I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me.

Dear blacks,

Be more like Asians.

Love,
Bill O'Reilly

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bill-oreilly-white-asian-privilege

 

Not what he said.

 

Sounds like a tremendous plan.

How does he suggest we implement it?

 

"Let me tell you what I know about the Negro..."

 

O'Reilly is, as usual and to be kind, overly simplistic. But there is an edge to it that does lack of public discourse, in a civil and intelligent manner. The great 2nd migration from Europe, the Irish, Jews and Italians, were about as welcome in their time as the Vietnamese, Mexicans and Central Americans were in the last 40 years. Add to that a language barrier, religious bigotry and a more organized opposition to immigration. The question lingers 50 years after the great society why is there such an underbelly of American society inhabited by generations of African Americans? Earlier and recent immigrants, facing similar, though in most cases not as systemic and violent, were able to rise above the the bottom and ghettos into some form of middle class life?
"My people were the white man's nigger when yours were still painting their faces and chasing zebras."- Hesh

 

But we still don't have the telescreen ... at least not yet.

 

Equating the plight of African Americans with those of the immigrant experience is just wrong.

My grandparents were discriminated against, spat at, and ridiculed and even subject to "Yellow Peril" laws; yet in many ways they voluntarily, knowingly, entered this environment because simply the alternative was worse. In what has previously been called the "Escalator Theory", the subsequent immigrant classes voluntarily chose the same path.

The African Americans simply did not have the jump start that immigrants had.

 

Not all African-Americans are descendents from slaves.

Are there studies showing whether the children of African immigrants are more successful than the descendents of slaves?

Obviously our President is not a descendent of slaves. And, the kid that got into all of the Ivies was a first generation child of immigrants.

Colin Powell's parents were Jamaican immigrants, though, I suppose that doesn't rule out a history of slavery in the family. (Might even make it more likely.)

Is there a difference? And, if yes, is it actually related to slavery, or is it the generational poverty, which may be traceable all the way back to slavery?

 

What are you even arguing? What is the difference between the latter and former in your final sentence?

Again, if the answer isn't that blacks have been systematically discriminated against in this country, from slavery onward, then the alternative is shiftless niggers.

 

Well, African-Americans aren't the only folks stuck in a generational cycle of poverty.

The rural whites of Appalachia, the Native Americans in several communities, and mixed race groups like the "Jackson Whites" of the Ramapough Mountains area of Northern New Jersey.

Slavery may be at the root of the poverty for some African-Americans, but does the original cause matter? Do African-American slave decedents have more in common with poor rural whites and Native Americans than they do with the decedents of African (and/or Caribbean) immigrants?

And, if there is commonality in their situations, is their commonality for the potential solutions, that have nothing to do with slavery, or is the African-American experience so unique that it requires different solutions?

Lastly, I don't think "shiftless niggers" is the answer, since we do have these other groups stuck in generational poverty.

 

I think that there are commonalities and there are differences, in terms of solutions for these various groups. There's no magic bullet, though education is a really effective bullet, if not a magic one.

My primary objection is with the shout for, "personal responsibility!!!111"

Telling people, over and over and more and more loudly, to take, "personal responsibility!!!111" doesn't work. It's populist claptrap.

 

Yeah, but the shouts of "personal responsibility!!!111" are somewhat necessary, aren't they?

Education is the key, and I think we all agree on that.

And, education has to start at birth. It starts with reading to your child. It starts with creating a home environment conducive to learning.

School has to be taken seriously from the very start.

And, for families that do this, there kids are largely successful.

Part of the problem is that by the time people figure this out, they are already parents, and are unable to give their own children the resources they lacked.

Most people really do have what is necessary to provide their kids with an education. They either just don't realize it, or don't understand its importance.

How do we get this message across, and how do we implement policies that will help this situation? Most of the solutions proposed call for increasing the spending for current programs, but many of the current programs may be contributing to the problems, as opposed to fixing them.