A Concise History of Black-White Relations In The USA

So Obama is not respected in the African-American community? That would be news to me.

 

I don't understand why so many have taken offense to this cartoon. It was not meant as a personal indictment to anyone or an accusation to engender any sense of "white guilt." It is simply one perspective to consider while shaping your paradigm.

I tend to hold a conservative view regarding the solution and the liberal view regarding the cause. I recognize that blacks in this country were set behind for generations due to the systematic destruction of the family unit, the destruction of "black" language, and the destruction of core values all caused by slavery. This "cultural evolution" of the black experience in America is very real. The plight of black America did not suddenly occur in a vaccuum because of some lack of work ethic, as some of you have suggested. I find that disgusting.

Reparations and affirmative action are not the solution to the current plight of inner city black America. A greater cultural evolution through stress on education is the solution. However, this can only be done as a community. It is not as simple as single blacks beating the system simply through hard work. That is an ignorant opinion.

You don't have to feel "white guilt" or support political compensation of blacks. However, many of you here are suggesting that not only did your family not benefit from the exploitation of blacks but that somehow other immigrants were at an equal disadvantage. I find that disgusting.

If you are a minority, you owe the civil liberties that you enjoy to the battle already fought for you by blacks during the civil rights era.

If you are a white, you need not feel any personal white guilt, but rather you need to stop the delusion that the plight of today's inner city black America somehow occurred in a vaccuum.

And if you are a black, you as a people need to continue the promotion of the golden ideal of education.

 

You're right, laws aren't the whole picture. That is why I said that the road to racial harmony was not paved with legislation, especially, racially discriminatory education, but with the evolution of values. My whole post was about laws not being the whole picture. Oh, and it sounds logical because it is logical.

 

It's well thought out because it is. I doubt you'd have the balls to call him out as unblack if you went to go see him speak, even moreso that you'd even still want to, despite your posturing. It's also well thought out because it is not in bad verse. Honestly, don't you think this gimmick is a bit played out by now? In pro wrestling when a gimmick goes stale, generally one changes it. You should take a page out of that book. Right now you're doing what Leaping Lanny Poffo struck out with about 17 years ago, except at least he rhymed.

Wow, well Obama has 40 something years of experience as living as a black person under his belt. So I guess that makes him more black than you by your standards. Anyway, most of the folkways of the south side of Chicago, home of Bad, Bad Leroy Brown (where I have actually lived, therefore does that make me kind of black by your standards? Do tell.) tend to regard him with high esteem, which is why he was re-elected multiple times to his district. But hey, you're blacker than him because you said so, so who am I to argue?

Anyway, it's pretty obvious that you don't know much about him or what he has said so there's no real point in arguing with you about it. Merry X-mas.

 

Umm...yeah, Obama didn't do himself any future political favors by making that Social Darwinism comment in public the other day. Oops! Let one slip!

Either way, he's a phony in the eyes of the black community and the most overhyped politician ever. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a Howard Dean moment in the future.

 

yeah blacks are lining up to vote against Barack Obama. That's how Alan Keyes did so well against him last year, pulling in a solid quarter of all votes cast. Hey, that makes at least two blacks I know of that won't vote for him!

 

1. I never said that Obama was not respected

What I did say is a black man raise by white grandparents in a white community
Has a decisively difference perspective than that of a black man
raise by black people in a black community

2. Never said that either. He seems rather genuine IMO in his views
but I do not hold his views as the end all be all of black affairs
I find his perspective a bit . . . . different

Barrack's life is significantly different that the average Black american
Barrack grew up in an environment quite different from the average black american
these factors influence his ideals.
his view is one of someone on the outside looking in
even your vaunted experience in the South Side of Chicago is different
than the average black person . . unless of course you are black
If you are . .. please share your experiences in the community



I don't dislike Obama however I don't feel that his views and mine have to match
Strangely enough . . .Black thought is not GROUP Thought
I find the assertion that Education is seen as BEING WHITE
offensive and a overused cliche' that simply is not true

While as youngsters . .. kids use all kinds of things as putdowns
the whole BEING WHITE is no different than being called a NERD
a GEEK etc. . . .does that keep white folx down?
Does calling a kid a GEEK and letting him know that learning is GEEKy
is the reason he turns to crime?
to me that is stupid

