for the Obama campaign downtown Indianapolis one day, a man told me, "But if he gets in, they'll think they're better than us." I asked if he thought he was better then "them" (using my fingers to quote "them") because of the race of the previous presidents. He was stumped. It wasn't the first time I'd heard such comments.One implied that with a black president, other black people will think they're equal to "us." It sucks that there is any question that any person is unequal based on skin color or gender or sexuality.
Race is a social construct, but it's something that people can see. It's the easiest form of scapegoating and passing on hate to the next generation. As far as inferiority goes, when people claim someone else as inferior, it's because of their own insecurity, inferiority complex, or jealousy. .
Unfortunately, spewing hate is not enough to be considered child abuse.
-Sonja :)
"I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" ~ Peter Finch as Howard Beale, 1976, "Network"
By viewing people of color as inferior, they are not treated equally. They are given less opportunities – education, job offers. How are people of color suppose to move upward in social mobility when they aren’t even given the chance?
We just elected a black President. He was elected with a very large segment of the white vote. We also have a well respected black man on the Supreme Court and lots of black people in Congress. In the current Administration there were two black Secretaires of State and in the next Administration there is going to be a black Attorney General and perhaps more black Cabinet level officials. Black people are making it to the very top echelons of the coporate world. Black people are well represented in our top universities both as faculty and students. Blacks are increasingly well represented in the middleclass. The Republican Party may very well name an awesome black man as the head of the RNC.
I think we are very close to the time when we can dispense with the ideology of victimhood. For almost 40 years now blacks have been given more than a fair shake by our government and schools. In that same 40 years millions of immigrants, mostly various minorities, have come to America, started with nothing and without similar preferential treatment they have prospered.
At a certain point, if you keep screaming that blacks need to keep being given preferences people are going to get the idea that they can ONLY PROSPER IF they are given preferences and unfair advantages. I'd like to believe that wasn't true but the incessent whining for more special treatment sends the message that blacks ARE somehow inferior and can't succeed without special preferences.
Is there still racism? Yes there is. And my guess is that there always will be and that it cuts both ways. Blacks are going to need to take responsibility for succeeding anyway.
I don't know why i'm replying to this post because I can't formulate my entire argument right now. But I'm an education major and we're learning about racism in public schools and it is just completely untrue to say that blacks have been given "more than a fair shake" for the past forty years. Do you think that because the laws changed, people's hearts changed?
Black students are more likely to get reprimanded than White students for the same offenses. 90% of teacher from k-12 are White. Even as schools are becoming increasingly non-white. That in itself is not racism, but people tend to pay more attention to people like themselves and ignore those about whom they already have preconceived notions. And, when kids of color don't do well in school, too many people just think that's how they are and there's nothing that can change our nature, therefore it's okay to ignore them. Poorer schools, which overwhelmingly tend to be filled with minorities get less funding because property tax values in poor areas are lower. Property tax is lower because of the people who live in the neighborhood, and you can guess who lives in the neighborhoods that have higher property taxes. One of the results of the Civil rights movement was White flight. Kids who speak a different language are almost always placed into remedial classes(not just in English) and ESL, even if they speak English well.
There's a lot of systematically racist stuff that goes on, especially in schools. unfortunately, i don't have all the knowledge of my teacher, but I'll look up some of the stuff from our course work and post links if I can.
i agree of course that Blacks can achieve, I am an example of that. But The playing field is not even.
In that same 40 years millions of immigrants, mostly various minorities, have come to America, started with nothing and without similar preferential treatment they have prospered.
How do you define prosper?
Have hearts changed? Absolutely. It is a completely different world then when I was a child. Has racism and discrimination disappeared? Nope and it never will. Are they barriers to black achievemnet? Not much. Witness our incoming President.
I think your right that black underachievement is a cultural problem. But from my perspective it is most specifically a black sub-cultural problem.
I don't know about racial profiling in the repremanding process at schools. I do know that our schools are absolutely out of control from the perspective of discipline and that the problem is far worse in inner cities than elsewhere. We should bring back the paddle and apply it liberally in a color blind manner. And parents should get control of their kids too.
I'm not sure why there are not more black teachers in the inner cities. We have been taxed hard and reverse discriminated against to ensure that lots of blacks have had access to college. Are blacks not choosing to be teachers or are black teachers choosing not to return to the inner cities to help their people? Regardless of the answer this seems like largely an area where blacks should be helping themselves and where ONLY blacks can provide the solution.
