Reverse Racism 2: Bobo - The New Racism | 25 comments (25 topical, 0 hidden)
Is it okay then,... (none / 0)
...if we have a White Entertainment Television Awards show?

How about a White History Month?

What part of having a color-blind society is so difficult for you to grasp?  I know that blacks can tolerate a bit more direct, unprotected sunlight than whites can.  I know that blacks get sickle-cell anemia.  Other than that, the only way we're going to get beyond the issue of skin color is to actually ignore it.

The way to solve any disparities that may exist between predominantly black and predominantly white communities is to address the disparities in the distribution of services, such as education and other tax-funded programs, to different geographical areas on a per-population basis.  Sure, that would mean your skin color wouldn't matter anymore in the eyes of the law, but if that's not what you want then you're complaining to the wrong person.

Are you worried that not enough blacks are mentioned in our history text books?  You might be right.  I'm sure that until we actually achieve color blindness that some remedial measures will be needed.  We might need members of different communities to collaborate on writing our history books.

Are you concerned that blacks won't be proportionally represented in student populations at universities?  You might be right.  But the solution is not to admit students with lower test scores just because they're black..  Instead, we must make sure the tests used to admit them have no unnecessarily discriminatory cultural references in them, and that students in predominantly black communities receive the same education as students in predominantly white communities.

Eventually, we might end up with "predominantly mixed" communities.

If you want to celebrate a culture, on the other hand, I'm all for it.  But you'll have to stop discriminating on the basis of race in all matters in order to get my respect.

by EveningStarNM on 07/02/2009 06:37:19 PM EST

this isn't how affirmative action works (none / 0)
"But the solution is not to admit students with lower test scores just because they're black"

Believe me, you have to get high scores as a black person to use affirmative action, it just means the schools will actually look at your test scores.  Most of the blacks that get into white schools are not at the "bottoms" of their classes at all, and if anything, the blacks that make it into college and graduate are at a much higher academic standard than the "average" student.  There are just tons of blacks that never make it into college because they don't try.  Affirmative action will NEVER help those people because they don't want to help themselves.

Chris

by chrisandyasemin on 07/02/2009 07:29:52 PM EST

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Agree and Disagree (none / 0)
"Most of the blacks that get into white schools are not at the "bottoms" of their classes at all."

We sometimes hear people say that blacks -- or women, or hispanics, or name-your-minority-here -- have to be better than whites to get ahead.  While I don't have any objective data to support that, my purely anecdotal experience is that it's true.  But the racist right uses it as a talking point that "oh, those poor self-pitying minorities are so abused because they have to actually work to get ahead!"  For that reason alone, I'm willing to assume that minorites do, in fact, have to be better than whites to get ahead.  But then I already despise the right, and when they get racist, well...

"There are just tons of blacks that never make it into college because they don't try.  Affirmative action will NEVER help those people because they don't want to help themselves."

I'm not so sure that "they don't want to help themselves".  The problem with long-term oppression is that an oppressed population comes to believe that there is nothing they can do to help themselves, so it's no use even trying.  Is it any surprise that some people feel so beaten down that they have simply surrendered?  That many of them may have developed racial prejudices in response may be merely symptomatic of the greater problem.

But that racism makes solving the problem more difficult, and that's why I think it's important that we begin right now, today, to ignore skin color in all our affairs.  There are much better and more efficient ways to address the problems that remain from slavery: poverty and not enough education.

by EveningStarNM on 07/02/2009 08:14:08 PM EST

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One more thing (none / 0)
If we have an affirmative action program based on poverty or on the relative prosperity of a community in which a child was raised, I'm all for reserving a certain number of admissions to a university for such children even though they might have lower test scores than others.  First of all, if a kid that was raised in a ghetto wants to try to make it in higher education, we already know that kid is motivated.  Second, we have to consider that the lack of opportunity that kid faced in getting an adequate education was not his or her fault.  And because of those two factors, it's reasonable to assume that, with a little remedial help, the kid can make the grade.

I think it's important that we give any kid who wants a chance to succeed the opportunity to do so.  It doesn't matter what race the kid is.

Here's a stimulus program that Obama should consider: let's build more universities.

by EveningStarNM on 07/02/2009 11:07:08 PM EST

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Obama proposed need based AA (none / 0)
and that was one of the main reasons I think he is a unifier.  Personally, i do think some blacks have let a stereotype dictate their thinking about themselves, and they are weak.  They can overcome that mental oppression, because they imposed it on themselves.  Those are NOT the blacks that graduate from college, and if you look at college scores from blacks, the white-black test gap starts to disappear.  It's in lower level education because inner city kids are forced to go to school, and no body makes them go on to college.  Many of them wouldn't make it/deserve a college degree because they aren't willing to put in the work.  I personally KNOW that a GED can get a person to a PHD, so there is literally no excuse but personal motivation.  It's the same for blacks and whites.  There are studies that show a black child raised in a white house will score the same as a white child raised in the same white house.  Obviously there are cultural biases on tests, but I am talking about lazy people of all colors.  I will not let a generation of young black men off the hook because they didn't feel like they didn't have the right "role model".  I don't believe for a second that the "oppressed population" will give up, because if that were true blacks wouldn't have gotten this far today.  What I'm saying is, we have to realize that some people are fucking stupid and lazy, black, white, etc...I'm not saying the CHILDREN are the stupid ones, but the teenage, undisciplined, self-imposed ignorant youth.  These are not ALL black youth, and probably pan out like the bell curve.  I'm saying these AREN'T the kids that seek out the colleges, so they're not the ones that use affirmative action for college.  That's why the blacks using affirmative action aren't the blacks who have the low test scores.  That's what I was trying to clarify.

I think we should always be building more universities, but what Obama really needs to do is make a deal with MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, Disney, and any other child TV network so that children's entertainment is more positive.  Have you watched Disney lately?  It's basically an instruction manual on how to hate your family, and become a self-righteous snitch.  I DARE you to watch a Disney tv show that doesn't include needless family degredation.  Disney has made parents trust their label so much they have stopped watching.  If Disney isn't advertising it's newest line of toys to a kid through a "cartoon", it's teaching the kids how to rebel and run away to their grandparents when their single dad comes down on them too hard with rules...it's really fucking up America's youth.

Chris

by chrisandyasemin on 07/03/2009 12:46:08 AM EST

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Reverse Racism 2: Bobo - The New Racism | 25 comments (25 topical, 0 hidden)