People thing is black folx just THINKING DIFFERENTLY
we don't have to DO anything to help them
basically
If they thought like us. . . . they could make it with
inadequate books, schools, funded, etc. .
and we won't have to do ANYTHING to help or supplement
the issue. .
SEE SEE it is nothing material . . it is just that those black
folx don't think right
yea yea. .that is why they in this mess
Slavery etc. . .means nothing . .. . .
Only thing keeping black folx down is thinking wrong
not the racism . . not the institutionalize racism
none of that has any bearing. . . .
Just that they have to THINK DIFFERENTLY
and all that magically goes away

what ever floats ya boat
or finds ya lost remote



Rocket River

 

I had this long ass post to follow up on what I wrote at work....

I think Americans in general do want race relations to improve. Blacks are the most prominent minority given the leadership they displayed in the 70s. It gave their leaders power, but it also magnified their mistakes far more than any other racial leader. This position of leadership is given by all Americans. Whether right or not, all Americans look at these black leaders for orders of what to do, or how to act at least. When they recieve conflicting signals from these leaders actions, the confusion does lead to resentment, such as in the form of white guilt. I'm not marginalizing true racists in the position of power, but the Civil Rights movement only succeeded when Americans witnessed the inhumanity of racism first-hand on their TV sets. The impact of racism is huge. Many Americans grasp that it's something that can't be fixed by one person or community alone. Thus the spotlight is even more focused upon leadership who claim to be specialists in this cause.

It's something many don't wish to revisit. In a sense, we're all clueless of what to do while preserving some sense of normality or the status quo. An example of this would be like the subject of environmentalism: people want to preserve the earth and its resources, but not many will give up their standard of living or how they normally act for the cause. With race relations, what would suit this analogy would be entitlements, racial quotas, or reparations. The resistance to these ideas do not necessarily mean racism is the cause, much like how those who drive SUV don't necessarily mean to increase global warming.

 

Nobody ever held a lynching for Irish, Italian, German, Jewish or any other minority in the US that wasn't black.

I'll address this issue in greater detail when I'm not so tired. For now, I think one of the issues is that every year the percentage of people who grew up experiencing overt race hatred and segregation shrinks. You end up with an idealized Song of the South Uncle Remus image of happy-go-lucky slaves or former slaves living a noble life and imbued with country wisdom.

I cant imagine that anybody can go through the entire Without Sanctuary site, look at all the pictures, and still believe that blacks weren’t a uniquely pernicious case in America's history of race relations.

 

And I thought the white-southern-christians were supposed to be the noble ones in your land.

 

Don't buy into the model minority myth! That's what some White people manipulate to pit minority groups against each other so that they can deny any discrimination and they don't have to pay for it(money for "Black" schools, etc.). Many of the Asian immigrants were EDUCATED people that came after WW II! They came here for college, graduate, and professional schools and many permanently settled here(have you heard of the brain drain?)! Some were wealthy because the only ones that can afford to immigrate(or escape the commies) were the richer Asians. And of course there were war refugees. In case you didn't know, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong Americans on average earn LESS than Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Indian Americans.

The glass ceiling in the corporate world(and even in our government) still exist for minorities, including Blacks and Asians.

As for the cartoon, that's an accurate depiction...

 

the entire civilized world benefitted greatly from "horrible institution of slavery." we'd still be living in caves if it wasn't for slavery.

the only thing keeping black america down is black america itself.

get over it.

 

as usual thanks for your in depth insight.

 

Key word here guys: Education.

 

totally agree, so you don't have to kick me off the board for rooting for Orlando

merry christmas

 

youre welcome.

 

Sorry to be picky but almost 300 whites were lynched.

http://www.umass.edu/complit/aclanet/ACLAText/USLynch.html

So were many Asians, Native Americans and Hispanics

http://www.americanlynching.com/infamous-old.html

 

I'll go with family.

 

This thread just gets more disturbing by the minute.

 

I stand corrected. I would prefer to see a more detailed accounting than simple numbers. In order to understand why see my objections to classifications made in response to the second link. Nevertheless, this link states that 90% of incidents were against blacks, indicating that under any conditions the practice was overwhelmingly if not exclusively used against blacks.

