question for black people....

[micksf22accord]

^^^Not that was not called for...I am a republican/conservative.....

Im republican also!

[Bluejayde]

Im republican also!

You want a cookie or something? Congratulations on being another conformist.
Hopefully someday the people in this country will learn to judge people by their actions, and not by what party they are affiliated with. Again, let's get back to the topic at hand.

[texasvtak]

"Im so non-conformist Im gonna do it anyway!"
So few people really know what the hell theyre talkin about, politically speaking, that Im convinced just about everyone needs to keep their mouth shut til they learn. I dont get into deep political discussions for a reason

[uncle_el]

getting back to the thread at hand...

when it comes to slavery and all, do you feel personally connected and feel affected by that or is it like i perceive my heritage---stories and certain things to be proud of and certain things to not be proud of, but it really has no direct effect on my life.....it's HISTORY and really is interesting, but not vital info most of the time.....
.
they always put black people on tv who make it sound like THEY experienced slavery and THEY should be paid for it, and to me, it seems like the ones who were actually enslaved would be pissed that someone is taking credit for their blood and sweat.....that's how i'd feel........i understand the point of getting back at those who profited from it, but NO ONE alive today was a slave or slave owner......seems like anything that is done today is unfair and we should just accept it all as a black eye from our nation's past and move on....and definitely not let something like that happen again.....the media really makes it sound like everyone feels they should get reparations......and no shit, i'd take free money, but that doesn't mean i'd feel that i deserved it......

i know we don't all feel the same but wondering about different point of views.......my background is german/native america/english.....it's just neat to learn about what my ancestors went through but really doesn't impact me any......don't see how it could

yes i feel personally connected. when you realize that slavery in the united states was not that long ago (civil war ended in 1865- 140 years ago; and i add in the u.s. because by many accounts slavery still exists in the world currently)... and jim crow laws (instituted to keep blacks disenfranchised in the south and elsewhere, only after slavery was torn down) were ended with the civil rights act of 1964 which was only 41 years ago... it hasn't been that long.
when georgia and south carolina still want to fly the confederate flag over the state capitol... when jim crow laws, though illegal, are still on the books in georgia... when selma, alabama just elected it's first black mayor 2 years ago...

what did sharecropping come out of? it sprang out of slavery, and existed soley to keep the status quo (keep plantations going)... and those were in existence in the early to mid 20th century... hell, the parents of my grandparents (and thus my great-grandparents) were slaves... it's not that long ago...

as far as reparations, i suppose that's another subject for debate. to people deserve compensations... i'm on the fence on that issue. but i do find it interesting that people find no wrong in giving reparations/restitution to holocaust survivors and their families... and japanese internment camp survivors and their families... so why should it be any different for the survivors of slavery and their families? more a question of philosophy than anything, as far as i'm concerned.

[HenRoc]

Im not personally offended in anyway unless some one were to come up to me and intise a fight by calling me a '******' then yes I would be pissed. Although I have no idea if I had ancestors that were in slavery , I know for a fact that where my dad came from Liberia was founded by free slaves.

Yeah I still feel odd at times..when Im with my gf around here we tend to get alot of stares, to the point where I want to flip out and ask if the person has a problem with it, I know my gf doesn't have any problems what so ever because she loves me for who I am.

And me Im a pretty smart guy when it comes to like small talk involving anything from History you name it and Ill jump right in and give my two cents. I feel sometimes people look at me like I'm dumb (especially at work customers always treat you like your two) but they get taken aback if I snap right back at them.

[NoSloCB7]

getting back to the thread at hand...



yes i feel personally connected. when you realize that slavery in the united states was not that long ago (civil war ended in 1865- 140 years ago; and i add in the u.s. because by many accounts slavery still exists in the world currently)... and jim crow laws (instituted to keep blacks disenfranchised in the south and elsewhere, only after slavery was torn down) were ended with the civil rights act of 1964 which was only 41 years ago... it hasn't been that long.
when georgia and south carolina still want to fly the confederate flag over the state capitol... when jim crow laws, though illegal, are still on the books in georgia... when selma, alabama just elected it's first black mayor 2 years ago...

what did sharecropping come out of? it sprang out of slavery, and existed soley to keep the status quo (keep plantations going)... and those were in existence in the early to mid 20th century... hell, the parents of my grandparents (and thus my great-grandparents) were slaves... it's not that long ago...

as far as reparations, i suppose that's another subject for debate. to people deserve compensations... i'm on the fence on that issue. but i do find it interesting that people find no wrong in giving reparations/restitution to holocaust survivors and their families... and japanese internment camp survivors and their families... so why should it be any different for the survivors of slavery and their families? more a question of philosophy than anything, as far as i'm concerned.

I would like to hear a further explination of why anyone other than actual surviving slaves should recieve reparations...

