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 i

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.