As much as anybody else, I want to see everybody succeed, regardless of color, ethnicity, or religion. To me, one of the things that makes me exceedingly happy (and all tingly inside) is seeing the success of my student-friends who immigrate from countries like Kenya and are wildly successful because they have goals and they work hard to achieve them. And, what pisses me off beyond belief is when people use racially charged political statements based off of irrelevant past actions of dead men to create racial isolationism and resentful sentiment. And you know what? Many of my African immigrant friends agree with me!!! They see this nation in from an entirely different perspective and rarely experience the so-called "problems" so many African Americans claim to be commonplace.
While racism in it's true "skin color" form does exist, it's relatively uncommon. With our current president's election--remember, it's largely whites who show up to the polls and vote, so they are primarily responsible for getting him into office!--in conjunction with the success of African immigrants there is no good evidence suggesting that skin color negatively effects any racial group in the US in this day and age. You CHOOSE to think that way because of the plight of the African American community. You CHOOSE to think that way because it's much better than the alternative, that it's a cultural problem (the actual issue). The African American culture does not appreciate values, such as education, which are available to them and would afford them the opportunity to succeed. Therefore they do no succeed! The culture has it's interest largely vested in things like sports and gangster rap, teaches isolationist crap and encourages resentment and complacency.
I mean, look at this crap:
Content analysis of 56 African American high school students’ descriptions of the meaning of ‘‘acting Black’’ revealed five underlying content dimensions: (1) academic/scholastic, (2) aesthetic/stylistic, (3) behavioral, (4) dispositional, and (5) impressionistic. With the exception of the qualities in the aesthetic/stylistic category, the respondents attributed primarily negative qualities to ‘‘acting Black.’’ Although Black youths’ perspectives on ‘‘acting White’’ has been a topic of great interest among those concerned about the academic achievement gap between Black and White youths,
results of the present study suggest that the quest to improve academic and social achievement among African American youths will need to focus on altering youths’ definitions of ‘‘acting Black.’’ http://www.springerlink.com/content/...ext.pdf?page=1
Culture is a huge deal, and it's the problem here... no color. That's why the success of African immigrants is largely determined by their country of origin. (I.e. Kenyans and Somali's have vastly different success rates). In addition, consider this: African immigrants have THE HIGHEST education attainment rates of any immigrant group in the US with an astounding 48.9% of all African immigrants holding a diploma, far exceeding both white and Asian communities. Nobody held them back, and they're wildly successful in the workforce.
The point is this: Black's need to stop justifying unjust actions because of temporally irrelevant historical events. They need to stop blaming their underwhelming achievement on non-existent oppressive white intervention and inequality. They need to start looking at African American culture and fixing it--it's obviously not producing the results the black community desires. This is the land of opportunity. This is a time where opportunity is equally available to everybody in this land. Nowhere else on the planet will you find the opportunity you have here, so learn to love it, embrace your Americanism, stop isolating yourselves, and make America proud rather than making excuses. And lastly, above all else, value the truth and don't replace what is true with what you wish were true simply because what you wish for resonates with your emotional state better than the actual truth.
Thats not called for. Anyhow this is gonna be a touchy subject either way it goes
