Letters to the Editor
healthyskeptic
Published Letters: 671 Editor's Choice: 14
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summary of the article
[Read the article: Why Cory Booker is mad as hell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1) Booker is too white and educated, and anything coming from that world must be bad. Real black leaders get angry and protest.
2) One's blackness has more to do with anger and angst than anything else. It goes from Harvard educated (white acting) to MLK (black) to Malcom X (most black).
3) a lack of solutions and instead a focus on emotionalism, specifically outrage. There are no practical solutions or even an attempt to deal with specifics and the complexity of problems.
The problems with that?
1) Debra's lack of respect for education and her street attitude is a plague on the black community. Young black kids learn early, during their most important formative years, that to read books and seek an education is to "act white" and to be a proper black is to act ghetto. Many drop out of school with less education than laborers in China, dooming themselves to a life of poverty. With labor jobs diminished, what can an uneducated kid do besides deal drugs? McDonalds and little else. So Debra continuing to sneer at those better educated than her (she is a Harvard law dropout and has a history of dropping out) is exactly part of a problem mindset she helps perpetuate.
2) It's inferred that the angrier Booker gets, the blacker he gets, eventually heading towards Malcom X territory, and that's a good thing. Again, that is exactly what the black community needs less of. MLK was successful because he intelligently chose the peaceful and unifying tactics of Gandhi and greatly uplifted blacks in America. Malcolm X was a gun toting militant and a terrible role model for young blacks. That X has attained a sort of Blackspoitation "action hero" status in popular culture is tragic.
3) Running throughout Dickerson's writing is the notion simply getting angry solves problems. Well, that doesn;t work for poor black school dropouts. It didn't work for X. And it's only working for Dickerson because she has an angry fan base, who I might point out are angry because they're not accomplishing their goals either.
The reasons for poor urban and poor rural problems are many. White flight. Poor parents with problems. Kids who grow up without any realistic aspirations or respect for education or authority. Drugs and putative law enforcement which exacerbates the exiting problems. A history of self-destructing in anger, such as the burning of Watts, the LA riots, Etc.
Those are all deeply entrenched problems. It would be good to at least start addressing them honestly but Dickerson never does. She just encourages people to get angry, the problems continue, the middle class is increasingly skeptical and reactionary, and the slums just get worse.
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3rd would culture
[Read the article: Why Cory Booker is mad as hell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]designed for Third-World countries.
In many ways the inner city ghettos are like 3rd world countries, and worse. At least in the 3rd world people aspire to be educated and better themselves given an opportunity. But the culture in the ghetto is so angry and so anti-authoritarian that many poor kids don't want to study or go to college or otherwise "act white." Many poor black kids are being raised by parents who themselves passed on education opportunities, and pass those twisted values and apathy onto their children.
Even Africans who come here from Nigeria and such usually dislike and avoid American black culture. When Danny Glover complained he couldn't get a cab in NYC because he was black, the sad fact is even Nigerian cab drivers don't like to drive blacks unless they're in a suit and tie, because they often don't tip and are difficult. Waiting tables (which I did in my early 20's) it's the same thing. Sad, but true. Of course, that's unfair to all blacks, and just perpetuates the problem. But it hows how complex and entrenched the problems are.
It's a vicious cycle that needs to be broken. Something has to inspire blacks in ghettos to start caring again. All the social funding and schools won't matter unless poor blacks do their share, and poor blacks are so apathetic it'll take something big to inspire them again. So it's a catch 22.
I hope Booker can do it. I hope middle class America steps up to the challenge to do it's part. I hope poor blacks can be inspired to get theirs, to start caring and trying again to clean up their own neighborhoods and keep kids in school.
But God knows the Dickersons and the Sharptons of the world sure aren't helping with their constant messages of angst, which just leads to further violence, self destruction, and then more apathy.
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"broken windows"
[Read the article: Junk food education]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maybe it's just me but might there be a "broken windows" effect in play. [regarding fitness]
That's a very good point. I think many people do fall towards extremes and have a competative mindset, needing to be above average to enjoy fitness.
That's the danger of an exclusively competitive motivation. A good basis for motivation is self satisfaction and enjoyment for their own sake, and the social aspects. Physical fitness is its own reward and one doesn't need to be competitive to enjoy fitness, though there is nothing wrong with competitiveness in addition to that.
I like hiking, weight lifting, and other low impact, and strength building (physical and mental) exercise. They get me high as I always feel euphoric afterwards. It's very addictive.
The rest of the time I enjoy the lean muscle and health benefits, the metabolic lift and extra energy, the social aspects, and as a perk look healthy because I am. None of which would be diminished in any way if more people got fit.
Actually, since I also enjoy sharing the experience with others, and enjoy seeing other happy and healthy people, including without jealousy those far more healthy and beautiful, more fitness is fine by me.