@akaijenkins1 made a very nice post, filled with self-disclosure, but seems he deleted it soon after. In my limited experience, when someone is in need and shows aptitude and more importantly a desire to learn, the powers that be are very willing to remove barriers of entry. I know as a school counselor we helped many disadvantaged students, some here illegally because we knew the students had a desire to improve themselves. America is not the same place it was even 30 years ago. Your amazing story is proof of that. Thank you for sharing even though you retracted it.
Dude, the hole was created by white people, and it is a lott more than just family structure. Affirmative Action isn't racist -- its the realization that "objective" measures like test scores, grades, extra curriculars or whatever criteria people use to distinguish at a certain point are a farce because a most of the high achieving candidates are there because they have time, access and luck that others do not have. And most of that division is due to the gap created due to how whites have held back minorities in this country.
This all very well known. It’s fairly complicated and that why it’s difficult to continue dredging up the past. Doc said he was aware and said he wasn’t sure how to fix the problem.
Your story is compelling and I applaud you for your determination and success however 2 wrongs do not make a right. There will always be racism in this world and it comes from everywhere. No political organization can claim the high ground here. While unintended I am sure some of your comments come off a little racist as well. Why should a young child today be told and taught in our schools that he is inferior because so many before him had white privilege and now he must make way for a new form of social justice. You cannot cure the sins of past racism by creating reverse racism. You cannot penalize a new generation for the sins of a past generation. Believe it or not it was Trump not Obama that help create opportunity zones in disadvantaged communities, demanded prison reform and then went on to permanently fund Historically Black Colleges yet there are many that call him a racist. I do not believe you put an end to racism by continually telling someone its their turn to be persecuted. Do you think you can sway me buy telling me about your history. I can come right back at you and tell you about my family history. A wealthy Polish family who was rounded up and sent to concentration camps, all of their land and wealth stolen. My Grandfather the only member of his family to escape and survive. He came to America and worked hard during a time of extreme antisemitism and created his own path. He didn't stand on a street corner yelling about all the injustice in the world towards Jews. In 1985 I moved to Germany to live and work. My mother told me that my Grandfather would have turned in his grave in fear of me going to Germany but that was his generation. While there was still pockets of Nazi sentiment for the most part I found the German people remorseful of their past and very giving and kind to this Jewish boy living amongst them. How do you think my time in Germany would have gone if all I did was point out to them the sins of their fathers and associate them with those sins. Putting blame on a new generation for the actions of a past generation. Progress demands we all treat each other equally and I do believe America is one of the least racist places in the world. To me the answer is not tear down the statues and wipe our history away only to teach a different form of racism. No one can change the past we can only learn from it and I believe we are taking the wrong path to redemption when we just keep calling each other racists to fit whatever narrative we might have. Whether it's to win an election or try and gain some sort of moral high ground. Racism loses it oxygen when we learn from our mistakes and then turn the page and start to create a better more tolerant world for everyone not when we tell a new generation you must pay for the sins of a past generation.
Wow. Another fascinating and moving post. Thanks for sticking around and sharing your story. I agree that we can’t look into the past to move forward.
I think very few people believe that schools should teach White kids that they are inferior. If that's happening, it shouldn't be. But I don't think that's what most of the current debate is about in terms of teaching history and also making sure teachers understand racial bias. We just saw a White teacher openly tell his Black students that he thinks the White race is superior, and he noted that many believe that but just don't say it. I think many Americans feel that talking about our racial past is putting America down, but if we didn't have these tough discussions and debates, we wouldn't have come as far as we have. And IMO, we do have a lot to be proud of and thankful for as a very diverse and successful country that has made a lot of progress. But we also white-washed our history for generations, and that isn't helpful either.
the offsets should be based on income though, not skin color or nationality. Lots of poor, disadvantaged white kids out there too that have to struggle much more than some of the minority kids that have successful parents. Make equal opportunity socioeconomic based and then you would have a legit argument but giving a kid with both parents making good money an advantage over a poor white kid born into a busted home and living in a trailer in the sticks is just wrong and racist.
If only we had a system where everybody started off at exactly the same place with the exact same opportunities under the exact same conditions, regardless of what their parents want or did. Where have we tried this before?
