Quote: (07-27-2013 03:23 PM)Fisto Wrote:
Hencredible - You are one of the few guys that don't make my eyes roll when talking about these things. You bring historical perspective to the way the black culture's landscape was shaped.
All that said, isn't that more passing the buck? Even if you don't like O'Reilly, don't some of the things he says ring true? I don't know how the idea got started that I think blacks are genetically predisposed to crime, I agree with O'Reilly, I think it's about the disintegration of the black family.
The president is "uber" rich, arguably the most privileged black man in the country, and he "spewed" incendiary and divisive content. That whole "that could have been me" BS was disgraceful.
I agree with O'Reilly that the disintegration of the black family is a huge problem. I also think many of the issues in the black community would be lessened if there were more black fathers. I even agree with his suggestion to launch public ads encouraging black teenage girls to wait to have sex.
That being said, I think when you look at the totality of history in the black community of this country, you have to acknowledge that meaningful progress is going to take time, and that "personal responsibility" is going to be a hard sell.
For one, black Americans were for most of their history in America considered property. Their fate was linked to the actions of the US government. In the US Constitution itself - a black person (slave) is considered three-fifths of a person. It took a civil war and a presidential act (emancipation proclamation) to free black slaves, and it took many Supreme Court decisions and Congressional legislation to bring basic rights to black Americans.
Since the condition of black America is largely a government creation, the question is whether fixing it is a government responsibility or an individual one. Has the US government done enough to repair the cultural/economic/social damage it inflicted on its black citizens? That is the debate in my view. I think most Americans think that blacks are owed nothing in the economic sense.
Even legislation like the Homestead Act following WWII (which created the American middle class) did not extend black Americans. That was a crucial piece of legislation for building wealth in the form of home ownership (the largest form of wealth for most Americans today).
But contrast that with the reparations Germany has paid to Jews who suffered during the Holocaust, or that the US government paid the Japanese for relocating them to camps and confiscating their property during WWII. That's food for thought.
We just got a black president in 2008, a hugely symbolic event. It may take a generation to see what the effect of that might be.
I think Obama is in a tight place as the most prominent and powerful black politician. He really does have to walk a fine line. On the one hand, he is a black man in America and faces enormous pressure to speak out on important issues in the black community. For the most part he actually has not addressed those concerns to the degree many blacks would hope. But with a case like that of Trayvon Martin where there is round the clock media coverage, he had little choice but to speak out. It's hard to tell when he's being sincere or when he's just being another politician but I didn't expect him to go as far as to say he could have been Trayvon. I'm sure that relieved a lot of his black supporters.
On the other hand, he's also the POTUS, a country that is majority Caucasian so he can't be seen as a Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton type of figure. He has to be the President of the whole country and all the people that are part of it.
After all, Obama is half white. I don't think white America would be quite ready to vote in a brotha as dark as Wesley Snipes. That will take time.