Next Up: Town Halls on Race?
by Joseph C. PhillipsWhat would a town hall on race look like? I do not mean the aesthetics – the color of the carpet or where panelists would sit, but the guts of it – the substance. I am pondering the question because I was recently asked to help organize and participate in a series of such discussions across the country and for the life of me I can’t understand what the purpose would be.
I am not one that believes Americans do not talk about race or that we are cowards when it comes to the issue. Indeed Americans chatter about race all the time. After football, analyzing the issue of race seems to be our national pastime. I suppose it’s to be expected as the issue of race and racial equality is woven into the fabric of our country. But we have a very particular and stubborn framework within which we discuss the issue – race equals virtue.
For instance, the President’s recent Supreme Court nomination was more about race than it was jurisprudence – Justice Sotomayor’s race, her views on race and, once seated on the court, whether members of her ethnic group will now favor one political party over the other.
Republican Party leaders are staying up late at night trying to figure out how to attract more voters of a particular race. We can’t even discuss healthcare without it first passing through the racial sieve. The president has introduced the specter of “discrimination” to sell his plan to nationalize healthcare and new left intellectuals are now claiming that socialism is new code for the N-word. (Just so we are clear: socialism is code for socialism. The attempt to link opposition to policies perceived to be socialist (and in many instances they are in fact) to the scourge of racial hatred is despicable racial exploitation for the purposes of political gain. But I digress.)
I am told perhaps once a week by some angry Black or new liberal white reader that Black people are unwanted in America and that my respect for the founding principles (and opposition to the Democratic Party) is evidence of my racial self hatred.
No, we are not fearful of race; what we are is reluctant to move our discussions of race beyond the narrow confines of Black grievance and white guilt. Therefore the image I have of a town hall on race is an evening filled with Black appeals to historic injuries, Whites telling Black folk to stop whining and, what is more likely, many like myself hanging their heads in quiet resignation that no amount of national self-flagellating and no amount of time will ever absolve this nation of her original sin, and that indeed the sins of the father are visited upon each succeeding generation. If the goal is to move us beyond race – to prod us towards the virgin light of a post racial America — I fear such a town hall would be rather unproductive.
I am of the opinion that a national dialogue on the principle that our human capacity for reason should trump our notions of race would be far more interesting and ultimately far more fruitful.
The sins of Americas past as it pertains to race were begun in the misguided placing of virtue on skin color. Contrary to the ideals of our founding, the happenstance of birth as opposed to the individual struggle for a life of significance and good conveyed both worth and value upon some at the expense of others. Alas, we are still reaping the fruit of those seeds sown so long ago.
In the pursuit of a magical “level playing field” this generation continues to lay the veneer of race over every discussion of policy. The result is a continuing dialogue filled with terms like disparate impact and psycho-historical effect. These are all just variations on the same misguided attempt to assign worth to skin color. We talk all the time but never learn the lesson that before men can be equal men must first be free – free of judgments based on their race or ethnicity.
The road to post racial America will not pass through emotional rap sessions but through the veneration of the still revolutionary idea that God creates all men with an equal right to life, liberty and private property regardless of race.
If there is a town hall that aims to engage citizens about the value of these ideas versus the value of skin color you can count me in.
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90 Comments
Well said, Mr. Phillips.
When we unite on the principles of liberty you cite, our racial differences are trivilized.
The race conscious folks who use 'equality of results' as the measuring stick for racial equality
would then lose their meal ticket.
Can we have Town halls on God's gifts of life , liberty, and property- and move forward from there?
A Townhall on race? For starters , everyone tell a racial joke, about their own race…get the crowd laughing and go from there. if you can't laugh at yourself, you're not mature enough to have a discussion on race. Then after the jokes, punch and cookies…
I'll start:
What do you call a Mexican without a lawn mower?
Unemployed
How many times have you been to diversity training at work and found it useful?
[...] and Obama Goes… On Vacation to Uber-Pricey Martha’s Vineyard Joseph C. Phillips, Big Hollywood: Next Up: Town Halls on Race? Bill O’Reilly, 1Autolatry: Have a Nice Vacation, Mr. President From the Wilderness: Cindy [...]
