Is not Affirmative Action a form of reparation then?
Then their is the issue of perpetuating a ‘victim mentality’ which is an impediment to progress. You keep telling people they are victims they will believe it and that is no good for anybody. The real victims are mostly dead as are the real perpetrators.
I think looking at the bright side in seeing just how far we had come is also really important. We’ve, collectively swung the pendulum from chattel a great deal in a relatively short period of time.
And I do believe in community investment and growth opportunity, but as the saying goes. You can lead a horse to water…
They tried this experiment in Atlanta when they revised and reinvested in Underground Atlanta. It was great for a couple of years until the gangs moved in and shit got dangerous for the average Joe where it now again gathers cobwebs. And you could see it happening like a slow motion train wreck. Since I went to school in downtown, we’d go to Underground a lot. But when fights started to break out, midday and people chasing each other through the place on a regular basis, it once again croaked.
This experiment failed, but others like Midtown and Atlantic station were successes. Badly needed successes in terrible neighborhoods.
The fact of the matter is this stuff moves slow. We can do things to invigorate it but you need the people to move towards something rather than just be given something. Investment and personal success have to meet. People don’t care for the things they are given, they care about the things they worked for.
Of course. I think I’ve covered this before. Only when all normal people are equal in wealth and possessions will true equality exist. There may be a few people, those in charge of creating equality, who will have a wee bit more than the rest of us, but we can’t expect perfection.
Let us assume Shapiro is correct (he isn’t, but let’s go with it). The question becomes, how did AA culture end up diverging so wildly from that of white Americans? What caused a cultural break so sharp and wide as to lead to such incredibly disparate socioeconomic outcomes?
Asked and answered.
You present this as if it is a fact. It is not.
No. Rather, only when wealth does not correlate with things like race, gender, creed, etc, will true equality exist.
It didn’t, when you look at lower income/working class whites. Many of the same culture habits, customs, etc. are consistent across both groups, including the regression of certain negative traits from a place where it was once better just a few generations ago.
Like I said. I mean, think about how many Christians there are in the U.S. I doubt many would support businesses owned by Satanists. There’s likely going to be a disparity in the incomes of Christian business owners and Satanist business owners. A correlation with religion will exist. Summon the fixers to fix!
And my only qualm with that article is the suggestion that we need to “fix” that problem. I think AAs in college, while perfectly capable of getting the credentials needed for the highest paying jobs, should choose whatever path they want to spend their lives and careers in and resist the siren song of chasing the biggest payecheck.
But don’t tell me these individuals are being “denied” a higher income they are otherwise striving for - they’re making a choice to forfeit more income and wealth in the name of a higher calling, and good for them.
Again, I am waiting to hear your/Shapiro’s theory of the case. What caused the AA community to veer so wildly into unproductive cultural territory? Put another way, what induced virtually an entire community, generation after generation after generation, to consistently make such lousy, self-harming decisions?
And yet, a substantial, consistent wealth gap exists between whites and AAs.
And there are undeniable differences in the legacies between these groups.
BTW, Coates had some interesting things to say re the importance of the existence of the black underclass vis a vis placating social unrest among poor/working-class whites.
Assuming this is true: If you can trace this to govt action, you’ll be onto something.
I posted links for this above.
As my father was KIA in Vietnam, I’m the last person you need to tell this.
Despite the august nature of your reference…Sorry, no.
That’s a curious choice of words, as if some external force MUST be at the root.
What, if not culture, causes (or induces) an individual to have children when they aren’t able to provide for them? What, if not culture, causes (or induces) an individual to do so with a partner(s) who have no interest in parenting? What, if not culture, causes (or induces) someone to conclude that murdering someone else is the best choice in front of them? What, if not culture, causes (or induces) someone to drop out of school?
If not culture, what? How does an external force outside of one’s family and community shape someone’s decision to…
Become a parent
Drop out of school
Murder each other at an appalling rate
I think we can agree that those three things have a TREMENDOUS impact on how one’s life is going to play out. What, if not culture, explains the patterns we see in the black community?
The same thing that explains the far-lower quality of life for black people in the U.S. vs. black people in Sub-Saharan Africa: The racism and sins of white people past and present.
In explaining the differences between cultures, one has two choices re mechanism:
Inborn/innate/genetic cultural predilections
External forces
It seems to me the evidence in favor of #1 is scant to the point of nonexistent. This leaves #2. Thus, the question is what external forces caused the AA and white cultures to diverge so wildly. One obvious answer is the legacy of slavery/JC/de facto segregation.
Again, if you have a different theory, I’m listening.
Thank you.
I don’t know. But even assuming there isn’t, the question regarding the overall difference between AAs and whites would remain valid.
