Black Lives Matter is an honorable movement and is in no way racist

Nothing happens in a vacuum. So what? There have been many millions of people that have lived in terrible situations and have never harmed anyone. There are people around the world whose lives are unimaginably worse than pretty much anyone in America's and they manage to live virtuous lives. I don't think circumstances excuse behavior beyond certain well defined exceptions (like self-defense, for example). Being poor is not a license to steal. Being called names is not a license to assault. I don't believe personal acts happen in a vacuum, I believe they are a result of free will and the more adverse the circumstance the more character is required to make the right choice.

In some instances yes, in others no. Ultimately large corporations like banks and insurance companies tend to care primarily about one color, and it is not black or white.

Where did I pretend that? Slavery was practiced in America 240 years ago, so it would be quite hard to say the Constitution applied equally to everyone at that time.

I don't think two wrongs make a right. If someone robs me, I am not given license to go rob someone else to make up for it. We should have had equal application from the founding. We did not. Every year that we did not was a mistake. We should not continue to make the same mistake once we recognize it.

Actually, I want equal application of the laws in all circumstances. The same rules should apply to search a rich person's house as a poor person's. The same rules should apply in getting a liquor license whether or not you know someone on the liquor control board. The same rules should apply in determining what school your kid goes to whether or not you know someone on the school board. The same rules should apply if you are Bear Sterns or Lehman Brothers when the financial crisis hits. Nobody makes threads about those issues, so you don't see me commenting on them. People make race threads, so you see me commenting there.

If you think I want to maintain the status quo in this country, you haven't been paying attention to my posts after all.

I disagree. I think it reveals everything, especially about the fundamental disagreement we are having here. What causes higher rates of unplanned pregnancy among blacks than among whites? Blacks have unprotected sex more often, of their own volition. You see it as some sort of entrenched societal problem caused by hundreds of years of blah blah blah. I see it as people choosing not to wrap it up. If you can find a statistically significant sample of unintended pregnancies in the black community in which the participants directly involved did not choose to participate without birth control, but where instead forced to forego birth control by some white antagonist, I would be happy to read about them. Somehow, I don't predict that happening.

You would be wrong. I was sarcastically pointing out that it is not whitey that is causing those problems. I was not complaining at all about my lot in life. I was in fact pointing out the nonsense reasoning behind someone else's woe is me post. You can tell because nothing in the statement is a complaint about the plight of me or any group of which I am a part. I tend not to b**** and moan about my own problems, I just try to work them out as best I can.

 

http://www.alternet.org/story/32759/planned_parenthood's_pricey_pills

http://www.theroot.com/articles/pol...lack_women_are_saving_the_organization.2.html

i don't know if you've heard but there's a lot of people trying to defund that organization---not sure why. if you want to paint a racial side to it, I'm pretty sure many of the "defunders" are white.

 

I don't like what BLM does sometimes, but there's no real way to hide from the stark truth:

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

 

Are we still whining about slavery that no living person ever knew even one day of?

 

Nope.

 

The government doesn't need to pay for your birth control, you can pay for it yourself.

 

A male condom is two times less effective than the pill at preventing unwanted pregnancies, and 360 times less effective than implants, which require significant upfront cost. What this means is that 18 out of 100 will get pregnant in a year with the pure use of condoms rather than 9 with the use of the pill. Or 0.05 out of 100 would get pregnant with implants.

and it is recommended medical practice to combine methods and reduce the probability even further of user error either way. said user error includes "**** condoms lol, i hate the feeling". but see, you combine two or three methods and even less unintended pregnancies!

http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/UnintendedPregnancy/PDF/Contraceptive_methods_508.pdf

but of course, let them just eat cake--or in this case super cheap condoms that look like they're designed to break LOL.

You asked. Reducing access to contraceptives fits the bill. Think long and hard about that next time.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-free-birth-control-leads-to-way-fewer-abortions/

 

Well, in that case the government can stop sending money to Isreal... They can pay for their own shyt.

You people will fund a holy crusade in the middle east for Europe but don't want to provide poor black people with condoms. That's F'd up.

 

Remii hopefully this reminds you of the Republican mindset.

 

lol..

 

Using a condom every time does not result in 18 out of 100 women getting pregnant per year. The number one cause of condom's becoming ineffective is not putting them on. With proper usage the rate is about 2-3 out of 100 women becoming pregnant in a year (or about 1/3 the rate of the pill). Whose responsibility is it when a condom is not used at all or is used incorrectly?

Certainly. I am not asking anyone not to use birth control. I was merely pointing out an option that only costs about 25 cents per time you have sex (one that is going to work the vast majority of times it is used, and also protects against STDs, of which there is higher incidence in the black community BTW.

