In an indirect way, this is a follow up to my topic, " Life As a Black Person." I grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood in Brooklyn,NY which was comprised primarily of Italians, Irish and Jews. I would estimate that 80% of the people were Italian/Irish and about 20% were Jewish. It was mostly a blue collar neighborhood while white collar represented about 25% of the people. Heck, my family mostly had blue collar jobs (not my dad). Even though my dad had a white collar job, he had some terrible views about other people. Overall, the population within the neighborhood was not highly educated academically. The environment was racist, anti-semitic and anti-hispanic, anti asian, etc. You name it, it was anti that group. Unfortunately, I shared these views for a good part of my childhood. I think it can be difficult to go against the herd when you are young. Fortunately for me, I excelled at sports and I was able to mix in with groups who were not like me. I am sure that is the only reason they accepted me. I learned to tolerate terrible views about me and others.
The reason I am raising this issue is that some of the black population, as we all know, has issues economically, and educationally. When I read comments about how black people are responsible this percentage of crime, it is such a narrow view of the issues. Due to these issues, some people assume the worst and hope for the best. This view leads the discrimination that persists today. I know what it is like to grow up in a not so great environment. I can only imagine what is like to grow up in an an area where the is substantial poverty and a lack of quality education.
As I grew older, my views changed to the point where some people label me as one of those liberals or social justice warriors and that is fine. My dad's views also changed and he is actually more vocal than me about liberal issues. I can tell you from experience it is not that easy go against the herd as a child. I know that when I write these posts, some people are going to throw monkey shit at me and say, "here we go again." No one likes monkey shit but some people throw MS instead of having a conversation. Everyone is different but I would much rather have a conversation than throw shit at someone.
It's definitely true. My father worked in sports with a ton of successful and confident black people and I was always around them growing up. So I didn't have much of an issue later on in life having black friends.
I can't say that I don't have a racist bone in my body (nobody can) but I think combating racism is exactly what you said, recognizing when you encounter your own unconscious biases and course-correcting as you go, kind of like a boat navigating a rocky ocean. It helps to start in the right direction but you are also accountable for course-correcting as you go through life, or you will end up totally off course.
Also, I was always raised to believe the following: * Actions are louder than words * Words are louder than feelings
It's nice to see virtual support for issues, but advancing "the conversation" only goes so far and maybe I'm old fashioned, but Twitter posts to like-minded followers seem pretty empty. I believe people when they take meaningful action.
I agree. Everyone has said something at one point that was not so great. Heck, I sometimes have subtle anti-Asian or anti Indian views (when I do not know the person) but it is mostly out of my competitive nature academically and to some extent based on envy. These days, I think it is harder for white kids to get into elite schools because it is so competitive. I know, it is a generalization, but the Asian and Indian cultures are very focused on education from an early age. In a way, the white world and ever other world should look at the Asian and Indian models and copy it to some extent.
It’s incredible to me how people draw terrible conclusions based on race that is really heavily explained by economic and educational opportunities that we’ve denied so many communities. Standing up and pointing that fact out somehow makes you a crazy liberal.
lol most of those conclusions are based on racial differences tho....
You are the most annoying and useless user of this site. Why do you even post on here? You have nothing to contribute to the conversation other than stupidity. Do you have absolutely nothing better to do with your time?
I relate to this as a minority.
It is incredibly annoying when conservatives bring up the 13/50 deal or black on black crime in Chicago, like give me a break. Do you understand why the ratio is 13/50, do you understand that these black youth in Chicago have no hope because of their environment and how historically it's been demoralizing for anyone to get outta the hood.
No one cares to learn the history of minorities. No one remembers the aggressive redlining policy in the 1930s, no one recalls the predatory lending that was aimed at minorities during the 60s/70s/80s. No one wants to discuss the legal segregation in this country that ended JUST 56 YEARS AGO! Think about that. My white mom was born in 1963 - a time where she legally could not have married my black father, simply fucked up. No one wants to talk about white people specifically putting black people in the worst parts of town and trying to keep them there for eternity. No one likes to bring up that black men get charged with more jail time than their white counterparts for the same crime. No one likes to bring up that white cops from the suburbs patrol the majority-black neighborhoods in the inner-city (and we wonder why these cops get "scared" and have to shoot).
No one wants to have those hard conversations where you can explicitly point to where they were wrong, but they can't admit it or pull some BS out of their ass to defend their backwards ideology.
All 100% facts
I totally understand your point. It is important to learn about the history and learn from the mistakes of our ancestors. Also, you are absolutely right in that there should be no difference in sentencing for the exact same crime, number of offenses, etc.
However, I do have an issue with something. I have heard this from many people, not just yourself. People like to point to the past and talk about all the things that were wrong (and they were wrong as I mentioned). However, they don't offer any solutions to enact positive change. They simply complain "You did this... They did this..." But, that isn't going to get us anywhere. That's simply playing victim card without contributing to progress.
I agree there are some small changes that could be implemented to help with some of the things you mentioned. But in terms of "getting out of the hood", the only thing that's going to help with that is a re-prioritization of values. The communities love to glamorize a life of gangs, violence, and drugs instead of instilling values that can help create better opportunities like education, work ethic, families, etc. For example, the single motherhood rate jumped from 20% - 70% since the 60s. Of course, it is going to be difficult to raise children in that environment while moms work 80 hours a week to put food on the table.
Someone mentioned that other minority groups should model after Asian-Americans. While poorly worded, they have a point. Asian-Americans were treated poorly in the past too, although not as bad. However, the point still stands, the culture as a whole encouraged education and hard work and now, they are the wealthiest group in America.
There are only small things that can be changed now to positively affect opportunities in the future. The rest and most of the change has to come within. I am not saying that is right or fair, but life isn't fair. We all have to overcome some obstacles, albeit some are more difficult than others.
Well said! Sometimes, people are too focused on their own little bubble.
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