sorry, but it is fading away fast. the black middle class is by far the fastest growing in america. many of the so-called obstacles that black people encounter are creations by the media and black leaders and scholars who tend to manipulate statistics for their own benefit. i am not just making crap up because i like how it sounds either. i am saying this stuff from what i have read and how the african-american studies class i took portrayed black people as the forever victims of racial discrimination. we do not have big stories over the first asian or indian to do something (to a lesser extent hispanics too). so that is why i think it is dumb to talk about the 1st black owner. try reading Losing the Race by John McWhorter.
The fact that the good-ole-boy network is slowly crumbling helped Robert Johnson become the first black majority owner in a sports franchise, but I think what's more important is he had the money, bottom line. I hope to see more blacks in front offices of sports franchises in the future, but as far as ownership is concerned that is a totally different issue. You have to have the money and there just are that many blacks able to put up that type of money. But this is a good thing.
I agree with you but it also has do to do with black people not sticking together as much as white people. Do you see guys like Colin Powell trying to hook an another black person up. Nope. But George Bush Sr got both his sons into government office and they bring in all their cronies. The Jewish and Asian communities do the same things as whites but are even more aggressive because they don't have to worry about discrimination laws. They go out of their way to help each other out which is why they have so much power and money even though they make up such a small part of the US population. The NAACP has been trying to help this problem for a long time but until the black community does it at a grass roots level. Things won't change, and blacks will have alot less power than they should have.
so because you took a college course once makes you an expert on Race Relations. hmmmm, there seems to be a 7'5'' basketball player who is from China that got drafted with the number 1 pick, no one is talking about him at all of course this is a big story, it's a no-brainer. wake up and smell the new millenium
In the world of sports management, it is clearly NOT fading away fast. You don't need statistics. There are 4 black head football coaches in Division 1 college football. There are 2 in the pros (Dungy, Edwards). The reason there are not more is that there continues to be a network of recycling coaches. Things are changing, but it will probably take another 10-20 years to have enough black coordinators and coaches so that they, too, get recycled in the network. It is somewhat better in basketball. In baseball, Dusty Baker, Felipe Alou and Don Baylor are 3 minorities who have gotten into the 'good ole boy network'.
I wanted to add that in order for a black coach/manager to currently get into the network, they need to be good at what they do. In other words, a white manager who has been in the managerial game with limited success can stay in the loop, while a black coach/manager may fade away.
You are just making crap up because you like how it sounds. Whites have seven times the median wealth of blacks. You're also in serious denial however that's quite typical of young people these days.
Where exactly did you get that statistic from? My stats say that the median income for black two parent families is $41,307 compared to $47,000 for whites. Further into this stat you will see that 56% of black two parent families live in the south where wages are lower. Also, in about 130 cities and counties the black median income of two parent families is higher than whites and in the 90's the black median income of two parent families was rising faster than in white two parent families. So this points to something different than what you are talking about. I had to emphasize two parent families because that gives a more consistent baseline to compare since there is a huge number of children born out of wedlock in the black community which can skew family income numbers. I believe the last statistic I heard was around 70% from the Bill O'Reilly show when he was debating some "black leader" who did not even dispute the number. Also in all of the literature I read in my African American studies class nearly every case of a poor black mother was because she had children without a husband and at a young age. So if you want to point to problems for blacks in America today you should look at racism less and look at how having children too early and out of wedlock can hold people down.
You all just found out that there's something called Black Entertainment Television? Look at all the Hispanic television networks! That's right. They are celebrating the diversity of the NBA.
In the course, the professor and I often had different opinions on almost every issue. So if you were paying attention to what I wrote and if you knew anything about African-American studies then you would see that I was not a "mouthpiece", but I was really going against a lot of what is said by black leaders and scholars, like my professor. I got those stats from a different book outside of the texts for the course I took. The book I read Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America by John McWhorter got me inspired to take a course in African-American studies. In that book, he criticizes a lot of the stances taken by black leaders and scholars, like my professor, who ignore a lot of the problems that exist in the black community and blame it on other things. McWhorter is also black, so he gets away with saying things that most white people would be called racist for. It is a completely different take on the problems black people face compared to what the texts I read and what my professor said. Try reading the book and some other African-American studies texts and then talk to me.
No it doesn't make me an expert, but it does give me some experience on what exactly goes on in the area of African-American studies and how it doesn't explore a lot of the problems that really go on with black people today. Yao being drafted number one was a big story not because of his race, but because he is foreign and from a communist country that is very foreign to America and has a population of 1.3 billion people. He was also a big story because there were a ton of writers who wanted to criticize him and label him a bust because he was 7'5. It wasn't simply because he was the first Asian drafted number one. It shouldn't be a big story that this guy is the 1st black majority owner because he was not restricted from owning a franchise. Woohoo...there is another billionaire owner...that is the way I see it.
You should stop selectively absorbing material that already fits your predisposed views. Racism is quite real. It hasn't gone anywhere and it's very alive in this country. Wake up.
