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ORIGINAL: girl4you2

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ORIGINAL: gypsysoul

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ORIGINAL: girl4you2


i just thought this deserved a second read. maybe someone else will read it and give it some thought as well. the answer is not an easy fix, as the author implies. life isn't simple.

I don't believe there is an easy fix. One hundred and forty years after the American Civil War, race relations are still a hot topic.

The news media presents us with all these stories about poor black people, and the more I see these stories the more I feel polarized in exactly the opposite direction that lovingmaster45 has gone.

It's money. After Kanye (sp?) West made his famous statement, I psst'd a black co-worker in a dark corner of the shop: "psst....George Bush doesn't care about black people." He responded: "I've known that for a long time." I said: "I don't think he's particularly concerned about my white ass, either." He said: "Well, you work here. I assume you don't have money, either. "

It IS money. Money talks. People staying at the Hilton evacuated before people at the Superdome had money of some sort, or were of a certain "class" of people. I'm sure there were at least a few white people stranded in the mess. They don't make as good press as the black majority.

money talks indeed. have the current lawmakers ever had a fathom of a clue about the working man/woman in this country? have they known cold winds without a coat to keep warm? how many will cry over one single life lost in the 9th ward of new orleans? being poor in a country where the line is narrowing between poor and middle class isn't a good place to be.

however, as it's also not so simple to be just about money, one needs to consider how things would go in other towns. if it were new york evacuating, do you think the folks in harlem would be on the first train? or how about from the south side of chicago, east st. louis, or roxbury, boston? the focus is so often on the dumb southerners whose demographics traditionally showed areas of high concentrations of poor blacks put there by the wealthy white folks; interesting how the northerners less publically have produced the same situation.

<edited x2 by me in response to someone's point>

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BlkTallFullfig What you wrote was the most truth I have ever read! I hope I have your permission to print it out So I may show it to like mined people. they are very important insights.

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Anything that may set one Man apart from another has been or will be used to do the most vial things and subjugate one Man or Woman under another. This is not a doomsday message but, it is a warning. Until each Man or Woman on this plant is willing to set aside their fears and hatred and take each person with an open mind prejudice and racism will reign free no matter where you may be in this world.

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Agreed! It's why I responded earlier that the choice to have an open mind, respect others, and treat people with diginity has to be a conscious choice. M

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It's money. After Kanye (sp?) West made his famous statement, I psst'd a black co-worker in a dark corner of the shop: "psst....George Bush doesn't care about black people." He responded: "I've known that for a long time." I said: "I don't think he's particularly concerned about my white ass, either." He said: "Well, you work here. I assume you don't have money, either. "

It IS money. Money talks. People staying at the Hilton evacuated before people at the Superdome had money of some sort, or were of a certain "class" of people. I'm sure there were at least a few white people stranded in the mess. They don't make as good press as the black majority.

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Prejudice and racism in all their forms did not originate in the south nor does it only reside there.

vic9594

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ORIGINAL: pinkpleasures
]There is a subtle difference in the racism of the south and north; probably due more to macro-economics than anything else. Up north, we herd people of color into the projects and then say we are aghast that people cannot live safe, sane lives there. Down south there are still slave shacks, occupied by blacks of course, in which a screen on a window is a luxury.

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African Americans were forced to live their regardless of their education or employment. When desegregation arrived, many of the "upper class" blacks (the lawyers, professors, doctors and such) left. In her view this explains much of the problems that exist in those areas now.

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ORIGINAL: pinkpleasures

i have a black girlfriend -- a law school professor who is the brightest person i know -- and i once asked her "what matters more to people? That you are a woman, or that you are black?"

Her answer is "That i am black."

pinkpleasures

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You know, we got to live in the now, the reality......life ain't gonna get better if we dream about it, nor are you alone gonna change the world.

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The truth is, they are black and we are white.........that distinction will be with us our lifetime (everyone who reads this and I know that there are kids in their early twenties who might land here by mistake)..so don't be color blind.

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See alot of profiles on here BLK/WHT and so on. What we can all hope for someday is that means the same as SAE/METRIC, different but the same.

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People are people wherever you go. While I am not gonna recommend reading Fredrick Douglass in this day and age, unless you really like books........I would say that Before The Mayflower is a decent history of Black Folk in america.............

But if we sit here on every post for every post and say the same goddamn thing over and over and over, COMMUNICATE.......

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Perhaps there is history that we ain't read and that's why we keep repeating these same mistakes.

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Now, I gotta say, if you had to wake up everyday a nigger, and you got some money together.........
Wouldn't you try for an easier life?
Don't they want children to have better lives than we?

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At least we got guys now crackin on us back and forth like Bernie Mac (I love that fuckin' guy) and Dave Chappelle and so we are more comfortable now in our skin.
The government who is the people........

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The checkbook has the effect of law.

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Government policy has the effect of racism.

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Side note: I was talking to the sociologist Michele Buchanan a while back and she made an interesting observation on the effect of housing desegregation in the north. When she was a child the "black areas" had thriving social and cultural opportunities. African Americans were forced to live their regardless of their education or employment. When desegregation arrived, many of the "upper class" blacks (the lawyers, professors, doctors and such) left. In her view this explains much of the problems that exist in those areas now.

JohnWarren

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But if we sit here on every post for every post and say the same goddamn thing over and over and over, COMMUNICATE.........

Talking is good, spend less time with the Dr. Phil shit and read and ruminate on those things that are in your everyday life........

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life ain't gonna get better if we dream about it, nor are you alone gonna change the world.

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this is like blaming the orange for being more desirable to eat when sectioned. People of ANY color act in their own self-interest, and of course middle class people -- of any color -- try to live in middle class neighborhoods and send their kids to safe schools, etc. Such people of color are NOT a casual factor for the collapse of the infrastruture of northern cities -- that was accomplished by the busing decisions. Whitr flight was also seen as repugnant but really, who wants their kid in these schools with guns and mob fights?

And BTW; being black and in an expensive car coming up I-95 in Florida gets you pulled over for Driving While Black, which will be followed by several indignities, possibly to include civil forfeiture of your car. White parents never have to worry about this; and so while we can achieve mutual respect and even fight the good fight, we can never KNOW the experience of being a person of color in the US.

pinkpleasures

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ORIGINAL: BlkTallFullfig

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this is like blaming the orange for being more desirable to eat when sectioned. People of ANY color act in their own self-interest, and of course middle class people -- of any color -- try to live in middle class neighborhoods and send their kids to safe schools, etc. Such people of color are NOT a casual factor for the collapse of the infrastruture of northern cities -- that was accomplished by the busing decisions. Whitr flight was also seen as repugnant but really, who wants their kid in these schools with guns and mob fights?

And BTW; being black and in an expensive car coming up I-95 in Florida gets you pulled over for Driving While Black, which will be followed by several indignities, possibly to include civil forfeiture of your car. White parents never have to worry about this; and so while we can achieve mutual respect and even fight the good fight, we can never KNOW the experience of being a person of color in the US.

pinkpleasures

Pink I know what you are saying, and you're right, but I don't think John Warren was suggesting nigras should have stayed in their place, and that way we wouldn't be seeing the problem of being discriminated because we're no longer where we're supposed to be.
I think he was just pointing out one factor which brought the problem more into light... I could be wrong, am sure he'll clarify. M

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i have a black girlfriend -- a law school professor who is the brightest person i know -- and i once asked her "what matters more to people? That you are a woman, or that you are black?"

Her answer is "That i am black."