Imagine you are black

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by JeffYoung, May 18, 2015.

  1. JeffYoung

    JeffYoung New Member

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    Imagine for a second you've been born as a black man. It is the easiest way to understand urgent problems and needs of African American community. Racism stems from ignorance and inability (unwillingness) to understand.
    What would your life look like? Would it be hard for you to apply for university not being able to attend a private - or simply worthy - school? Would it be painful for you to lose your only child thanks to police brutality? Would you notice white people unconsciously underestimating you because of the skin color? It would be nice if whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics and everyone else in this country tries to imagine each other's difficulties and be compassionate at least for a moment.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. ballantine

    ballantine Banned

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    No, thanks. I have more important fantasies to attend to.
     
  3. Steady Pie

    Steady Pie Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I was born into an upper middle class white family - should I imagine myself as an upper middle class black child? Or a povo ghetto black child?

    I am of the opinion that the police should not have employment, let alone abusive power.
     
  4. Tram Law

    Tram Law Banned

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    I like to imagine this.

    Somewhere I am taking a long slow bicycle ride out on a lonely desert road where I am the only one. It is a very peaceful and serene with the light browns and golds of the sands and rocks. The lizards aren't really bothered by my passing them.

    Then a plane crashes some distance down the road. I rush to see what's happening. there is wreckage blackened by fire dotting the desert floor, but the fuselage is intact. The wings didn't fair all that well since they've been torn straight off.

    There is a fire, of course, meaning that the fuselage could explode at any minute. So i steel myself for what needs to be done. Wrapping my bandanna around my mouth to filter the smoke, I take a deep breath and go on in.

    There are people still alive. They are not coherent. The smoke is getting to them for I can see that it is hard to breath.

    The first person I come to is a man. I can't udno his seat belt so I take out my pocket knife and cut the straps to free him.

    Then I drag him outside of the plane, some distance behind a large outcropping of rock.

    It's hard to see with the smoke and the haze and the orange glow of the flame so I can't see any details of the faces of who I am bringing out.

    But eventually I bring out four men and two women before the plane explodes. As I am carrying the woman out, I can feel the flames burn my back from the explosion, and I can feel the sharp sting of a shredded piece of metallic debris embed itself in my back. The woman I am carrying is unharmed.

    But I fall unconscious before the emergency crews arrive.

    I wake up in the hospital to see the woman waiting by my side as I come to.

    She is very grateful to me and offers to pay all hospital bills.

    And she has fallen completely in love with me for my heroic act.

    And this woman...

    Is a famous actress.

    And we get married and live a very happy and fulfilled life, with a lot of sex in between.
     
  5. ringotuna

    ringotuna Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Me....I just fast forward to the sex part. :)
     
  6. JeffYoung

    JeffYoung New Member

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    What kind of fantasies?
     
  7. Micketto

    Micketto New Member Past Donor

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    Because....

    Not having the money or GPA for college or pvt. school is only a "black thing" ?

    And being black means your kid is going to be killed by cops ?


    Zzz....
     
  8. sonofthunder

    sonofthunder Member

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    Well being Native American I could make all kinds of excuses and bring back painful memories (to my people at least) from the past. I don't do that because nothing good can come of it.

    I can relate to what black people go through, so it's not hard for me to imagine what it's like to be one. Some of them do have it pretty rough. I just hope that they can find the strength to do what it takes to be successful in life.
     
  9. BrianBoo

    BrianBoo Active Member

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    Good point....yawn, snore, zzzz to this entire thing.

    Blacks get more free grant money for college than whites per student by far. It's tied to race, income, etc. All they have to do is have reasonable high school GPA (not even a 3.0 in many cases) and reasonable ACT/SAT scores.

    But....the GPA and test scores are on them. Try reading as opposed to hanging out on the streets, and they just might score better and be better prepared.

    The money is there for the taking. Much more so than for white middle class students.

     
  10. Micketto

    Micketto New Member Past Donor

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    Exactly.

    Whites who create threads about the suffering of blacks are usually completely uninformed... as happened here.
     
  11. Gatewood

    Gatewood Well-Known Member

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    Well yes, and then again , no. The observed pattern is that they are proud graduates of a life time of social engineering designed public school classes in which race relations in this nation consist of 'This is what you EVIL Whites owe Blacks and this is what you EVIL Whites owe (Brown) Hispanics' and then to put the shine on that particular apple they often finish off their indoctrination program by taking a course in college from someone like that hate-filled racist Black professor who was in the news last week and who got to KEEP her job after revealing to the entire nation just how much she hates Whites.

    So technically they know a vast amount about minorities in this nation . . . but precisely ONLY what the ideologically driven and facts deficit teachers and professors wanted to present to them. Just that much, and so until they begin reading information presented by Right of Center people on political forums they never, EVER encounter . . . the rest of the story.

    The problem when that happens though is that their social engineered conditioning automatically kicks into gear and they either outright reject the information Right of Center people present to them or they ignore it and then they auto-label those Right of Center people as 'Racist' or 'Bigoted' just as their teachers and professors taught them to do. Then one day several different disturbing issues begin dawning on them.

    First they eventually realize that a goodly number of those EVIL Right of Center people are themselves in possession of SACRED Brown skin and HOLY ethnic features (oh my!) and thus the skin tone and features that they were taught to very nearly worship by all those teachers and professors. Second they begin noticing how the Right of Center facts, figures, and statistics actually make sense to them when they watch activities and response patterns of televised events. Third -- those of whom actually got involved enough in the real world to have encountered meaningful personal experiences outside of the safe havens of leftist gated community existence -- they begin thinking (despite the auto-rise of a resulting guilty conscience -- of their own personal past experiences which went exactly opposite of what all those teachers and professors told them was the truth.