Colin Powell is one of the biggest affirmative action advocates out there. He is one of the bright spots for black people in America, because he is independent. Black people stick together more than white people from what I see. There is a lot more criticism in the black community if you don't act black than there is in the white community for not acting white.
I did not say there were not big gaps in wealth if you look at all households, but if you look at two parent households then the gap closes significantly. Like I said before black households suffer from low incomes because there are epidemic (sp?) levels of single parent families which means only one income. Find a stat that compares two parent households and then try to compare that with what I said. Don't compare things that are different. Two incomes versus one income can make a huge difference. Also I am not saying that racism does not exist. I am saying that it exists to a much lesser extent than you say. Things are just not that bad. I am also saying that there is a huge amount of racism that exists in the black and other non-white communities that is allowed to go on and is accepted as ok.
First of all, saying that two incomes versus one can account for seven times the median wealth is just ridiculous. Second of all, your argument is a chicken and egg scenario. You say that the gap is lesser in two parent households however when blacks are disproportionately more poor and appear in disproportionate numbers in prison then pointing to the high number of single parent households in the black community is obviously affected dramatically by not only the poverty but also a history of racism. People who are poor commit more crimes and thus aren't part of two parent households. The black community has had it's cultural identity stripped from them in this country for a few hundred years and this also plays a role in the rate of single parent households. You will notice that the rate of single parent households is dramatically higher in the black community than all other minority communities. This is not because blacks are inherently less family oriented. You cannot look at the present situation with blinders on to justify a belief that things are just dandy. As for you comments on the state of racism in this country. It's very common for whites and blacks to differ greatly in opinion polls regarding racism. Whites largely feel everything is just fine and blacks largely feel that racism is still a huge problem. As a Hispanic myself, I can assure you that racism is everywhere and my family and I experience it frequently. What you want to do is forget the entire history of this nation and start off on day one with everything even. You want to decry BET when in fact it's creation exists to give black Americans a voice in media that didn't exist previously similar to what Telemundo does for Hispanic Americans. Organizations like the NAACP, LULAC, and the United Negro College Fund exist because of racism. Black schools like Prairie View A&M were created by the state legislature so that black kids who were denied access to "white" schools had a place to go to college. So when you attack these organizations and mock them you're only displaying your ignorance as to why they exist in the first place.
Ok call me ignorant, but what exactly is included in wealth? Is that just everything a household owns? And how in the world do two parent white households have seven times more of it? I have been around ALL types of people and most of the white families I know aren't rich enough to have 7 times more than anyone unless that person was a bum living on the street. No this argument with two parent households is not a chicken and egg scenario. First, I use it to show that when you have similar family structure then there is little difference in income earning ability. This shows that there is almost no racism in how people are paid. Meaning, that black people are not simply paid less than white based on their skin. That is why I brought that point up. Check out this link to see the importance of having one parent http://www.heritage.org/Press/NewsReleases/NR052401.cfm Now, if you want to go back to what you said that single parent households are a product of racism then I would like you to show me how racism creates a weakened family structure. Black families used to be very strong, but something happened to them and it has not been explored too well. I discovered this in my course too in one of the books I read that was an account of a city outside of Chicago I think where lots of black families moved in after WWII and subsequently the white families moved out. However, even during that era of terrible racism these families were able to have higher incomes than the white families that were moving out and created a great place to live. But something happened during the 2nd and 3rd generation where the kids started having babies when they weren't married and having too many kids too young. Gangs moved in and the city turned to crap basically. This book I read just told the stories of the families and did not reach any conclusions on why they deteriorated. Now if you can tell me that this was all on account of racism, without just stating it with no evidence, then you are brighter than me. Now I don't have any stats on marriage in the black community 50 years ago versus today, but I use that story to show how something else happened in the black community other than racism destroying something. Something happened internally and was not explored. It continues today, but is not explored or addressed in depth either. Actually, I did just find that in 1965 24% of black children were born out of wed lock, but fertility rates have remained stable. Ok and now moving on to the cultural identity of blacks being destroyed over hundreds of years. Yes it is true that they lost some of their African tribal roots when they came to America because slaveowners mixed them up so that people of the same tribe could not speak and associate, but for the most part black people were allowed to live together and develop their own identity, even as slaves, in the 2nd generation. White slaveowners could do nothing to stop it because of simple numbers and they had to allow black people to have their culture. Point being a slave culture was developed and it obviously wasn't destroyed and it is still celebrated and cherished in the black community today. The culture developed through struggling to survive and if you can find me real evidence that the black slave and black American culture has been destroyed then I would like to see it, because when I look at America today it is the most American of all American cultural identifiers today. The most outstanding being rap/hip-hop/jazz based music. Those can even be traced back to their African roots which you said were destroyed. So my points are that culture has not been stripped from black Americans and it does not relate to single parent households since single parent households were lower in the past. I never attacked these organizations. It was another member who did. I think BET is fine. It satisfies a market that wasn't happy with its other choices on TV. Same goes for all the Spanish language television. They are fun to watch. Also I never attacked those organizations either. If someone wants to make a group then I don't care. My girlfriend who is Mexican doesn't talk about racism being a factor in her life and neither does her mother who came to America when she was 20. I have never heard any of her friends talk about racism either. I'm not saying its not there, but I am saying a lot of the times racism seems to only be there when people let it bother them. Kind of like I would go crazy all the time if I got pissed off every time a black person made fun of skinny white people. I dunno I'm just rambling now...so read all this and tell me what you think.
