I am going to carefully and delicately weigh in on this conversation because I know it is heated on both sides.
First nearly everything Wright said was Correct (You have to watch the whole video not the one CNN or Fox cut up to vilify him, when you see the whole thing unedited you will be as pissed as I was at how the News Media portrayed this). The media did a lot of creative editing on this video in what can only be described as a deplorable attempt at deliberate vilification of the man.
A lot of what Wright said was accurate (again please view the real video to get the proper context of his remarks) and yes it made white people uncomfortable with him and Barack Obama due to their mutual affiliation with each other.
African Americans got a raw deal for hundreds of years in this country and it is shameful, regrettable and makes me so angry I would like to throttle the bigots. But you see I am not one of those white people who does not know his history in this country, I am not shocked to hear of this happening. Why? Because I already knew and was appalled by it. I just do not take the history lessons taught in school and say "yes, this is all right". I actually dig in to find information so no, all white people are not ignorant of this country's tragic historic record in dealing with African Americans or Native American Indians.
Now to Caltex's comments;
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Originally Posted by Caltex
America has been trying to make up for the poor government policies of the past for 50 years now. Affirmative action, welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs all have been directed towards helping out blacks in America at the cost of all other Americans, yet he accuses America of being the U.S. of KKK. A. If that is not scapegoatism and shouldering responsibility of the communities own actions, I do not know what is.
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It is true we have for 50 years been trying to play catch up or to make ourselves feel better about the sins of our ignorant ancestors and their witless bigoted hate mongering. While many people think its time Affirmative action was scrapped because its now becoming "reverse racism" or that public assistance be done away with. (Food Stamps, Medicaid, etc) note that white people are using these programs too except for affirmative action which we do not qualify for.
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Originally Posted by Caltex
It's not white Americans fault that black Americans are born out of wedlock over 70% of the time, which results in poverty. It is not white Americans fault that blacks commit crimes and get locked up at horrifically high rates. It is not white Americans fault that blacks drop out of school at higher rates than any other group. These are the main issues which create a cycle of poverty, and destitute living conditions.
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Some of what you say here is true (but not much) with one major exception, racial profiling. Someone already posted an example of how bad racial profiling is in this country, this by itself would help to explain why "blacks commit crimes and get locked up at horrifically high rates". White, red, yellow we all commit crimes and we do it often whether it be running a light, not coming to a stop completely, robbery and murder. Now if suddenly decided to pull over 80% white people in this country for a month, it would then become "whites commit crimes and get locked up at horrifically high rates". It's not hard to make that statement when essentially African Americans in this country are living in a fish bowl and always under intense scrutiny.
As far as the drop out rates from school African Americans vs Hispanics and Whites. "30 percent of Hispanics are dropouts, 12.1 percent of blacks, and 8.6 percent of whites." This is not what I call a significant variance unless you're comparing the Hispanic rates to either the African American or white drop out rates, then that is significant.
Every Year, One-Half Million Students Drop Out of School - by School Reform News staff - The Heartland Institute
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Wright is blaming whites for many of these ailments, and thus is scapegoating to get an applause. He is promoting racism, and a victim mentality. The only way they are going to be able to fix their problem is by pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps, not by inciting hatred, and blaming whites, and America.
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Wright is blaming whites for many of these ailments but you have to understand the generation he grew up in, then you can understand where his mindset is at. Now what I will agree to is his speech did seem in some places to promote racism and the "KKK" comment pissed me off because he made it sound like all whites believed in some bigoted racist garbage. The other thing I can agree to is the "Victim mentality" I grew up in Detroit and I saw a lot of this at the high school I went too, of course I could not say anything being white I was the minority there. Constantly hearing how African Americans were putting each other down or holding one another back with such negative comments always baffled me, should they not be encouraging and empowering each other? But guess what, in that same school I saw white kids doing and saying the same stupid shit. I think it's less about race and more about the environment less affluent people are forced to grow up in, it has very litle to do with the color of their skin.
Now as far as blaming America or whites, I do not agree to that NOW. 50 Years ago I would have 100% agreed. These days African Americans in many ways have more opportunities then white people often have available to them. Especially on the all important education front. I will agree that African Americans of THIS generation (the ones who did not grow up as slaves or have to deal with segregation) need to essentially pick themselves up by their boot straps and stop playing the victims. The older generations, were victims this one is not.
The other thing I will say is this; The older generation of whites are guilty as sin for the segregation and the horrible things it did 50 years ago. However this generation of whites is not, so lumping all white people together and vilifying them does not sit well with me at all. If we want to move passed the racial divide in this country we need to stop playing the blame game, pointing fingers and name calling. We need to work together hand in hand side by side to see that ALL ethnicitys have the same opportunities all children have the same access to Education without prejudice regardless of there skin color.
I do not understand why this is such a hard concept to grasp for everyone in this country.
By the way YES I am white, no I do not feel personally responsible for slavery, segregation or hate crimes well before I was born. I however do feel guilty and upset that it happened and I feel like we have a lot of work to do to achieve true racial equality in this country for all. No matter what there ethnicity or religious back ground may be.
We have a choice we can whine and complain over what some white ignorant jackasses did in the last few hundred years or we can move forward take personal responsibility for our own destiny and dreams and make the Country great again.
The choice is yours America.