Lordy, I know I've written on this before, but when someone as bright as Pale Rider writes what he did, I feel compelled to do it again, not that I think I'll change anyone's mind, just gotta do it.
When someone puts out stats like Big D does, some of us tend to roll our eyes, others say to themselves, something to the effect of, 'Yeah, seems about right to me.'
We are all a product of where we live or have lived, our cumulative experiences. I was raised in a very homogenous upper middle class, white, Protestant area. The only discrimination actively practiced was against Catholics, of which I was one. It's made me pretty Catholic bashing aware, I admit. I was 6 years old, when a 50 year old neighbor screamed in my face, "Why do you people think Mary is God?" For the life of me, I couldn't fathom what he was speaking of. I said there were 3 Gods, in 1 person, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (That's what we called the Spirit back then.) He slapped me across the face for being a heathen, my mom called the police, when I came home crying. They spoke to him and my Mom. No charges were filed. He never bothered me again, until about 10 years later, while I was babysitting another neighbor's kids, he came and asked if I still remembered? :shocked: Like I would forget? He asked if I would accept his apology, I did, but still haven't forgotten, though he is long dead.
I still live in the environs, though the Catholics have been accepted and it's no longer so homogenous. Still hear alot of 'Catholics are not Christians' and such. Being a lot older, not sure about wiser, I just ignore or tread softly. I figure it's between them and their God. My God is an accepting God, all you have to do is accept Him/Her/It?
(Mine is not to reason why, just accept).
So too the problems with those that fear others, based on skin color. We are all products of our experiences. The following will probably make more sense to those that have some idea of Chicago area. Fast forward 13 years, I'm dating a prof. at U. of Chicago, living in Hyde Park. I am friends with a black girl living in Robert Taylor Homes, about 10 minutes away from my 'boyfriend.' Her mother was afraid for her to come to my house without meeting me and knowing more about the area. I lived in Elmhurst. I told my mom that the girl lived right by Bill, knowing she'd figure in Hyde Park. I knew she'd have a fit, but figured her as 'prejudiced' against poor people. (Such was I at the time, but heh, I was also still sorta buying socialism, having decided Marx didn't have the answers.) Well, in the parking lot, I recognized that I might have a problem, non-streetwise kid even, but my friend was waiting for me and walked me up the stairs, as 'no one uses the elevators'.
The apartment was immaculate. The furniture much better taken care of then in my house, no one eating in their living room or the bedrooms, that much was obvious. She had a word processor, I had a Smith-Corona typewriter! There were reasons she was on full scholarship! Her mom had made a haven in hell. Yet, she got knocked up a year later, said it was 'time' to have a child. We could not relate and that was the end of our friendship. To this day, I don't know what was the point. She was brilliant and could persuade anyone to do just about anything. Strong woman. I hope she finished school, though I didn't keep in touch-I was too mad.
There are many angry black youth out there. Most are poor, some are not, but still angry. Better stats to look at would be socio-economic, but that might be too refined a search for Big D. I'd guess that if I looked at criminal stats, which I am NOT going to do, I'd find that across the socio-economic spectrum, blacks do commit more crime-especially if not only, in the younger 20's and under. Crime in general, but mostly violent crime, is committed by poor people. That does not mean that I think that we should have a redistribution of income, but it does mean that we need to look at what happens to the children of single mothers, drug and alcohol addicted people.
