First major-party African-American presidential nominee

[shereads]

I Take It Back.

Wrong on two points:

1) I should have credited the Left with helping pass the Civil Rights Act, and not Democrats. I sometimes forget that the Democratic party in the Southern states used to harbor people like Strom Thurmond, who switched parties when the Dems began to embrace racial and gender equality. Democrats evolved; Republicans - the party of Lincoln - devolved, and now wish to pass the first Constitutional amendment that, instead of adding a human right, would single out a group of Americans for the removal of one.

If there's a list of famous right-wing Civil Rights activists who are representative of modern Republicans, I'm wrong in both cases.

2) I began this thread feeling optimistic about the issue of race in America - and invited expressions of bigotry so hateful, I feel like I woke up at a Klan rally. The Democratic primary results notwithstanding, racism is alive and well in the USA.

I'm not just washing my hands of this thread - I'm disinfecting them. Some of these posts are genuinely sick.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Wrong on two points:

1) I should have credited the Left with helping pass the Civil Rights Act, and not Democrats. I sometimes forget that the Democratic party in the Southern states used to harbor people like Strom Thurmond, who switched parties when the Dems began to embrace racial and gender equality. Democrats evolved; Republicans - the party of Lincoln - devolved, and now wish to pass the first Constitutional amendment that, instead of adding a human right, would single out a group of Americans for the removal of one.

If there's a list of famous right-wing Civil Rights activists who are representative of modern Republicans, I'm wrong in both cases.

2) I began this thread feeling optimistic about the issue of race in America - and invited expressions of bigotry so hateful, I feel like I woke up at a Klan rally. The Democratic primary results notwithstanding, racism is alive and well in the USA.

I'm not just washing my hands of this thread - I'm disinfecting them. Some of you people are genuinely sick.

Don't get down, She. In many cases it's "learning in progress." In others it's just attention-getting from people who don't have to take the issue seriously. The vast, overwhelming majority of Americans (and those on this board) have nothing but goodwill toward African Americans and a sincere desire that every member of that group truly comes to acheive all the rights, privileges and blessings that this country has to offer; only tiny, irrelevent minorities feel any different. Your original impulse was correct, and the event that generated it really does announce that "you (and we) have come a long way, baby." It is rightly a cause for celebration, and is righly being celebrated.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

SHEREADS youre full of histrionic crap. Most assclowns believe that all they have to do to be a civil rights hero is get arrested in a demonstration or participate in a looting riot. But there are legions of decent people who make a place for Blacks, and dont need to be on tv when they do it. You buy the goddamn tee shirt and think youve done something.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Let me ask you a question, JBJ, and I really would appreciate a two-word response, either no/yes or yes/no:

Do you feel anthing other than goodwill toward African Americans as a people, and do you have a sincere desire that every member of that group truly comes to acheive all the rights, privileges and blessings that this country has to offer?

No qualification is necessary - it goes without saying that the sentiment does not extend to pychopaths, sociapaths etc. And unlike most sentiments, affirming this one actually does do some good: It assures those who might feel persecuted, either justly or not, that the affirmer is not a member of the putative persecutors. You get about 250 million on that side of the ledger and it becomes clear that the bad-will people really are a tiny, irrelevant minority.

 

[amicus]

There he goes again, Amicus spewing hatred and exposing his hatred and bias and prejudice.

Figured I would save y'all the effort of typing that because you no doubt will.

I would not deign to speak for JBJ, not in a New York minute, but your loaded question deserves consideration even though not directed this way.

There are those in this world, perhaps many, that make decisions based on race, religion, gender, and a thousand other determinates that go into making up a living human being.

They say Africa was the 'cradle of humanity', and that all humans were shades of brown and black to begin with.

Maybe.

They say further that as the climate changed (caused by human flatulence), those brown and black people migrated to colder climes in order to survive and lo and behold, naturally evolved physically, (including skin color), to adapt and adopt to a new environment.

They also evolved mentally, only natural, as the clime of the ice age area required different skills than the pampas of the plains.

This politically correct homogenization of racial and ethnic groups, that has been going on for a century or more, does not always acknowledge fact and reality.

Very few have the luxury to consider such lofty pursuits of knowledge as do the denizens of the AH, and other such enclaves, they depend on more mundane sources for information concerning culture and behavior.

They might, for example, pay heed to the looters in metropolitan areas that emerge during a natural or man made disaster.

They might, for example, be aware of the crime rate and the majority of those engaged in drugs, prostitution and racketeering. I mean, after all, the Sicilians and Italians have gone on to better things and the Russians are pikers is the scheme of things, and Baksheesh is called by many names.

The upshot of this little diatribe is, in brief, that evolution continues, with or without a little help from friends and that variety is the spice of life, not the meat.