Property taxes have been the traditional source of funding for schools but there is no law that says they are the only source of school funding. Low property values is a red-herring. Cities raise lots of revenue from lots of sources. Most of it ends up in the hands of various labor unions. Educational funding is and always has been a largely a local issue. City leaders ALWAYS underfund the most popular things like education and law enforcement because that allows them to justify raising taxes and growing government. If the people in inner cities are not happy with school funding they should find some leaders that will spend more on schools and less on overpaid union workers. Voting for Democrats seems to be a part of black culture and Democrats have controlled the inner city schools for the past 50 years. Why haven't they fixed the schools and why if they refuse to fix the schools do blacks keep putting them in power? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing that does not work over and over and expecting a different result.
While I agree that the schools are terrible and that it is a scandal, I think a far more serious problem is in the black homes. There are far too many single mothers. And there are far to many kids that are not being taught proper English in their homes. (As a business owner I want nothing to do with any employee who can't speak English. Nobody wants to buy a computer from a salesperson that makes themselves sound like a moron by ghetto speak.) And there are far to many parents allowing their kids to drop out of school. And there are far to many parents allowing their kids to hang with gangs and to dress like gangstas. Blacks actually celebrate the most self-destructive aspects of their own culture.
There are quite a lot of success stories where black kids have come out of those terrible schools and gone on to be very successful. Kids CAN get an education in those schools if they get the proper support at home and if they actually manage to graduate.
And why are so many blacks involved in the drug and gangster culture. Once a kid drops out of school they should not expect a high on the hog lifestyle. They have made a choice to not have any chance at the opportunity to live that way unless they break the law or hit it big as a rapper. But that does not mean there are not honest jobs. There are people walking clear across South, and Central America and Mexico and exposing themselves to horrendous risk and incredible hardship to get to America to take our unskilled jobs. These people work hard and accumulate wealth and send BILLIONS of dollars home. There is no fence around the ghetto and nothing to prevent an unskilled black person from simply hopping on a bus, and taking the relatively safe journey to where the jobs are and joining this workforce. They too could accumulate wealth and better their families.
The one thing our government is doing that in my mind is systematically racist against blacks is the tolerance for illegal immigration. It started with Jimmy Carter and has been allowed to get steadily worse. Illegal immigrants rob opportunities for unskilled Americans and they depress wages ensuring that poor people stay poor and transferring wealth from the poor to the rich. They also compete for and drive up the cost of housing and they make bad schools worse by diverting already scarce money to ESL students and creating a hostile environment. What is going on to blacks in Los Angelos amounts to racial cleansing. Because most of those poor and unskilled people harmed by this tolerance for rampant law breaking are black it has the stench of racism. But the biggest cheerleaders for the open borders and illegal immigrants are the Democrats. The Republicans have been trying to get this stopped. Again it is a self-destructive black cultural thing. Blacks are voting for the Democrats who are screwing them.
It's time for blacks to step up to the plate and take responsibility for themselves. They need to abandon their self destructive behaviors and make the decision to succeed. Vast numbers of immigrants come here and starting with nothing (not even English), they manage to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and become net contributors. The only group of immigrants that are not thriving are the Hispanics and it is because they are adopting the same underclass pathologies and behaviors that keep large numbers of blacks in the underclass. They are not taking responsibility for educating their kids and they are allowing them to behave like gangsters. Meanwhile Asians work their butts off and are reverse discriminated against in the elite schools because so many of them are over-achievers.
Being poor is a choice.
Use the reply button.
"Never go with a hippy to a second location."
~Jack Donaghy
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
It is fairly easy to write down what you have, sorry to say, but there are some truths underneath your words which I will try to bring up soon, in order to bring some understanding about what’s really cooking in the backyard!
http://www.wowzone.com/monkey.htm
Some people will always be poor because there is not enough wealth to go around. Every advantage one person has is at the disadvantage of someone else. Even if every single person in this country strove just as hard as the next, some people still wouldn't make it. It's like in "Bruce Almighty", when Jim Carey let everybody win the lottery. Everybody only got like ten dollars because that system isn't designed for everyone to succeed. Everyone can't win in this system.
Wealth is not a zero sum game where if one person gets richer than another man gets poorer.
New wealth can be created and it is happening all around us every day. When a farmer plants a single seed of wheat and a plant grows that yields him 50 seeds he has created wealth. When a miner goes into the ground and extracts a valuable mineral he is creating wealth. When a baker turns the farmers grain into a loaf of bread he is creating new wealth. When a jeweler takes the diamonds and gold that the miner extracted and turns them into a piece of jewelry he is creating wealth. When a laborer hires out his services to an employer he is creating wealth for himself while creating wealth for his employer.