As a white man…
What do you call 300 white men chasing a black man?
The PGA tour.
I'll give it a go:
Pat and Mike, two Irishmen, had been drinking buddies and friends for years. After having a few drinks in a bar, Mike said to Pat, "We have been friends for years and years and if I should die before you do, would you do me a favor? Get the best bottle of Irish whiskey you can find and pour it over my grave."
Pat replied, "I would be glad to do that for you my old friend. But would you mind if I passed it through my bladder first?"
I'll give it a go:
Pat and Mike, two Irishmen, had been drinking buddies and friends for years. After having a few drinks in a bar, Mike said to Pat, "We have been friends for years and years and if I should die before you do, would you do me a favor? Get the best bottle of Irish whiskey you can find and pour it over my grave."
Pat replied, "I would be glad to do that for you, my old friend. But would you mind if I passed it through my bladder first?"
Never been to one…I must be exempt, for obvious reasons.
Democrats are obsessed with race and gender. Half of them are always squealing racist! [the retarded counterparts to the republicans that run around squawking birther! ] and the other half are screeching in a lisp homophobe! The bum we have for attorney general calls us cowards in regards to race and the president’s reaction, without knowing the facts, to his belligerent friend being arrested was to smear the white police officer as a racist. You cannot have an honest discussion on race with these cretins nor is one necessary. What we need is equal protection under the law and practice the golden rule.
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have built a cottage industry on race hustling and shakedowns. These cockroaches and those like Maxine Waters, Cynthia McKinney and Obama’s pastor, rev. Wright, are not interested in racial harmony. They profit of keeping blacks down, ignorant and easily manipulated They need racial tension; if none exists they will fabricate it.
I guess you will be bringing churros and hot chocolate? Or is it tequila?
And a follow up: Why do they call it PMS? Cause mad cow disease was already taken. And let's see.. I will be bringing bonbons and watermelon shots that fit snugly in my navel.
Well said, sir, well said.
I dunno. They invited women. I can take care of idiots myself. You cannot unidiot idiots.
Mr. Joesph good heart felt article and I'm in accordance with what your saying. Unfortunately I don't ever see the Left putting down the racial war club. It's one of their weapons of choice. They've got alot vested in it and they like to wield it at their real and perceived enemies. In the face of what I've just said. I do believe that town-meeting your hoping to be counted in on will and is happening because of decent men and women of goodwill. Men like you and hopefully me.
Oh and as an aside, anyone who goes to Reverand God Damn America's church with a straight face for more than a minute has got to have some serious racial misgivings.
Glenn Beck was right.
Children do not see “race”, they see people. Children need to be taught early that race is irrelevant, what’s relevant are the choices you make and how you treat those around you. Give the children the correct mindset and those like Jackson and Sharpton will be unable to pervert their minds. What democrats have done with race relations in this country is criminal.
LOL
— On Mon, 8/24/09, IntenseDebate Notifications <notifications@intensedebatemail.com> wrote:
lol
Save me a shot. I feel like a mad cow right now and bonbons and shots sound like just the cure…;)
Save me a shot. I feel like a mad cow right now and bonbons and watermelon shots sound like just the cure…;)
If the Left was winning the fight over healthcare, we wouldn't be hearing about race. Same old same old.
…cont
finally in college, when I was still one of few Latinos, I stopped seeing race when all of my friends did, most of which were white. I remember attending the Latino social group at school. It was one of many minority groups that were part of a larger group with the purpose of promoting diversity. I found it funny that they way they promoted diversity was to first divide everyone into a groups based on race. The I began to see that they all did everything together and in large shut out anyone not in the group…it seemed more like a support group than a social group. That's when I gave up on all that crap.
Someone once dreamt of "a nation where [people] will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
I don't believe that racism can ever be completely eradicated. There will always be idiots out there.
I also believe that many of the current problems which some of my friends describe to me as "racial" issues are in fact economic in nature, and need to be treated as such if they are to be successfully addressed.
