I suppose even ankle-biters have their role in life, and if they make one smile, who should complain…

I hated Bay-bay then. Now, every time I think of that little ankle-biter, I can’t help but grin.

My washmachine flooded this morning and I ran out the door to work leaving the bulk of my linen closet contents on the floor sopping up puddles.

Quite frankly, I didn’t think I could muster a smile before noon, but you guys have gone and made me grin.

I addressed your point quite clearly. I am speaking for myself. What others do or say is not my concern. If you feel there is a double standard, that has nothing to do with me and you know it. You also know there is a vast difference between someone recounting his anecdotal experience limited to a small number of people and painting an entire people with the pathologies of the few.

You know exactly what you’re doing and I’m done with falling for it.

You still have not addressed my point which was merely that I think that there is a double standard about what white people are allowed to say.

For some reason, you seem to feel a need to defend your comment which was never in question.

It’s really quite odd the way you respond so defensively to things that were not said. You seem to feel a need to take offense where none was given.

Then consider me “pounced upon”. You made your cheap point. So, there we are. The difference between what I am posting and what others have done is I am commenting on a specific subset of people (non-native blacks in low-skilled health care jobs) in a specific location (a hospital). In fact, I asked if others had experienced what I had. I am not extrapolating that to describe 30 million people. Whether or not it’s relevant to your point doesn’t matter. I never engaged you. You seem to take any invitation to bash me. So, there we are.

All I am saying is that so often when a white person comments about a trend they have observed involving another race, however valid that observation may be, they are pounced upon.

I did not question that you experienced what you say you experienced as I have no way to know whether you are exaggerating or not, or whether you are singling out one group over another.

I don’t know and don’t care to speculate about your accuracy as that was immaterial to my point.

I’m not stopping anyone else from saying it and it has been complained about. I’m speaking for myself. And, I’m not generalizing about something I know nothing about. I’ve worked in this field for over twenty years. I’m talking about a specific trend that I noticed within hospitals in my area. And, I asked if anyone else noticed the same thing. I didn’t make a blanket statement. When you have the same experience in my field, feel free to make all the observations you want.

IF we had affirmative action programs that would actually help end they cyclic poverty in the native-black population then I would be in favor of using them ONLY on the native born population since it was African American struggles that helped bring those programs about anyway.
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2)Why do you believe there is discernable tension between black Americans and black immigrants?
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There are many variables, but I think what this poster said has a lot to do with it:

“Africans and Caribbeans have a motherland, a mother tongue, something that makes them unique and able to identify with. I really don’t have anything to identify with other than because my skin is black my ancestors come from Africa.”

Honestly, I really wish native black people would stop looking to Africa for some sense of culture… especially when African Americans have built up so many of our own beautiful traditions. Soul food, blues, jazz, hip hop(yes, there are some amazing ARTISTS out there who can do wonderful things with words and a beat), our fraternity and sorority system, stepping, the history of places like Bronzeville and Harlem, our ability to continuously overcome and persevere through the toughest of obstacles.

There are definitely aspects of black american culture that have been perverted and subverted because we’ve catered to the lowest classes of black society. But at the core, I think black america has a lot to celebrate.

You said

“Being white, to the race-pandering political journalists, I must be racist scum, and affirmative action is necessary to protect minorities from my oppressive, racist ways.”

Woah! So it’s feasible that…(race-pandering) political journalists actually GENERALIZE and not only that, spread PROPAGANDA about, wait for it…people of ‘race’?

I wonder when right-wing propagandists will leave the ‘pro-’white’ anti-black camp’ (blacks are generally….bla bla) and left-wing propagandists will leave the pro-’black’ anti-white camp (‘whites are generally bla bla’)?

Can’t they see that they are all idiots? I think many can, and those are the ones that are playing the game for money, popularity, easy generalized ‘talking points’ to stir up divisiveness for their political cause. Propagandists, in other words.

I have a question…

You maintain that non-native blacks are vicious to patients.

What would your reaction be if a white preson lamented the treatment dished out by “blacks” at a hospital?

To me, it sounds as if you give yourself dispensation/free reign to “generalize and bash” but rail against thsoe same generalizations if a white person does them. Truthfully, I do not understand this trend for rules that are for “thee but not for me”

Skin tone is a component of not only interracial interactions, but intraracial ones as well. Another side effect of “the good ol’days”.

I have copiers and printers on every floor etc.. on both hospitals so I’m all over the place and I see what’s going on. Good, bad and inbetween. Now if they would just press the start button and not pound on them life would really be sweet!