As far as I can tell, almost all of the things that they have listed as lynchings against Asians and Native Americans are more appropriately classified as riots, or massacres, though a limited minority does. As an example they count the incident below as a "lynching". While undoubtedly a horrible and sordid affair, it nevertheless in no way fits the definition of a lynching.

[rquoter]
A Lynching In Denver's Chinatown, 1880

The “ethnic cleansing” of Chinese (including Chinese-Americans) from the American West was one of the darkest chapters in our nation's history. Writes John Higham in Strangers in the Land, “No variety of anti-European sentiment has ever approached the violent extremes to which anti-Chinese agitation went in the 1870s and 1880s.” Many of the estimated 200 American lynchings victimizing people of Asian descent occurred during this dark era.

In 1880, many Chinese lived in Hop Alley, Denver's Chinatown. In October of that year an anti-Chinese riot resulted in the lynching of a Chinese man and the injuring of many others. A mob of approximately 3000 people had gathered in Hop Alley, consisting of “illegal voters, Irishmen and some Negroes.” Only 8 Policemen were on duty at the outbreak of the riot. Firemen brought in to disperse the crowd hosed them with water but this only made them angrier. The mob began to destroy Chinese businesses, to loot Chinese homes and to injure many Chinese. According to the Rocky Mountain News, the Chinese quarter was “gutted as completely as though a cyclone had come in one door and passed out the rear. There was nothing left...whole.” During this vicious mob attack, a man named Look Young, was dragged down Denver's 19th Street by rioters. According to a physician, he died “from compression of the brain, caused by being beaten and kicked.” Look was twenty-eight years old and employed at the Sing Lee Laundry. He left behind a wife, father, and mother in China, who were wholly dependent upon him for support.

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In an effort to support my conclusion I did a Google on "Reginald Denny" and "lynching". As I believe that nobody classifies what was done to Mr. Denny as a lynching, I don't think it's reasonable to discuss the above as a lynching.

While as stated I do stand corrected on the presence of non-black lynchings, the limited evidence presented in the detailed accounts leads me to believe that the vast majority of the "non white lynchings" are in fact attempts at moral equivocacy. This would be much like the attempts made by anti-war protesters to describe the war in Iraq as "terrorism" in an effort to provide some sort of counterbalance against the feeling of moral righteousness that many Americans appear to feel. Without discussing the merits of the attempt to draw an accounting for horrible acts committed by the US there, none of the offensive incidents in question rightly can be called terrorism.

Finally, for sake of fairness, here is one non-black incident on the page that squarely qualifies as a lynching in my book:

[rquoter]
Leo Frank, 1915

The lynching to death of Leo Frank represents one of only four cases of a Jewish-American being lynched in United States history. (There was a case of a double lynching of a Negro and a Jew in Tennessee in 1868; there were two other cases of American Jews lynched in the 1890s.) Frank, the manager of an Atlanta pencil factory, was accused of murdering teenaged employee Mary Phagan in 1913. Despite evidence linking the factory's African-American janitor, Jim Conley, to the heinous crime, a jury of Frank's Atlanta peers found him guilty and Frank was sentenced to death by hanging. Not only did the prosecution ignore evidence pointing to Conley; it used Conley as its main witness to condemn Frank. This was a unique moment in southern legal history - the testimony of a black man in Jim Crow society used against a white defendant. Subsequent appeals were denied, with even the United States Supreme Court refusing to hear the case.

Jim Slaton, then the governor of Georgia, alone stood between Frank and the fulfillment of his death sentence. In the face of overwhelming evidence contrary to the guilty verdict, Slaton commuted Frank's death sentence to life in prison. Public outcry was enormous, and on August 16, 1915, 25 armed men kidnapped Frank from prison, drove him 100 miles outside Atlanta to Mary Phagan's home town of Marietta, and hung him from a tree. For U.S. Senator Tom Watson, the malevolent Georgia Populist, Frank's violent death -- he refrained from using the word lynching -- "put Jew Libertines on notice." Ironically, at an earlier stage of his career, Watson had professed his intention to "make lynch law odious to the people." By 1915 he defended lynch law and warned: "The next Jew who does what Frank did is going to get exactly the same thing we give Negro rapists."

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