How do you have clarity about people you don't know? Your assertions in this thread are offensive and racist.
@dviss1 can do a much better job of explaining this than I can. If you want to be enlightened, you should listen to him.
I have no idea what you mean. As this thread seemed to wend a different direction (as it seems many do in this forum), I was able to share some personal and transparent anecdotes about my life. Despite my reference to "hoodisms" (I used that particular term in fun due to the etymology of the term "dope" originating as hip-hop jargon), there's not an ounce of racism in my body. In fact, I'm proud of my father's accomplishments towards racial reconciliation, and aspire to be known for the same.
When I was in town, the ice cream store was called "24 Flavors". They had the most delicious raspberry ripple ice cream. You could get a single scoop for 5¢. And yes, that's exactly where the original Safeway store was. Right across 'B' from the ice cream store. Right behind the Safeway on State street was an ice cream parlor where they had a soda jerk who would serve up all kinds of ice cream goodies including various floats and 3¢ phosphate sodas. Another one of my favorites was a bakery that had glazed donuts at 5¢ or two day olds for a nickel. Two other favorites were the A & W across from the baseball field at George Rogers Park and the Broasted Chicken restaurant on the South West corner of State and 'A '. The A & W originally had car hops on roller skates. And I'm here to tell you there is nothing in this world more delicious than broasted chicken especially when the white meat is not over cooked.
Dude, the A&W Teen and Mama Burgers were the best! I used to play little league @ George Rogers Park. Dem were the days! Thanks for the memories, my friend!
Back in the 70s dope meant drugs. Edit: Before the 70s, back in the 50s, we used dope to refer to glue.
I too was scrolling to see where @dviss1 would weight in, with my skin crawling and an impulse to laugh in disbelief. "Also as an aside..." this is clearly some sort of social experiment. Who the fuck says these things?!? I want it not to be real so bad, but I know it is. Fix-it people, saviors if you will, are all over the place, applying their reality to realities they know nothing about. And second generation saviors? Don't even get me started. Also, as a real aside, shit like this is why the OT kills my soul. I don't want to speak too hastily, but I've noticed an inordinate amount of veiled, and honestly not so veiled, racism in here. Makes me fucking crazy.
I too played Little League there. I also played a few games at our big rival, Lake Grove grade school. And I also played Gray 'Y' football, through our church, Christ Episcopal church, at George Rogers park. Although incredibly skinny and an overall very small child, I played a defensive lineman because I could dart between the big guys who were way too slow to stop me. Then it was just a matter of grabbing the flag out of the quarterback's back pocket before he could throw his pass. I especially loved the A & W root beer float in a frosty ice cold glass mug.
When you talk about these imaginary problems within the black nuclear family WITH NO FUCKING FACTS, is indeed racist. Every single black father that I know personally from my generation it's there for there children. EVERY SINGLE ONE. Stop with your bullshit.
And realistically, white male who has ZERO connection to the black community, what makes YOU think you know the answers to what ails us?!?!? That's right, you don't. White saviors... This ain't the movie Dangerous Minds... You can't even comprehend how RACIST your idiocy is in this thread... THAT'S what's wrong with this country. Too many white males think how you do.
Can I just ask cause Ive seen the term, “white saviors” a couple times in like a derogatory way, and Im not quite sure the meaning. It seems like by context people are upset at white people trying to help, but Im not sure why people would be upset at that? So I am assuming I dont quite understand.
So many movies portray white people being the saviors of black people: Dangerous Minds The Blind Side Radio Glory Road (I fucking LOVED this movie) The Help Avatar Blood Diamond The Soloist I could go and on.... So many movies depict white people saving us from "ourselves" when really white people have done the complete opposite to us. Some of those movies are real slaps on the face... And it's a way of rewriting history.
I'd say about 10-12 from my previous testimony, below (from this same thread). They are "brothers" from the Christian community. I'm now in Nashville, so just a few new relationships being formed here now. ~~~~~~~~~ I get it that many of you think I don't "get it." That said, I do have a heart for the less fortunate. My father (rest his soul), a pastor, spent the better part of 30 years ministering in the so-called black community of North Portland...beginning in the late-60's, early 70's, when you'd drive down Vancouver and Williams Avenues and see steel bars, etc. across most of the windows. The church was on N. Wygant & Vancouver Ave. We're talkin' the era of the LA Watts riots, Martin Luther King's assassination, and otherwise general racial mayhem across most of the country. My dad's calling was racial reconciliation and he did a fine job of fulfilling that call on his life. In fact, at his funeral/memorial in 2016, the building was full of many of those black folks that gave tearful testimony of what he had meant to them, and the tremendous impact he had in and on their lives. They loved him, and he loved them. Back in the day, I was the only little white kid at that church. I'll have to admit, it was a very difficult time for me, as a number of the other kids - particularly, girls - would verbally abuse me. I even got spit on once. Even though it was a church environment, kids will still do mean things. It was too much for me to bear at the time, and I quit going to church with my parents. On Sunday mornings, I'd just stay home or go up to the neighborhood bowling alley and hang out. I was 13. Although, I will have to say that I had great relationships with virtually all the parents at the church, and still have a few connections in that regard. It was sad (and now that I think of it, kinda weird) that my only relationship issues stemmed from those 10-12 year old girls. That all said, and I guess the greater point, the church did have a teen center which my father helped establish. I used to love going there on Saturdays and summer weekdays and hang out with the older kids that dropped by. I really enjoyed that experience. Again, even though I was the only white boy, the older teens kinda took me under their wings. It was a cool experience all the way around. Racial discord was erupting all around us (and nationally), and here I was playing ping-pong, chess/checkers, and the like with my black friends. I suppose we kinda scoffed at all that other garbage. I could share many other stories, but, suffice it say my father took big risks driving this pasty white family down the streets of NoPo every week. Was my dad all that? Not necessarily, However, the deal was, he cared and took steps to help find solutions to to these social issues. Granted, we're talking a small sampling of the community at large, but he still made a difference for the better in a number of people's lives. By the way, some of those same "kids" gave testimony at his memorial service. Kids become adults, parents, and the like. Good place to start IMO.
Of those movies, I've only seen Blood Diamond and I thought Leonardo Leonardo DiCaprio did his usual brilliant job of acting. I was oblivious to what you are talking about. I will have to watch such films with a new awareness in the future. It's rare and treasured event when we become aware of anything new to us.
I think that's awesome. And I may be drawing from information that has since changed for the better, so that's great, as well. It was never my intention to peer down over these issues and step into them as being some type of "savior". Truly, the race issues in this country stemmed from the white man. And I believe, if there's to be any type of reconciliation, pretty much the white man needs to take the steps forward towards the healing processes. That's not to be conflated with being a savior. It's simply a matter of who moves closer first. That all said, if I (even ignorantly?) believed that there were a problem with absent fathers in our black communities (as I had read about and previously witnessed), and that simply wasn't true in "today's" world, yet I still wanted be involved with the youth in a mentoring capacity (blacks, whites, hispanics, asians, whatever), does that still make me racist? I think not.
