Posted on 10/08/2014 7:15:09 AM PDT by rktman
FERGUSON, Mo. — Alice Singen had always seen her home town as an integrated, harmonious place. Like many other white residents, she prided herself on staying here even when others began to leave.
But since the death of an unarmed black teenager at the hands of a white police officer, some African Americans are calling it segregated and racist. Now Singen has found herself talking in terms of “us” and “them,” “we” and “they.”
“I didn’t have any problems with anybody or any color, and all of a sudden it feels like we are being held responsible for something that’s not our fault,” Singen, 70, said as she left Faraci Pizza, a 46-year-old Ferguson business that has become a focal point of racial tension. “I don’t get it.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Honestly, until the last few years I never knew how much many blacks HATE whites. It has changed how I feel about them in general, always wondering if in spite of friendly appearances, maybe they really hate me inside. It kills trust.
LOL! I kinda chuckled too when I read that particular piece. Maybe it was the CO version of the definition. I guess you’d be naive for not recognizing the medicinal uses. I don’t know dude.
I could have typed that myself.
There is not a shred of evidence that any person not involved in that shooting had a damn thing to do with what happened.
“Racial justice” is a prescription for disaster.
That is interesting to see. Places with strict gun control laws have high rates of crime and gun violence. It’s enough to make you believe that the criminal element ignores the strict gun laws in these places.
“I’ve often wondered why it is, that so many majority black cities, such as Detroit, Gary, East St. Louis, Camden, Washington, Baltimore, Newark, etc. have so many poor people, so much poverty, so many social problems, so many problems in their schools.”
The results of LBJ and the Great Society.
Blacks are being taught to hate and blame whites for everything.
I assume that most whites who still live there are trapped by circumstance - can’t sell house, unemployed, etc.
So I don’t predict a huge exodus. But there will be a slow one. When the first opportunity presents itself, people will leave. And I doubt many new people will move in....so attrition will ultimately play a hand.
Familiar story, happens all over the country. Liberals call it ‘white flight’. I call it refusing to share somebody else’s misery.
I think she wanted to prove that she was liberal. She wanted to prove that by staying, she wasn’t concerned about living in a changing area.
It’s possible that many of the remaining whites will leave Ferguson after all this trouble there. I’ve heard the town had been about 2/3 black and about 1/3 white. Look for those numbers to change in the next few years.
Coming from a pure white culture where only the athletes at the university were the only blacks in town, I was shocked to have a black house fellow in college who automatically hated all whites(except for the girls he dated) and used the N word in every sentence.
It was my introduction into things as they are.
If liberals had their way, they’d force people to remain in those neighborhoods “out of fairness”.
I see what you are saying. As remaining whites move out, but no new white residents arrive, the town will become increasingly black . Eventually will become a 98% black town.
Even the self-described “open minded” “tolerant” and “diversity loving” white liberals won’t live there. That’s anindictment of both them and the blacks in charge.
There are several parts to this problem, and naivety on the side of the Alice Singers of the world is merely a symptom.
To traditional Americans (who believe in the so-called melting pot), part of being American is accepting differences in others provided they do not disrupt one’s own god-given rights. Many such Americans happen to be Caucasian, but the crux of the matter is the belief system, not the color.
In modern America, many ethnic/racial communities are choosing to self-segregate. That is, they elect voluntarily to associate almost solely with others of their own ethnicity/race. The crux of their viewpoint is ethnic or racial.
When people of both of these groups live in proximity, members of both project their own mental processes on the other group. For traditional Americans, this means that they see the ethnic self-segregation as a choice, albeit one they would not personally make. And they accept it, perhaps with misgivings.
For the ethnic groups, they project their self-segregation motives on traditional Americans for their acceptance of the self-segregation. This projection makes any less than optimal outcome for the ethnic group a product of racism, in their minds.
If one adds the concept of “white flight”, or more properly “behavior based self-segregation” into the mix, it gets more confusing. When a middle class neighborhood starts having lower economic families/groups moving in, often the influx brings with it behaviors deemed unacceptable for original members of the neighborhood. If it gets bad enough, some original neighbors will move to another neighborhood to escape the behavioral changes happening in the original neighborhood. This behaviorally-induced flight is them erroneously characterized as a racially induced behavior.
One more point, then I’ll vacate my soap box. ;-P
Racism exists. But it is an individual characteristic, and is not really assignable based on ethnic or racial identity. The liberal side of the spectrum is trying desperately to change this immutable fact in the words used to describe racism. Even the conservative end sometimes falls into the trap, when faced with the majority of individuals in a given group show themselves to hold racist views. But the real difference is in the probability that an individual member of a given group will be racist, and is not a guarantee of any specific individual holding such views.
Yes, these problems are due to LBJ and his Great Society. But they are NOT due to racism, are they? How can they be racial problems as such, when blacks run these places from top to bottom? Unless we want to somehow say that black elected officials, black school officials, black police, etc. are keeping their own people down in these ghettos.
Two very,very *very* important questions in the effort to find out what *really* happened.
Ms Singen: What is the race of the people who are making you feel as though you were at fault? Why can't you just say that?
Ms Singen's puzzlement reads a bit like the befuddled confusion of a Jewish lady being slowly pushed into a freight car, on its way to Dachau.
I read the entire article at the Washington Post and must say that it, while it meanders a bit and doesn't seem to want to take a stance or assign blame even in obvious cases, it is surprisingly unbiased.
The author is Black, by the way.
Regards,
Ferguson will be left with the scourge of violent black neighborhoods: payday loan storefronts, disability mills and places that sell beer by the quart... little else.
I had a black Platoon Sergeant once. He was excellent in every way. But one day a soldier from another platoon complained that he had mis-treated him...and my very professional platoon sergeant had taken on a ghetto persona and belittled him for being white.
Sadly, I didn’t fully believe him.
But as I have spent more time on this planet, his story rings more and more true.
I look at Colin Powell endorsing Obama...and it reinforces this in my mind.
You can work alongside a black man, respect him, and have a very professional relationship. But at the end of the day, he looks at you through a racial lens...he may even respect you...but you’re still ‘Whitey’.
I also recall a small incident that always bothered me. I was around 10, and along with a friend, I was waiting to get on a mini-train at a park. Then a huge group of younger kids comes up, along with their adult teachers - all are black. The teachers ordered the kids to get in front of me and my friend, and excoriated them to not let us break in front of them. I remember how instantaneously the teachers positioned me and my friend as some sort of oppressors. From a very early age, most black kids are taught that whitey is constantly taking from them.
I sure don’t understand certain things.
Somewhat off topic, but we’re saying blacks hate whites, but, black men will be ok with white girlfriends. So they like white girls, but just hate whites in general. Hmmmmm......
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