I agree completely! The problem in this country is that racism still very much exists, from all sides. But at the same time, existing and new opportunities are everywhere for anyone who gets off of his/her @ss. The time for excuses is over. The fact that this guy was able to build such wealth for himself is a testiment to this. It should inspire us all. Why dwell in the past when you can take advantage of today's opportunities to create a better future?
Originally posted by robbie380 Ok call me ignorant, but what exactly is included in wealth? Is that just everything a household owns? Yes. And how in the world do two parent white households have seven times more of it? The graphic was for all households, no matter how many parents. The rate of single parent households in the black community is roughly three times that of the white community yet the wealth difference is seven times. So even following your argument of two parent households there is still a vast difference in wealth. I have been around ALL types of people and most of the white families I know aren't rich enough to have 7 times more than anyone unless that person was a bum living on the street. These numbers are from the US Census Bureau. I doubt any "black leaders" (your words) are playing with these numbers to get sympathy. No this argument with two parent households is not a chicken and egg scenario. First, I use it to show that when you have similar family structure then there is little difference in income earning ability. This shows that there is almost no racism in how people are paid. It most certainly is chicken and egg and even with your assertion I've still shown that there is a huge difference. You want to compare two parent households without addressing why two parent households are so rare in the black community. You want to pretend that every family has had the same opportunity to become a two parent household when whites statistically don't deal with the same issues of poverty, racism, and disenfranchisement. Meaning, that black people are not simply paid less than white based on their skin. That is why I brought that point up. Another graphic from the census. As you can see, even with the Civil Rights movement, affirmative action, etc. there is still a huge gap between white income and black income. Blacks even have less income than Hispanics which is staggering considering the amount of low wage earning Hispanic immigrants that come to this country. Now, if you want to go back to what you said that single parent households are a product of racism then I would like you to show me how racism creates a weakened family structure. Black families used to be very strong, but something happened to them and it has not been explored too well. You have not researched this issue very well at all. Again from the Census Bureau. I can't find that chart that goes back into the early 1900's however at that time the rate of single parent households was 30% in the black community and 10% in the white community. Still roughly three times the number of single parent households which is about what it is today. Slave owners intentionally broke up families, white-washed their culture, and prevented them from acquiring a basic education. Then throw in lynchings, racism which prevented voting/work/education which in my view is the root of poverty in that community, then the assasination of strong black leaders (MLK, Malcom X, Medgar Evers, etc.), and what you have is a disintegration of a community. I discovered this in my course too in one of the books I read that was an account of a city outside of Chicago I think where lots of black families moved in after WWII and subsequently the white families moved out. However, even during that era of terrible racism these families were able to have higher incomes than the white families that were moving out and created a great place to live. But something happened during the 2nd and 3rd generation where the kids started having babies when they weren't married and having too many kids too young. Gangs moved in and the city turned to crap basically. This book I read just told the stories of the families and did not reach any conclusions on why they deteriorated. Now if you can tell me that this was all on account of racism, without just stating it with no evidence, then you are brighter than me. Well you're talking about Gary Indiana I presume. Businesses slowly left with the white families and the town became heavily subsidized by the federal government. Now they can't attact any business to the town and it's fallen apart. I think they even have a white mayor now. So my points are that culture has not been stripped from black Americans and it does not relate to single parent households since single parent households were lower in the past. What points? Don't you ever wonder why blacks are commonly referred to as "African-Americans", while other races/ethnicites/cultures are Italian-American, Mexican-American, etc. The majority of blacks don't even know what country they're originally from. How can you say that their culture has not been stripped? How many Ugandan-Americans or Kenyan-Americans do you know? Most every American, except black Americans who are not post-slavery immigrants, knows who they are, where they're from, and what their heritage is about. If slavery and racism aren't the flashpoint for the drastic differences between the black community and every other ethnic/racial community in this country then what is? What is different between blacks and everyone else other than the history here? I've already shown you the statistics regarding wealth, income, and single parent families. At some point you just have to say yeah, that's the difference. My girlfriend who is Mexican doesn't talk about racism being a factor in her life and neither does her mother who came to America when she was 20. I have never heard any of her friends talk about racism either. I'm not saying its not there, but I am saying a lot of the times racism seems to only be there when people let it bother them. Kind of like I would go crazy all the time if I got pissed off every time a black person made fun of skinny white people. I dunno I'm just rambling now...so read all this and tell me what you think. I can't really speak for your girlfriend and her friends obviously. How can racism only be there when people let it bother them? It's either there or it isn't. Your girlfriend choosing to ignore it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
i think it's great news there is a black owner of an NBA team...let's don't study it quite so deeply...it's just great news! hopefully it means progress...
