ahhh Denny... institutionalized racism? The intimidation? buzz words in this day and age as any seconed grade teacher would require, show your work
Some of my Italian relatives, including my grandmother's sister and her children, were moved from San Francisco to camps in Wyoming during WWII by FDR. When released, they moved to Montana and started life over again, and their siblings joined them to build a community in the mining town of Red Lodge, MT. I don't recall them ever asking for handouts from the government.
"Progressives" sure like to bring up the past, and the only reason is to further divide people based on race, economics, etc. I am frankly sick of "progressives" keeping blacks, gays, the 99%, and others in a perpetual state of angst against their fellow Americans.
What is the point of this thread? That there is an ugly racist past in America? Go to a soccer game in Europe, perhaps a game involving Mario Balotelli, and tell me that racism isn't more prominent. The US right now is the most diverse country in the world, and has the most opportunity for people of all colors. It's not even close, yet people like you continue to bring up a past that none of us in the present have any involvement in, at all. It's disgusting, IMO.
Everybody has hurdles to overcome. As for your "advise" to a black person, where would you send them?
Also julius, fuck off for pooh-poohing a family taken from the docks of South San Francisco and moved into the middle of nowhere, solely because they were Italian. Rich white guilt jerk-offs who have had no adversity in their lives rule. It's easy for them to shame us all.
But don't you feel like today.....TODAY, where we all live, intimidation goes both ways in one form or another? What happened in the past was and still is horrific, however, that shouldn't have any effect (SP?) on the young people of today. People of all color have the exact same opportunities as everyone else. As has been said, there are black congressmen, senators and a black President. To say otherwise is just wrong, IMO.
You know why it's not nearly as bad? An Italian family can learn English, change their last name to Johnson, and everyone would just assume they're not Italians. A black family couldn't just change their accent a little, change their last name and have it so people wouldn't know they were black. Where am I "shaming" anyone?
I'd much rather have the intimidation that comes from society towards a white person, than the one that comes towards minorities from our society. You know, the one that assumes all Mexicans are here illegally, don't speak English and we should be able to ask any brown skinned person for their ID when they're close to the border. Or that once a black person is president finally, we still have to hear about how he's not a "real American" or that he wasn't born in the US, or he's being disrespectful to the office by putting his foot up on a desk in the oval office or having a marine (or someone in the military) holding an umbrella out in public. I think instead of repeating a lot of what I said, I'll just ask this. You don't deny that whites were given a head start, and the rest of the country is catching up, right? So if you've been given a head start, and in some cases don't have to struggle nearly as much to get your foot in the door, you'll be ahead. It doesn't mean you've cheated, or didn't work hard, it just meant that a lot of the struggles others faced, you didn't. your grandfather not getting a loan because he was black (say, in the 40's or 50's) to buy a house to raise his family, could have an impact on your life. So instead they struggled to find a decent home to live in, and maybe were forced to live in a crappier part of town. So maybe their kids didn't have access to a decent school, and it would've been harder to get into a better college. Maybe they didn't get into college at all, and worked a factory job and maybe never had stability. And yes, this happens to all races of people, but the %'s of minorities who this story fits is much more significant. That's why stuff that happened 100 years ago, 50 years ago, has an impact on people today. not the threat of being lynched, but the impact of the actions that put people further behind in the "race".
Being black is a crime! That makes it trivial to go arrest black men and put them in jail. Then people can point to the stats and say, "look, that's where the crime is!" Meanwhile, the cops then go into black neighborhoods (another issue altogether) and do stop and frisk, which is an illegal search without warrant. But yeah, we all live with that sort of thing. NOT.
I'm sorry, but it seems like all you are doing is making excuses. All teachers get teaching degrees. All school districts teach children to read, write and do math. Every single student, white, black, poor, rich, has the ability to decided his or her future. Sure, things can happen to all people that may alter that, but if you choose to work hard, get good grades, you can go to college period. If they didn't get into college that's on them, and them alone. They can easily start out at a junior college as well. Financial aid is available, as well as many grants and scholarships. If you choose to work hard, you have a chance to succeed. if you choose not to work hard and blame everyone around you then you likely won't succeed. As for the question you asked me, yes, whites were given a head start. However, saying a white child born on the day, in the same hospital to financially equal parents as a black child has more advantages is a cop out.
I was born in 1965, in Northeast Portland. Not a super great area, I had black and white friends I grew up with all around the neighborhood. As we got older, some of those kids joined gangs. Now, who are we blaming that on?
It takes a lot more than just an accent change. I don't know if you remembered how hard it was for Irish in the U.S. They had a lot of prejudice as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Irish_sentiment
I mentioned this before, let's talk TODAY. You point to public positions to show things have balanced out. Let me point to the private sector to show things are not equal. There is a disproportionate number of partners, CEO, CFO and the like. You may see it as people of all colors have the exact same opportunity but for some reason white people get all the good private jobs. Why? Wish I had time for current research . . . Moss Adams and KPMG here in Ptd, major accounting firms . . . wonder how many black partners they have? It is easy to say everyone has equal opportunity yet in Ptd, the odds for a young black kid to grow up and be partner at a large company is very low. In fact someone just put out the list of top 400 richest people in America. With everything being equal there should be at least a handful of black people on that list. WIthout looking guess how many there are. Everything equal huh?
I guess I would ask what the college graduation rate of people say in 2000 was between white and black. I would suspect, while probably higher, that the % rate of that mimics the partner/CFO/CEO stats
I guess because they can't change their name to Johnson and pretend they're white, is why Asians are such massive failure in this country. Plenty of groups that can't trace their origins to the Mayflower have faced discrimination. Those groups managed to overcome them, yet certain ones continue to lag. It's not just race. I'm not denying the existence of racism, just as I don't deny bigotry across the board--religious, sexual orientation, manner of speaking, manner of dress, height, weight, hairline, etc. Some people simply start with more advantages, and that can't be helped. However, it can be overcome. Bottom line: Culture matters. And until black culture places the same emphasis on education and family as other segments of society, they'll continue to lag behind. Crying racism is a crutch.
