It is called get out of the Hood, even if you have to leave everything behind, it is called don't break the law and you won't have to make bail, a personal choise, its called not having to have the latest name brand, bling, Buy what you can afford. Hell where do you think I started life? the most money my old man ever made in a year was, $14,000, and he raise two kids and ran a farm on that, and retired at 62 and didn't have to work a day, for the rest of his life after that. No, its was because they sacrificed, did without, that they became success's, do you know about Chris Gardner, a working class dad who found himself pulled toward poverty by a run of bad luck and bad choices? Mr. Gardner started out in the hods of Milwaukee, single mother, no father, raised in string of foster care homes, when his mother ended up in jail. Read his story, what he did without, to get to where he is today, its called guts, getting it done, you can only count on yourself because the cavalry ain't going to make it in time.
I don't need to discredit Wright. The clear space around him is a result of people recognising his claim about AIDS, for example, is one based on crackpot ideology. Even your hero, Obama, has beaten a hasty retreat. Hell, I wouldn't even call that a retreat. I'd call it a mad dash to distance himself and state his disagreement and rejection of Wright's claims. So who was Wright borrowing from when he first made those statements? Jakob Segal, a German biologist who wrote a book titled "AIDS: USA Home-Made Evil", where he claimed that the HIV virus was manufactured in a labratory and then distributed to inmates in US prisons to then spread it to the population at large? Segal was later discovered to be a disinformation agent for the Soviets. No, he borrowed his divisive statement about AIDS and the US Government wanting to destroy the black race from Horowitz, who has been debunked when his theories were found to have come from the Soviet's Anti-American propaganda machine.(Source)
1. Not everyone can manage to survive if they get out of the hood. You only hear about the exceptional ones that managed to make it, there are many failures. 2. As I mentioned in my earlier post, the bail issue happens to lots of people who didn't even commit crimes. There is income discrimination in NYC where lower income citizens get treated terribly by certain police officers. 3. My parents were much the same way, immigrating to the US and raising me, my older sister and my older brother by working their asses off and making sure my sister and I got a good education. But again, the odds certainly weren't stacked in their favor. But also note, I'm not necessarily saying they should be, just pointing out that they're not. There are still things holding people back. 4. Mr. Gardner is one of the exceptional ones. Do you know why you even know his name? Because there aren't that many like him who could pull it off. It takes guts, yes, but definitely a lot of luck too.
Actually he has a better chance than a White Man, something called Quotas, Hiring Preferences, Preference in Promotion, all programs instituted since the 1960tys, in the civilian world and the military. But you still have to show up at the job, on time, everyday, when scheduled. The Obamas are proof of that.
But that is where it starts, if you don't change your circumstance, nothing else will change either. Again, if you don't change you circumstance, nothing else will change, if you stay where you can be victimized, you will continue to be victimized. Your parents didn't let it hold them back, they changed their circumstance, and they did it in even a harder way than required of someone in the Hood, they came to a entirely new country to change those circumstances, congratulations to them, learn from them, and their model of life. No Mr. Gardner isn't a exception, he made the exception, he had no more breaks in life than anyone else, he just made those breaks by his own actions, he change his circumstances, he drug his own ass up by his own will power to achieve, even if he hadn't went to being a millionaire, he would have succeeded in building a comfortable life for him and his son, he didn't make excuses, he didn't accept what life tryed to shit on him, he just kept moving forward, up and out from the ghetto, to poverty, to success, will power, not spending anything he didn't have to until he could afford to.
Thanks for the kudos to my parents. I'm very proud of them. And for the most part I do agree with most of the sentiment in your post, except for that bit about Gardner not being exceptional. Success stories are success stories because they're above the fold, they managed to do things that other people couldn't, or wouldn't, do. But barring that, I don't see why you and I should be disagreeing. All I'm pointing out is that it's not a level playing field (again, not saying it should be one) and that's something you point out as well except you're calling them bad circumstances. That's what I refer to when I talk about things "holding people back".
The only thing holding those people back, is their acceptance of those circumstances, change the circumstance, as your parents did, roll the dice, there is nothing to loose if your living in a shit hole by moving out of the hole. As I said, even if Mr. Gardner didn't make it above the fold he would have made a good life for his son and himself, he didn't accept the circumstance, no one ever should accept the circumstance, move forward, always forward, just do it.
you wouldn't know an intelligent comment about this topic if it jumped up and bit you on the ass. and i cannot respond in an intelligent manner to a unintelligent unknowing comment.
Buffalo, should black people just forget that slavery and racism ever happened and just concentrate on working hard?
Name a black who is a slave in the U.S. today?, name a Black Grand Father or Grand Mother who was a slave in their life time? Tell me how by concentrating of the fact that there were black slaves, does anything to help the black in America today, today is what matters, how many generations removed do you have to be from that event, until you stop using it as a excuse for your's and the black cultures failure today? http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/..._inconvenient_truths_about_the_us_and_slavery ps: slavery is still being practced in Africa and the Middle East. America fought a long and bloody war to end slavery. 80% 0f the Blacks today decend from immigrants to America after 1865.
Yes, that's exactly what they should do. All the slave owners are dead. All the former slaves are dead. Who are they going to blame for the enslavement of their ancestors? Most African Americans are of mixed ancestry, the descendents of slave owners and slaves. Should they blame themselves? Furthermore, many "whites" in this country are decendents of people who weren't even Americans during slavery. On a more practical note, what benefit do they achieve by wallowing in self pity over the treatment of their distant ancestors? Does it motivate them to strive to do their best and achieve, or does it serve as an excuse to not even try? And what's the best they could hope for to "redress" the sins committed against their forebearers? Some bullshit reparations check? Like the "rebate" that's going out now, it would soon be spent and gone with no real change in the lives of most blacks. No, real change must come from within. If you keep blaming others for your problems, you'll never get around to solving them.
Is that meant like 80% of Blacks in the USA are are descended from black immigrants who came to the USA after 1865 in the same way that 90% of Blacks in the USA are are descended from partially from whites or does the "80% 0f the Blacks today descend from immigrants to America after 1865" mean that 80% of blacks in the USA today are not descended at all from the black slaves who were in the USA prior to 1865?
as long as people like you continue to deny that slavery has had a lasting impact on the african american population things can never move to be equal
That's pure bull !!!!! What you're talking about is nothing but holding a grudge against people who are long dead - and extending that to the living. A friend of mine had a grandfather who was killed by Germans in WW-II (and there may be others here in the same situation). Should he be denouncing Germany (and they started the war, remember) and hold it against all the Germans living today????? That would make just as little sense as what you are saying!!