Oh, by the way, many years ago, I attended several Libertarian meetings and left with a sick feeling, nauseous in fact, at the general avoidance of reality when it comes to social matters.

Modern description would be Republicans on Steroids, I guess, but I wouldn't stoop to the term.

Amicus...

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Believe it or not, I agree. Skin color means nothing to me. It means something to Jenny, though.

First of all Cluudy, I didn't say that. James Watson (of the team of Watson and Chrick who discovered the DNA molecule). I do believe my eyes and what I have seen is young blacks living with the hope that some NBA scout will pay them millions while they ignore their real education.

If you haven't seen that, then you are blind. Personally, I think it's a great waste of humanity brought on by the idiots who wanted to change the world back in the '60. Am I talking about Afirmative Action or Anti-Segragation legislation? No. I'm talking about drugs and entitlements.

No the society has swung in a new direction where sexism is tolerated (Chris Matthews pinching Hillary Clinton on the cheek while making a sexist remark on national television - no comments followed), but racial remarks are never tolerated even when the precieved remarks are not racial at all (just as Geraldine Furrao).

 

[cloudy]

First of all Cluudy, I didn't say that. James Watson (of the team of Watson and Chrick who discovered the DNA molecule). I do believe my eyes and what I have seen is young blacks living with the hope that some NBA scout will pay them millions while they ignore their real education.

If you haven't seen that, then you are blind. Personally, I think it's a great waste of humanity brought on by the idiots who wanted to change the world back in the '60. Am I talking about Afirmative Action or Anti-Segragation legislation? No. I'm talking about drugs and entitlements.

No the society has swung in a new direction where sexism is tolerated (Chris Matthews pinching Hillary Clinton on the cheek while making a sexist remark on national television - no comments followed), but racial remarks are never tolerated even when the precieved remarks are not racial at all (just as Geraldine Furrao).

Jenny, I've seen you make so many horribly racist remarks on this board that I couldn't even begin to count them all. The only reason I can come up with for it is that you honestly don't know any better.

"Forgive them, for they know not what they do."

 

[rgraham666]

Hmmm. I've seen lots of white kids up here in Canada ignore their education to chase a career in the National Hockey League.

Does that mean white people aren't quite up to doing the right thing to advance themselves?

 

[sr71plt]

Hmmm. I've seen lots of white kids up here in Canada ignore their education to chase a career in the National Hockey League.

Does that mean white people aren't quite up to doing the right thing to advance themselves?

Agree. The main sports career chasing in my town this year was by Chris Long, very white, very rich, highly educated, very much the son of Howie Long.

Is it primarily an issue of what they seek or of the range of opportunies accorded them?

 

[L.A. Wicker]

Voting?

No one to vote for. John boy is toooo much like bush(God save us from him). Clinton was good, but her mouth and Hubby, Bill, screwed her up.
obama, wow, kinda sounds like that guy we've been looking for the last 7 years. You know, osama. too much for me. and besides, I'm sure that out there, somewhere, a freak reading the 'catcher in the rye', has a nice long gun and is just waiting for a good shot.
It's true and you all know it.
I think I'll pass on voting.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

First of all Cluudy, I didn't say that. James Watson (of the team of Watson and Chrick who discovered the DNA molecule). I do believe my eyes and what I have seen is young blacks living with the hope that some NBA scout will pay them millions while they ignore their real education.

If you haven't seen that, then you are blind. Personally, I think it's a great waste of humanity brought on by the idiots who wanted to change the world back in the '60. Am I talking about Afirmative Action or Anti-Segragation legislation? No. I'm talking about drugs and entitlements.

Ain't just on young Black American men, Jenny. Everyone's got their own hand in the cookie jar. And that cookie jar shapes everyone's value systems and shapes everyone's goal paths and decisions and lifestyles. Outside and beyond the issue of personal responsibility, don't blame young people for wanting to choose a life that'll give them the best chance at surviving in a increasingly materialistic society and a world that prizes and values quick money and flashy status over longterm goals, nurturing talent and living within means.

You tell me what the hell good Sex And The City is doing for White women and "white culture" besides fake-enabling women to destroy their credit trying to buy shoes, clothes and bags whose brand names they can barely pronounce that cost more than their rent or mortgage. See, it trickles down because I know waves of women who came and still come to this city trying to get exactly what those fantasy women got on that show, making it a virtual cottage industry of itself in trying to play it off like it's some neo-feminist outlook while changing the character and demographic of once-affordable neighborhoods now hopelessly mired in jacked-up rents and (mostly empty) skyline-destroying hi-rises...all accomodating those "rich" White women (and the "rich" Mr. Big-imitation White men that try to sex them) wanting to live a life just like Carrie Fucking Bradshaw.

