7 ms·

as a white male who grew up in the south, thank you for writing this intelligently and highlighting these issues. its not a race problem, its a cultural proble

as a white male who grew up in the south, thank you for writing this intelligently and highlighting these issues. its not a race problem, its a cultural problem. Political Correctness prevents us from collectively helping the predominantly black victims of a large sub-culture of black America that celebrates crime, dehumanizes women and gays, views educational/career achievement as betrayal of black identity, and tolerate men who willingly abandon their families.

throwaway_a 13y ago
Here comes my throwaway account for opinions that I suspect sway _WAY OUT_ of HN's comfort zone but needs to be said. I think the term "black culture" is in itself a problem because it blames the victim. The term "culture" makes people think it's something that a group of people chose for themselves. "black culture" isn't the same as "asian culture" or "irish culture". This thing we're all calling "black culture" is the result of slavery and continued racism in America. These are people who had their identity(African culture) ripped from them and left in a world of suffering and oppression. The result is what you see today. If I had a magicwand that could go back in time and remove the whole slavery thing and today's casual & institutionalized racism, you wouldn't be seeing the problems black communities have today. At least it wouldn't be anymore than any other group.
- jessedhillon 13y ago
  It's a sad place where someone has to create a sock puppet to say "I think slavery had complicated, long-term cultural effects which are often dismissed without a second look, and I think they bear closer inspection."
  - throwaway_a 13y ago
    Indeed. Obama's speech speaks right to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHBdZWbncXI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHBdZWbncXI Everyone, including(maybe even especially) black americans, should watch this speech. Anyone who feels Obama is wrong after watching the video should closely examine themselves for why that is and what beliefs they carry that the speech conflicts with.
    - Anechoic 13y ago
      Everyone, including(maybe even especially) black americans, should watch this speech There is nothing in that speech which is not already common-knowledge or thoroughly discussed among blacks.
      - throwaway_a 13y ago
        True. At the least, it's just to let them know that the first black president understands their plight. That they're not inferior or prone to violence by birth(a few really do think that). That in itself is worth something I think. On a sidenote, the fact that my comments aren't getting downvoted shows that there's hope too. Maybe I didn't give HN enough credit and could have used my main HN account to post.
- newnewnew 13y ago
  Africa ain't exactly paradise, either.
  - throwaway_a 13y ago
    This is a troll'ish comment that has nothing to do with the current discussion. Or what are you trying to imply here?
    - newnewnew 13y ago
      You hypothesize that the American black population is suffering because their African culture has been taken away from them. I'm merely pointing out that African culture doesn't seem to have built many thriving populations anywhere. American black culture wasn't nearly so dysfunctional before the rise of the welfare state and the War on Drugs. Illegitimacy was under 30% in 1960 (compared to about 80% today). That has a lot of knock-on effects for other social ills.
      - throwaway_a 13y ago
        I'm looking at your link, its related links and your comment history. I think I see where it's all going..... I simply say that it's a combination of identity loss and racism. The War on Drugs, particularly weed, was pretty much started purely because of greed & racism. http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/ http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal... When alcohol was attempted to be made illegal, too many white people got mad so that law had to be removed. Since weed mostly effects non-whites, it's illegal to this day. Put them in jail, ruin the background-check, we already know a resume with a black name doesn't get called back as often as a different name - all good