Zonie63
Posts: 2826
Joined: 4/25/2011
From: The Old Pueblo
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Kirata
quote:
ORIGINAL: tweakabelle
If places were swapped, and you guys were the blacks, you would be screaming to the high heavens about the mistreatment, abuse and racism that is the everyday experience of many black people in both our countries.
Probably so. But what we wouldn't be doing is killing each other with such insane abandon that we rack up half the entire national homicide rate.
K.
I'm not sure if one can make that conclusion. I certainly can't guarantee the actions of other whites, and I've heard of more than a few cases of whites killing each other with insane abandon. If there were more whites being persecuted, living in squalor, and being pushed to the brink by the stress and tension caused by society, then we'd probably see even more insanity among whites than we're already seeing (and there's quite a bit out there right now, as you probably know).
Such a situation could be even more exacerbated if we were given a hand-me-down culture, language, and religion that had little to no connection to our ancestry. Add drugs, alcohol, political/corporate BS, and a bit of COINTELPRO to the mix, then there'd likely be quite a bit of insanity and violence in such a community. The rise of urban mobsterism in the early-to-mid 20th centuries was also something that undoubtedly influenced other urban communities. No doubt many young blacks saw the rise of the urban Mafiosi from rags to riches, gaining respectability and political power through brute force alone, even to the point where they could hobnob with celebrities and be treated like respected elder statesmen. (Popular culture has glorified criminality and has been quite "mobbed up" ever since The Godfather was released.) This phenomenon did not originate within the black community, but being within the same urban areas, it's likely that a lot of disparate cultures and philosophies rubbed off on each other.
I'm not saying that whites are responsible for this, not as a collective group. But I think that very often the debates on race seem to paint a situation that makes it appear that individual races exist in their own little bubbles, as if to imply that there is little to no interaction or mutual influence on each other. So it makes easy for us whites to sit back, like outsiders looking in at the "black community," and say "Well, they must be causing all these problems themselves; it's certainly not our fault or our responsibility."
But then, we're all still in the same country though. We're all under the same jurisdiction and government, and in a very real sense, we're all part of the same "American community," not really a black, white, Asian, or Hispanic community - even as much as there are those from all races who seek to separate and divide everyone against each other. I've noticed that some people (from all races and ethnic groups) seem to advocate a kind "self-segregation," which creates certain sub-cultures which have become more and more incomprehensible to each other. I think part of this is due to a backlash against policies from previous eras which seemed heavily focused on cultural assimilation. I think the idea back in the old days was to make everyone (including white immigrants from Europe) into good, patriotic, Christian, English-speaking Americans who all dressed, acted, and talked the same way. Those who weren't white were doing all they thought they needed to do to be accepted as equals, yet they were still kept separate and treated like shit.
So, there may be a certain level of political backlash and cultural wreckage which has resulted, and perhaps that has impacted on the aforementioned communities and sub-cultures in question. I think that if we looked at the situation rationally, we might able to conceive of practical solutions. But this is such a hot-button emotional issue, and even under the best of conditions, whatever "debate" there is on race seems to be an endless merry-go-round. It's the same arguments, the same ideas getting tossed back and forth decade after decade.
Perhaps another way to look at this might be to avoid focusing on any abstract ethnic/racial "communities" and look at it more as a problem with the "American community" as a whole. If we're supposed to be one nation and all equal, then that may be the only way we can approach the issue at hand. If there are American communities where the people are living in poverty, where the schools suck, where families are broken with wayward at-risk youth, where housing is sub-standard, good jobs are scarce, where there is rampant abuse, addiction, and alcoholism (and sub-standard healthcare to deal with it) - then I can see where there would be numerous problems as a result. The same issues exist in some white areas, too, so a lot of problems can overlap with others.
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RE: Liberal delusions on racism - 
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