Racist? Hey, I'll cut you some slack. Condescending and contemptuous with a side order of sneer? You win a Balenciaga bag for first prize. Be sure not to leave it alone when you're picking up your $20 drink at the bar, there's been a rash of status-bag snatchings here lately and the thieves AREN'T of color. But it's okay, you can cheer yourself up from your loss by watching Gossip Girl or The Hills or whatever templated SATC-juice squeezed bullshit playing now that pushes those "caucasian value systems" on highly influential young WHITE minds...

See, if you wanna lay it down on Black people to stop reaching for or championing basketball as an affirming and life-enriching career goal like that's our "fault," then I can equally lay it down on White people to stop pushing vapid, live-for-now, unnecessary and completely disposable materialistic values into our mainstream society for the sake of "entertainment." IF you really wanna go there. We don't have to, but fair's fair, after all.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Jenny, I've seen you make so many horribly racist remarks on this board that I couldn't even begin to count them all. The only reason I can come up with for it is that you honestly don't know any better.

"Forgive them, for they know not what they do."

GOD BLESS YOU CLOUDY. Time for a little instruction about racism.

If you say Joe Blow cant make it in school because he's black, thats racism.
If you say Joe Blow failed school because he was playing too much midnight basketball, thats ethnocentrism.

 

[cloudy]

GOD BLESS YOU CLOUDY. Time for a little instruction about racism.

If you say Joe Blow cant make it in school because he's black, thats racism.
If you say Joe Blow failed school because he was playing too much midnight basketball, thats ethnocentrism.

oh, gee, that was never covered in the...let's see, four years of undergrad, and three years of post-grad school I did.

Dear god, it must really suck to be you: convinced you're so damn smart and everyone else is stupid. How lonely you must get, there at your computer in your stained tighty whities....

*shudder*

 

[Guest]

oh, gee, that was never covered in the...let's see, four years of undergrad, and three years of post-grad school I did.

Dear god, it must really suck to be you: convinced you're so damn smart and everyone else is stupid. How lonely you must get, there at your computer in your stained tighty whities....

*shudder*

Bleah.

 

[sr71plt]

Back to the "what now?" discussion. After Hillary Clinton's campaign suspension speech (she can't concede and continue to bring in money to pay her campaign debt), is there still residual "Chicken Little" feelings about what Clinton's going to do about party unity and concentrating on getting a Democrat in the White House, even if it's not going to be her--or her intention to continue playing a national role?

 

[Darkniciad]

Back to the "what now?" discussion. After Hillary Clinton's campaign suspension speech (she can't concede and continue to bring in money to pay her campaign debt), is there still residual "Chicken Little" feelings about what Clinton's going to do about party unity and concentrating on getting a Democrat in the White House, even if it's not going to be her--or her intention to continue playing a national role?

I think Hillary's seen the writing on the wall. If she wants to have any chance of finally siezing the Oval Office ( perhaps in four years, as whoever gets elected this time stands a damn good chance of one-terming with all they're going to have to deal with ) then she has to stand behind the nominee without any semblence of bitterness.

I get the feeling she won't mean a damn word of it, but she'll probably campaign harder for Obama than anyone from this point on. It's all a matter of whether she can fake the smile and the enthusiasm well enough to pull it off *laugh*

 

[sr71plt]

I get the feeling she won't mean a damn word of it, but she'll probably campaign harder for Obama than anyone from this point on. It's all a matter of whether she can fake the smile and the enthusiasm well enough to pull it off *laugh*

And how would that make her any different from anyone else seeking the office (and believing they should have it)? And of course she can manage the smile and the enthusiasm. It goes with the territory.

 

[Darkniciad]

And how would that make her any different from anyone else seeking the office (and believing they should have it)? And of course she can manage the smile and the enthusiasm. It goes with the territory.

It doesn't. I'm sure all sorts of rude things were running through McCain's head when he campaigned for Bush, too.

I'm curious to see whether Bill settles back into the smooth character we all know. I honestly wonder if he torpedoed her campaign on purpose by going rogue for a while there.

"First husband my ass..."

 

[sr71plt]

It doesn't. I'm sure all sorts of rude things were running through McCain's head when he campaigned for Bush, too.

I'm curious to see whether Bill settles back into the smooth character we all know. I honestly wonder if he torpedoed her campaign on purpose by going rogue for a while there.

"First husband my ass..."

Oh, I think Bill wanted Hillary to make president. He's obviously felt marginalized since he left office and would be less marginalized in his wife's administration than in another Republican one (or an Obama one). Bill shows every indication of it being "all about him" and getting the best deal he can get.