I guess our signals got crossed. There are times when the disparities must be pointed out. For example, in health care. There is such a lack of education regarding prevention. There’s also the lack of trust toward the medical community. Generally, blacks don’t sign up as organ donors. It’s incredibly difficult for a black person who needs a bone marrow transplant to draw enough folks to test for matches.

That education costs money and it’s money that’s spent on whites too. This is information that benefits everyone.

Anyway, sad about Anna Nicole. Had a huge crush on her. She was probably the last of the “real woman” models. What’s up with all the sticks on the runways of Milan and Paris?

And, I guess I got my spanking for the day. Why? I don’t know. But, I read enough to know that the mantra of many conservatives is that they “don’t see color.” I’m not making this up. And, I don’t see how it’s juvenile on my part to point out what others are claiming they are able to do. But, c’est la vie.

There is also a constant drum beat of negative talk about Black society in order to justify less government programs or negative actions or reactions towards Blacks.

Most of the “discussion” about Blacks applies to a minority of the Black population and that minority defines the Black population in the U.S.

Angel;

We have obviously had a huge miscommunication.

It’s not hard for me in the slightest to wrap my brain around the fact that you are doing quite well and have never asked for money. I actually expect that most black folks ARE doing quite well.

I would be very surprised if you could locate any post where I have wailed in a negative sense about the state of black society. I am far more likey to wail about those who overhype (negatively) the state of black society while demanding increased spending.

I think quite often that my positions on things are misinterpreted. In point of fact, I simply like to argue and often don’t even have a position. (For eg.: I might argue forcefully with a statement about the Iraq war, for example, simply because the statement does not seem accurate to me. This should in no way be construed as support or non-support of the war and is position neutral. Yet, I have had posters respond with things like; “I don’t see how you can say blah blah blah.” I think to myself, I don’t either which is why I never did, and wonder how they jumped from point a to point b.)

In fact, my contention in my previous statement is that there is a constant drumbeat of negative talk about black society in order to justify government programs. For example, our newspaper continually highlights any racial disparity or problems in the black community in support of more spending. Every day we are bombarded with government spokespeople who bemoan the state of black society, also in support of increased spending. Universities greatly hype racism and continually highlight the “effects” of racism in support of the need for diversity programs and more spending. And the list goes on and on.

Personally, I think that black society is doing a heck of a lot better than is depicted and I think many of the problems are grotesquely overhyped.

However, when taxpayers are expected to pony up their hard earned cash to fix the overhyped problems that taxpayers are being told is their fault, day after day, I think it is only natural that the issue gets discussed.

At the end of the day, I think that the vast majority of negative depictions about black society stem from those with a self interest in promoting such a picture.

To me, my position is fundamentally the opposite of the way that you described it.

Mom, Teen Wanted in New Orleans Shooting

NEW ORLEANS — Police on Thursday were searching for a teenager and his mother, who they say gave the boy a handgun after he lost a fight and told him to take revenge.

Last month, city officials announced efforts to try to curb the violence in New Orleans after nine killings in the first eight days of the year. They increased patrols, set up early-morning checkpoints and rushed homicide cases through the court system. National Guard troops and State Police also remain in the city after being called in last summer to help local police combat a spike in violence.

Source: http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/1197070/

That’s okay. Mixed heritage. My father is from Puerto Rico. Hence, the name Angel. You’re so right about some of the commenters, I can almost feel the spittle coming through the monitor. For me, here is the bottom line.

You cannot create an institution, dismantle it, and then pretend you never created it in the first place. When I say “you” I’m speaking of the trading companies and their governmental allies that allowed slavery to happen.
You can’t create something as insidious as the “one drop” rule and all the stratification it caused among blacks and then say, “Never mind. Halle Berry is half-white, you know.”
The reason I like to defend black people here is that we thrived in spite of that.
And, we continue to achieve.

There are negatives, of course. But, no other race has to be held accountable for their losers.
In Boston, we just had a bunch of Vietnamese and Cambodians busted for trafficking ecstasy using nail salons as a front. But, Asians are still the model minority. In Lowell, Cambodian kids are shooting each other down like dogs in the street. But, they are the model minority.

All the hyperventilating that some do on here about being “colorblind” goes out the window when someone is standing in the docket or on “COPS” Then, it’s, “Those darn blacks are at it again!”
If that was a real goal, we would talk about individual behavior and responsibility. That is an alleged conservative principle. But, it is selective when it comes to crime and other negatives. What happened to judging the content of character? It’s a farce. Some of the commenters would sooner believe in the Easter Bunny!

Anyway, your last comment is great. That’s why I’m here too. I live in a two newspaper town and I read both.

