Racial disparities persist despite Obama election

[Bass v 2.0]

Racial disparities persist despite Obama election | AP | 11/24/2008

Racial disparities persist despite Obama election
STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The day after Barack Obama was elected president, Kari Fulton heard a white colleague proclaim that racism in America is dead.

She cringed, worrying it might be a sign of flagging interest in the fight against discrimination.

"In reality, racism is still very much alive and well," said Fulton, who graduated last year from Howard University, a historically black college in the nation's capital.

Obama's election has generated a euphoria among black Americans that is palpable. For some, the weight of history has finally been eased after generations of struggling for equality. But amid the postelection glow of racial harmony lurks a sobering fact: Racial disparities persist , in just about every measurable form , and they won't simply melt away because the nation has a black president.

Fulton, 23, was part of a group of young black activists from across the country who worked to register and turn out young black voters in the presidential election. The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation brought the group together shortly after the election to learn about converting their enthusiasm into ongoing political activism.

"Election Day was just the beginning," said Fulton, who lives in Washington and works as an organizer for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative. "People don't expect President Obama to be a superhero. We have to solve our own problems."..........

 

[editec]

Racism is dead?

What a goofy notion.

About as goofy as the fall of the Soviet empire was the end of history.

Racism (xenophobia generally, of which racist is but one aspect) is a built in aspect of human nature.

I have been told, (but have not been able to confirm it), that the oldest written message ever found (a written communication that was not basically just an accounting entry , I mean) was a fragment of something longer which read:

"When you meet a stranger on the road, kill him."

Distrust of "the other" is a natural a human respeonse as the urge to want to connect with another.

It is human nature to bond into groups and distrust those who are percieved as not part of that group.

Racism is but one aspect of that human nature.

 

[Skull Pilot]

there always has been racism and there always will be racism.

just don't be so narrow minded as to define racism as white against black only.

 

[Bass v 2.0]

there always has been racism and there always will be racism.

just don't be so narrow minded as to define racism as white against black only.

No one has defined racism that way[though the history of America has predominately been this way] so there's no need to build up a strawman argument to knock down.

 

[Skull Pilot]

No one has defined racism that way[though the history of America has predominately been this way] so there's no need to build up a strawman argument to knock down.

not a straw man, just a caveat

 

[William Joyce]

The differences between races are INHERENT IN THE GENES. Blacks are less intelligent because evolution bred them that way. President Obama can't change that.

 

[Bass v 2.0]

The differences between races are INHERENT IN THE GENES. Blacks are less intelligent because evolution bred them that way. President Obama can't change that.

Idiot, dream on with your nonsense, Europe had civilization long *AFTER* Africa.

 

[Gunny]

Racism is dead?

What a goofy notion.

About as goofy as the fall of the Soviet empire was the end of history.

Racism (xenophobia generally, of which racist is but one aspect) is a built in aspect of human nature.

I have been told, (but have not been able to confirm it), that the oldest written message ever found (a written communication that was not basically just an accounting entry , I mean) was a fragment of something longer which read:

"When you meet a stranger on the road, kill him."

Distrust of "the other" is a natural a human respeonse as the urge to want to connect with another.

It is human nature to bond into groups and distrust those who are percieved as not part of that group.

Racism is but one aspect of that human nature.

I am always amazed that people refuse to accept this simple fact because it does not suit their politics.

 

[editec]

I am always amazed that people refuse to accept this simple fact because it does not suit their politics.

I suspect the reason people cannot accept that fact is because race doesn't necessarily have to be the thing which defines "the other".

"The other" is entirely a question of the group's sense of self-identity.

Language and culture is more often what consitutes "the other" because typically there was not other races to worry about.

But "the other" can be entirely a man made creation and one which really makes almost no sense, too.

For example, in the last 40 years or so, this nation has devolved to the point where in the minds of a whole lot of people "the other" has become either liberals or conservatives as much as people of another races.

Much thanks to people like Rush Limbough for making that happen, too, I might add.

Like I said elsewhere, if a group doesn't have an "other" to hate, they'll often invent one.

Why?

Generally speaking their leaders create that otherness in order to manipulate their followers.

Why?

Because having an outsider enemy is a grand way of developing a sense of group identity

That's why so called "liberals" was demonized by neo-Republican movement, in my opinion.

The Republican party was shrinking because it really did mostly represent the afffluent in this nation and was very outnumbered. So it needed to find a class of not-affluent Americans that would swell it ranks.

By demonizing so called liberalism, they recruited from the holy roller class, and from the shopkeeper class in a way that, previously, the blueblood old-moneyed Republican party really could not.

Xenophobia is a wonder tool with which leaders can manipulate followers, folks.

Basically humans, being social animals, means that everyone wants to belong to the group, and in order for belonging to be meanful, somebody has to NOT belong, too.

Hence, where there might not be any rational reason for including or excluding people for the group, there is still a good reason to create that "other " class, just to create a cohesive sense of group identity.

The very best thing that could happen to humankind, assuming we wanted to see mankind develop a sense of brotherly love, I mean, would be for aliens to invade from outer space.

