The Attitudes of White and Black people today...Of course this does not apply to every individual.

Touchy. If you were black you'd be confirming some stereotype right now about how blacks attack you for telling em how it is. :) I said you didn't have to worry about not getting a job due to being black. The lack of worry was the point to the issue. Everybody is entitled to the same opportunities? Well done to state that all "matter of fact"ly. Because nothing contradicts years of statistics like statements said bluntly and accepted as true. Statistics on upward mobility show that that blacks have less ability to move up the in the world than whites and by and large for the last 60 years (since Jim Crow state-sanctioned racism) the upward mobility has been stagnant and most people end up in the same class as their parents earning the same amount. Blacks moreover cannot turn the monetary wealth into social wealth as easily as whites. You say that everybody has the same opportunities, the statistics disagree. This is certainly America, but the America of reality is a bit different than the America of myth. In reality, there are almost no rags to riches stories. Most people have, for the last three generations, made on par to what their parents made. I'm glad you think that racism stopped having lingering effects in 1985. The statistics don't show any increased upward mobility for that time period. Any reason to suppose there should be one? Since the end of Jim Crow racism the upward mobility hasn't changed. It still effects blacks today, pretty much by definition. I'm glad you see black people working. I'm glad McDonald's is hiring. I'm glad you equate jobs for black people with McDonalds. Because, nothing says upward mobility like a crap job for minimum wage, no benefits, like Micky Ds. Are you serious? You give up presenting arguments and just decide to insinuate? You're sure blacks work at the Times. Did these black kids attend Yale because their fathers attended Yale paid for on their father's sharecropper's pay? http://www.nytco.com... Because pictures of the staff room are pretty much a whose who of Black America. The truth proves my argument. So, keep it coming. You didn't say that blacks were inferior. You said your specific/non-specific statement wasn't specific and excluded people... it wasn't blacks you hate but black ignorance. Also, they apparently stab people and white cops are right for shooting them. And sure the cops target them for crimes. Also, they are freeloaders "reaping the benefits of the majority" who pays for them. They are blind to their opportunity. -- I contend that these taken together are telling of the stealth racism still commonplace today. You can't even see it. Poor people commit more crime. Racism keeps black poor. Being restricted to being poor (as the statistics show) isn't a cop out, it's the truth. Violence begets violence. And racism is a vicious circle. Racism keeps black poor, poor begets crime, crime leads to more racism and racism lead to more crime reporting. I'm not saying that there's no way out of it, nor am I saying that some people can't escape the ghettos. The attitude, however, is justified by the statistics. I never suggested the white privilege only kept black people down. It props white people up more than anything else. You don't see the racism against blacks. That's the point. It's below the surface. It's those times when you hear the occasional person drop the n-bomb in standard conversation, or even not even conscious. Sure, white people'll hate anybody. That makes it justified. My grandfather lived in 1950. The opportunities he had still trickle down to me. The opportunities I have and my family has, is trickling down to yet another generation. I've never said there weren't people making the best of it, and the idea that you can argue that Booker T. Washington existed so what was the point of the Civil Rights Movement is a joke. Those scars have not healed. We weren't one of the first countries to end slavery. We were one of the last. Also, American slavery was an abomination to begin with and far worse than other forms. Primarily because it was so extensive and the black population in the South was so large. Sure, you hear about a black man holding up a gas station clerk. You hear that on the news because black crime is reported six times more often than white crime. White man holds up gas station clerk isn't worth a mention (statistically speaking). In the 45 years since segregation has ended the upward mobility (even worse for blacks) has kept people who were poor then poor now. And for all the talk of affirmative action to fix the problem statistics show it only really helped white women. ---------- "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." - Anatole France ---------- Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.) Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed-- Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. (It never was America to me.) O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe. (There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.") Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars? I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak. I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one's own greed! I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-- Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years. Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That's made America the land it has become. O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home-- For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free." The free? Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay-- Except the dream that's almost dead today. O, let America be America again-- The land that never has been yet-- And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME-- Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again. ... - Langston Hughes.