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Because things haven't really changed, deep down. Whites as a whole still put themselves first, deservedly or not. Whites who gentrify neighborhoods are moving

Because things haven't really changed, deep down. Whites as a whole still put themselves first, deservedly or not. Whites who gentrify neighborhoods are moving up in the world at the expense of blacks who have no choice but to move out. In the previously black Brooklyn neighborhood where my ex-girlfriend lives, where whites now equal blacks in numbers, the playgrounds of public schools are filled with a sea of black children, and I have to look hard to find the 3 or 4 white kids. Where are all the white kids? In private schools. Blacks left behind, stranded, yet again. Any chance that the public schools will get better when the those with power have abandoned them? Fat chance. Blacks, you are entirely on your own to level the American playing field. It's the law of the jungle. It's all about power and self-interest. The Matthew Effect is the true invisible hand. The numbers of whites who speak out against police brutality against blacks is far too few. As MLK said, > It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, "Wait on time.” I could go on and on, but how do I do battle with cognitive dissonance? Just look at the top four comments under this story about racism and slavery and moral failure. One focuses on the use of "oddly". The next laments the lack of photos. The next wonders how scupping the rudder makes sense. The next takes from it a lesson on the difficulty of colonizing another planet. This is not at root a color problem: roles reversed blacks would behave the same as whites. The problem is that those in a position of privilege and power choose to use their privilege and power to amass more, quite unwilling to sacrifice much in the name of fairness and sticking up for the under-powered, the underprivileged. Except perhaps with some Facebook likes on anti-racism articles.