for continued welfare. Nobody is saying there'd be zero problems without racism, but it wouldn't be so disproportionately bad. Africa itself also has a troubled history of slavery & other countries colonizing it. Also, the greed and corruption that comes from having diamonds & oil is still a problem today. It is also known that US dollars are funding those military. Also note that there are some parts of Africa that are not bad to live in, you just never see that on American TV. Of course it takes two for that to work, one to give the money and the other to accept it - but greed has millions of dollars & guns and everyone else doesn't, so... I will end here saying that if I had my magicwand-timemachine, went back in time and removed slavery and somehow the corruption related to the country's vast natural resources, things wouldn't be like this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_resources_of_Africa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_resources_of_Africa And a quick side-note, there was a radio-host. A white woman I believe. They talked about gun-law reform. That's another thing that gets minorities in trouble. She made the comment that if someone started a campaign to get all black males in Oakland signed up with the NRA and obtain a gun legally, gun-laws would be changed immediately. Why don't minorities sign up with NRA to begin with? I don't know, but whatever the reason is, that's why gun-law hasn't changed. I believe that to be very true and I think laws in America are generally set in a way that lowers the likelihood that a non-minority will break them. It probably wasn't that way on purpose at first, but once some people noticed the money from prisons and correction-facilities - combined with American's fear of immigrants... the success of war on drugs in terms of who's getting ruined by it... again not saying there would be zero problems, but the disproportionate levels e see today wouldn't be happening. Don't forget the reason why a lot of black people are even in America to begin with...
jessedhillon 13y ago
Ah yes, such courage. No white southern male has ever had the daring to cobble together soundbite-derived factoids and unabashed generalizations into a complete theory about how everything could be fixed if The Blacks would just stop blaming everyone else and hiding from The Facts. This is certainly the first time I've seen it.
- JPKab 13y ago
  You do not know me, and I resent your implication that my statements were assembled from soundbites. At no point did I say anything remotely like what you interpreted. I don't at all think "the Blacks" are blaming everyone else, and I said no such thing. You have clearly made assumptions about me based on me being a "white southern male" and judged my statements based on your own caricatures. If I'm the racist you accuse me of being, then why am I married to an Asian woman? Why did I grow up attending black churches (which is where I first heard members of the black community in my town speaking out against the "acting white" taunting)? Why was I the best man in my best friend's wedding recently, a wedding between a black man and an Asian American woman? The same black man who is a fucking pillar of our community and was taunted, beaten, and bullied for "acting white" by awful human beings who happened to be black. I'm not an idiot. I don't blame "the Blacks" for the awful and continuing effects of 400 years of slavery combined with 100+ years of Jim Crow. Any cultural/ethnic group that survives a 500 year rape is going to have horrific and lasting effects to deal with. But hey, I'm just a southern white man, so let me go pick up my banjo, and find my sheets for the klan rally tonight. We're gettin us some of that lectricity so we's a celebratin'. Please, go on and enjoy your day feeling pompous and superior. I doubt you've ever even spent the night in a black person's house, let alone attended a black church, but you sir, are, by nature of your not being southern, more culturally enlightened than me. You smack of being the typical suburban raised white person who was raised in a de facto segregated community, and now does whatever he can to distance himself from it by pointing at others and calling them racist.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - jessedhillon 13y ago

