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Originally Posted by wittynickname
Because "racism" tends to be treated as if it's only the KKK, it's only David Duke, it's only guys in white hoods leading a mob to lynch someone. But racism happens in a million tiny way too. Obama faced a whole lot of backlash that I don't think he would have faced if he were white. If he was a white man from Hawaii, he wouldn't have spent half of his presidency fighting off claims that he's not American.
Michelle Obama has been everything you'd want from a First Lady--intelligent, eloquent, graceful, funny, down-to-earth, determined to make the country better--and yet listening to these people talk, you'd think she'd made a mockery of her role as First Lady, with how much they can't wait to see her gone. And I doubt there would be so much distaste for her if she wasn't a black woman.
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Right on the money. Racism isn't always overt. But you need to deal with it, and as you said in another post, it is tiring. What is even more tiring is dealing with the people who think that it is defensible and you're wrong for calling them out on their behavior.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
No one (that I'm aware of) is denying that there is rampant, blatant, and despicable racism in the US (as there always has been).
The contention that we're trying to convey is that it is possible to be sick of the preaching from the left without being a racist.
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So we should just shut up and accept their racist attitudes? That may be the dumbest thing I've heard. I guess MLK wasted his time. I guess all those people who said racism ended with Obama's election were right. We're just being over sensitive when Obama is called the "porch money in-chief." That's okay, and we should celebrate the diversity of these ignorant folk expressing their views. It's just good old fashioned colloquial language from their region of the country, so that makes it okay.
The reality is that it isn't okay. And their economic condition is not an excuse for being an ignorant hick. We expect the black and brown components of our society to pick themselves up by the boostraps and better themseleves, but we don't extend that same expectation to the people, because a bunch of rich industrialists offshored their jobs? You say that these people get tired of their condition, and their behaviors extend from that condition, then when are they going to do something about improving their own condition. Or is that the left's fault as well?
I recently spent 10 days in Louisiana at a government facility for training weapons specialists. I had opportunity to speak, at length, with the locals about their situation and how the local economy was doing. They went on and on about the n*gger in the White House taking away their jobs, that the oil treatment plants were shutting down because they were antiquated and it cost too much to produce fuel, and that the whole region was depressed. They could pay their bills and they could power or heat/cool their homes because everything in that area runs on oil. I ignored the racial epitaph and instead focused on their economic woes, asking them if they had investigated alternative means to making money and generating power. This was a site where you could see the Mississippi River so I asked about power generation from the river. I asked about starting up a company that would build vertical impeller turbines that could use the continual flow of one of the largest rivers in the world to generate clean renewable energy. They looked at me like I had three heads. I was told that wouldn't work because the people didn't have the education nor the money. When I suggested they approach the government and look for development monies I was again given an excuse and then accused of being a Yankee who just didn't understand Louisiana, they were better off being on welfare than asking for help!?!?
So how do you deal with woeful ignorance when they won't listen to reason? When they won't think? When they won't innovate (innovation isn't only a quality owned by the left)? When they won't help themselves get into the 21st century? Are we just to accept that these folks are everything they call blacks and Mexicans (lazy, unmotivated and cheating the system)? We just accept them and their bad (nee racist) behaviors because that's the way they are? I really hope you Albertans are so accepting the next time Quebec starts squawking about what a raw deal they are getting, how they need to be treated differently, and you f'n Anglophones don't get them.