pc86 11y ago
> Whites as a whole still put themselves first ... Whites who gentrify neighborhoods are moving up in the world at the expense of blacks It's good to know that you are able to speak for "whites as a whole," whatever that racist trope means. My question was what a French slave ship in the 1760s has to do with modern day black Americans. Your response is "white people are racist" and nonsense anecdotes about gentrification and public schools.
TheMagicHorsey 11y ago
Yeah, that is why affirmative action is still a policy, even though whites control the educational system. That is why companies all go out of their way to make diversity hires. What a bunch of BS you talk. Have you actually worked in a bay area tech company? Everyone goes out of their way to hire underrepresented minorities, to the extent that if you are a startup trying to hire an underrepresented minority you won't be able to find any competent minorities left to hire--they are all snapped up by the big guys. You end up with almost all Indians, Chinese, and White males if you try to get competent engineers at a startup.
- dang 11y ago
  > What a bunch of BS you talk. This comment breaks the HN guidelines. Please (re-)read and follow them when commenting here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
  - innocentoldguy 11y ago
    Doesn't your comment also break the guidelines? I believe you're supposed to simply flag the parent comment, not comment on the inappropriateness of his or her comment.
    - eropple 11y ago
      dang runs the site.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- podgib 11y ago
  Bay area tech companies are hardly representative of hiring practises (or of anything really) in the economy at large
  - 11y ago
deleted 11y ago
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deleted 11y ago
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innocentoldguy 11y ago
I don't mean any insult, eevilspock, and I think you make some good points, but I think your comment is a bit myopic and doesn't address the full problem here in America. I currently live in America, where I'm considered the privileged majority, but that hasn't always been the case. I've also spent a large portion of my life in homogeneous places like India and Japan, where I was definitely a minority. In fact, I rarely ran into another caucasian in Japan, outside of Tokyo, and I never once saw another caucasian during my time in India. I was the only one around. You simply cannot be a smaller minority than that. In Japan, I was a "gaijin," or outsider. I could not get a loan on my own, so I could never buy a car. I could not vote. I was banned from even walking into some establishments, so I've experienced segregation first hand. I could not rent an apartment unless a native was willing to take legal responsibility for "the great white ape." I was also illiterate there. Nevertheless, I succeeded. I mingled with the people who lived around me. I learned to speak the language. I worked. I made Japanese friends. No, I was not allowed to enjoy every aspect of life in Japan, and yes, I was actively discriminated against at times and there were no laws to protect me. Some people liked me and some people hated me, and I was physically attacked on more than one occasion simply because I was different. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my life in Japan, I worked within the system provided, overlooked the things that weren't fair, and I succeeded. I think the biggest problem for black people in America isn't white privilege, but rather the victimhood mentality that many have, which has largely been propagated by the Democrat party and other organizations for the sole purpose of gaining wealth and power. In Japan, I got up and worked within an unfair system and made it work for me, but it seems in America, many black people sit around, shouting catchy chants, waiting for someone else to solve their problems for them. I know it is politically incorrect to tell someone, especially someone who is a member of a minority group, to get off their ass and do for themselves, but honestly, if you don't get up off your ass and do for yourself, you're never going to get anywhere. It may not be fair, but it certainly is fact. Cognitive dissonance is defined as "The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change." I cannot think of a greater example of cognitive dissonance than to want something, to think that the world owes it to you, and that, because you think you deserve it, someone is going to give it to you. When has that ever worked? Indeed, the behavior is inconsistent with the desired outcome and will always fail. In fact, we, as a society, publicly denounce white people who behave this way and call them "white trash," yet we embrace it in minorities as a reasonable pairing of behavior and expectation? Why? How is that fair or even remotely intelligent? Such attitudes are childish and are revealed as such by the many noble, intelligent, and highly successful black men and women that live throughout America. Regarding law enforcement, for every murderer in uniform who shoots a black man in the back, there is a black man who attacks law enforcement, hoping to brute force his way out of an arrest. Yes, there is a problem, but it isn't a single-faceted one. I do agree that the white community should speak out more and that more bad police officers should be fired and imprisoned. On the other hand, the black community needs to speak out more against the thuggery and murder that is taking place in their own communities, often times against their own people. Finally, I think your statement regarding those in positions of privilege and power using that position to amass more is inaccurate. For one thing, it assumes that wealth is finite. It isn't. Just because I earn a nice thing through the rewards of my labor doesn't mean that I've taken away the right or ability of someone else, regardless of color, to do the same. We can all succeed. Second, it offers a platform of failure, which deceives people and keeps them from living up to their full potential. Why deny someone that pleasure based solely on the ever-retreating carrot of hand-out promises? It is dehumanizing, in my opinion. Why eschew "white priviledge," then turn around and say, "The only way you can succeed is if we, the majority, give you success?" It is a lie! All I can say—from my own personal experiences, not only a minority, but also as an illiterate one—is that if you see your neighbor has something nicer than you, asking them how they succeeded and then working to replicate that success will get you a lot further than kicking and screaming and crying into your political pillow will. I succeeded in spite of the discrimination against me. I did not allow myself—and again, I was alone and I had no community to support me—to be crippled by it. Fortunately, there are many noble black men and women across America who have done the same. I think the best thing the black community could do for themselves would be to implement and replicate that template of success far and wide.

pc86 11y ago

> Whites as a whole still put themselves first ... Whites who gentrify neighborhoods are moving up in the world at the expense of blacks It's good to know that you are able to speak for "whites as a whole," whatever that racist trope means. My question was what a French slave ship in the 1760s has to do with modern day black Americans. Your response is "white people are racist" and nonsense anecdotes about gentrification and public schools.

TheMagicHorsey 11y ago

Yeah, that is why affirmative action is still a policy, even though whites control the educational system. That is why companies all go out of their way to make diversity hires. What a bunch of BS you talk. Have you actually worked in a bay area tech company? Everyone goes out of their way to hire underrepresented minorities, to the extent that if you are a startup trying to hire an underrepresented minority you won't be able to find any competent minorities left to hire--they are all snapped up by the big guys. You end up with almost all Indians, Chinese, and White males if you try to get competent engineers at a startup.