With the charges that have been leveled by our current C-I-C, it's unlikely we, as a nation, will ever get past race. It's a tool, used by the left and their strategy is brilliant. "Don" Obama and his handlers weild it like a sharp knife in a street fight. The left knows that in the haste of trying to defend one's self from the charge of racism, conservatives will give up anything that resembles a hard position over the core issue in any debate.
But what really upsets most people is the cultural clash and the percieved descent into the coarseness and crudeness that now is common on the streets. Skin color is just a crude way to brand it.
I thought McDonald's Black365 was the new inner-city best friend?
Honestly diversity training of any kind only makes me annoyed with whining and moaning from anyone. Its effectively turned me into a much more effective horse's ass. I could careless if you are Muslim, Jewish or a chicken sandwich blessed with sentience by an intergalactic enity named Melvan so long as they dont expect everyone to bend over backwards for them.
Okay, I did lie alittle. If you are a chicken sandwich I will eat you. And your family. Probably with BBQ suace and a side of bacon.
As a W.A.S.P of 60 years standing, my mind is slipping so I couldn't think of a good joke to tell on myself. Instead I offer the following(which somehow seems timely):
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/04/04/94-fre...
That said, I have always tried to remember the following when thinking about people who are DIFFERENT THAN ME: We are human beings which means we are never all good or all bad. When we become emotional (fearful or angry in particular, we are all capable of thinking, perhaps even acting in ways of which we are not proud. If we understand that weakness that resides inside us all, I think we have a better chance of subsequently calming down and judging people on their own individual merits rather than their race, sex, religion, etc. I too agree one measure of how successfully we get to where we want to go is when we can actually joke with each other ( in a non mean spirited way) without being considered politcally incorrect.
I agree with you 100% about children not seeing race. As someone who has adopted two little ones of a different race, it is always very refreshing to see that in their eyes, we are all the same; it is really quite remarkable. Someday the difference will be pointed out to them by someone, and then we will have to have a discussion about where they came from and why, but for now, the innocence of children is fantastic.
And yes, it is the race hustlers who keep things riled up, there is lots of money in that business.
That's great that you adopted two children, they're very lucky to have you. By the time they’re old enough to understand such issues as race I’m sure they’ll have a solid foundation and confidence instilled in them by you that they’ll never have to consider themselves different or a victim. And teach them now that hippies are bad.
The Race industry is a bane on American society. Skin color is an excuse, I judge a person by the content of their character, …hey I think I heard that somewhere. Scum-bags come in all shapes sizes and colors.
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Joseph,
I think you hit the nail on the head. I'm a greek girl who married a Korean man. My children were puzzled during the presidential election about the the continued, incessent talk regarding race. What the nation and the media seems to struggle with is the, (in my opinion), healthy ideal of : judge a man by the content of his character, not the color of his skin, versus an obsession with focusing on, celebrating, and pandering to all things racial. You can't have both. Such dichotomies are addressed in our house by the simple phrase, "race is not an accomplishment.".
"The road to post racial America will not pass through emotional rap sessions but through the veneration of the still revolutionary idea that God creates all men with an equal right to life, liberty and private property regardless of race."
Well said. That's how I was taught to live, how I have lived my life and how I am teaching my children to live. Generations of people of all colors have grown up living this. A good townhall meeting on race should start by recognizing the large numbers of people who are already post-racial and have been for many years.
I used to have a job in which my supervisor was black, and he was the most race-obsessed person I had ever met. When he came on board, he made sure everyone there knew why he had lost his last job. Evidently, (I'm paraphrasing here) he had done a superb job for them, but after about 10 months, the people who hired him suddenly looked at him, realized what color his skin was (somehow, I guess, he had managed to hide it from them during the hiring process and for almost a full year afterward) and promptly fired him. His favorite pastime was to tell the white employees (who made less money than he) how privileged we were and how downtrodden he was. The last conversation like that he had with me ended with me pointing to my shirt and saying, "Wal-Mart. Who are you wearing?" (The man wore expensive, tailor-made suits.) He said, "You're missing the point." My response? "How's your new Lincoln Town Car? My five year old Toyota's fine, thanks." Again, I was told I was missing the point. He was shown the door after having been there, yep, less than a year. A town hall on race? I sat through plenty of 'em that year, thanks anyway, Joseph.
