OK, all you ignorant white people and token successful minorities, but I'm with Arkitech and I'm gonna have to teach you people some US History. This whole country was founded on the institutions of white superiority, and the racism and prejudice is institutionalized in its social fabric.
The Civil War is a great place to start. Lincoln and the Northern White people did NOT free the slaves because they had some altruistic noble love for their fellow black human beings. They did it out of pure economic competition with the South for the new western territories opening up. After they won the war, Lincoln, yes the president we so honor, WANTED TO DEPORT ALL BLACKS BACK TO AFRICA!!! Because now that blacks were free, Whites could not envision ever living with them as equals. They were just put back into a new type of slavery....economic bondage...forced to work for their former slaveholders, while WHITE IMMIGRANTS enjoyed the industrial northern jobs. If any blacks managed to make it up north, they were quickly segregated into the poor ghettos.
Has much have things changed? To the whites, they just see racism as an aberrant isolated incident of an ignorant skinhead somewhere, while the blacks and other minorities encounter racism and are sensitive to it as a fact of daily life and part of institutions in America. How insensitive and ignorant whites are when they say, "OH quit whining" You don't know what its like, so shut the hell up. You dont see the WHITE PRIVILEGES that you enjoy by free token of your skin color that those with darker skin must fight for, because they are part of whiteness that you take for granted.
And to you whites who extol the few examples of minority success as proof that lo and behold, America is NOW MAGICALLY a PERFECTLY FAIR SOCIETY and LEVEL PLAYING FIELD. Bullshit...exceptions dont make the rule. And to you successful minorities, who play to the whites to be accepted in their elitist upper echelons...you better damn remember if it wasn't for blacks rising up for themselves in the 50s and 60s for equal rights, the WHITES wouldnt have changed a damn thing. NO RIGHTS were EVER given FREELY to minorities in the History of America, but had to be fought for. It's funny how generations of minorities now are enjoying the fruits of equality that was won on the blood, sweat and tears of the struggles of their generations before, and quickly are lulled into thinking, gee, this really is a color-blind society now. Why is it that you point out an Oprah as an indicator of that all things are equal. The truth is for every Oprah or any minority to get to that level, has to be the very best and most ambitious of their group to get where they are, while all whites have to do is be born white to have that privilege. Why do minorities have to work so damn hard to gain the kinds of things whites already take for granted. Hmmmm....and if you look at the minorities and women that have made it to the power elite, the 1% of America which owns 46% of the financial wealth, dominated by white, Christian males, these women and minorities have more in common with the white privileged males to even be admitted in that society, by virtue of conservative upbringing and exclusive schooling at the most prestigious schools. Your Clarence Thomases and Condee Rices.
You want more facts. Someone tell me why from 1975 to 1995, 20 years of economic development in the US, white family's average income far outpaced and doubled that of black family's avg income? In a 2003 study of sending black and white job applicants to employer interviews, why a white candidate has DOUBLE the chances of getting a followup than an EQUALLY QUALIFIED black candidate. In fact, in the same study, even whites with a CRIMINAL history had a better chance than a black candidate with NO CRIMINAL history. This is 2003 people! You think you're so smart...you better know your facts before you speak...look this study up...by Devah Pager. How about subprime loans and checkcashing and all sorts of businesses that prey on the black community. How about our justice system giving poor black drug offenders stiffer harsher sentences than suburban white drug offenders. Racial profiling by cops. I could go on and on and on...I mean all this is in the papers. You guys have your head in the clouds of white privileged life in the US, you don't see or you do see but are unwilling to acknowledge the injustice, aren't you?
Oh but look at the Asians, they've been oppressed, but you don't hear them complaining..they've made it...what about that? Well, I'm Asian and the Model Minority is a myth perpetuated by the White elite to deflect criticism of the institutionalized racism in the land. We are not all successful, industrious, subservient and docile, book hugging, estudious nerds that make it. We're not going to be the White's Mascot for Racial Success Stories of the Week. Most asian immigrants work in menial hard labor jobs at the bottom of the economic totem pole...hello...LA garment sweat shops. We have highschool dropout rates increasing, all kinds of problems just like any other group, so dont try to peg us all into this neat definition of a successful minority. Even when we do succeed, there is still a glass ceiling. Asians with higher degrees still on average make less than their white counterparts and are not allowed into higher managerial positions. Women already experience a bigger pay and promotion gap. Imagine if you're both a woman AND a minority.
So all you stupid white people who think the world such a wonderful place where there is no widespread injustice....read your history, and get your facts checked out, before talking out of your ass. You have hundreds of grand monuments in the South to Confederate white supremacist soldiers, your Ivy League colleges are named after racists and segregationalists, and you have holidays like Columbus Day celebrating a slavetrader and mass murderer of Indians. All I can say is, if you can't truly picture yourself in the other person's shoes, don't denigrate their opinions and LIFE EXPERIENCES that you dont understand. Try to more tolerant and enlightened...is that too much to ask before you judge from your ignorance?
