Instead of understanding that the lived experience of Black folks who are descendants of those dragged to America in chains is very different than the offspring of European immigrants, Brooks asserts Coates has America all wrong.
To be honest, I don't understand why people let what happened to distant family members they have never met bother them. I get that it was a terrible time and that people were slaves. I'm not arguing that. I just don't get why people hold onto it. I mean, I am not still mad at the British for overly taxing and oppressing my relatives hundreds of years ago. Grants they weren't slaves in the traditional sense but slaves to their masters none the less and oppression is still oppression. No offense intended. I just don't get it and I probably never will.
Maybe it's because over taxation by the British wasn't accompanied by a legacy in which you are left with rampant systematic discrimination in health care, housing, employment, justice, financial services and most everything else. Kinda takes the sting off.
Well put. Have we not addressed a great many of those issues though? Obviously there are still places where that is an issue but I feel like we as a society have (mostly) grown past that. We have numerous outreach programs and social welfare. We have section 9 housing which gives minorities and the less fortunate better living situations. I have personally seen some of the section 9 housing and they live better than I do. You mentioned healthcare, i'm not overly familiar with this topic as a race issue. However with Obama-care I feel like this point is moot. On to justice. I cannot deny that there has been injustice upon the people. There had been injustice upon all peoples including whites. This one may still need to be addressed so well said. Employment I feel is the most racist of the topics you list considering the racial minority quotas businesses have imposed. A black man may get the job over a white man simply for being black. If that's not racist, I don't know what is. Financial services? Really? Considering the overwhelming amount of state and federal aid that goes into the black communities I highly doubt that is an issue at this point. I don't know about all the states in my country but Minnesota had a huge amount of financial aid for being poor and black. We bus poor black people out of the inner city and move them or at least school them in the suburbs if they wish. There is no denying that racism still exists. But it's forms have changed. Black's are given just about every equality they could ask for and on more than a handful of cases they actually are afforded more than their white counterparts. Also, news flash. We are all oppressed. The rich are oppressing us all. Let us fight not each other but the true oppressors. Race isn't the issue anymore. It's class, whether you are white, black or whatever.
I've seen the crazy shit that can happen to poor people of any color in our supposedly rich country. But I have a co-worker with four black sons. Imagine the fear black parents feel after a thing like the Trayvon Martin murder, a 14-year-old getting thrown to the ground for swimming in Texas, or church-going people getting killed in their church. Extra struggles still unfairly hold some black people back. I don't get a sense that black people are fighting against me, but that I should help, if I can, with their ongoing fight.
I can totally understand that. And I actually agree with you. It just bothers me that everything is a race or sex issue now. I know that they are still bigots out there. There probably always will be. However the race issue isn't as big as it once was (same with the sex issue) and it seems like this is all anyone focuses on. What about the masses of all distinctions? Isn't this a bigger issue for humanity than the pretty squabbling about what color you are or whose ancestors harness whose? On a side note. I'm tired of being called racist for believing different than someone just because I'm white. My color should matter no more than yours. I also believe that (aside from some specific problematic areas, namely Texas and others that have consistent racial issues) the issues between whites and black's is a cultural one, not racial. But no one seems to understand that these differences are just things we don't understand about each other. I can also agree that black culture is directly in relation to slavery and racism having been (and in some cases still being) an issue but this is something we as humans need to get over and move on from. I ask you, could we not move past it if we could stop pointing fingers about who did what to whom and when? There are many black people who feel personally wronged by white people and many white people who feel personally wronged by black people. Can't we just let it all go and coexist? I know that as time goes on and the older generations die out this will eventually come to pass. But I'm tired of being the bad guy simply for being white.
The makes complete sense to me lol. I would be frustrated to if I was black.