Slavery/Racism: Some Questions

[Foxfyre]

Because blacks are disproportionately poor

And I go back to a previous post recounting how Thomas Sowell, Starr Parker, Walter Williams, Shelby Steele, and many others have done exhaustive research on the dynamics of the black community and have exhaustively written their results. Despite rampant racism and segregation, black people were the most rapidly advancing demographic economically UNTIL the Great Society and the resulting "nanny state'.

So isn't it at least worth taking a look at that the 'nanny state', its own form of racism, as having been a significant factor in creating a black demographic that is disproportionately poor? And wouldn't the compassionate thing be to condemn that form of racism that encourages people to be disproportionately poor?

I fail to see the establishment of cause and effect on social programs and the current state of the black community. I think the works of Sowell, Parker et al are intended to satisfy the Conservative think tanks that feed them

Essentially, how do Great Society programs like Jobs programs, healthcare and educational support make things worse for poor people?

I grow tired of the Conservative meme of you have to force people to suffer in order for them to "pick themselves up by their bootstraps" and get a job.

Right now our problem is the lack of well paying jobs to allow people to rise from poverty. Cutting the social safety net will not help that happen any sooner

The fact that you don't want to accept the evidence from PhD economists and historians who have done exhaustive research on the subject, is not a good reason for me to dismiss the evidence that they present and have backed up with an enormous amount of data furnished from other than those 'think tanks' you seem to hold in such high contempt. Nor did those think tanks fund any of the research, nor do they benefit from the sales of the books that have been produced. Anyway, George Mason University (Walter Williams) is hardly a think tank. Nor do I believe that Starr Parker or Shelby Steele are affiliated with any particular group.

Further having spent a fair amount of my adult life working directly with poor families, I have witnessed absolutely nothing that even causes me to question the data that those learned people have produced.

Sometimes stepping outside the assigned talking points and prescribed ideological mindset can do wonders to open one's eyes and one's mind. So much of the political rhetoric is pure myth.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Sorry

Has nothing to do with the topic of discussion.

But at least you didn't cut and paste

Of course it does...but I understand both your pretense and your sensitivity to the analysis.

I get better analysis out of Stephanie, Willow and Mr. Nick

Your attempts at baiting are pathetic. I have however, found your button of insecurity about how your educational prowness is perceived. Not too impressive

Holy shishkebob!

You've found my weakness??!!


So...my 'button of insecurity,' it turns out...is instructing you in areas where your self-analysis has failed????


I’d tell you to go to hell, but I work there and I don’t want to see you every day.


And keep your hands off my button!

 

[rightwinger]

Of course it does...but I understand both your pretense and your sensitivity to the analysis.

I get better analysis out of Stephanie, Willow and Mr. Nick

Your attempts at baiting are pathetic. I have however, found your button of insecurity about how your educational prowness is perceived. Not too impressive

Holy shishkebob!

You've found my weakness??!!


So...my 'button of insecurity,' it turns out...is instructing you in areas where your self-analysis has failed????


I’d tell you to go to hell, but I work there and I don’t want to see you every day.


And keep your hands off my button!

Look

Just because Mommy and Daddy wasted their money on your education is no reason to take it out on the rest of us

Hundred thousand dollars spent to teach you to cut and paste from rightwing blogs. I can get that from Mr. Nick

 

[Sky Dancer]

Based on some recent posts, racism and the battle against same, is the central thesis for many of our progressive colleagues. Some, it seems, found the actions of Chris Rock acceptable based on his race....and some imagined racism, and/or legacy of slavery....



1. Liberals love the idea of the “apology,” that the government should apologize for slavery, Japanese internment, you name it.

2. The Rabbis teach that no apology is legitimate unless the offender:

a. Expresses remorse stating specifically what he has done
b. Makes restitution
c. Refrains, in similar circumstances, from committing the offense again.

3. Based on the first of these, a governmental apology founders, without specifics as to who the “we” is, and who the “they” of the apology are.

4. Take the question of slavery vis-à-vis the American Government of today. Is it guilty of slavery?

a. If so, are those African American members of government equally guilty?

b. Are the American people alive today guilty?

c. If so, which ones? The black as well as the white?

d. Is the guilt heritable…for if it is, then would not those (the great majority of) Americans whose ancestors did not arrive until after slavery be exempt from apology?

e. How about the ancestors of the 300,000 white males who died to defeat slavery? Exempt as well? And the whites who voted for the 14th amendment and the Civil Rights Act?

f. And if not, on what basis are the descendants of slaves entitled to it?

5. Is it not absurd that six or seven decades after the West defeated Nazi Racism we are still considering making government decisions based on genetics?

6. To indulge in any racial preferences is not to award to a race, but, rather, to the state, the power to created different classes of citizens, and to rule on who shall belong to each class. This does not serve any desire for justice.

From chapter 12 of “The Secret Knowledge,” David Mamet.

What would be fair in regard to accepting the dark chapter of our shared history, the institution of slavery?

Should we sweep it under the rug? Refuse to discuss it?

How about the Holocaust? Should we tell Jews to "just get over it"? How long is the world affected by evil acts on a grand scale?

A long time. That's my answer.

We fortunately have had a civil rights movement in our country and we have legislated equality into our laws. Does that mean we are free of racism? No. We still have work to do.

It takes a longgg time to "get over" some of these extremely evil events in human history.

I salute you in raising some questions to consider about slavery and racism.

Some say slavery still exists in prisons, and since prisons are majority people of color that the institution of slavery still lingers.

I'm not sure I agree with that notion, but I do acknowledge there are flaws in our justice system.

Just consider these ramblings food for thought.

Thanks for the thread, PC.

 

[PoliticalChic]

I get better analysis out of Stephanie, Willow and Mr. Nick

Your attempts at baiting are pathetic. I have however, found your button of insecurity about how your educational prowness is perceived. Not too impressive

Holy shishkebob!

You've found my weakness??!!


So...my 'button of insecurity,' it turns out...is instructing you in areas where your self-analysis has failed????


I’d tell you to go to hell, but I work there and I don’t want to see you every day.


And keep your hands off my button!

Look

Just because Mommy and Daddy wasted their money on your education is no reason to take it out on the rest of us

Hundred thousand dollars spent to teach you to cut and paste from rightwing blogs. I can get that from Mr. Nick

"....cut and paste from rightwing blogs."


Well, since this is the zillionth time you've written/complained in the same vein, yet you hungrily devour each and every one of my threads and posts....one would be led to believe that there is something else behind your posts....

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."