dang 11y ago
> What a bunch of BS you talk. This comment breaks the HN guidelines. Please (re-)read and follow them when commenting here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
- innocentoldguy 11y ago
  Doesn't your comment also break the guidelines? I believe you're supposed to simply flag the parent comment, not comment on the inappropriateness of his or her comment.
  - eropple 11y ago
    dang runs the site.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
podgib 11y ago
Bay area tech companies are hardly representative of hiring practises (or of anything really) in the economy at large
- 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

innocentoldguy 11y ago

I don't mean any insult, eevilspock, and I think you make some good points, but I think your comment is a bit myopic and doesn't address the full problem here in America. I currently live in America, where I'm considered the privileged majority, but that hasn't always been the case. I've also spent a large portion of my life in homogeneous places like India and Japan, where I was definitely a minority. In fact, I rarely ran into another caucasian in Japan, outside of Tokyo, and I never once saw another caucasian during my time in India. I was the only one around. You simply cannot be a smaller minority than that. In Japan, I was a "gaijin," or outsider. I could not get a loan on my own, so I could never buy a car. I could not vote. I was banned from even walking into some establishments, so I've experienced segregation first hand. I could not rent an apartment unless a native was willing to take legal responsibility for "the great white ape." I was also illiterate there. Nevertheless, I succeeded. I mingled with the people who lived around me. I learned to speak the language. I worked. I made Japanese friends. No, I was not allowed to enjoy every aspect of life in Japan, and yes, I was actively discriminated against at times and there were no laws to protect me. Some people liked me and some people hated me, and I was physically attacked on more than one occasion simply because I was different. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my life in Japan, I worked within the system provided, overlooked the things that weren't fair, and I succeeded. I think the biggest problem for black people in America isn't white privilege, but rather the victimhood mentality that many have, which has largely been propagated by the Democrat party and other organizations for the sole purpose of gaining wealth and power. In Japan, I got up and worked within an unfair system and made it work for me, but it seems in America, many black people sit around, shouting catchy chants, waiting for someone else to solve their problems for them. I know it is politically incorrect to tell someone, especially someone who is a member of a minority group, to get off their ass and do for themselves, but honestly, if you don't get up off your ass and do for yourself, you're never going to get anywhere. It may not be fair, but it certainly is fact. Cognitive dissonance is defined as "The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change." I cannot think of a greater example of cognitive dissonance than to want something, to think that the world owes it to you, and that, because you think you deserve it, someone is going to give it to you. When has that ever worked? Indeed, the behavior is inconsistent with the desired outcome and will always fail. In fact, we, as a society, publicly denounce white people who behave this way and call them "white trash," yet we embrace it in minorities as a reasonable pairing of behavior and expectation? Why? How is that fair or even remotely intelligent? Such attitudes are childish and are revealed as such by the many noble, intelligent, and highly successful black men and women that live throughout America. Regarding law enforcement, for every murderer in uniform who shoots a black man in the back, there is a black man who attacks law enforcement, hoping to brute force his way out of an arrest. Yes, there is a problem, but it isn't a single-faceted one. I do agree that the white community should speak out more and that more bad police officers should be fired and imprisoned. On the other hand, the black community needs to speak out more against the thuggery and murder that is taking place in their own communities, often times against their own people. Finally, I think your statement regarding those in positions of privilege and power using that position to amass more is inaccurate. For one thing, it assumes that wealth is finite. It isn't. Just because I earn a nice thing through the rewards of my labor doesn't mean that I've taken away the right or ability of someone else, regardless of color, to do the same. We can all succeed. Second, it offers a platform of failure, which deceives people and keeps them from living up to their full potential. Why deny someone that pleasure based solely on the ever-retreating carrot of hand-out promises? It is dehumanizing, in my opinion. Why eschew "white priviledge," then turn around and say, "The only way you can succeed is if we, the majority, give you success?" It is a lie! All I can say—from my own personal experiences, not only a minority, but also as an illiterate one—is that if you see your neighbor has something nicer than you, asking them how they succeeded and then working to replicate that success will get you a lot further than kicking and screaming and crying into your political pillow will. I succeeded in spite of the discrimination against me. I did not allow myself—and again, I was alone and I had no community to support me—to be crippled by it. Fortunately, there are many noble black men and women across America who have done the same. I think the best thing the black community could do for themselves would be to implement and replicate that template of success far and wide.