Right on!
The only Mexican people I know work hard, but I only know them from working in a restaurant. (I used to have Mexican friends when I was a kid in Texas, but since moving to the Northeast, it's like all the Hispanic people my age who I went to school with were Puerto Rican or Dominican or Colombian or Costa Rican – none of them were Mexican!)
"No, we are not fearful of race; what we are is reluctant to move our discussions of race beyond the narrow confines of Black grievance and white guilt."
Excellent post, Mr. Phillips, and the above quote really hit the nail on the head. The same endless circular arguments are getting us nowhere. And you are right, the ability to "fix" this problem is inherent in our founding documents – all men (read: humans) are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.
It's that simple, but leave it to the socialists to complicate it for their own gains.
What do you call 300 white men chasing a black man?
The PGA tour.
In college I learned that America is inherently racist and that people of different races are just too different ever to understand each other. I asked my poli sci class's TA how that could be, as we really are inherently the same – I should have specified that we are the same SPECIES, maybe that would have made my meaning more clear. But maybe that wouldn't have helped. I was naive and wrong. How sad it is, but we'll just never understand each other. Race will always be a barrier, the TA said.
I decided not to major in political science after that.
Why not just have a Gallup Poll or some other reputable polling firm ask some basic questions:
How old are you?
What is your race?
Do you think you are better than someone of another race because of the color of your skin?
Do you think you are inferior to someone of another race because of the color of your skin?
Two or three more questions as above and we can have the results on whether or not this is a racist nation and who the racists are by age and racial group.
Thank you so much Joseph for writing this article. I've often wondered what would be discussed at a race meeting. I'm pretty sure everyone knows what the score is, you'd have to live under a rock not to. It's been beaten into my head since I started school and all through out.
I've often wondered about this 'animosity' that supposedly exists between white's and black's. I've had to many friends from too many different ethnic back grounds to ever really understand it. I've met the nicest people from every race and the meanest people from all races. People are people some are nice some are mean and some are just having a bad day and the law of unintended consequences happens.
I finally got over my indoctrination into white guilt when it occurred to me that my family never owned slaves. They were in fact indentured servants when they came to this country. I was no longer willing to be blamed for something absolutely terrible that happened long before I was alive.
LoL. Good for you Brother thats right to the point and True.
I prefered michael jackson when he was black. Everything was better about him…
Except for the fact he was black.
Fail. I can easily see Jesse Jackson loudly proclaiming on the third that he in no way feels that is true, then on the fourth he will angrily declare of course not then denounce the very question as racist.
You can't get honest answers to that poll and we can't have an honest debate on race until all participants are honest about their own views. And white people get jumped on for being racist if they, well, if they say anything at all. You can quote MLK and even JFK all day, but unless you as a white person agree that white people are racist then you are a racist white person. Then if you agree that white people are racist, thus agreeing that you are a racist white person, the best you can hope for is being told you can't help it, you're white.
Joseph
As I understand it this is the only scientific benefit to being a black person. The melanin in the skin of a white and black person is the same substance, the black person just has more of it. The pigment is in the outer layers of the epidermis and being darker absorbs light and heat. Being at the upper layers of the skin the heat that is absorbed by the melanin is more easily cooled by our sweat glands. The heat that penetrates deeper into the dermal layers retained by the body easier and makes more vitamin D internally. Thus the melanin in one's skins the more adapted that person is too hot desert type environments where the foods have greater levels of Vitamin D. The less the more adapted you are to colder environments where the food has less vitamin D.
If you invited a space alien from the Planet Vox off the star Regulas iV in Andromeda that had no knowledge of our planet to your town hall meeting this is the only thing that he would think would be relevant and he would be very confused why it was the one thing none of the earthlings at this meeting would talk about. So please if you have these meetings mention this first for the benefit of visitors from another planet.
burritos…churros are too much work. There I go again, being a lazy Mexican.
