I am not typically inclined to respond to polls with an underlying agenda. However, how could the existence of Jim Crow laws not have an indirect impact on some of the black population today?
Jim Crow laws continue to have an impact today, even though it is an indirect impact, especially in some of the backward southern regions of this country.
Unlike slavery, the existence of these laws continue to have an impact today because of the fact that they affected so many people who are still alive TODAY.
Their impacts on those people affected have trickled down to impact the lives of their offspring.
For example, a black person who is 65 to 70 years old today could easily have gone to segregated and UNEQUALLY equipped public schools all their life (since schools were not instantly integrated after the Brown ruling of 1954).*
This person more likely than not could have received an inferior education and had limited access to opportunities for higher education and therefore would have an increased chance of being part of a cycle of generational poverty, which in turn would effect the generation that they were parents to during what should have been their most productive working years
Of course there is the argument that there are people who were affected by the same laws who escaped the impact of them, but those same individuals took serious safety risks by fighting the staus quo and payed a serious emotional toll in the process as well.
In spite of that fact there are still those whose lives probably would have turned out differently had there been no Jim Crow laws in the first place.
Now before your "cheerleaders" turn out with their "get over it" mantra, I am not stating that these laws have played a negative part in my own life story, nor do I hold any grudge against anyone here, however you asked the question, and I gave you an answer based on first hand knowledge of some people who I know personally and some that I know of.
Pay attention Asclepias! katsteve knows how to make an argument!
I agree with everything you said; it is possible. However, on the whole blacks have not bettered themselves since Jim Crow. The African American unwed single parent birth rate is 73%, African American unemployment has increased, and African American high school dropouts have increased to 53% since the end of Jim Crow. Now I'm not advocating Jim Crow, however, seeing as we are a much more tolerant and less racist society today than we were under Jim Crow, how are these numbers possible? Instead of getting better, they've gotten worse. Slavery and Jim Crow did not make these numbers. Racism did not make these numbers. I argue that it is the culture they've developed so as to distinguish themselves from the white population who many of them hold animus attitudes towards that drove these numbers up when they should have gone down. You disagree?
I think that Asclepias does a fine job of articulating his point of view. The following is just my opinion:
Plain and simple what has exacerbated the lack of progress within predominately black communitities has been a loss of the solidarity and hope manifested by the civil rights movement.
The movement was flawed at it's foundation which is directly attributed to there being no plan for self reliant economic growth within communitities after the rights of citizenship were secured.
Those who were at the forefront of the movement lost sight of the benefit of economic development by building and patronizing and growning one business at a time, over and over and thereby building a network of support to continue the growth. Asians use the same model for success when they immigrate to America.
In every major city that one goes to in America, you will see a Koreatown, a Chinatown, or a Little Saigon.
These microcosmic communities are not just tourist spots. They are self funded by wave after wave of immigrants and are in place to create an easier assimilation process for each new wave, offering employment opportunities, financial support and potential prosperity if one buys into the concept, as well as a support system that again is created by and for that community. In other words, "self reliance".
When the new immigrant builds enough capital they become a part of the system to facillitate the success of new immigrants.
When the civil rights movement of the 60's came to a close and was considered a "success", that really should have been the beginning of a similar process, instead what happened over time is that black citizens defected from supporting black owned businesses and flocked with their hard earned dollars to predominantly white establishments "because now they could", which began a downward spiral of the decline of black entrepreneurship.
Did you know that in predominately Hispanic and Asian communitities that they typically own in excess of 80% of the businesses in their communitities?
The sad fact is that in predominately black communitities that black owned businesses on average account for less than 2% of businesses in those communitities.
That in itself is an abysmal indicator of lack of ownership, which has a rippling affect of apathy on every level.
Since I have posted on this board, I have stated that consistently.
Until a community is empowered economically, it will remain powerless.
Just my opinion.