In the tradional economies all wealth was either grown, mined or manufactured. In our more modern economy there are a number of other ways to create wealth like inventing stuff or even advertising.
When Bill Gates invented MS DOS it made him fabulously rich. But he did not get rich at everybody else's expense. On the contrary, he gave the world a product that had such incredible utility that it made everybody dramatically richer. Computers have done awesome things to boost wealth because they have added so much to productivity. Most of you probably can't even imagine a world without computers. I was in highschool when they started mass producing calculators. Those greatly added to everybody's wealth too.
There are some things though that do cause one person to be richer at the expense of another. One of those things is the social welfare state where wealth is confiscated from those who worked hard to earn it and given to people who did not. Another is games of chance. They are generally rigged to deprive the stupid of their money. And another is illegal immigration. When you flood the market with cheap labor,employers enjoy low wages and therefore big profits. Employees get the shaft. Illegal immigration is a wealth transfer mechanism from the poor to the rich. Employees get a smaller share of the fruits of their labor.
I will agree that there will always be people in our capitalist economy that rise to the top. And it would be impossible for somebody to be at the top if it did not mean that others were at the bottom. I like it that way. If somebody works hard or makes a huge effort in school or has some special gift they SHOULD get more. And if somebody decides to drop out of highschool they deserve less. But that does not mean I want the people on the bottom to live badly. If somebody able minded and able bodied refuses to work I don't much care if they starve. But anybody who works should earn a decent wage. The best way to accomplish this is to make sure there is a tight supply of labor at the bottom of our economy. That will ensure that their services are demanded and well compensated.
It is no accident that every first world economy has a tight labor supply and therefore reasonably well treated employees and every third world economy has an overly abundant supply of cheap labor and therefore an abused and poorly treated workforce.
Damn you!
I'm afraid I am already damned.
I agree with most of what you are saying, but I think the problem is more than JUST a black thing. Like you said, discrimination still exists. Well, blacks are not discriminating against themselves. So this is an everyone problem. It's the problem of blacks who don't do enough for their kids' education. It's the problem of people who employ illegal immigrants instead of Americans because they don't want to pay workers a fair amount. It's the problem of employers who discriminate against potential employees. It is true that there is no law saying property taxes have to be the main source of funding for schools, but that does not change the fact that they ARE the main source. And most people who live in good neighborhoods would rather keep it that way.
And why are so many blacks involved in the drug and gangster culture.
So many Blacks are involved in the drug and gangster culture because so many Blacks are poor. So many blacks are poor because when Reagan got in the men lost their blue collar jobs. I'm not blaming all this on Reagan, but his economic policies are part of the reason. And also, like you said, illegal immigration.
Blacks actually celebrate the most self-destructive aspects of their own culture.
What Blacks?
I appreciate the dialogue. It always scares me to say what I really think on this topic because sometimes it does not go over too well. It didn't even go over to well for Bill Cosby and he is able to say these things with a lot more moral authority than I can.
Yes there is discrimination. If black people wait for it to disappear they are never going to get anywhere. Life is not fair and humans are irrational and very imperfect animals.
The discrimination is not so bad that black people are not demonstrating over and over that they can climb to the highest positions in the land. There is lots of room for success and it is time for blacks to start grabbing their fair share of it. But it does not come easily. It takes work and it particularly takes parents that push their children hard to do things that will position them to succeed.
If I were a black parent I would be pushing my children towards this place: (Actually as a half white half Hispanic parent, that is where I sent my daughter>)
Phillips Exeter Academy
It is the most elite prep school in the country and they work really hard to have a diverse student body. They are extremely well endowed and they will give any kid they accept and whose parents make less than $60k a full scholarship, books and even airplane tickets. Places like that open all kinds of doors.
I appreciate the dialogue. It always scares me to say what I really think on this topic because sometimes it does not go over too well.
I know the feeling.
It didn't even go over too well for Bill Cosby and he is able to say these things with a lot more moral authority than I can.
True. I think part of the problem is that, in my opinion, blacks are so used to being blamed for things that are sometimes out of their control that when they reject even fair criticism because it sounds like everything else. But i have a feeling people are warming up to Bill.
If I were a black parent I would be pushing my children towards this place: (Actually as a half white half Hispanic parent, that is where I sent my daughter>)
Phillips Exeter Academy
It is the most elite prep school in the country and they work really hard to have a diverse student body. They are extremely well endowed and they will give any kid they accept and whose parents make less than $60k a full scholarship, books and even airplane tickets. Places like that open all kinds of doors.
