A Concise History of Black-White Relations In The USA

I find the cartoon offensive and unhelpful. I do not feel that I benefit in any way from what injustices blacks may experience today, and I do not like it being protrayed that way to anyone else, including blacks. Does it in any way help the black community to perpetuate this view?

As for those who feel this should not be personalized, nonsense. It is very personal, and it is very personal for the many blacks who would look at this and feel anger and frustration towards whites.

And I don't feel that way just because my ancestors didn't get here until the late 1800's and early 1900's. The issue is what has happened to people ...how have they been treated... who are alive now. I do not revisit how my ancestors were mistreated by Russians or Germans or just about any other population. What is relevant is how I have been treated.

So the relevant issue...how blacks, some other minorities, on average, still do not have opportunities available to other groups. Until you have visited minority schools in poor areas, you cannot argue otherwise. When I lived in Los Angeles, many black and hispanic schools did not even have enough books for the children. Teachers were staying past 11 pm to copy chapters for the kids. (I got a committment from my company to fund the shortfall, until the VP in charge of our charity found out that the school board {who would have been embarrassed by this} had friends on our board so they pulled the money out).

I'm not saying that the situation has not improved, it probably has. But it is still a major inequity.



The cartoon is unhelpful and inaccurate but a more accurate, relevant portrayal could be just as or more inflammatory.[/QUOTE]


I've read your posts cohen, and it they are just as I expected from you. Your heart goes out to the poor black people who have it so rough. You are quick to defend them from the cruelty of the world, and in the process you blind yourself to your own shortcomings on the subject, namely that you are not comfortable viewing the beauty of the inner city.

It reminds me of a quote by Nikki Giovanni. In case you aren't aware of her, she is a famous black woman poet. But being that you are a cultural juggernuat I am sure you know her intimately. She is probably in your Sunday sit-down conversations at the dinner table of understanding that is cohen's home.

Anyway, I promised you a quote and I deliver on my promises. I am nothing if not honest. Nikki Giovanni, in her poem Nikki-Rosa, wrote these stellar lines:

childhood rememberances are always a drag
if you're Black
you always remember things like living in Woodlawn
with no inside toilet
and if you become famous or something
they never talk about how happy you were to have
your mother
all to yourself and
how good the water felt when you got your bath
from one of those
big tubs that folk in chicago barbeque in
and somehow when you talk about home
it never gets across how much you
understood their feelings
as the whole family attended meetings about Hollydale
and even though you remember
your biographers never understand
your father's pain as he sells his stock
and another dream goes
And though your're poor it isn't poverty that
concerns you
and though they fought a lot
it isn't your father's drinking that makes any difference
but only that everybody is together and you
and your sister have happy birthdays and very good
Christmasses
and I really hope no white person everhas cause
to write about me
because they never understand
Black love is Black wealth and they'll
probably talk about my hard childhood
and never understand that
all the while I was quite happy

Cohen, buddy, listen to those last lines. Commit them to your memory. Tattoo them upon the shoulder blade and read them in the mirror backwards in your spare time. And I really hope no white person ever has cause to write about me ... black love is black wealth ... all the while I was quite happy.

Do you see your mistake or are you still blind? Black people don't need you to preach their tales of woe, cohen, and you certainly aren't qualified to do so, and yes out of all of that poverity there does emerge something beautiful, something like this poem, for cohen, you do realize that this poem could not have been written in the Hamptons, right? Do you realize the implication of what I just said? If no, let me say it again. Huckleberry Finn, himself, could not exist without he had ****** jim, and thus Mark Twain could not have written his adventures.

I fear cohen that like the poor blacks you pity you are ill-quipped to understand, because it is not in your nature. After all, you are too white and too privledged to do so. It takes a poor black to show you the way.

 

the comic would be a great and very intuitive one if it wasnt for the success of the Asians who've managed very well in a very short amount of time. affirmative action laws hurt Asians, especially when it come sot college quotas.