For too many times here I have argued with mods about the content here in this section. Far too many times I get responses back with false equivalences of equal racism between blacks and whites. I think we need to understand that there is a difference here and an important distinction needs to be made relative to this matter.
What we call racism by standard has been a general belief by whites not based on anything but a shared ideal that certain people are inferior to whites, What is referred to as black racism is the angry response to people who tell us we are inferior.
There is a major difference and intelligent adults should be able to recognize that difference and try understanding how you would feel if you were the group told how you were all stupid, that your race has never done anything, and that if not for the white man you'd be nothing. I don't think you'd appreciate being called a racist for saying your race is superior after reading pages of how inferior you are to whites in every way. Only a human with no personal pride would accept this kind if constant denigration without fighting back. Yet here blacks doing this are called racists.
Blacks did not choose to come here on the Mayflower with a belief they were superior and more civilized than everyone else. We were bought here on ships like the Amistad then sold into lifetime bondage because of that belief. Then after slavery was made illegal whites created another system on inequality that continued to enforce that same belief for an additional 100 plus years. Only in the last 52 years have blacks been at least free from overt racist beliefs from whites. 52 YEARS! Therefore to try making our experiences here the same and our responses to race and racism the same as whites is erroneous and this error is what needs to stop .
Dear
IM2
I am friends with a community leader in Freedmen's Town
who defines racism based on whites having all the power and greater privilege
so that all racism is spelled out from THAT perspective.
The majority of people I know understand racism
more generally to mean ANY prejudice that causes
people to project or discriminate "by association"
with either color, ethnicity, race, or culture that
has been "run together" so that even "discrimination
against Mexicans or Palestinians" is called RACIST.
You made it clear that PREJUDICE is not what you mean
when you are trying to address white racism against blacks
and other minorities as an extension of that.
IM2 these are NOT all the same.
And neither are the people.
You yourself keep trying to blame others "for all doing the same thing"
and trying to "tell others to think and do things THEIR way."
but you also come across the same way
trying to define and impose YOUR perspective on racism
which may not be the way other people approach it or see it.
"we are not all going to see things the same way"
The number one advice I can give you and support you on
is to differentiate your way from other people and not try to make
everyone see it your way either.
If you do that, make that distinction and accept those differences,
you will do MORE to encourage and influence OTHERS
to see your way is different from theirs, and accept that also!!!
Please do not fall further in the trap of mutual resentment
over all people pushing their way. Of course people are
going to defend their positions and perspective,
as you do as well. That's going to happen.
Please do not attack this, but work with it.
You will do more to overcome biases and prejudices
and FEAR of being overrun by other people's ways.
If you want people to differentiate,
keep doing the same. Don't run everyone else
together as the enemy either. We all have the
right to our own views and take responsibility for them.
I don't resent anyone. There are some facts that are central to this discussion. Blacks and whites have had different experiences in America. That is a fact and no matte how many people want to male things the same, they were and are not.
You cannot name one law or policy enacted by blacks that was done to purposefully deny whites of opportunities. I'm not trying to make anyone see anything. But just as you can say he sun rises in the daytime, and that is a fact, there have been laws and policies enacted by whites one on purpose to deny people of color of opportunity. This went on for at least 188 years by written law and for whites think that we all should just forget and ignore what happens or those who are angry about it are racists is just a willful refusal to accept responsibility for the damage created by the racism whites have caused.
I'm listening to what people say, but really there are no two sides to listen to. Whites in America have treated people of color wrongly. It is documented in our courthouses, state law books, museums and almost every other record keeping facility.
You see whites are always telling us how we should do things. How we shouldn't be resentful for what they have done to us. The thing is if anything happens to whites they do all the tings they tell us we should not do. Look at what you read in this forum. Yet we are to speak nicely and not to lump all whites into a group while they do it every day. We are not to show resentment, yet they have made up an untrue tale about how they are being discriminated against because they resent us getting equal opportunity.
Dear
IM2
A. From what I understand, Affirmative Action quotas were finally struck down as unconstitutional. So this poor attempt (where AA started off as an initiative for urban development before it became corrupted as quotas that couldn't be enforced without causing worse complications) did end up backfiring. Although I would agree with you it DIDN'T COME FROM BLACKS but came from the same political elite that try to control everything and end up screwing things up worse.
Because the Black leadership and communities have to form their own representation, the solutions do not come out as legislation that is monopolized by the corporatized elite. So I would agree with you that Blacks have not had access or equal representation to put forth any corrective legislation, and certainly not any that causes harm.