The Civil War is a great place to start. Lincoln and the Northern White people did NOT free the slaves because they had some altruistic noble love for their fellow black human beings. They did it out of pure economic competition with the South for the new western territories opening up. After they won the war, Lincoln, yes the president we so honor, WANTED TO DEPORT ALL BLACKS BACK TO AFRICA!!! Because now that blacks were free, Whites could not envision ever living with them as equals. They were just put back into a new type of slavery....economic bondage...forced to work for their former slaveholders, while WHITE IMMIGRANTS enjoyed the industrial northern jobs. If any blacks managed to make it up north, they were quickly segregated into the poor ghettos.
Has much have things changed? To the whites, they just see racism as an aberrant isolated incident of an ignorant skinhead somewhere, while the blacks and other minorities encounter racism and are sensitive to it as a fact of daily life and part of institutions in America. How insensitive and ignorant whites are when they say, "OH quit whining" You don't know what its like, so shut the hell up. You dont see the WHITE PRIVILEGES that you enjoy by free token of your skin color that those with darker skin must fight for, because they are part of whiteness that you take for granted.
And to you whites who extol the few examples of minority success as proof that lo and behold, America is NOW MAGICALLY a PERFECTLY FAIR SOCIETY and LEVEL PLAYING FIELD. Bullshit...exceptions dont make the rule. And to you successful minorities, who play to the whites to be accepted in their elitist upper echelons...you better damn remember if it wasn't for blacks rising up for themselves in the 50s and 60s for equal rights, the WHITES wouldnt have changed a damn thing. NO RIGHTS were EVER given FREELY to minorities in the History of America, but had to be fought for. It's funny how generations of minorities now are enjoying the fruits of equality that was won on the blood, sweat and tears of the struggles of their generations before, and quickly are lulled into thinking, gee, this really is a color-blind society now. Why is it that you point out an Oprah as an indicator of that all things are equal. The truth is for every Oprah or any minority to get to that level, has to be the very best and most ambitious of their group to get where they are, while all whites have to do is be born white to have that privilege. Why do minorities have to work so damn hard to gain the kinds of things whites already take for granted. Hmmmm....and if you look at the minorities and women that have made it to the power elite, the 1% of America which owns 46% of the financial wealth, dominated by white, Christian males, these women and minorities have more in common with the white privileged males to even be admitted in that society, by virtue of conservative upbringing and exclusive schooling at the most prestigious schools. Your Clarence Thomases and Condee Rices.
You want more facts. Someone tell me why from 1975 to 1995, 20 years of economic development in the US, white family's average income far outpaced and doubled that of black family's avg income? In a 2003 study of sending black and white job applicants to employer interviews, why a white candidate has DOUBLE the chances of getting a followup than an EQUALLY QUALIFIED black candidate. In fact, in the same study, even whites with a CRIMINAL history had a better chance than a black candidate with NO CRIMINAL history. This is 2003 people! You think you're so smart...you better know your facts before you speak...look this study up...by Devah Pager. How about subprime loans and checkcashing and all sorts of businesses that prey on the black community. How about our justice system giving poor black drug offenders stiffer harsher sentences than suburban white drug offenders. Racial profiling by cops. I could go on and on and on...I mean all this is in the papers. You guys have your head in the clouds of white privileged life in the US, you don't see or you do see but are unwilling to acknowledge the injustice, aren't you?
Oh but look at the Asians, they've been oppressed, but you don't hear them complaining..they've made it...what about that? Well, I'm Asian and the Model Minority is a myth perpetuated by the White elite to deflect criticism of the institutionalized racism in the land. We are not all successful, industrious, subservient and docile, book hugging, estudious nerds that make it. We're not going to be the White's Mascot for Racial Success Stories of the Week. Most asian immigrants work in menial hard labor jobs at the bottom of the economic totem pole...hello...LA garment sweat shops. We have highschool dropout rates increasing, all kinds of problems just like any other group, so dont try to peg us all into this neat definition of a successful minority. Even when we do succeed, there is still a glass ceiling. Asians with higher degrees still on average make less than their white counterparts and are not allowed into higher managerial positions. Women already experience a bigger pay and promotion gap. Imagine if you're both a woman AND a minority.
So all you stupid white people who think the world such a wonderful place where there is no widespread injustice....read your history, and get your facts checked out, before talking out of your ass. You have hundreds of grand monuments in the South to Confederate white supremacist soldiers, your Ivy League colleges are named after racists and segregationalists, and you have holidays like Columbus Day celebrating a slavetrader and mass murderer of Indians. All I can say is, if you can't truly picture yourself in the other person's shoes, don't denigrate their opinions and LIFE EXPERIENCES that you dont understand. Try to more tolerant and enlightened...is that too much to ask before you judge from your ignorance?