A More Perfect Union

[MadScientist]

See, I disagree with that. I don't believe in the "community" approach because those who are selfish ruin it for everyone. The people who cause the problems are the very same people who want the handouts yet don't do anything to show they deserve them.

As I said, there will always be assholes. We need to try to reduce the numbers of assholes and reduce their effects. I don't see any way to do it other than a full community effort. They have to be made to feel that their actions are unacceptable from all sides. If they don't feel part of a greater community the actions won't change.

We need to get to the point where the only common feature of assholes is that they are assholes.

[BallHawk]

Re: A More Perfect Union

Obama fails to acknowledge that very few truly hate black people today.

He is still black and based on my limited life experiences and what I now of the 50 something age group he doesn't have an ice cubes chance in hell of winning.

Nice one, P.

Changed our tune, have we?

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Definitely one of the scarier moments of my life.

And THIS is what I and others have been trying to explain to you for a while now P-money. This is the scariest moment of your life? If you are like the average person, this is going to be a blip in your life and seem like a party compared to things that will be coming in the next 10 years.

Everyone has prejudice in them. Its actually worse if you cant admit it. And if you think that there aren't tons and tons of people who dislike other people because of their skin tone, you need to get out a little more. I'm not saying its right, I'm just giving you what my life has taught me.

You have very set in stone opinions on so many subjects that you come across as arrogant and unable to even discuss topics with. Try to listen to other people sometime, not just your inner circle. There are other people in the world who know what they are talking about.

NO THERE ARE CERTAINLY NOT.

There are just people who haven't come around to partial's world view. I pity them. He is like Jesus....cept for the compassion, giving, and love.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Definitely one of the scarier moments of my life.

Everyone has prejudice in them.

I agree with this. No matter what race you are you have some prejudice in you. You can be the kindest and sweetest church lady (black or white) and still have some prejudice in you. It's a shame, but I think it's true.

Prejudice is normal. It is expected. It is what we commonly said, "birds of a feather, flock together."

We all are prejudiced. We think our parents are the best, our religion is the best, our community is the best, our state is the best, our brand of X is the best...that is ok. Ok, if you recognize your prejudice.

Racism is something altogether different.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Re: A More Perfect Union

Obama fails to acknowledge that very few truly hate black people today.

He is still black and based on my limited life experiences and what I now of the 50 something age group he doesn't have an ice cubes chance in hell of winning.

Nice one, P.

Changed our tune, have we?

Must...reconcile...logic..does..not compute.....fzzt.

(brain powers down)

[Freak Out]

No, I didn't. That is ridiculous. You laugh but you would be scared half to death if it happened to you. It's not like there isn't at least one robbery within a square quarter mile daily..

I would have taken my legal handgun and blown the fucker away.

[hoosier]

Re: A More Perfect Union

Pastor’s provocative message forged in civil rights movement
By Eric Gorski Associated Press
March 19, 2008

As shocking as they may be, the provocative sermons of Barack Obama’s pastor come out of a tradition of using the black church to challenge its members and confront what preachers view as a racist society.
Yet while the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s racially tinged messages still resonate in some black churches, evidence also suggests his style is receding into the past as civil rights-era pastors retire. Sermons in other congregations now focus less on societal divisions and more on the connection between spirituality and a materially prosperous life.
Wright’s words have come under intense scrutiny because of his long association with Obama, a member of his Chicago congregation. Video clips widely circulated in the past week show Wright, in a booming voice, suggesting that America’s actions were partly to blame for the Sept. 11 attacks and accusing the country of continuing to mistreat blacks.
Obama delivered a speech on race Tuesday that criticized Wright for expressing a “profoundly distorted view of this country.”
Wright, he said, failed to recognize the nation’s great progress in race relations, embodied by Obama’s own candidacy for president. But Obama also pointed out Wright’s good works and attempted to put his comments in context, noting that Wright and his contemporaries grew up during an era of segregation and restricted opportunity.
More than three decades ago, Wright took over a small, demoralized congregation on Chicago’s impoverished South Side and built it into the largest church in the liberal, mostly white United Church of Christ.
At the 8,000-member Trinity United Church of Christ, the slogan “Unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian” has meant preaching about divestment during South Africa’s apartheid era. It has also meant fighting poverty, homelessness and AIDS at home. The religious message has been anything but watered down, with Wright dissecting Bible passages line-by-line.
The pastor’s experience is grounded not only in the civil rights movement, but also in 1960s black liberation theology, which applies the Christian Gospel to contemporary struggles against race-based oppression.
“The whole generation that Rev. Wright represents is expressing what they call a righteous anger, the anger from the failed promises of America,” said Dwight Hopkins, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School. “The prophetic anger is toward expanding the democracy, expanding it so all citizens can walk through the door of opportunity.”
Often lost in the attention paid to Wright’s fiery sermons is the typical conclusion, Hopkins said — that despite all obstacles, you are a child of God and “can make a way out of no way.” That phrase, common in the language of the black church, was used by Obama in his 4,700-word speech Tuesday.
While Trinity United Church of Christ is more Afrocentric and slightly more political than most black churches, “even conservative black churches talk about racism in a way that many whites would find wounding or offensive,” said Gary Dorrien, a religion professor at Columbia University in New York.
“Most white Americans have a very limited capacity for dealing with black anger or acknowledging their own racial privileges,” Dorrien said. “Wherever white people are dominant, whiteness is transparent to them. In black church communities, dealing with that problem is an every-week issue.”