I think Alfonzo rachelle put it best when he talked about the Democrats having a "plantation" attitude to minorites. In the past, the Democratic party were the ones standing in the way of true racial equality, and now Adays, they use Community Organizing and the Race Cards to convince the largest minorities in America (Blacks and Hispanics) that the Democrats are their best friend, when in fact, due to their religious/cultural identity, Blacks and Hispanics tend to be predominately conservative.
It's also a good fact to mention that Planned Parenthood was created in part with the intention of wiping out the Minorities through the use of Abortion, Birth Control, and limited Eugenics. This should illustrate the ideological company the Left keeps with regards to Minorities. They are drenched in the same Hatred which they so frequently accuse us of.
The victim mindset is somehow programmed into us. I used to be one of those people that always identified myself by my race and looked for ways to claim victim status…I even remember one time when my mom corrected something I said and I asked her why she was trying to make me "talk white." For some reason, Blacks and Latinos are made to think that if you are educated and become successful through legitemate means, than you are no longer part of your race. Thankfully I never was a victim of the public school system, but I remember being the only Mexican kid in my school…that's how I saw myself and always wondered why no one else identified me that way.
As a W.A.S.P of 60 years standing, my mind is slipping so I couldn't think of a good joke to tell on myself. Instead I offer the following (which somehow seems timely):
<a href=”http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/04/04/94-fre…” target=”_blank”>http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/04/04/94-fre…
That said, I have always tried to remember the following when thinking about people who are DIFFERENT THAN ME: We are human beings which means we are never all good or all bad. When we become emotional (fearful or angry in particular,) we are all capable of thinking, perhaps even acting in ways of which we are not proud. If we understand that weakness that resides inside us all, I think we have a better chance of subsequently calming down and judging people on their own individual merits rather than their race, sex, religion, etc. I too agree one measure of how successfully we get to where we want to go is when we can actually joke with each other ( in a non mean spirited way) without being considered politcally incorrect.
IMO, and as a half breed, I don't think the self flagellation over race will end until there are too many half and half's to even listen to the discussion – which half of you is more guilty? I'm really disappointed that my fellow half breed, Barak Obama, has decided that one half of him is more guilty than the other, and has not done anything to unite both sides, when he clearly could.
I could care less about somebodys' skin color. I feel that conservatives need to go on the offensive on the race issue and point out that it's the liberals who fan the flames of racial tensions. This scam, done for political expediency, is probably the most outrageous trick that has been played on the American public. The vitriol of the left is reserved the most for black conservatives who know that liberal policies have hindered the black race for generations.
If these so-called "Town Halls on Race" (read: "Teaching Moments") are anything like the diversity training I was forced to undergo as a requirement of my employer, they will be nothing more than reeducation camps overtly and subtly explaining how white males are responsible for everything bad in America. The black woman who conducted it was about as condescending as could be imagined and carried a chip the size of a log on her shoulder. I bit my tongue until I nearly bled to death and should have gotten an Oscar for my three days' of outstanding acting. At no point in this alleged professional training did the concept of personal responsibility for one's situation in life emerge.
Continued: I quit feeling guilty about racial wrongs perpetrated by white people no longer alive when I had to endure the massive incompetence and fecklessness of so-called "staff support" from affirmative action hires who know that no white male would dare give them an honest performance appraisal. When BHO begins to sound a little more like Bill Cosby and hold his fellow "persons of color" accountable for their own behavior instead of blaming "whitey" at every turn, then I may think about attending one of these hootenannies.
When I'm asked for my "race" on forms I always put: Human.
You don't have to conform to someone else's view of the world.
[...] Next Up: Town Halls On Race? [...]
….everything is better with bacon…..
One more question for the poll: are you a Democrat or a Republican?
Amen. These scumbags have no interest in healing racial division- their racket is continually ripping off the scab and pouring salt and feces into the wound. The more foetid and putrecscent it is, the more money and influence for them- and the better for the Demeocrats' politics of tribalism and grievance.
Thank you Joseph C. Phillips.
How can you tell the wedding party at a Polish wedding?
They're the ones in clean bowling shirts.