That sounds like a pretty good school, too bad it's in New Hampshire. My mom told me that Harvard and Stanford are also both offering free tuition for kids on the honor roll whose parents make less that some amount i can' t remember. She really wants me to go to one but I like my school and the teachers are great and I feel I'm on a good track. Exeter sounds like a better version of the school I want to open. In one of my educational courses we're learning about all the things that can affect a kid's performance in school, mostly poverty.
Because of this, one of my goals is to open a boarding school in New Orleans and partner with either NOCCA (New Orleans Center for Creative Arts) or Tipitina's Internship Program. I was involved with both of these and they were monumentally helpful, although my time was cut short.
You may have understood that but I wasn't sure since you were comparing it to Harvard and Stanford.
Actually, as far as being accepted goes, being from New Orleans would be an advantage. Exeter is very committed to diversity but their view of diversity goes well beyond racial or ethnic diversity. They want that but they want kids from all different backgrounds with all different locations from all over the country and all over the world. I think they understand that real diversity is diversity of thought and while racial experience can certainly cause people to see the world differently their are lots of other things that give people a diverse world view.
My daughter was the only kid from Wyoming for the 3 years she was there. She was a very good student but maybe not the best. I doubt she would have gotten in if she had been from Massachussets or New York from which Exeter has a HUGE pool of applicants. I doubt very many kids from New Orleans apply.
I doubt very many kids from New Orleans apply.
I doubt it too. That's one of the reason I want my school to be in New Orleans.
Studs Terkel in American Dreams interviews a former Klansman who was privately supported by town officials and publically scorned. On a trip to PA, I was reminded that there was hatred between German and Irish workers who were competing for the same jobs. Perhaps racial and ethnic hatred, whether intentionally or unintentionally, has been and is still used simply to distract the masses from bigger problems. Just a thought.
"How can we win where fools can be kings" Muse
I'm not about hatred. I'm half Hispanic and I don't want anybody to hate me or that ethnic group. My problem is with the NUMBERS of people coming. It would matter not if they were Anglo or Germanic (the other half of me) or anything else. There are just too many and they are doing real damage to our existing poor.
I'm a conservative and I hate paying taxes. I don't particularly mind paying for my share of the military or building roads and bridges. But I hate to see my hard earned money transferred to anybody else who did not earn it through the various mechanisms of the social welfare state.
I therefore perceive it to be in my enlightened best interests to improve opportunity and the lives of blacks and anybody else in America that is poor. I want them to have opportunities for a decent education and I want them to be paid well enough so that they are net taxpayers rather than net welfare recipients. The wealthier they become the smaller the welfare state becomes.
I believe the best way to achieve both of these objectives is to quit importing ever more poor people for our poorest citizens to compete with. I believe in market mechanisms like supply and demand. In a market where there is a lot of demand for unskilled labor and not an endless supply of illegal labor, then I think my self interests will be best served. Things like the minimum wage will become irrelevant as employers compete with higher wages for a limited pool of workers.
Current levels of immigration and particularly tolerance of illegal immigration is a wealth transfer mechanism from the poor to the rich. There is a reason why it is elites in both political parties that favor this arrangement and ordinary people of all political persuasions who are overwhelmingly against it.
If endless immigration is such a good thing, lets completely open our borders to endless numbers of doctors, veterinarians, engineers, programmers, accountants, lawyers, JOURNALISTS and other well paid professionals. We'll see how long the high paid professions tolerate that sort of immigration as over supply causes THEIR wages to deteriorate.
Its not about hatred. The reason why we have immigration laws is to protect our citizens. We should enforce our immigration laws so that our citizens actually get some protection.
I agree. I used to be kind of in the middle on immigration. But now I go to places where I applied to work and see people working there who can't even speak English and it just pisses me off so much!
It pisses me off too. But I'm not particularly angry at the illegal aliens. I understand why they come and perhaps if I were wearing their shoes I would too.
The anger needs to be directed at our elite politicians who refuse to enforce our laws. If they did their job, then employers would not take the risk of hiring illegals and the jobs would dry up and the illegal aliens would stop coming.
There is some blame to be placed on both parties. Every President since Carter has been miserable at enforcement. But Democrats have been the major roadblock on getting this problem solved.
I'm not angry at them either. I'm sure I would do the same thing. I'm mad at the people who employ them and the people who turn a blind eye to those employers.