Quote:
Originally Posted by Oberon
That's a pretty fair assessment. Obviously you can't generalise too much, there's plenty of folks out there, black and white, who are in the under achieving section but are working hard to try and get out. Also there are plenty of white folks who have lots of money who consider blacks to be lazy and the source of the problem. Probably more so than wealthy blacks who consider whites to be the problem. So it splinters up a bit more than a five point lay-out, but I do see where you're coming from. 
The question perhaps to ask is, is the situation getting worse? And depending on the answer to that, how do we stop it from either being or seeming to be that way?  |
Its a pretty fair assessment -
for a generalization. Its a 30 pace assessment. It works well when viewed from 30 paces, but its flaws are exposed as you walk nearer to it.
while true that it is oversimplified for the sake of forum posting - its about dead on accurate as a generalization can get.
It is unfortunate though where black America is. you see... I, like many other conservative types i pal around with (and we have these discussions frequently)
want blacks to succeed, we want them to be highly educated, we want to see them hold high paying positions and be masterful members of society commanding high salaries and joining us for cocktails at our Christmas parties.
but black culture in America is such that if you do these things... your just guilty of trying to be white. There is an expectation that you wear a hoddie, there is an expectation that you listen to the rhythmic bass of inner city rap music thumping away. Your expected to talk street a certain way. Its as if there is an image to maintain with being black, and if you step outside of the box the rest of your peers expect you to fit into you are ostracized. this is not prevalent in white culture. We've got snobby paris hilton types, red necks, we have middle class types, we've got the metrosexual types... and for the most part, one white peer doesnt really give that much of a crap which of those groups you fit into and there certainly isnt the notion that you are "betraying your race" if you pick a box to get into it.
Being that my parents were in the medical field i knew a hand full of black surgeons/doctors/practitioners etc. in knowing them i also knew their children, some my age, some younger, some older.
universally. they were treated differently. They went to school with their khaki pants and their button up shirts, the spoke to their teachers with yes Ma'am and No ma'am, they were intelligent, and articulate when they spoke to others. you didnt get "Yo dawg, say... say... yo where da lye barry at?" from them... no you got "Excuse me, can you please direct me to the Library?"... other blacks, probably 90% of them hated those aspects of these kids. They were literally ostracized by their own race. they knew it... we knew it... their parents knew it.
while other black kids were wearing panty hose on their heads and had one pant leg rolled up and the other all the way down, and the waste of the pants worn around the hips or in some cases the knees with underwear visible... these kids wanted nothing to do with that, the came to school, got good marks, went home, studied, took their cello lessons and went on about life.
today, a couple of them are Doctors, one i think is a lawyer, one died of cancer at a very young age of maybe 20 years old (i remember her being the most beautiful black woman i had ever seen in my life and she still holds this title)
the ones that ostracized them... well... im not 100% certain what most of them do. some of them sweep gravel off the highway, others pick up my garbage. and that to me is very sad, that these kids, probably out of fear that they too would be ostracized for "acting white" now have thrown away any chance they had at achieving great things... just for the sake of maintaining an image and fitting into a box they felt compelled to fit into.
that, in my opinion is what is wrong with black America. that, in my opinion is what i think needs to be fixed first before we do anything else.
i would certainly like to have a young black teens take on that. I've not had the opportunity to discuss it with one.
but that brings up the other issue.
if you're white and you step out of line where a black person is concerned... your branded with the scarlet letter "R" for racist. you'll lose friends, you'll likely lose your job. What one black person does to another is simply passed off as "crap happens" but if a white person steps on a toe gives the wrong look - well here comes the R word and you're hosed