How can you tell when you're in the Polish section of town?
You can see the toilet paper hanging out to dry.
This is fun!
Diversity awareness classes (and I have to take one every year) aren't about diversity, its about liability law suits. By holding the classes, if an employee is accused of racism, sexism, what ever, the company can say "hey, we did our part, we tried, you're problem is with the individual, not us."
It's a tremendous waste of time and resources, I think of it as a hidden tax on businesses.
ROFLMAO! Excellent!
The left has no intention of having an honest discussion on race, because they have changed the definition of racist to anyone who doesn't agree with them. In other words, by definition, if you aren't a liberal, you are a racist.
I've actually debated a modern liberal, and that was his argument. He can't be a racist because he's liberal and because I'm not a liberal I must be a racist.
The conversation on race in America is no longer about race, it's about political party affiliation.
Beating victimhood into a person or group pays dividends for years to come. They're become a solid voting block, absolutely sure, beyond any doubt, they need some one in government to get even for them.
It's all about votes, nothing more, just political power. That's why there's no incentive for liberals to change. It works for them.
My guess is you also research issues before coming to a decision on how to vote or which position to hold.
That makes you an enemy of the left. They need people who refuse to think. That's why there is a race industry in America. It's all about collecting votes to obtain and retain political power.
Well, I'll tell ya what Joseph/"Martin Kendall,"
It'll be easy for lots of blacks to stop walking around with a racial chip on their shoulders when whites stop demanding that everything on the planet is looked at through the perspective of some pristine white standard, as if white people just have a better way of looking at things and nonwhite observations are worthless.
Fortunately, as a black person, I've long ago ceased to believe that white guys knew everything. Now I REALLY feel we're all equal.
As long as the left can gain political power through racial victimhood, there will be no real, honest debate on the issue. They thrive on the disharmony. They have no incentive to change the status quo.
Not quite. Vitamin D is produced by the sun's interaction with the skin. Darker skin is less efficient at producing it but is less likely to burn. Lighter skin is more efficient at producing Vitamin D but burns easily. Those with darker skin had more recent ancestors in sunny environments (Africa). Those with lighter skin had more recent ancestors in darker (northern Europe) environments. I say more recent because it looks like we all came from Africa.
That's it. It is more important then eye color for survival (you can die from Vitamin D deficiency (Ricketts) and you can die from a sun burn) but only because of geography. It is a silly reason to judge a person.
Sorry….misread your comment. Vitamin D is only in animals, specifically milk. You can't really get it any other way than producing it yourself or drinking milk.
Who let Al Sharpton up in here?
The very last thing that can help race relations in America is more "town meetings" on race. These are a fetish in the city where I live and always take the same form. There is a panel of local worthies including a couple of talking heads from the media, a couple of social acience academics from the local university, a couple of inner-city ministers, a representaitve from a "youth outreach" program, a couple of professional "diversity" officials from government and business, the head of the local "Women's Studies program, someone from the gay community, some city councilmen, some labor officials and a token Republican strictly for comedy relief. Everyone pontificates with the same bromide-filled generalities calling on the community to "recognize it's historic attitude of racial bigotry and exclusion" and all agree that "we have a lot of work to do to undo the injustice sof the past" blah, blah, blah. If questions are taken from the floor they must be in writing and are carefulyscreened by proctors before being given to a member of the panel. It is all done with the fastidiousness of a Victorian high tea.
LOL
I couldnt agree more. And personally, if people find this country so racist and evil – why would people of color still emigrate here? Why not find solace within a country of one's own color? That is something rarely talked about – the evil perpetrated by people of color upon others of color.
[...] (includes pre-employment and advertising): (where) Crew of non-New Zealand ships and aircraft. Next Up: Town Halls on Race? – bighollywood.breitbart.com 08/25/2009 What would a town hall on race look like? I do not [...]
"Alas, we are still reaping the fruit of those (slavery) seeds sown so long ago.
