Golden Anninversary of "I Have a Dream"

From your link:

Forty percent of blacks say there is a lot of discrimination against African-Americans today, compared to just 15 percent of whites who say that.

And in both instances it is a minority of those asked who say that there is a lot of discrimination against blacks in our Union in the here and now.

Not even a majority of blacks think we have a racist society today in our Union. On what basis can the allegation that we do be supported given this reality?

I read the piece as a perception discrepancy.....whites have DIFFICULTY in understanding
or there is a LACK of personal experience when it comes to discrimination and how it feels if it
is pointed towards you.

Legislation of human behavior has never worked........as in NEVER. After 50+ years, legions of lawyers and $ 2 T in public wealth......no progress......ask why.....

homeagain wrote: I read the piece as a perception discrepancy.....whites have DIFFICULTY in understanding
or there is a LACK of personal experience when it comes to discrimination and how it feels if it
is pointed towards you.

Regardless of how you read the piece, how can it be maintained that the society in which we live is a racist one when even a majority of the minority population that is most subjected to racism doesn't believe this to be the case?

Regardless of how you read the piece, how can it be maintained that the society in which we live is a racist one when even a majority of the minority population that is most subjected to racism doesn't believe this to be the case?

Very easy, when the goal is to perpetuate division.

One of my FB friends of a friend posted about her trip to that march those 50 years ago.
But now she was concerned about the 40% of black men with records and new voter ID rules.
The voter ID rules are just like King wanted, black or white, male or female, you need to bring photo ID.
And same deal with the laws, don't want to get a record? Don't commit crimes.
People being judged on the content of their character instead of the color of thier skin is what MLK dreamed of and the first African-American President proudly admitted cocaine and other drug use.

PrintSmith wrote:

homeagain wrote: I read the piece as a perception discrepancy.....whites have DIFFICULTY in understanding
or there is a LACK of personal experience when it comes to discrimination and how it feels if it
is pointed towards you.

Regardless of how you read the piece, how can it be maintained that the society in which we live is a racist one when even a majority of the minority population that is most subjected to racism doesn't believe this to be the case?

Our DIFFERENCES will NOT be resolved......I witnessed a decided DISCONNECT between blacks/
whites in the 1996(?) Jena Six case....watching a panel of townspeople (black and white)discuss
the SAME incident.....the divide was dis concerning and was an eye-opener to a reality that
experiences differ VASTLY among the populace.....when it comes to racism/discrimination.

homeagain wrote:

PrintSmith wrote:

homeagain wrote: I read the piece as a perception discrepancy.....whites have DIFFICULTY in understanding
or there is a LACK of personal experience when it comes to discrimination and how it feels if it
is pointed towards you.

Regardless of how you read the piece, how can it be maintained that the society in which we live is a racist one when even a majority of the minority population that is most subjected to racism doesn't believe this to be the case?

Our DIFFERENCES will NOT be resolved......I witnessed a decided DISCONNECT between blacks/
whites in the 1996(?) Jena Six case....watching a panel of townspeople (black and white)discuss
the SAME incident.....the divide was dis concerning and was an eye-opener to a reality that
experiences differ VASTLY among the populace.....when it comes to racism/discrimination.

Quite the pessimist aren't you?
You were seeing a lot of pumped up people.

But you may have a point, I read in The Week last week that 35% of whites claim no minority friends and 35% of blacks claim no white friends.

Fred, I don't believe it was pumped up,for the most part, did not see lots of drama....ONLY people
who saw an incident in a TOTALLY separate light and related their thoughts in an INTELLIGENT,
all be it, different way.

Which is what happens when you try and apply yesterday's standards to today's realities. Since you are so familiar with the Jena Six, you will recall the nooses in the tree, yes? You will also recall that a black teacher at the school recalled seeing black kids and white kids playing with the nooses, right? That the nooses were a prank on a couple of members of the rodeo team and those responsible for them had absolutely no idea of the symbolism involved because that environment had never existed in their world, right? But that didn't stop others from transferring their symbolism onto it and making it into something it never was to begin with, right?

This is not Mississippi in the late 1950's anymore. What you had back then was institutional racism that was instituted by the government of a few States. Even if a white person wanted to let their black patrons dine at the same counter as their white patrons did they were prohibited from doing that by the laws that were in force at the time. Regardless of how wrong the proprietor of the establishment may have felt such practices were, they were obligated to follow them because it was the law that it had to be that way.

That society no longer exists in our Union today, which is why teenagers in Jena had absolutely no idea of the symbolism involved with the nooses in the tree. That is a dark part of our history, not a dark part of our present. I'm sure the professional black race baiters would like us all to believe it is still a part of our society today, but the reality is that this just isn't so. When I was a wee lad, and this was in the 1960's here in Colorado mind you, every classroom I ever sat in had kids of every race and color in them. I'm over 50 years old and by the time I was in primary school segregated classrooms had been abolished. I've never known what it was like to attend a segregated school because they didn't exist in my lifetime. Again, I am over 50 years old and I have never once seen a "White Only" sign or a "Colored" drinking fountain except in history books. That is our Union's past, not our Union's present or future. Time to wake up and join the 21st century home.