    Then, finally, they begin to . . . learn about genuine reality. Some of them, that is. But most of them -- and especially the safe-havens gated-community sort never do get around to changing their minds and breaking their implanted ideologically-based conditioning. Alas.
     
  12. garyd

    garyd Well-Known Member

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    It would be better if people would begin to understand that the divisions, by and large, are the result of a political class that feels it's best interests are served by a divide and conquer strategy that depends on inculcating group think within the general population.
     
  13. sonofthunder

    sonofthunder Member

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    It seems a bit on the ignorant side, actually. Criticize what a group does, if you want, but don't act like you know what it's like to be one of them.

    I actually think that the OP meant to create a thoughtful thread, but I just have to ask... what does he know about what they really go through?
     
  14. garyd

    garyd Well-Known Member

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    What does anyone really know about someone else's life experiences and their perspectives and how those perspectives were shaped? The old saw about to understand a man first walk a mile in his moccasins sounds good but the reality is that the further his experiences are removed from your own the the less likely it is that it will help because you lack the perspective he has.
     
  15. Micketto

    Micketto New Member Past Donor

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    He seems to know exactly what other whites tell him the blacks go through.
     
  16. BrianBoo

    BrianBoo Active Member

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    Spot on. :thumbsup:

    It seems some want to play the "if you havn't walked in their shoes...." card. :roll:

    I don't need to be black or Hispanic to know the facts of how colleges dole out their financial aid money. I simply need to be educated in the topic, which I am.

    There's a state university in Ohio where minority students can get grant and scholarship money that literally pays 90% of the tuition expense. All they need is a high school GPA of 2.80 and a 21 ACT score. Those are average at best. White students need to score far in excess of those levels to get a fraction of those monies. :thumbsdown:

     
  17. sonofthunder

    sonofthunder Member

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    I actually have real moccasins :smile:

    BrianBoo mentions some unfair practices where certain groups are held to different education standards. I stand on my own two feet. If I need "bonus" points because I cannot match your scores, well I guess I shouldn't be going to the same school as you.

    One standard with no special preference for any reason, is fair.
     
  18. everyman2013

    everyman2013 New Member

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    My experience has been that there are almost as many "disadvantaged" whites as there are blacks. To me, the difference is that blacks (not all!) have been indoctrinated in the belief that they are entitled to special dispensation because of events that occurred over two hundred years ago. I'm sure that no one here, black or white, was responsible. I have been fortunate to work with all minorities at one time or another, both as management and subordinate, and I have found that most of them were sincere, hard working people. I've also encountered a goodly number of lazy, you-owe-me something people on both sides. Also, our culture has been ingrained with a fear of blacks. It is almost routine to see blacks in white neighborhoods, but not the reverse. Can anyone seriously tell me why? As for Native Americans, I'm employed at a tribal enterprise, and have been denied promotion in favor of much less qualified tribal members. I feel that It is, after all, their tribe, but is it discriminatory? Bottom line: When I look at a person, I see Paul, or Adam, or Sue, and treat them like who they are, not who there ancestors were.
    Enjoy!
     
  19. everyman2013

    everyman2013 New Member

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    Just wanted to stick another two cents in. Imagine that you were born black, and that you are Barak Obama (much as I don't like him), or Colin Powell, or Michael Jordan, or B.B. King, or Walter Payton, or one of the black pilots that flew the Red Tails in WWII? and then tell me what advantages you think they had over other black men. Did they work harder? Were they denied an education or given any kind of special treatment because they are black? What made them different? BTW, I'm white, but I respect accomplishment, no matter what color it comes in.
    Enjoy!
     
  20. Foolardi

    Foolardi Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Why ... Do I Gotta Mommy.Please Mommy ... do I gotta.
    Do I gotta get all dressed up in a really expensive suit and tie like
    Obama.With every hair in place and a big smile when I go to
    the Principals office.Do I gotta.?
    I'd much rather just see the Principal with my hair mussed-up a little and
    wear them Russell Simmons hip hop pants and my new
    Trayvon hoodie.
    I wood.
     
  21. JeffYoung

    JeffYoung New Member

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    Of course, not. It is much easier for a black man to end up like this though.
     
  22. JavisBeason

    JavisBeason New Member

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    instead of me imagining myself as a lowest common denominator... it's about time blacks start envisioning themselves as responsible for their own behaviors.

    There are plenty of poor white kids that don't get the grant monies poor black kids do. Who's really more disadvantaged then?
     
  23. Johnny-C

    Johnny-C Well-Known Member

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    I think it has to go beyond 'imagination' and incorporated into 'education'.

    About 20 years ago, I realized that many Americans saw people in other ethnic groups as "strangers"... even though millions of these 'different' people were fellow "Americans".

    It is time to make sure that people have fewer and fewer reasons or excuses for being 'racist' (or abjectly disconnected from other Americans).
     
  24. maat

    maat Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Your thread would have more credibility if you were more honest about the violence against blacks. It is a fact police have to deal with violent unlawful blacks. By far, most violent encounters with police are self induced. Yet, these encounters are dwarfed by black on black violence.

    Blacks culture is the black problem, not whites or police.
     
  25. Johnny-C

    Johnny-C Well-Known Member

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    If you have 'children' (or children in your life that you care about), what's suggested in the OP is actually more than a 'fantasy'... it's an available window to seeing how to make things better for this society in the future.

    I don't expect older White Americans to grasp this as much as those who are younger... but the OP DOES suggest an exercise that if many subjected themselves to, would aid in resolving/mitigating many problems we see in America today.
     

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