Reply #104: You are fixated on the wrong thing [View All]

[kwassa]

in your idea that there were different experiences in different places and times for African-Americans ... you miss the point that racism was everywhere, and that was THE universal experience. African-Americans were victims of that everywhere in this country, and quite visibly in Oakland. An essential point you don't seem to understand.

Frankly, I don't what your point is, or if you have a point at all. It is very hard to follow your wandering monologue.

Having lived in California for 17 years, I know that racism exists. California is so new, though, it doesn't have the entrenched racist traditions of the east over long stretches of history. Many African-Americans migrated to the west coast during World War 2 due to wartime opportunities in the defense industries. Like most everyone else, they were immigrants to the state.

Racist housing covenants kept blacks in certain areas, and also deprived them of the wealth that whites achieved through Federally-supported home ownership programs, after the war.

That was racism, pure and simple. You offered up a more benign vision in your Wiki-stew that was clearly false. There was no racism before the war, when there were no substantial number of black people to be racist against .... what a revelation.