The WORST example I would give is Obama pushing the ACA mandates that deprived all citizens of freedom to choose health care provisions but penalized people deprived of liberty without due process through taxation without representation. You could say that the Black interests got Obama elected and resulted in this legislation coming out in corrupted form that has never been checked or corrected; but I'd still blame that on CORPORATE interests that keep hijacking the process and preventing representation of the real people and communities still not being heard or their interests and beliefs protected.
So I would agree that given the MONOPOLIZED system that is still hijacked by corporate elite, NOBODY is getting represented now. Both the rich and the poor are complaining, because govt run amok is costing all of us our freedom and our budgets and economy, and our labor. Nobody is happy. This is costing everyone.
B. As for solutions that WOULD help the Black community and interests to overcome historic inequity and setbacks economically and politically,
I would like to propose to you and also
Asclepias to back up Freedmen's Town historic descendant and business leader GLADYS HOUSE in leading a plan to restore this national Freed Slave settlement as a campus for teaching and training residents and leaders in (a) property and business ownership and management on a no risk basis where the school program owns the property under a trust that the interns are trained to manage through experienced mentors (before forming teams to create other sites for owning and managing property as a self-sustaining campus community)
(b) microlending, financial, credit and investment training and management
(c) media and communications outreach (d) spiritual counseling, health and healing of relations to prevent criminal abuse, addiction and crime that otherwise costs communities millions in incarceration that could be invested in localized health care, elderly facilities and daycare (e) legal and govt training and mentorship to become civic, business and govt leaders, with internships and on the job training at every level of govt from homeowner associations to city/county and state/federal.
Gladys has been funding and fighting this battle alone, because of perceptions of race and gender that have isolated her as a Black women Republican business and community leader.
I would like to ask the help of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Mayor Turner, and Lt. Col. Allen West, to invite Colin Kaepernick to take on this Freedmen's Town project, and raise between $2-10 million of the multimillions owed to taxpayers in restitution for abuses of public funds and authority to destroy this nationally registered historic district of Freed Slave, Black church, and military history , which includes an additional nationally registered WWII military and Civil Rights landmark site within the district.
this historic public housing complex was the site of several legal battles over (1) eminent domain to deprive Black and Italian landowners of private property in order to build segregated public housing for whites only (2) civil rights and desegregation that after the Civil Rights Act was passed (3) the 1996 court battle over eviction that I argued violated the inalienable Constitutional rights of the people to peaceably assemble and to petition the govt collectively as a community to redress grievances and to enforce the Campus Plans that residents had passed into federal laws under HOPE VI HUD reforms, as personally signed and endorsed by HUD secretary and Congresswoman Lee.
Please see
www.campusplan.org for the original plans for sustainable community development as a campus managed by residents under a democratically elected resident council
Please see
www.freedmenstown.com for Gladys House's plans to save the last block of 10 historic rowhouses for Veterans, to create construction and development jobs for local residents to become financially stabilized and self-supporting.
And the list I summarized of just 3 of the cases of fraud, corporate abuse or malfeasance at taxpayers' expense for which the community is owed millions in restitution that I have urged officials to invest in restoration to right these wrongs, as the worst case and ongoing pattern of political abuse and corruption targeting Black community interests and history, which amounts to genocide of this unique settlement with its own culture and economy destroyed by corporate abuse of political power and process.
Here is the link to the letter I wrote to Senator Cruz that listed 3 of the cases that are documented so that restitution can be assessed:
Bull Ring - Anonymous1977: emilynghiem is Asian I support Freedmen's Town plan for Constitutional equality
I have proposed to allow interested citizens and community leaders to "buy shares" in these debts, so the property is held as collateral, and owned/managed by the people like Gladys House who have invested capital and labor in restoration plans.
If you want to see a documented case of abuses and solutions, so that this district can be used as a model for restitution or "reparations" for systemic oppression, abuses and deprivation of rights against the Black community,
and use the Federal Reserve facility on site as a banking system for monitoring debts, damages and credits to be invested in developing other districts also oppressed and deprived of equal protection of the laws,
then I ask you to please join this effort, and let's use Freedmen's Town as a national model to create a system for addressing and correcting these wrongs.
I would like help to form a team around Gladys House and other Republicans, and Congresswoman Lee and other Democrats, to stop the division over party politics, rich and poor, that is dividing and destroying our communities and our nation, including our ability to invest in restoration.
Thank you and I hope you are as serious about creating a model for corrections and restitution. Actions speak louder than words. We create a solution that works, and other communities and leaders will follow.
www.earnedamnesty.org
Yours truly,
Emily Nghiem