I rail against the "rich old white guy" power structure... and oh yeah, I'm white.

[TheWraith]

So the media wants to talk about issues of race, and who deserves condemnation? Okay, lets.

Because I'm white, I'm much more likely to be born into a middle or upper middle class environment. I'm more likely to have good schools. I'm less likely to be murdered in an act of random violence. I'm not looked at by random passersby with the automatic suspicion that I'm a criminal.

If I achieve, I'm not likely to be viewed as less competant or a "token" promotion. On average I'll make a better salary, be better able to support my family, and make it more probably that my children will attend good schools and advance themselves.

Of course, none of this is universally true. There are a huge number of impoverished, downtrodden white people in America too. But the bottom line reality is that if you're black or brown, you start out at a disadvantage on almost every score. It's been 143 years since the end of slavery, and 44 years since the Civil Rights Act. Every president we've had, 48 of our 50 governors, and 97 of our 100 senators are all white. And yet, nothing's been done to address the basic inequality in our economics and in our education system that effectively penalizes you for not being white, and particularly for not being upper middle class white.

If you don't think that that's something we should all be ashamed of, I can't help you.

[patrice]

1. It's downright Stupid to punish a "dog" because it can't read a book.

In Social Psychology there is an axiom refered to as "Attribution Error". It goes like this: When exaplaining one's own shortcomings, causes are seen as situational and, ergo, transitory. When explaining other peoples' shortcomings, causes are seen as inherent in the individual and permanent.

[tachyon]

9. That theory is every bit as viable if the variables are reversed.

Not that it matters.

edit: Actually, now that I read your post again, I believe you already DID have it reversed...

[zalinda]

2. So we should elect women or black men

even if they aren't qualified? I'd much rather have a white man who tries to level the playing field for everyone in the land, than elect a woman or a black man, because it's time. I find this argument foolish. There are many women and/or black men who have succeeded and have basically pulled the ladder up behind them. I want a qualified person in office who wants every one to succeed, not just a chosen few, and I don't care what color or sex they are, even a gay black woman would get my vote.

zalinda

[TheWraith]

3. This is directed at the media heads who are squacking...

... because a black person got up and said white people are to blame for the situation in America today.

[Breeze54]

4. Well; if I had a choice....

Wait? I do!! :P

As a woman and although I'm not an HRC supporter, I think a democratic woman
would do more for women and the poor than any white guy in office, ever.

As a woman and although I'm not an BHO supporter, I think a Democratic black man
would do more for black people and the poor than any white guy in office, ever.

Why?

Because they both understand where both groups are coming from better than a rich white guy.

[zalinda]

5. Really? Even if the woman or the black man

has had an easy time of getting where they are? Mind you, not that they didn't have to work for it, (they did graduate college after all) but how many hoops did they really have to jump through to get where they are? How poor were their families? Did they ever have to wonder whether food was going to get on the table? Did they work side by side with other people who had it rough? Not lead, or organize, but really work with them. Have their lives depend on the job that they are doing?

Neither of "our" candidates have had to work through the system, both were brought up in middle class families. Neither know what it is like to live on minimum wage or even close to minimum wage. And, while I can imagine what it would be like to live like a black man, I am neither black nor a man so I will never know what it is like. I don't believe either of "our" candidates will do a damn thing for those who they have never knew.

zalinda

[Breeze54]

6. I think they both have had hoops to jump through.

"Neither of "our" candidates have had to work through the system, both were brought up in middle class families."

Like middle class is easy? :wtf: MC isn't rich! They work for a living.

Yeah, it's easier than poverty but it isn't a free ride at all.

And both have had to deal with discrimination, unlike white men.

[zalinda]

8. Middle class is easy compared

to what most people are brought up in. And poor white men don't have it easier than middle class women or black men. They don't have the money to go to college, hell, they usually don't think they have a chance in hell of even getting into a college. I grew up in the 60's, in what probably would be called a lower middle class family. We never even considered going to college, that was a dream that only those who had much more than us. Our step up was trade school, and if we were really lucky, maybe our children could go to college. Some in the next generation in our family did get to go to college, and one even ended up a doctor. But, he was driven from the age of 10 to become a doctor and had a 4.0 all through school, his brothers did not fair as well. Only 1 out of the 4 boys could go to college and he was the chosen one, the others went to trade school. This is what the middle class don't get. We sacrifice for our families. Some will go on to achieve greatness, others will always be the support because there isn't enough money for all.

And, then tell me how a poor white guy can compete even in an office world when he doesn't have the clothes, or he doesn't have the nutrition that the other competitors have. I have seen poor white men with rotting teeth because of poor nutrition from their mother. They can't afford to go to the dentist like my ex did and have them all capped. No one gets it unless they live it. Both Obama and Clinton have been lucky. He grew up in Hawaii, where there is very little prejudice and he went to prep school on a scholarship. Clinton's family could afford college for her. When you don't even know that you can get out of the ghetto, is when you have a problem. It doesn't matter if you are white, black, brown, yellow, red or blue, if you see no hope, no way out, you are stuck. Money does matter, it is a way to go forward, it is a way to think that something else is possible. And, a god damned "hope" slogan just doesn't make it.

zalinda

[Breeze54]

14. My white older bro's & sis's went to college in the 60's too

and they got loans for college and they all worked jobs to pay for most of their tuition.

My parents couldn't afford to help them go to college either and some would say we were

middle class too but we weren't. One salary supporting 9 people. We worked for everything we got.

[EFerrari]

7. Most women or black men don't have an easy time getting anywhere.

:wtf:

[tachyon]

10. Boy ain't DAT de troof. Just ask Oprah!

:eyes:

[EFerrari]

11. Do you know anything about her?

Or do you just object to her success? Is this DU?

Born in rural Mississippi to a poor unwed teenaged mother, and later raised in a Milwaukee ghetto, Winfrey was raped at the age of nine, and at fourteen, gave birth to a son who died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third rated local Chicago talk show to first place,<5> she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

[tachyon]

12. I don't object to her success, nor did I disagree with your premise.

I just wondered who would be the first person to totally MISinterpret what I actually did say. (You know me better than you think, btw)
:D

[Breeze54]

15. What's Oprah got to do with it?

:eyes:

[tachyon]

16. Absolutely nothing.

:D

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Thank you. I appreciate your post.

:loveya:

[Juche]

17. True, but it extends beyond race

There are an endless number of 'in vs. out' groups that hold talented people back. I was reading in one of Malcolm Gladwell's books how a disproportionate number of CEOs are extremely tall (6'4" or taller). How many short talented people got passed over and how much damage does that do to the economy? How many short people, obese people, non-whites or women are prevented from using their talents? Barely 5% of the population is tall, skinny white men.

So much wasted talent, but what can you do. Hell look at Bush, he is grossly incompetent but if he weren't the son of G HW Bush he'd be a nobody.

Goes to show the importance of character of image. But I don't know what really works to change it.

[zalinda]

18. I do. Education. Quality education.

Only when the poorest of the poor are told that they too can go to college, will we be on our way to erasing prejudice of any kind. Only when every person is made to feel that they are as important as the person they work for will prejudice be erased.

zalinda

[Skittles]

19. I agree

something is very wrong with a system that allows sub-standard schools for poor children - yet expects them perform on an equal playing field later on - it STINKS