CDZ The brilliant Tommy Sotomayor's message to African-Americans

[TheGreenHornet]

Outstanding analyst of the problems facing the Black Community. He tells it like it is...like no white person would be allowed to even if he were capable.

Tommy Sotomayor

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[Toronado3800]

I didn't watch the videos. I read fast and have a weakness with waiting for videos to play. They take SOOOOOO long.

Is Tommy a fellow who tells black men to go to work, be away police mess up sometimes really badly, and stay out of jail?

 

[usmbguest5318]

Outstanding analyst of the problems facing the Black Community. He tells it like it is...like no white person would be allowed to even if he were capable.

Tommy Sotomayor

Link to other message board removed.

Outstanding analyst of the problems facing the Black Community. He tells it like it is...like no white person would be allowed to even if he were capable.

Tommy Sotomayor

Link to other message board removed.

Okay. I watched the whole video. I agree with much, but not all, that Mr. Sotomayor (TS) said.

My thoughts on some specific themes he addressed:

• "Blacks can say it; whites cannot" -- In the most general sense, he's correct. However, it'd a mistake to think that whites cannot earn the ability -- i.e., develop the rapport and respect needed to earn the ability -- to say the same things blacks can. Certainly on an individual level, whites can earn that rapport/respect. Odds are one can earn it in a broad spectrum sense too. The thing is that the rapport/respect must be earned, not taken.
  • "Bad service; can't say anything" -- Yes, one can say something. One simply has to say it witht eh same courtesy any one deserves, which is to say by citing specific real missteps, not by citing some nebulous BS about how "so and so" acted or gripe about something that the management had to notice just as much as you did and decided to allow the server to work that day/night all the same, e.g., if the waiter looks slovenly, the manager can see that too, has said nothing about it. It is a waiter's problem, but the real problem is a management deficiency. Some examples of specifics:
    • "She said she'd be right back. I haven't seen hide nor hair of her for 15 minutes."
    • "My food arrived stone cold."
    • "I ordered the fish. He brought me the chicken."
    • "He told me you'd run out of the veal, but the table over there ordered and received their meal after us and they got veal."
  • FWIW, if someone asks, I will share how I earned that respect/rapport at a greater level of detail, but for now I'll summarize the approach I used thus: the way to earn it is to give it, on the individual level and on the cultural level. Step one of that is called "acknowledgement." Here are two non-racial examples:
    • CDZ - The Government of No Authority, Part 1: Law and Morality -- One doesn't have to read the whole post to tell that I clearly don't agree with all Brian has written, but I agree with some of it and I tell him so unequivocally because those points were germane to the topic and context of our conversation.
    • Why most conservatives don't trust the MSM... -- In this thread, there're no two ways about it; I tore into the heart of other member's claim. That said, I also gave him props for the one thing he did right, which was focus his objection on the methodology of the study with which he objects rather than on anything but the methodology. Perhaps next time he'll be more through in his analysis and not rash in forming a conclusion.

• Importance of Positive Role Models and Mentors -- Like it or not, right or wrong, celebrities of every stripe are "big picture" role models to some segment of society: they define a standard of comportment and they serve as aspirational beacons of hope. Far and away, television and movies are the most prevalent vehicles through which the general public comes to "know" their "big picture" role models. Prior to the Cosby Show, blacks had zero, yes, zero roles models who portrayed existential circumstances that exhibited the value sets that whites had been born, raised and buried with. The closest things to such a family were the Jeffersons and their eponymously named sitcom and the Evans from Good Times.
  
  The Cosby Show presented a picture of African American life that I suspect millions of folks didn't know existed. Yes, if one lived in D.C., NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Atlanta and was black and "boozhee" one knew, but one could be black, not "boozhee" and not know that there were literally millions of blacks who, broadly speaking, living the "American Dream." If one was white, I think in most cases, one had no awareness at all of "boozhee" blacks as a segment of society.
  
  One consequence of that is that when many whites see a black face, they think "gang member, thug, etc." rather than thinking "nurse, teacher, doctors, office worker," or whatever that's just like the folks whom they call peers. Quite simply, until people look at their "other race" countrymen and accord to them the benefit of the doubt they'd accord someone of their own race, these racial tensions will not abate because the rapport I mentioned won't be developed. Hell, it won't even begin to develop.
• The "Quick" Solution -- This is not a black or white thing. Americans, period, are always looking for the quick and/or easy answer. They should not, but they do.
• Personal Responsibility for Oneself -- I totally agree with TS on this. You want something, go make it happen; don't sit there waiting on someone else to make it happen for you. People don't want to take the time read; they want to be told. People want a job, but they won't prepare themselves to qualify for a job that's being offered.
  
  Every time I've posted about personal responsibility, character, integrity, etc., people want to make some sort of discounting or exculpation (usually tu quoque or relative privation) for "so and so's" lack of manifest ownership for themselves is.
  
  A few weeks ago, I was discussing my firm's open positions with a guy and when I told him the positions he was interested in require an advanced degree, he started to get indignant with me, telling me "you don't needs a masters to do that." I thought "if you want to do it for my firm, you sure 'nuff do." I didn't say that. I just told him if something fitting crossed my path, I'd let him know.
• Perspective -- A major objection I have with TS' remarks is that he presents a lot of them as generalizations and doesn't add context to them. I know what context he's got in mind because I've heard the same message and remarks from other black conservatives with whom I've had many long chats about these things. By the same token, I know that hearing his generalizations, many people don't know what is the context applicable to them, and make no mistake, people who will mistake his intent will come from liberal and conservative camps.

Those are some of my thoughts. I have others, but I won't share them at this time.

 

[usmbguest5318]

He tells it like it is...like no white person would be allowed to even if he were capable.

I don't agree with that at all.