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We have reached a common ground - 'classism' is the bigger problem. I don't think anyone is denying that racism still exists, but what I and others have said is that racism isn't what it used to be. The biggest issue why so many blacks can't rise above has less to do with "racism" or "prejudice" than some here claim.
BTW, your post may be the very first post of your that I have ever 'liked'.
I do think that classism is a bigger problem than racism, but I don't think we have outgrown racism. However, that may be a bias of mine as I grew up in an extremely racist environment.
Yep, I did too but it hasn't completely jaded my precepts of what real racism is. If anything, it has solidified my belief that today's PC version is way off.
It has had the same effect with me, but I can't dismiss that which I can't see and bias is something one does not perceive in oneself.
I'll tell you that racism still exists in a meaningful way but only in the form of classism. The elite don't care what our skin color or ethnicity is, as much as our education and skill level are. They measure us like a machine in what we can perform, nothing else.
The title is evident. Who is the MOST to blame for the problems of African Americans today??
Blacks themselves. They encourage scapegoatism and "blaming whitey". If you're a success doing something besides ballin, slingin, or rappin, you're a sellout. If you speak coherently, you're "talking white". If you're black and support responsibility amongst your own, you're an Uncle Tom.
Black culture does great at keeping their own people down and explaining who is to blame for it.
Oh...OK, slavery, in the US, was not about racism.
Wow.
I'm want to focus on both and more. As your post makes clear, you see it in black and white. That either/or type thinking is flawed
A definite factor...no doubt.Correct answer is not on the list. Crack.
Prior to the introduction of crack, blacks were on track to equal whites in pay, housing, education and a whole host of other issues. Crack basically stopped that and they lost ground.
Probably the best and most intelligent answer.I really think it is a combination of many different factors. To say it is the fault of one source, a certain party, or "Black leadership," is misguided. What exactly do you mean by black leadership? There are very many political leaders in the African American community, but they all have different backgrounds and different political ideologies. To group Ben Carson, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., and Marcus Garvey, among others, in the same category and to say that they all seek the same goals is laughable. One could say Democrats and Republicans have jointly allowed it to happen. This doesn't restrict itself to the plight of African-Americans: people of every race who suffer from poverty can look to the failed leadership of both parties, who have held a duopoly on American politics, with very few exceptions, for over a century. One of the largest and most noticeable results of this duopoly between a right-wing and centrist party is the absence of a universal healthcare system when one exists in virtually every country in the industrialized world. This leads to higher poverty rates which negatively affect the African-American population.
However, I have something to add about the phrasing of the question. If we continue the premise is that we are thinking of the problems of African-Americans as separate from the rest of the U.S., we can never truly never solve the issue of racial inequality. Racially focused social programs, while well-intentioned, create a mindset in society that one race is more "deserving" of benefits than another, according to the government, and therefore creates racial tensions. What is needed is social programs such as class-based affirmative action that will aid all people in poverty regardless of race. If the government continues to operate by using racially biased policies, one can guarantee that the populous will have racist sympathies in one direction or the other.
Straw, I never said I could not......BUT....the focus of the debate IS blacks...in the US.....and the point still is that white racism was a fundamental rationale for slavery's continuation in the South.Why is it that you can only equate slavery with blacks??
Lots of white people have been taken slaves over the course of history. Look at the Vikings as just one example. I doubt that they ever had a slave who wasn't white. Why is it that you can only equate slavery with blacks?? An honest historical perspective shows that they were far from the only people made slaves, yet that's where your mind automatically jumps. Are you just completely ignorant of any history outside of American history? Do you think that blacks are supposed to be slaves?? Or maybe (here's by far the most likely scenario) you are too lazy to think outside of the parameter set forth by your political orientation??
So now marriage leads ot violence, suicide, and dependency?No, again, you are conflating 2 statements, it was easier for single women to live on their own following no-fault divorce and their increasing wage gains in the 1960's......and 20 years later thru today, wage gains for all lower quintile workers (particularly women) have gone stagnant or negative.
I have my explanation of the same phenom, your argument is to return to marriage being an economic necessity, resulting in higher female suicide and homicide.....rather than creating greater wage gains for women and men in lower quintiles.
I know, fear of violence and suicide...is selfishness, and everyone knows that continued decreased wage gains is something everyone anticipated!
I'm want to focus on both and more. As your post makes clear, you see it in black and white. That either/or type thinking is flawed
Straw, I never said I could not......BUT....the focus of the debate IS blacks...in the US.....and the point still is that white racism was a fundamental rationale for slavery's continuation in the South.
As I showed in the study of black youths, the racism they see is not imagined, it is real and tangible and still exist against them.For the blacks who think that they are suffering because of what happened over 150 years, I can only say that it's time to move on.
Now? jeez Louise, it has been that way for centuries.So now marriage leads ot violence, suicide, and dependency?
wash rinse repeat...No, it still seems to me that one of the solutions to poverty, whether the poor are black or white, is to get married before making babies.
I agree with that, but I'm not sure I would call racism a form of classism. However, at least in the US, the two seem "entwined" with each other. Or maybe entwined isn't the best word for it, but I can't think of a better word to use.
For example, I think there's a tendency amongst many people to associate black people with the lower class and the lower class with black people. The racism and racial prejudice of some reinforces the negative associations they have regarding lower classes. That is, if you're racist, the fact that blacks are more likely to be poor makes it easier for you to have a negative opinion of poor people, even if most poor people are white.
But that's my point that the real economic problem is not associated with race, as much as meeting a certain criteria to gain access to funding for higher education and job opportunities. It's not because a majority of the Fortune 500 are white males, it's because they're elitist. And many of the cultural problems for blacks, latinos and poor whites are from generations of negative habits and customs, poverty is truly a trap, not just 'whitey' holding people down.
I would never say that racism is the only thing that is causing problems for black people. I wouldn't even say it's the cause for the difference in the % of white and black people who are poor. However, it definitely plays a role. How big of a role is debatable but it's not the "nothing" or "negligible effect" that some are arguing.
As I showed in the study of black youths, the racism they see is not imagined, it is real and tangible and still exist against them.
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