Old style would say the Puritans came to America for the higher wages, that Jews liberated from concentration camps went to Israel for better wages, that Americans fought for independence just for money, that Americans went overseas to fight and die during WWII to advance their careers ...
IM2 would say that the Puritans came to American because of racism...that Jews went to Israel because of racism...that American fought the Revolutionary war because of racism...that they also fought and died in WWII because of racism. It's a one size fits all with IM2 and Milkweed. Racism...racism and racism!
No, I would say that puritans came to America to escape the class persecution that was going on in Europe at the time between the nobility and the serfs. I would say that the revolutionary war was fought by the white colonists over the unfairness of being subject the British rule without being represented. I would say that soldiers like my dad fought in WW2 to stop the Germans, Italians and Japanese. Only a retard like you thinks I make everything about racism. I make racism about racism. IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT WHITES LIKE YOU CONTINUE THE RACISM IN THIS COUNTRY.
How dare you say anything about the Puritans! You're black and they were white! According to you...only a white person who's relatives were Puritans can know the TRUTH about the Puritans! (
eye roll) ...
Your eye rolling to the contrary notwithstanding, you miss the point ... again.
I don’t need a lesson on why Puritans came to this country, either, thank you very much.
IM2 is wrong, by the way. The Puritans
DID NOT come to these shores “to escape the class persecution that was going on in Europe at the time between the nobility and the serfs.“
But IM2 of course would not, and did not, say it was because of racism
.
I could go on and talk about the importance for historians to research actual historical accounts, diaries, and verbal interviews where possible to uncover
motivation, as distinct from theorizing abstractly or being a crude “historical materialist.” I don’t know, but I fear that might be lost on you. It seems to me you are not approaching these questions objectively, but emotionally, just as you accuse IM2 of doing.
I think
katsteve2012 has the best overall take on this question. He tries to see it in its many different dimensions.
Well said Mr. Paine.
The problem we have in discussing race is that many whites want to dismiss the impact of racism. Sure economics were part of the move north, but to say that it was the only or main reason just is not correct. The low wages blacks were paid in the south was due to the racial beliefs of whites therefore racism affected the economic status of southern blacks. Now that is a fact. It might hurt some whites here, but it hurts me to have to reconcile what blacks were forced to endure at the hands of whites in the south. And even in the north, blacks weren't paid the same as whites and met huge resistance from northern whites. There was all kinds of racial violence and implementation of policies at every level of government to deny equal rights to black people. The effects of these things extended into this century and are part of the problem blacks face today. Yet some of us here keep wanting to talk about how all that stuff was in the past and that blacks have full access to the laws and all the other standard avoidance commentary.
I focus on racism as from what I have seen, and I have seen the city halls of 3 cities fighting government policy at the local level, that racism is the cause of the problems blacks face. Time after time I have seen a majority white city council shoot down initiatives by blacks in the black community that would have done great things and would have gone a long way to address the issues in those communities while voting for white run initiatives that only half addressed the problem coming from places blacks in those communities could not get to due to transportation issues.
I have watched blacks advocate for businesses to come into theor communities in order to provide jobs and get them shot down while communities give tax abatements and TIFFS to businesses who locate way out in the suburbs where blacks cannot get to. Blacks end up paying taxes to help businesses locate outside of the black community and reduce opportunity for work.
For example, in one city in our state the Community and Economic Development department spent millions developing the west side of the city. That is a white community and all the jobs went out there. Meanwhile blacks were advocating for redevelopment of downtown and the eastside. Buses in that town stop service at 6pm. Jobs were available 24-7 but most blacks did not have the transportation to travel 30 miles across town every day to find a job. Still today that city has not increased bus service or developed the East side of the city with the exception of a state of the art county jail.
Far too many whites in here want to argue without ant experience in facing things like this. It's nice to want to believe that racism is no more or not a problem, but the reality is that is not so. And thinking that racism only comes in swastika wearing, confederate flag waving, white robe wear jackboot thugs is erroneous thought. We just had a man who was state attorney general who ran for governor in 2018 and almost won that was well known to have ties with white supremacists groups. Now what does that tell you about the citizens of this state? That racism is a thing of the past? No.
Retail Redlining: One of the Most Pervasive Forms of Racism Left in America?
EMILY BADGER
APRIL 17, 2013
David Mekarski, the village administrator for the south Chicago suburb of Olympia Fields, told a startling story this week at the American Planning Association's annual conference about a debate he recently had with a restaurant official. Why, he wanted to know, wouldn't quality restaurants come to his mixed-race community, where the average annual household income is $77,000, above the county average?
The reply: "Black folks don’t tip, and so managers can’t maintain a quality staff. And if they can’t maintain a quality staff, they can’t maintain a quality restaurant.”
A gasp then rippled through the room in front of Mekarski. "
This is one of the most pervasive and insidious forms of racism left in America today," he says.
There's a term for the phenomenon he's describing: retail redlining. The practice is a more recent and less studied variation on redlining as it's been historically recognized in the housing sector. In the context of retail, grocery stores, and restaurants, redlining refers to the "spatially discriminatory practice" of not serving certain communities because of their ethnic or racial composition, rather than their economic prospects.
It's a newer phenomenon in part because there are more upper-income minority communities in America today. Households that can afford the same stores and restaurants as comparable white communities now want to know where the retailers are. The practice is tricky to study, though, because these types of communities are still relatively few in number (with hard-to-find comparison communities), and because it's difficult to distinguish a retailer's "unconscious racism" from its legitimate business reasons for locating a store or a restaurant.
Why do retailers, restaurants and grocery stores stay out of communities that can afford (and want) them?
www.citylab.com
