LOL! Who is us Dave?
And what is with you people that see racist behind every corner and between every line of type?
Forgetting your Dixie Crat smoke, looking at this country now, I would consider American 50 years ago to be a much better country than what we currently have now.
Even with the few Dixie Crats as you call them in the past, I still appreciate the older morals of America, even with the few blemishes, Going back just 50 years, I appreciate the safe cities when no one ever heard of thousands of routine drive by shootings and insane daily murders.
I appreciate the old America of 50 years ago that wasn't being invaded by millions of people illegally that have no respect for our laws. America of 50 years ago would have never put up with it.
I appreciate the old America, where divorce was almost unheard of and most kids had parents that gave a damn.
I appreciate the old America where strangers said thank you and neighbors helped each other.
I appreciate the old America 50 years past where American's were generally a United People, not splintered into races with hyphenated names where most people didn't see racist behind every corner. Where most everyone spoke English and it was just an accepted way. Where legal immigrants were proud as hell just to be here and to be just like American's.
Was America perfect 50 years ago? No. But it is much better than what we have now.
Fond memories of the good old days
Yes Dave, since I am not a politically correct product, I have fond memories of the good old days. I am sure you can't relate.
Ok. Now for a moment assume you werent White. Would you have the same opinion?
Well hell yes I would have the same opinion. Where in the hell have you been?
Do you have any idea how many young blacks are gunned down routinely in the streets of todays America by other blacks?
Do you have any idea how many black kids don't have fathers because they are in the joint for murder, drugs, robbery etc?
Do you have any idea how many young inner city blacks are threatened into joining gangs that leaves many of them dead and bloody in the gutter or on their way to the local ER with sucking chest wounds?
Do you have any idea how many young blacks don't even know who their own fathers are today?
Do you have any idea how many blacks are locked in cages because they wanted to be like the guy down the block or on TV and play the gangster role.
So to answer your naive question, yes, I would have much rather been a black 50 years ago in American, than today.
No question about it.
Do you have any idea how many black kids don't have fathers because they are in the joint for murder, drugs, robbery etc?
Do you have any idea how many young inner city blacks are threatened into joining gangs that leaves many of them dead and bloody in the gutter or on their way to the local ER with sucking chest wounds?
Do you have any idea how many young blacks don't even know who their own fathers are today?
Do you have any idea how many blacks are locked in cages because they wanted to be like the guy down the block or on TV and play the gangster role.
So to answer your naive question, yes, I would have much rather been a black 50 years ago in American, than today.
No question about it.
As a black man who was born around the time the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, I say without fear of contradiction you're full of it.
My father was born in segregationist Alabama, joined the service after graduating high school, served overseas, fought in Korea, and came back to the West Coast. He never went back "home."
My father is not like the people that you outlined in your post. He has never served a day in jail, much less prison; he has been married to my mother coming up on half a century; he has suffered discrimination but has never been embittered by it.
Most of all, his experiences with some white people in the past did not cause him to be suspicious or dismissive of all of them.
He didn't pass along many of his stories about segregation or racist violence along to me because he didn't want to burden me with it. Race was a virtually a non-issue in our house. I was not indoctrinated with pride in my skin as a youth. When I was called racial epithets in school, I ignored it. I frankly didn't understand what other kids' problem was, and they would always get in trouble for harassing me.
My parents have lived outstanding, virtuous, and Godly lives that I can only hope to weakly imitate. But I cannot say for certain what each of their lives -- and thus, me and my siblings' lives -- might have been like if he had returned from the Pacific to a California that 'followed Mississippi's lead.'
From a post of mine yesterday:
Thanks to my father and mother, I am today a black man who knows who his father is, who has never done drugs or abused alcohol, who has never been shot, and who has never been locked in a cage because I wanted to be like the guy down the block. (Even if I wanted to be like the guy down the block where I grew up, that would have meant being a decent, peaceful, hard-working good neighbor).
One of my strongest memories of my early years (pre-kindergarten) is when my mother took me and my sisters shopping, and I got my first real restaurant hamburger at the lunch counter at Woolworth's in downtown San Francisco. As I learned later in life, that's something my father never got to do.
But all of that would have only gotten me so far in 1952. I would have been defined by my skin before anything else.
The problem with black society today is that it hasn't learned what my father did -- the bitterness of past injustice is poisonous. So much of black culture has to do with an inability to attain "The American Dream" that it becomes a perpetual self-fulfilling prophecy. Meanwhile, immigrants who formerly toiled in godforsaken lands just to reach USA poverty levels thrive once they arrive here, where their hard work pays off.
Although I detest this state's current politics, I am delighted that I was born in California, and grew up in San Francisco, where I have fond memories of childhood friends free of any hang-ups about mingling with people who didn't look like them. There is no doubt that things have swung too far in the opposite direction, but nonetheless, I can't for the life of me imagine living in a society like the one my father grew up in.
And neither can you.
In the future, try to talk about what you know. It makes you look smarter.