by designs 257 Replies latest social current
Other countries have had them for both very old crimes and quite recent wrongs. They appear to be beneficial.
I can understand some would never want something that shows the US in a bad light. 'my country right or wrong' isn't healthy and condones abuses.
The long break-up of black community life and family life continued past slaverly. The ability of a man to marry and protect his wife from insult and attack is historical before and after slavery. Indeed, to call a woman "wife" was often only a yearning for a slave when an owner granted no legal recognition of the right to marry betwen slaves-- slaveholders often being too "Christian" to sell off a man from a REAL wife, a REAL husband.
Until the 1940's there were forms of convict labor that began post-civil war in the U.S. that sent men--mostly black men into the dreadful convict leasing systems in the South. You can access this history easily and see how hard-working blacks had no recourse from renewed slavery even when they were innocent of any wrong-doing whatsoever. It is eyond belief that you would not warn your children to avoid crossing the path of white men wanting cheap labor.
I have too say that I am disgusted at the statistic that indicates that black women are not nearly the victims of rape by whites as white women are by blacks. The Credibility Gap is so different for the two sides. Simply whistling at a white woman in years past would get a young man castrated and lynched, yet the rape of a black woman would never be reported. The great singer Eartha Kitt was concieved by rape. The civil rights activist Daisy Bates grew up in smalltown Hutting, Arkansas without her mother who was murdered resisting rape by three white men. they were never charged and her father could not bear living there so she was raised by another black couple. Black women are raped by whites. Who cares or believes if a black woman is sexually assaulted? I ask in genera for reasonable minds --when will a woman of any country or race report a rape to an authority that will only make matters worse for them?
As an Army brat child in Hanau, Germany the American school had soldiers' children of all races learning together. Nevertheless, the same year that To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960--about a black man falsely accused of the rape of a white woman, I heard the foundation lesson for a white girl was not changing from the long mythos of southern chivalry: watch out for the black boys. A girl by the name of Delgado especially let me know this on the playground one day "because they(my black playmates that day) all they want to do is grab your crotch!". She and I were all of 9 years old.
Two of my daughters have lived in "black" Washington D.C. One owns a house there, another rents nearby. What is there to say? Black and white is an issue in the U.S. because there was and is a difficult history.
It is good to read Zora Neale Hurston's (1891-1960)essay: How it feels to be colored me" because she was raised in an intact home, her parents wereboth former slaves. But the town was Eatonville, Florida. Entirely black incorporated. And there she wasn't "black"---she was just a person. until she left and entered the "white" world. Bad dynamics in white world?
Read Sydney Pointier's interview with Oprah Winfry. He was raised on Cat Island in the Bahamah's where there were only two white people. His family was poor, bur he didn't feel Black was = to inferior. But moving to florida at age 15 he learned that U.S. communities didn't value him the same way. Black there had to clue him in. He wasn't one to buy it--but it definitely affected his life. Bad dynamics in the white world?
The book Americanah (2013)by the Nigerian woman Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche tells how she had to learn to be "black" when she came to the U.S. I read that in her native country she didn't realize she was black---she fit that description only after she landed in America. Bad dynamics in the white world U.S.?
Maybe? Maybe.
The stats are recent, I don't think they include anyone whistling.
One reason "rushing to change laws" because some people with a bias disagree with one verdict of a trial that has been misrepresented - if you're not careful there are unintended consequences and you make it a crime for rape victims to fight back. Just one reason that "imminent death" isn't necessary as the only for reason for self-defense to be justified.
One reason "rushing to change laws" because some people with a bias disagree with one verdict of a trial that has been misrepresented - if you're not careful there are unintended consequences and you make it a crime for rape victims to fight back. Just one reason that "imminent death" isn't necessary as the only for reason for self-defense to be justified ____Simon
True. Don't mean to stray off topic to far but, that can be applied to other things such as this past election
Case and point: The election of Obama
When those who disliked the ' verdict ' of how the people voted
some rushed to change the laws that would effect the out come of the next election
And as you say, if they are not careful. They could make it harder to excercise the right to vote
which was the plan anyway
BTTT
>
Yes, on the whole laws are refined over time and normally transcend individual cases and hot topics of the day. The least respected and most problematic laws tend to be concoctions designed for some specific agenda (often political).
(BTW: I edited your post just to correct the typos in the quote - I should give up trying to post from a mobile, it ends up as gibberish!)
I didn't explain before why I recommend
"Ethnic America: A History" by Thomas Sowell
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0465020755
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/699670.Ethnic_America
http://books.google.com/books/about/Ethnic_America.html?id=M2GfO8IOq8cC
It's the history of various ethnic groups in the US from the time they got here
onward. One point to take from it is most of the ethnic groups, when they first
got to the US, formed their own neighborhoods. It makes sense in a way--they
spoke the same language and could help each other along.
But with only a couple of exceptions (the Japanese are one, maybe a little
surprising after WWII), there was also distrust of outsiders and distrust from
outside. There was a higher degree of crime, drunkenness, fights, poor educa-
tion, unemployment, etc., till they assimilated better. (Native American reser-
vations are a little like an institutionalized version with about half faring
better trying to make their way outside of one.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_reservation#Law_enforcement_and_crime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_social_statistics_of_Native_Americans
The African Americans are a special case due to the usual 'centric intolerance
but also pseudoscience about better and worse races and leftover rationalizations
originating when they were used for slavery. The separateness was more extreme
and assimilation is not complete: there's still segregation, more explicit and
implicit racism among Republicans, etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation_in_the_United_States#Contemporary_segregation
"The survey also found that some 79% of Republicans expressed explicit racial
prejudice compared to 32% of Democrats. The implicit test too showed that 64% of
Republicans had racial prejudice compared to 55% of Democrats, while independents
came in at 49%."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/27/racial-prejudice-worsened-obama
Rationalizing inferiority due to the problems feeds the problem. The helpful
effort has to be for equal opportunity for education, but most generally greater
trust and assimilation.
Here's a question:
The Ku Klux Klan originated with the pro-slavery southern democratic party and attacked both blacks and republican party members. Fast forward to now and democrats get all the black votes and republicans are the right-wing party that you associate with racism and bias against blacks.
I'm sure both parties have changed driamatically from what they were but ... uh? How did they manage to 'switch over' like that?
So one piece of legislation is passed and all the previous history is forgiven and everyone switches sides?
Hmmmn, the republican party supported the legislation too ... there has to be more to it surely?
Sorry for going off topic - it seems to contradict the 'can't forget / can't forgive' feelings somewhat.
It's not a contradiction
The ugly history of our country is what it is
those who remain accountable are the ones who hold on to the old ways of those
who set out to oppress the rights and opportunity of others
Those oppressors have now become the Republican party