Once again, Mr. Phillips, you're lying. You dance all over the lie but you never completely disavow it. Which means you are condone it, which means you're lying. For all of your tippytoeing around the truth, you still refuse to admit that the problem of black racism is NOT because of seeds 'sown so long ago' but of what is being sown now, here, today with the black community's own hands. It's not ancient plantation owners that are keeping black children from reading, it's black parents and black culture itself. It's not slavery of the 1800's that's making black men rape, abandon the children of their rape, do drugs, and carry guns to kill anyone who looks at them wrong. The 'seeds' of racism are being sown now, here and now – and with your refusal to acknowledge that, you are sowing them yourself. At the very least, you're tilling the soil so that those seeds can sprout. And frankly, I'm sick and tired of it.
I don't agree with you often, but let's get one thing straight. You have NO obligation to hold any particular political ideology because of your race. I expect in the next few years, we will see more Americans of African descent drifting into all kinds of new political positions, as individuals, because the common experiences that tended to push dark skinned citizens into a compact political formation are dissolving. We are not yet in a "post-racial" world, because if we were, nobody would even ask the question. It would not compute. That doesn't mean that "black conservatives" are any more correct than "white liberals" or any other possible combination of words. It just means, we each get to make our own choice, and live with it. I would have to say that ONE of the factors holding back achievement by those African Americans who fill the statistical percentiles that affirmative action advocates and Aryan Nations ideologues both point to is, a good sized minority of African Americans believe and teach their children that the worst stereotypes of white supremacy are true! I'm not saying that from a distance. I spent a few years volunteering at a Boys and Girls Club where children of dark complexion shouted at each other over who was darker than who, where seven year old girls chanted R Kelly lyrics in unison, where getting good grades or paying attention really was denounced as "acting white," etc. The friend who invited me to volunteer there was African American, she has some very successful children, she is married to a firefighter who serves in the Army reserves, she has three nieces whose family I know very well, who are all in college. So its not everybody.
I said that is one part of the puzzle. Its not the entire answer. African Americans of that persuasion have also persuaded a certain number of people who continue to choose to think of themselves as white that that is what "all black people are like," which comes out in all kinds of ways which give erudite, intelligent, hard-working, well educated African Americans the notion that racism is alive and well in America. These things feed on each other. Then, those of us who are certain we are not racist can't understand why racism doesn't just go away.
Generations of people have done exactly that. But, there have been times and places in our nation's history where African American parents tried to keep their children within a "black" community for as many years of childhood as possible, because contact with people who thought of themselves as "white" was such a disorienting, humiliating, aggravating, provoking, irrational experience that it scarred the kid for life. That's not my fault, its not your fault, but it does take more than personal innocence to expunge the last trace of it from a national culture. People keep doing things the way parents and grandparents did long after we've forgotten why. It is a psychotic variation on the joke about "Mommy, why do you cut the ends off the ham before you cook it?" Grandma, did it that way, great-grandma did it that way… because way back when, the ham didn't fit in the pan great great grandma used. It does take a conscious decision to throw the old baggage away.
The visitor from Planet Vox would need a history lesson: The people from this little country called Portugal took over some islands in the Atlantic, started some sugar plantations, which were mostly worked by slave labor like all the sugar plantations in the Mediterranean (Christians enslaved Muslims, Muslims enslaved Christians, and they both bought slavs, which is where the word slave comes from). The Portuguese and their neighbors the Spaniards got a big chunk of some new continents, the Portuguese opened up some sugar plantations in Brazil, and they bought lots of slaves, who were higher in epidermal melanin, and called then negro which is their language for "black." Then the Dutch took a big chunk of the Portuguese' empire from them, then the British took a big chunk from the Dutch, then… then some Anglos who started to believe in liberty needed an excuse not to share it with everyone, and by the time we realized all men are created equal meant exactly that, we had a bunch of cultural psychosis on our hands, so, here we are still talking about it. That's the short version.
"I've long ago ceased to believe that white guys knew everything."
That's a start, I guess.
Now you need to figure out why you EVER believed that anyone "knew everything" based solely on where their ancestors developed.
If you can figure out the roots of your own racism, then you can begin to move past it.
So you really think white guys know everything?