You may not be responding directly to me, but just in case…

I can’t speak for other conservatives, but I never claimed to be colorblind. My contention is the government policy should be colorblind. You can stop human beings from perceiving differences, and any claim to the contrary is juvenile. For your edification, see Colorblind Bind. – Admin

RedBeard – I actually like strawberry frappicinos, but if you are buying it’s alllll good.

I’ve wanted to tell this story for a while, but it was never appropriate:

16 years ago or so, my wife, my infant son, and I went to visit my parents in Los Angeles. It was immediately following the race riots in Compton Heights and in fact the smoke was still rising from there as we drove south from the airport to Long Beach (my dad had to move there for the last four years of his career with McDonnell Douglas).

After a few days, we couldn’t take being in the same house with my parents any longer (sorry Dad), and being unwilling to ask my father to borrow his car (another story in itself), we went for a walk. We were lost in no time at all (being country bumkins) and were walking down some four lane divided highway trying to figure out a way back to my parents rental house when we spotted four black men walking down same side of the highway toward us.

I didn’t know what to do, we couldn’t cross the highway and I was concerned (okay, scared). So I gave my wife my son to hold and told her if trouble started to run away as best she could, figuring on doing the best I could do at hitting them in the knuckles with my face and thier knees with my groin, etc. while my wife made her get away.

Anyway, when they got closer, it was clear that they were also trying to get as far away from us as possible (in retrospect, they may have thought I had a gun or something). Both groups came to the realization of the silliness of the situation at about the same time. We all started laughing. It felt good.

I have often thought about that incident. Although I could have justified (in my mind)painting those men with the mental image of the riots, it would have been wrong. It also made me aware of the danger that fear has for causing people to do irrational things.

I’ve been posting here for a long time and over time have gotten to ‘know’ the tone of the regular posters here which is why I took no offense to RedBeard’s posting as he is a regular also and to his credit more than reasonable when in comes to these ‘race’ discussions.

I tuned BenM out when he termed my comments (that were mistakely attributed to you) pathetic. I’m not going dialogue with nonsense.

I would also like to commend you for your response to commenter Jan as you articulated quite well how I feel when I read her responses. She is never rude and always clear in her responses but I am not so dense as to not notice the underlying disdain. As least that is what I can discern from what she types.

You aren’t alone, I’ve been fighting the unwinnable battles at LBC for 2 years now. I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment.
But I believe in learning about various opinions because I believe that’s how I grow as a person.

“The major obstacle between blacks and whites when discussing race is the seeming inability of whites to listen to what we have to say.” (It couldn’t be that both blacks and whites have a tendency to speak past each other?).

“It’s a one-sided “discussion”. Some whites only want to discuss the negative aspects. They only want to highlight how “different” we are. I guess what we should do is submit and say, “Okay, we suck. You win!”” (If my children made a comment like this, I would say that they were pouting.)

“Again, an open and honest discussion on race is impossible when one side only wants to talk about our failures.” (Again, this is not qualified. It is only one side that is the problem.)

“Tiffany, I hear what you’re saying and you are not alone in your frustration with some of the comments.” (The sum total of her comment was that most of the whites who said they were or tried to be color blind wouldn’t give her the time of day, which is probably true in my case as I don’t wear a watch.)

“These thoughts and feelings don’t come from nowhere.” (AKA, It’s not my fault, I can’t help myself, you made us this way.)

Angel, If there is no room for introspection, for figuring out if there is something I (Ben) can do to change the situation, where do we go from here. If in fact, everything that I do to try and help ends up with me being called in effect a “closet racist”, why should I bother?

There are many problems in the world that I can get involved in (and I do), but I only have limited abilities and if you won’t respond by reaching out, because of your past or your experience or whatever, well, I am moving on to where I can do some good.

I don’t accept guilt for stuff I didn’t do. I didn’t own slaves, I didn’t enact Jim Crow laws, I didn’t not hire someone because their name sounded black, I didn’t refuse to let someone sit where-ever she or he wanted on the bus, I didn’t call a black person a derogatory name, I didn’t teach my children to hate anyone based upon the color of their skin. My crime was being born white, just like yours was being born black. And if you can’t see that reverse discrimination is still discrimination then you will never see the day that discrimination ends because you have become part of the problem.

By the way, I do think you are articulate, and I have never used that as an insult. The beauty about La Shawn’s blog is that it allows people of diverse backgrounds to honestly discuss race and other topics who might never meet face to face. And should they meet face to face, they probably wouldn’t have the courage to speak with this much honesty.

So, when you see a comment that you don’t agree with, feel free to respond. You may change someone’s mind because they are here seeking answers to questions that concern them. In other words, even the most bigoted white person that posts in La Shawns blog (except for trolls) is trying to deal with the black/white issue and is therefore open to being changed. But be prepared to be changed too.