throwaway_a 13y ago

Here comes my throwaway account for opinions that I suspect sway _WAY OUT_ of HN's comfort zone but needs to be said. I think the term "black culture" is in itself a problem because it blames the victim. The term "culture" makes people think it's something that a group of people chose for themselves. "black culture" isn't the same as "asian culture" or "irish culture". This thing we're all calling "black culture" is the result of slavery and continued racism in America. These are people who had their identity(African culture) ripped from them and left in a world of suffering and oppression. The result is what you see today. If I had a magicwand that could go back in time and remove the whole slavery thing and today's casual & institutionalized racism, you wouldn't be seeing the problems black communities have today. At least it wouldn't be anymore than any other group.

jessedhillon 13y ago
It's a sad place where someone has to create a sock puppet to say "I think slavery had complicated, long-term cultural effects which are often dismissed without a second look, and I think they bear closer inspection."
- throwaway_a 13y ago
  Indeed. Obama's speech speaks right to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHBdZWbncXI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHBdZWbncXI Everyone, including(maybe even especially) black americans, should watch this speech. Anyone who feels Obama is wrong after watching the video should closely examine themselves for why that is and what beliefs they carry that the speech conflicts with.
  - Anechoic 13y ago
    Everyone, including(maybe even especially) black americans, should watch this speech There is nothing in that speech which is not already common-knowledge or thoroughly discussed among blacks.
    - throwaway_a 13y ago
      True. At the least, it's just to let them know that the first black president understands their plight. That they're not inferior or prone to violence by birth(a few really do think that). That in itself is worth something I think. On a sidenote, the fact that my comments aren't getting downvoted shows that there's hope too. Maybe I didn't give HN enough credit and could have used my main HN account to post.
newnewnew 13y ago
Africa ain't exactly paradise, either.
- throwaway_a 13y ago
  This is a troll'ish comment that has nothing to do with the current discussion. Or what are you trying to imply here?
  - newnewnew 13y ago
    You hypothesize that the American black population is suffering because their African culture has been taken away from them. I'm merely pointing out that African culture doesn't seem to have built many thriving populations anywhere. American black culture wasn't nearly so dysfunctional before the rise of the welfare state and the War on Drugs. Illegitimacy was under 30% in 1960 (compared to about 80% today). That has a lot of knock-on effects for other social ills.
    - throwaway_a 13y ago
      I'm looking at your link, its related links and your comment history. I think I see where it's all going..... I simply say that it's a combination of identity loss and racism. The War on Drugs, particularly weed, was pretty much started purely because of greed & racism. http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/ http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal... When alcohol was attempted to be made illegal, too many white people got mad so that law had to be removed. Since weed mostly effects non-whites, it's illegal to this day. Put them in jail, ruin the background-check, we already know a resume with a black name doesn't get called back as often as a different name - all good for continued welfare. Nobody is saying there'd be zero problems without racism, but it wouldn't be so disproportionately bad. Africa itself also has a troubled history of slavery & other countries colonizing it. Also, the greed and corruption that comes from having diamonds & oil is still a problem today. It is also known that US dollars are funding those military. Also note that there are some parts of Africa that are not bad to live in, you just never see that on American TV. Of course it takes two for that to work, one to give the money and the other to accept it - but greed has millions of dollars & guns and everyone else doesn't, so... I will end here saying that if I had my magicwand-timemachine, went back in time and removed slavery and somehow the corruption related to the country's vast natural resources, things wouldn't be like this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_resources_of_Africa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_resources_of_Africa And a quick side-note, there was a radio-host. A white woman I believe. They talked about gun-law reform. That's another thing that gets minorities in trouble. She made the comment that if someone started a campaign to get all black males in Oakland signed up with the NRA and obtain a gun legally, gun-laws would be changed immediately. Why don't minorities sign up with NRA to begin with? I don't know, but whatever the reason is, that's why gun-law hasn't changed. I believe that to be very true and I think laws in America are generally set in a way that lowers the likelihood that a non-minority will break them. It probably wasn't that way on purpose at first, but once some people noticed the money from prisons and correction-facilities - combined with American's fear of immigrants... the success of war on drugs in terms of who's getting ruined by it... again not saying there would be zero problems, but the disproportionate levels e see today wouldn't be happening. Don't forget the reason why a lot of black people are even in America to begin with...

jessedhillon 13y ago

Ah yes, such courage. No white southern male has ever had the daring to cobble together soundbite-derived factoids and unabashed generalizations into a complete theory about how everything could be fixed if The Blacks would just stop blaming everyone else and hiding from The Facts. This is certainly the first time I've seen it.

JPKab 13y ago
You do not know me, and I resent your implication that my statements were assembled from soundbites. At no point did I say anything remotely like what you interpreted. I don't at all think "the Blacks" are blaming everyone else, and I said no such thing. You have clearly made assumptions about me based on me being a "white southern male" and judged my statements based on your own caricatures. If I'm the racist you accuse me of being, then why am I married to an Asian woman? Why did I grow up attending black churches (which is where I first heard members of the black community in my town speaking out against the "acting white" taunting)? Why was I the best man in my best friend's wedding recently, a wedding between a black man and an Asian American woman? The same black man who is a fucking pillar of our community and was taunted, beaten, and bullied for "acting white" by awful human beings who happened to be black. I'm not an idiot. I don't blame "the Blacks" for the awful and continuing effects of 400 years of slavery combined with 100+ years of Jim Crow. Any cultural/ethnic group that survives a 500 year rape is going to have horrific and lasting effects to deal with. But hey, I'm just a southern white man, so let me go pick up my banjo, and find my sheets for the klan rally tonight. We're gettin us some of that lectricity so we's a celebratin'. Please, go on and enjoy your day feeling pompous and superior. I doubt you've ever even spent the night in a black person's house, let alone attended a black church, but you sir, are, by nature of your not being southern, more culturally enlightened than me. You smack of being the typical suburban raised white person who was raised in a de facto segregated community, and now does whatever he can to distance himself from it by pointing at others and calling them racist.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jessedhillon 13y ago