I'm not sure if "left" is quite the right word. But there are some people who insist on thinking of themselves as "white" even thought they don't think it makes any difference, and therefore they have to feel guilty about it, and get all wrapped up in it. They have to throw the identity "white" away, and then those who are called "black" can throw their silly label away. We don't end racism by wallowing in it, we end racism by throwing it away. But we do have to throw it away. It won't just vanish by magic.
You could tell when Rev. Wright stepped into the limelight in spring 2008, reigniting the whole controversy over himself that Obama had just about put out, Wright was genuinely afraid that a member of his church might actually get elected, which would mean millions of voters Wright wrote off as "white" would vote for him, and it shook Wright's entire world view. The audacity of Barack Obama actually getting elected! As for Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, yes, they have built careers on race, and they wouldn't know what to do for a living if we all just threw that racket away.
Folic acid is also important. I originally saw an article about it in National Geographic a few years back, but (surprise!) can't find it online. However this article has the info. Too much UV-B kills folic acid leading to birth defects and other problems thus lower populations, but UV is what makes Vitamin D which we need for calcium absorption etc. Thus skin color has developed into a spectrum spread between the poles based on the amount and strength of sunlight, a balancing act between getting enough Vitamin D while retaining enough folic acid.
Which can lead to a tiny bit of contention. Since "white" people through tanning have a great range of skin color going from basically none to dark, meaning that "in a natural setting" white people will be more successful in propagating across a wider range of latitudes, does that mean, in this one tiny way, white people really are superior?
http://www.healthline.com/adamcontent/vitamin-d?u...
•Fish
•Oysters
•Fortified cereals – all things more available im hotter climes
This site NAZI is stoopid
The history of race has no relevance to the Voxion. He would not understand why primitives obsessing over unscientific nonsense in the past should have relevance today.
He would have analyzed our DNA and would have noted that the genes controlling skin color are transient and a very small part of the total genome of our species. He would find to unbelievable any notion that any importance would be placed upon this at all.
The Voxions would know that the defining features where humans branch would be blood type which has the greatest level of genetic differences including the ability to fight diseases and cancers, process foods and personality types.
Many Voxion have informed me that I am a Blood Typist for just recognizing this truth. A da mn able lie.
Siarlys, I can appreciate your point. The problem, I think, comes from generalizing based on race. There are many, many millions of people in this country who are second generation or less from european countries that have never been a part of the whole "race" issue with it's segregation and it's, in my opinion, stupidity.
We look at what is happening and take no blame or feel no guilt because no one in our family ever participated in any of it and when we had the chance we fought against it. There is nothing to expunge. Do you understand?
This is true for many 1st and 2nd generation people of all so-called races. For us, this whole debate is stunningly counter-productive to any chance of civil society.
Why bother with one's own shortcomings when Joe can just blame whitey?
So I'm assuming that this TA was an advocate of segregation? It seems like the only logical conclusion he could come to based on his beliefs…
Joe/Sharpton/Rev. Wright/whoever you are – you just blared your racism from a loudspeaker for the world to hear. You blared it the split second you insisted that the ONLY reason a person could know anything (let alone 'everything') was because of their race. The guy was white. You didn't say he knew anything because he was 'smart', 'hard working', 'educated' or 'industrious' or 'rich' or 'poor' or 'ambitious', etc. In short, you said nothing of his human characteristics – i.e., to you, he wasn't. Instead of judging him on the content of his character, you judged him instead by the color of his skin. And then – you blamed your racism on someone else's race. Sheesh! If tou were trying to make Martin Luther King, Jr. proud – you didn't. But then it would take sense to realize that – and that is the one thing racists are short of.
AH…when someone disagrees, you put words in their mouth…Race Hustling 101. Jesse "payoff my baby's momma" Jackson has taught you well.
I agree that these problems are more economic than racial. My parents split up when I was 7 or 8, and the four of us kids went with Mom (natch, at the time). Because of her income, we often lived in "poor" neighborhoods, and all of the kids in the neighborhood would play together, whether they were black, white, brown, yellow, red, or lavender with lime green polka dots–we didn't see kids of different colors, we saw kids that were broke, like us.
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