Deleted because it's just not worth it on this board anymore. People will say "I can't say I know what it feels like to be a black person in America" and then will immediately turn around and rebut the personal testimony of a black person in America. Thank you for reading, it wasn't up for very long but the disclosure wasn't worth it.
No matter how silly many of my posts come across on TooHot, I truly am interested in seeing all people who want to succeed do so. I enjoyed reading your post.
Yes, honestly I find a lot of dishonest argumentation on Too Hot and a lot of ad hominem, which is just par for the course in political discourse these days, but it also challenges my viewpoints in a head-on way to the point where I learn and refine them so I am much closer to the truth, which should be everyone's objective in my opinion. We should all be truth seekers in a world where pretty much all media is trying to sell you something. Ironically the most civil Too Hot threads were the ones in the private forum discussing changes in gun legislation. It's like everyone understood that people can have good reasons for disagreeing with you on policy, it was amazing.
I think a lot of your post is well stated. I do think that the White teacher telling a Black student the "White race is superior" is an extreme outlier and that teacher should be fired and chastised immediately. Just like the teachers that are teaching white children they should take a knee and ask forgiveness for their white privilege. That too is happening and to deny that is just closing your eyes to reality. These are extreme opinions and these sentiments will never go away. The answer is to take it out of mainstream and let it wallow in the extreme wilderness where it belongs. You are kidding yourself if you think it will ever go away completely. It's easy to blame the misfortune of your own life on someone else. It is a lot harder to pick yourself up by your bootstraps to overcome your perceived disadvantages with hard work and determination. I have always felt that you carve your own path. No one owes you anything. For the most part I believe anyone of any race, religion or creed can achieve greatness in this country. You want to take racism out of the national agenda. It starts by ending every sort of racism. Reverse racism will do nothing more than create a new generation of racists and we are right back reliving our past.
Your example of Germany here is in opposition to your point. There are no monuments to Nazi generals in Germany; there are no streets, no buildings, no schools, nothing. Did you also know Germany paid reparations to the surviving victims of the Holocaust? And not fifty or hundred years later, within the very decade the Holocaust ended. Your experience makes sense; you visited a place that immediately acknowledge the error of its ways and took ACTIVE legislative and FINANCIAL steps to correct it and then took the symbolic step of removing all totems to their aggressors and rigorously teaching the history of its worst citizens to its current citizens so history would not repeat itself. This is in direct opposition to our treatment of the descendants of slaves in THIS country. What's more, there is nothing the descendants of the enslaved could do to obscure their lineage. They could not change their names, they had little resources to change their geographical locations and they certainly could not change their skin, a walking signpost for discrimination. Both the victims of the holocaust and the enslaved were wronged. Pitting them against one another is a fool's errand. Comparing their circumstances and how they moved on from their genocides is insulting. My grandfather and your grandfather did the best they could with the tools they had; but they had different tools and entirely different situations. Contextualizing that is important. You seem like a good guy. I think the notion of "reverse racism" is something you should grapple with. In reading your testimony, I think it's limiting your perspective on this. I say that with respect
Simple question to you. Do you believe everyone should present a valid ID in order to vote. If your answer is yes then you too are against the voting rights bill. If your answer is no I would ask you who in this country of voting age can function without a valid ID.
Just a great post. I was going to post bits of that about Germany as well (it should also be noted that Nazi imagery is actually illegal in Germany- not saying that it should be here due to free speech, but it is hard to argue that they are completely over things when the imagery is still illegal). I think World War II offers an interesting historical case because of massive atrocities committed by both Japan and Germany. What interests me about it is how each society has come to grips with them. Germany, as you stated, discussed their role as a society and confronted that head on, engaging in the policies you stated and not pretending that it didn't happen or trying to spin their way out of responsibility. Japan has largely tried to minimize or spin their way out of things like the Rape of Nanjing and other such historical events. They have battled to get those types of things removed from history classes and still have quite a few politicians that deny that it happened. The right's preferences (especially the Southern right) seems to be following the Japanese path more than the German path when discussing slavery and Jim Crow.
