Letters to the Editor
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Nobody fits the stereotype
Thrasher, I know your whole name and your e-mail address. You are an individual person, extremely peculiar, but individual still. You and I live in the same city, but we never have met because you refused to meet.
Never say anything about my parents or my grandparents or even about me. You do not know. You could know. You could have met me, but you prefer your god-awful cliches.
You are wrong. You do not even have a clue. You are one version of what stinks about the USA. The world has moved on since your nasty 1951 conception of reality.
My Dutch Grandpa would humble and shame you, just by his example in humility, spiritual truth, and human understanding. And I can kick your butt if necessary.
Settle back, fool. You are dealing with great Americans here.
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Timbucktom: You are a coward no doubt like your paleface grandpa..I do what I want 24/7
Please spare me the internet threat and hype at the end of the day you are just another penis envy white boy. I fear no man especially white ones..
I am a living legend now get lost you are boring me...
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Class divisions are delusional
Kamiya's conclusions about race based on an NPR poll are flawed. There have always been class distinctions among blacks and those distinctions were not driven by wealth but by education, skin color (and most of us are multi or biracial since our presence in this country; it's just that now a white parent can be claimed legally) and other odd forms of status--the old field vs house negro, so to speak. Whites perceived blacks to be a monolithic community with a single point of view and a single black leader. But a close look at the history of blacks in America reveals a diverse array of viewpoints about the problems affecting a diverse group of people. (I still recall the amazement of the media during the Clarence Thomas hearings to discover an abundance of highly educated black Americans testifying as witnesses--"where did they come from?"
If these problems aren't discussed, it could be because blacks remain underemployed in the media, whose power to control the dialogue and alter perceptions on a grand scale has increased over the decades. And generational differences among all ethnic groups are common. Our parents didn't like R&B music, which they viewed as vulgar and unchristian.
Racism in this country has always objectified blacks beyond class, creating a community bonded by color and a shared history in slavery and Jim Crow apartheid. After all, Imus aimed his invective at ivy league black students. And Dog didn't qualify his remarks toward poor "niggers" only--or toward light-skinned ones vs darker ones.
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Okay, to the black posters here talking about racism.
I am going to say some things which are horribly racist, but pretty much true.
Maybe the problem is no longer racism, but rather a culture which has adopted victimhood as its central ideology. You were enslaved, what? A hundred years ago? Well so were the Indians from India and they were considered better slaves then you.
Now, Indians are seen as being a population of doctors.
Sure, nasty thugs don't like you, well guess what, the Jews have the same problem, or haven't you ever heard of neo-Nazis?
Now the Jews are the most powerful lobby in America.
White people in history were bad people, to everyone, including other whites like the Irish. Yet so far it seems that while whites have tried to fix things they have been insulted, denigrated as racists and constantly guilt tripped for what their ancestors did.
This is what is so refreshing about Obama, he doesn't buy into it and for once, we have a black guy who has risen above his history instead of wallowing in it.
While we all agree that there are bad white people out there, we all agree black guys had it rough, we also note that while blacks have demanded appology after appology India and China have become successful and Zimbabwe has become a hellhole - just like pretty much the rest of Africa.
South Africa? Sure, Mandela was good, the current president is about as bad as Bush, is an AIDS denier, and comes with the added benefit of crime statistics more in line with those reported in a warzone. The next one looks to be a guy who had unprotected sex with a woman he knew to have AIDS, and who is currently under investigation on corruption charges.
All of this is not to say that black people are inferior. Black people aren't, there are Mandelas out there, there are great and sometimes heroic figures, but there is something wrong with this culture of "blame whitey." Whitey is sick of that crap and it was generating a racist backlash back before 9/11.
Speaking as an African, born and raised in Africa, black people are not inferior, they are not weaker, less intellegent, less able or otherwise lesser to anyone else.
But, this is a problem within black culture that needs fixing because no-one, no matter what their skin tone or the shape of their nose can succeed so long as we have this albatross of history hanging around our necks.
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Dying or Thriving?
Hypothetical, Alleged...
I moved 3 months ago to a midwestern small town (34,000 people). It is a 50 minute drive to Chicago, and many commute daily to the city. The town in which I live is diverse.
An acquaintance I met here recently disclosed that his good friend set a number of local houses on fire in order to ethnically cleanse blacks from the area. His friend is a minority, himself; he's Hispanic.
I have no idea what to do with this information. I know (through cross-referencing research on the arsons, in which both individuals names appeared in separate newspaper articles) that one or possibly both of these men were involved.
I am a white female who rents. My friends, a couple, are black and rent. We live in the same building (different units). When I initially found out that there was availability in the building, I gave them the "heads up," and was excited that we were able to move to the buiding on the same day.
I graduated from a college that I am too embarrassed to admit to attending. Between my two friends, they hold four degrees, one from an Ivy League school. I don't know that I could pass a single class in the program from which my friend received her master's degree.
None of that (or anything else) means anything to a racial profiler stalking people of color (darker than his own).
I think the entire thing is ridiculous, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I can't sleep at night and have constant worries about this building as a target. To top it all off, my acquaintance and his friend both live on my block. It's awful; I feel like all of my comings and goings are being monitored, as well as those of my friends.
So, in the middle of this nightmare, what does one do? Maybe this is a letter for Cary...