Suddenly Black, White, Mostlem Christian, all those basically irrevelent issues would become meaningless to us, because our sense of self would be HUMAN, rather than some subspecies of humanity.

 

[Neubarth]

edi, great post. I don't now about the Republican (I am not so registered) comment, but the rest I agree with.

 

[Neubarth]

Idiot, dream on with your nonsense, Europe had civilization long *AFTER* Africa.

Part of the reason for that, Charlie was that the damned Ice was in the way for too many thousands of years.

For a long part of that time, only the Neanderthals were trying to live there (in Europe).

 

[we_ourselves]

Civilization does not require an "enemy" to fight against. The history of peaceful groups like the Arawaks, the Hopewell cultural complex, the Hupa, the Pomo tribes, etc., indicates that people can live with their differences in peace in the absence of a genuine threat. Racism thrives in present-day society because present-day society is ruled by a wealthy class with a vested interest in pitting poor people against each other so they do not unite in their own defense.

 

[Skeptik]

The differences between races are INHERENT IN THE GENES. Blacks are less intelligent because evolution bred them that way. President Obama can't change that.

Your post is proof positive that racism still exists in modern America. There is not as much overt racism as there used to be, say 50 years ago, but it is still there, even after the human genome project proved the above racist nonsense to be false.

Maybe in another 50 years we will have erased it altogether, but I doubt it. It will take humans centuries to finally defeat racism, if it ever does.

 

[Truthmatters]

There is always terminally vain and stupid people in the population.

 

[hvywgt250]

Idiot, dream on with your nonsense, Europe had civilization long *AFTER* Africa.

Well if thats the case...tell me what happened to Africa??? tell me where I can find grand churches,fine sculptures,fine art,architecture that still stands after centuries....tell me where I can find these in Africa.....show me a white culture that still practices slavery....tell me which Africans you can compare to such greats as Einstein,Leonardo de Vinci,Galileo,Gutenburg,Archimides
Ctesibius...Ect,Ect,Ect....The white culture moved on to become great ,while Africans stalled out centuries ago....

 

[Diuretic]

Well if thats the case...tell me what happened to Africa??? tell me where I can find grand churches,fine sculptures,fine art,architecture that still stands after centuries....tell me where I can find these in Africa.....show me a white culture that still practices slavery....tell me which Africans you can compare to such greats as Einstein,Leonardo de Vinci,Galileo,Gutenburg,Archimides
Ctesibius...Ect,Ect,Ect....The white culture moved on to become great ,while Africans stalled out centuries ago....

What "white culture"? There is no "white culture", there's "human culture". Yes I know you'll disagree. Go ahead.

 

[editec]

edi, great post. I don't now about the Republican (I am not so registered) comment, but the rest I agree with.

Well, Neubarth, I could have said much the same about how Republicans were demonized back in the 50s and 60s.

I can remember when calling somebody a conservative was an epithet in polite company, too.

My hat is off to the propagandists who turned that around in the last fourty years.

The marketing needed to make the word "liberal" and everything about liberalism an insult took enormous long range planning genius.

 

[editec]

Civilization does not require an "enemy" to fight against. The history of peaceful groups like the Arawaks, the Hopewell cultural complex, the Hupa, the Pomo tribes, etc., indicates that people can live with their differences in peace in the absence of a genuine threat. Racism thrives in present-day society because present-day society is ruled by a wealthy class with a vested interest in pitting poor people against each other so they do not unite in their own defense.

Yeah, there were cultures who for one reason or the other found some way to live in peace. Often they were isolated from others, so there really wasn't a threat of an ohter

but tell me...where are those cultures today?

Hmmmm....

Mostly they were wiped out by those other cultures they encountered who did think of all other cultures as the OTHER, weren't they?

We're basically a race of bad monkeys who know how to make and use tools. One of the tools we make and use quite a lot is propaganda

 

[hvywgt250]

What "white culture"? There is no "white culture", there's "human culture". Yes I know you'll disagree. Go ahead.

aspects of white culture
Rugged individualism - The individual is the most important societal unit. People should take care of themselves; individual achievement is most valued.
Nuclear Family - An "ideal" family is defined as two parents and children. Alternative family structures (e.g., single parents, extended families) are considered deviant.
Rationalism - mind, body, and emotions should be treated as separate entities. People who express emotions in "rational" situations (e.g., political speeches) are devalued.
Time - time is perceived as a quantity. People are expected to save time, spend time, and perform on time.
European Aesthetics - beauty is defined by European standards. People cut, dye, and starve themselves to resemble the European ideal of beauty.
Action Orientation - Everyone is responsible for what happens to her/him and controls one's own fate. If people are homeless, it is because they want to be.
Universalism - the normative and best characteristics are defined by European culture. Introduction of multicultural curricula in schools necessarily means a diluted education.
Competition - the Society's resources belong to the best. Access to societal goods is determined by competition as reflected in test scores.
History - the most important American history is White. Separate weeks, months, and so forth are needed to teach about other groups.

 

[Skeptik]

Why indeed?