When I first read this article by a fairly mainstream journalist for the Denver Post, it was hard to conjure up a real life example that would illustrate the idea that "whiteness is transparent" in some situations. Then I read this:

[quote]

I think this speech is ridiculous.

Obama fails to acknowledge that very few truly hate black people today.

People hate feeling unsafe, and the culture in the ghettos is what causes this. Not a color of skin.

The other day I was at a Papa Johns pizza with blacks, whites, and mexicans working at it near Marquette. A black man walked in and yelled this is a robbery put your money on the table and take me to the safe right with his hands in his pockets.

I was scared shitless. Then, this guy laughs and go and high fives the guys behind the counter and laughs. Turns out he was an employee. An employee stared me down, pretended to have a gun, and made me put my money on the table I was at. And they wonder why people dislike them.

Problem solved.

[MadtownPacker]

Damn Partial, you are a big panocha.
BTW - I am racist. I hate all people.

[MJZiggy]

Damn Partial, you are a big panocha.
BTW - I am racist. I hate all people.

But do you hate them equally?

[oregonpackfan]

Damn Partial, you are a big panocha.
BTW - I am racist. I hate all people.

But do you hate them equally?

Partial,

I think Americans have come a long way in reducing racism because of the color of their skin. To say there is no more racism because of skin color is just plain denial, ignorance, or naivete. It still exists.

My nephew is a 21 year old student out here at Portland State. He was adopted by his parents when he was just an infant. He does not know his biological parents but he is of Mideastern ancestry.

It is sad in the post 9/11 era to hear him tell of the many times he has been called "Raghead" or "Sand nigger" because of his physical Mideastern biological heritage.

[LL2]

Damn Partial, you are a big panocha.
BTW - I am racist. I hate all people.

But do you hate them equally?

Partial,

I think Americans have come a long way in reducing racism because of the color of their skin. To say there is no more racism because of skin color is just plain denial, ignorance, or naivete. It still exists.

My nephew is a 21 year old student out here at Portland State. He was adopted by his parents when he was just an infant. He does not know his biological parents but he is of Mideastern ancestry.

It is sad in the post 9/11 era to hear him tell of the many times he has been called "Raghead" or "Sand nigger" because of his physical Mideastern biological heritage.

I can relate somewhat. My younger brother is bi-racial (black and white). He is going through a little identity struggle. He's 20 years younger than me. He has parents that are about to retire in a couple years. He's in HS and told he doesn't act black. That he's from a white yuppy family, etc. He's going through a rough time. He's been part of our family since he was 2 months old, and has never met his biological parents (although he's been saying he wants to). He's had a 10 times better life than he would've had with his crackhead parents (his biological mom went to jail after giving birht to him), but I think he's struggling to find that he belongs.

[Scott Campbell]

P,

I'd have stabbed the guy after he started laughing, and then said.......oops........thought you had a gun. Sorry bout that.

[MJZiggy]

Damn. Did I post that big long thing in the wrong thread? Awww crap.

[Partial]

No, I didn't. That is ridiculous. You laugh but you would be scared half to death if it happened to you. It's not like there isn't at least one robbery within a square quarter mile daily..

I would have taken my legal handgun and blown the fucker away.

I would have put the money on the table and when he turns his back pulled it out and held it up to him. With his back to me, he is defenseless and no one needs to hurt and no one loses their earnings. With no one having a gun but him, people are either going to get hurt or lose their earnings.

[Partial]

Damn Partial, you are a big panocha.
BTW - I am racist. I hate all people.

But do you hate them equally?

Partial,

I think Americans have come a long way in reducing racism because of the color of their skin. To say there is no more racism because of skin color is just plain denial, ignorance, or naivete. It still exists.

My nephew is a 21 year old student out here at Portland State. He was adopted by his parents when he was just an infant. He does not know his biological parents but he is of Mideastern ancestry.

It is sad in the post 9/11 era to hear him tell of the many times he has been called "Raghead" or "Sand nigger" because of his physical Mideastern biological heritage.

I'm talking about people my age. My generation isn't super racist I don't think.

Anna says people down here are still really racist. Especially the people she works with. I am surprised, disgusted and stand corrected.