If you can't afford a 25 cent condom each time you have sex, you sure as hell can't afford a $250,000 baby. If you prefer other methods, an IUD can be had for prices ranging from $175 to $600 including "installation". For the implant it could be as high as $800. That is without insurance. With insurance that covers birth control you are looking at a co-pay or two out of pocket. If you can't afford an IUD, you probably qualify for Medicaid and can get one at little or no cost, so cost isn't really a factor, it is people choosing to get it or not. There are often government health clinics that provide free or reduced cost birth control as well.

Access to contraceptives is abundant as near as your local Walmart or doctor's office. Like I said though, I have no issue with providing free contraceptives, but I don't think the lack thereof relieves people of responsibility for their own actions.

I am fine with cutting foreign aid to Israel, as well as the rest of the world. I don't think we will have as much voice in policy as we do now if that happens, but other countries should be allowed to conduct their own affairs anyway. I am also fine with providing poor black people with condoms. I don't think the funding the nation's largest abortion provider is a necessary precondition for that, as Northside Storm is suggesting. Put government funded condom dispensers in every public restroom and have government clinics that will provide any non-abortive contraceptive option to anyone on demand and free of charge. I would support that wholeheartedly. I don't think the lack of same means that those who oppose it are responsible for unwanted pregnancies, because the people engaging in unprotected sex are the proximate cause of the vast majority of unwanted pregnancies.

 

Sometimes it is smart for the government, for the betterment of the people, to be proactive and offer birth control. It saves the government huge amounts of money in the long term. I would far rather provide free birth control for every woman in America that give another dime to Israel or spend money building prisons to house people that often times were the byproduct of unwanted pregnancies.

 

Moral debts?

Like the English Empire?
The Greeks?
The Romans?
The Morgolian Hordes?

That is a wonderful idea for a stuffy college lecture at a liberal minded university. The reality is that the moral debt is never paid off and the best you will get is a loosening of biased laws and the changing of hearts.

Blacks, gays, women, American Indians and any number of groups were **** on and to some degree are still **** on.... Eventually they will integrate into the power structure (like the current President) and **** on other groups of people. Reparations are pie in the sky.

 

He lives in a fantasy world where everyone, everywhere has money at all times to buy the things they need.

 

And you know what black people are owed for that? Not a damn thing. It's probably time to come to terms with that stark truth.

Everyone's ancestors went through things, so what? It has nothing whatsoever to do with anyone today. The sooner people stop whining and stop acting like they are owed something because of what may or may not have happened to ancestors the better off EVERYONE is going to be.

 

He can spout personal responsibility all he wants.... but a 15-25 year old in poverty, surrounded by violence and apathy isn't going to really worry about getting pregnant in many cases.

I grew up in the middle of it.... Yes poor people make poor choices sometimes, but they also are walking around with a 200 pound weight on their back... Combine that with being black and/or female and in the modern world you are really making it hard to be successful..... and if you are successful you are called a sellout or the establishment views you are a token.

 

How does that line of thinking prevent a disproportionate amount of African Americans being born into families with little to no college education and living under the poverty line because of 400 years of disproportionate educational opportunities. Lack of education and poverty are inherited more often than not.

And no, there is no other race that has been disproportionately mistreated than African Americans by a WIDE margin except Native Americans within the United States.

 

Yes and no. The fact is that the black demographics in America have a higher crime rate, higher incarceration rate, make lower wages, have lower standardized test scores, lower levels of formal education, more likely to be a victim of violent crime and more likely to live in poverty. You cannot tell me that is all a lack of personal responsibility. There are REAL issues here and historically when you have such a great divide, institutional reason exist that cause it.

 

There are lots of factors but in the end they are irrelevant. No one owes "you" anything no matter who you are. You either make it or you don't. Some people are smarter than others, does that give the dumb person an excuse for failure? Of course not. No one cares about excuses, only results.

Coming from poverty, a broken home, an area with a higher crime rate, a r****ded culture that thinks success means you are a "sellout", lower wages.....those are all excuses that losers talk about to try and blame others for their failure.

Also, if you look at that list, which don't apply to Irish or Italians living in slums in crowded cities in the northeast 150 or so years ago? There's nothing unique or special about the struggles that a poor black person goes through....other than the fact that they seem to think those struggles are unique or special and that others should care about them or accept those struggles as an excuse for failure.

 

Well the Irish and Italians were not slaves and were allowed in integrated schools, restaurants, buses... Etc. Also a lot easier to blend in when your skin isn't black.
I am not saying that personal responsibility isn't a serious issue (I think personal responsibility is lacking in this country), but it isn't as if all black people got together and decided to chuck personal responsibility out the window. A more logical conclusion is that the situation is complicated and societal norms/institutions play a part in the problem. American Indians have struggled as well, Aboriginal people in Australia as well. Is there something innate about these groups? I don't think so. People that blame every personal issue or failure on racism are fools ... but it is equally foolish to believe that societal norms and institutions don't play a part as well.