[h22sparkle]

Well as for me i dont give a shit whats in the past is in the past. Besides there was nothing else to do back then. Shit has changed over the years dramatically. If only shit can be changed over here like it was but now that the holy wayr is here its gonna be hard. see things are gonna take awhile too even mario is bonin the princess and hes italian and shes not see

[uncle_el]

I would like to hear a further explination of why anyone other than actual surviving slaves should recieve reparations...

people other than surviving japanese internment camp members received reparations/restitution for what the u.s. did...

survivors of the holocaust, and their families/dependents, received reparations/restitution from germany...

please note that i never said that anyone should receive reparations/restitution. i just find it interesting that two groups of people who were harmed, 1 group in the u.s. (japanese internment camp survivors) and the other outside of the u.s. (holocaust), both received compensation and generally people are ok with that. but when it comes to slavery in the u.s. (again, slavery still indeed exists today elsewhere in the world), which was in existence from the inception of this country until 1865, people have a problem with it.

again, i stand on the fence on the issue, understanding the reasons for and against, and realizing that the more things change, the more things remain the same.

[Nycxeracer]

I think this topic is valid for discussion, since it involves respectful opinions and non-racist comments. I have two cents to add, at my school there is various clubs for ethnicity and such. The Black club, the asian alliance, the carribean club, but where is the white european club? It's come to me, that this connotation of the "white"= RACIST?! What have we come to in this world, where the term white means bad/evil. Black comedians constantly portay white people as nerds, racists, and overal stick up their asses, and white people usually find this funny. However, why aren't non-black comedians allowed to do the same? Equality? I think not. Also, in the movie TORQUE, although a bad representation, the blacks in the film call the whites cracker and whitey, white boy, etc. The white people call the black people, "black". Is that equality? I feel if we are going to be on the "real" we need equality on all fronts, and stop harboring who we are. Slavery was a horrifying tragedy, no human should have ever endured that, but so was the holocaust, and so were the japanese enternment camps, and so were the italians being hung in Italy in the 1900's (no one ever heard of that I bet). People who harbor on the past and cling to it, will NEVER move forward in this world. Two of my jewish friends never speak of the holocaust, not because it didn't happen, but because they don't want to let hitler accomplish what he wanted to, which is to make jews live in fear and anger. Instead they moved on and perservered. That is the goal of humanity, in my opinion, to move on, and to justify your actions as a human being for the good of humanity in general.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

ps: I'm an italian-american

[ckyskater733]

****

[owequitit]

There have been many attrocities through time, and unfortunately, there will continue to be. People are animals by instinct and we behave as such. Whether we want to admit it or not.

All you can do is learn and move on. Kinda like shooting yourself with a BB gun. Say "OUCH! That HURT" and don't do it again.

I agree that progress is slow, but I think we can all concur that as a whole the world is better than it was even 50 years ago. It takes time to widen narrow minds. A narrow mind isn't about having an opinion, it is about not accepting other's positions and opinions. Anyone can have one, regardless of color or politcal affiliation.

As far as reparations go, I disagree with them completely. Money can't really replace what was lost, nor should it be used to try. The only acceptable solution in a case like that is to fix the problem.

Besides look at the bright side, those people who have the backwards narrow attitude, will be washed away by time. By approximately 2050 the US will be "majority non-majority" and no one group of people will constitute more than about a third of the US population.

If you can't work around for and with people who aren't like you, you will fail.

[owequitit]

Amen Fizzbob. I love Dave Chappelle. He picks on EVERYBODY, not because they aren't like him, but because EVERYBODY does stupid stuff. He is also not afraid to poke at issues that all PC people don't want to touch.

[NoSloCB7]

Damn....after readind all of Fizz's comments I have come to the conclusion that he is one of the most well spoken, educated individuals I know...My hats off to you sir...you have gained my total respect (something that I do not give out easily)

[91ex]

I completly agree with fizz.

heres my $.02 on the whole slavery issue:
Forget about it move on.Theres no way to change it so why dwell on it?

[arrozburner]

sometime people just act like morons...one instnace that still burns me is when i was going to school...i went to usc and one tradition that we had when we were going to play against ucla is put a noose around a stuffed teddy bear that had a ucla t-shirt on and during the pep rally we would burn it in the bon fire...innocent enough right? apparently not because it was cancelled because a certain few felt it drudged up bad memories about slavery and the lynchings in the south...my answer to this was "WTF!?!?!" i would have never put this 2 things together...for gods sake its just a f@cken teddy bear not a human being or anything that remotely resembles one! what did i do? i still kept on with my traditon of dragging a hung bear on my bike while going to class during the rivalry every year. this goes to show you that even the most "enligtened" minds are sometimes the most stupid and closed minded.