Do you believe you live in a racist nation?

[911]

I get you...You are absolutely correct....Yes, the morons made the Riots....At first it was peaceful walking in the streets then it got to be a riot...

The morons came in....I won't say who they were....Then it became an apademic….We've had this in our country for a long time....
Someone, I won't say, is moving this.... They've been in our country for a very long time...It's a Cult!!! They don't want the USA....
They want the country their way....I'm old, but I have kids that are growing up in this country....They couldn't go to school, they can't
go out anywhere, they can't see their friends.. People lost their jobs....What da heck!!!!…..It's a conspiracy....

Sorry, I'm an old Woman and have lived a very long time.....

You get it. A few of these anarchists were asked about the statue of the “Emancipation Memorial” and no one (I believe they asked 5 or 6 of the mob) who the President on the statue was and not one of them knew.

To make it even worse, the mob wants to tear down the statue of Teddy Roosevelt in New York. President Roosevelt was probably our greatest President ever, not too mention that he was also our youngest ever elected.

 

[Pepper]

To make it even worse, the mob wants to tear down the statue of Teddy Roosevelt in New York. President Roosevelt was probably our greatest President ever, not too mention that he was also our youngest ever elected.

The Museum of Natural History in NYC is voluntarily removing the statue of Teddy Roosevelt, in which he is on horseback & is flanked by an African native on one side and an American native on the other. It is their idea to take it down, no one asked them to.

Like you, I admire him very much. Without him we would not have our National Parks. He was an innovator on many levels.

 

[Pepper]

As for Confederate statues, they represent traitors and losers and are nothing to admire. Black citizens of the South help pay for their upkeep through their taxes and that is a slap in the face. Enough.

 

[Becky1951]

Wrong, just plain wrong ........it is based on the behavior [or lack of] of people that just happen to be of a certain color.........

Change their behavior , not their skin color, and everything, I mean everything will improve ..... overnight.

"Wrong, just plain wrong ........it is based on the behavior [or lack of] of people that just happen to be of a certain color.........

Change their behavior , not their skin color, and everything, I mean everything will improve ..... overnight." And just what "certain color" are you referring to? Change THEIR behavior?

 

[C'est Moi]

Tell that to survivors of lynching victims.

Yes, and tell it to Reginald Denny.

 

[911]

As for Confederate statues, they represent traitors and losers and are nothing to admire. Black citizens of the South help pay for their upkeep through their taxes and that is a slap in the face. Enough.

I can understand your hostility towards these Confederate statues, but we really should keep in mind that they were also heroes to many others. It’s a Catch-22. The statues that adorn the Gettysburg Battlefield is a solemn place for many who lost relatives during the 3-day battle. I have walked that battlefield more times than I care to count. Hundreds of thousands of men and women have lost their life while fighting for our rights with the flag beside them. I don’t get it. Such a small thing to ask; to stand and show respect for all the lost lives so that our 1st Amendment rights could be protected.

 

[Victor]

NO.

 

[Pepper]

NO, @911. The Confederates were traitors to our Union and believed they had the right to buy and sell other humans, even to kill them with no penalty. NO.

I have also been to Gettysburg several times and yes, the experience is haunting.

 

[applecruncher]

It isn't clear, Applecruncher, not the way it was worded.

Applecruncher says the question is clear.
Sunny says it isn't.

So, we disagree. (shrug)

 

[JaniceM]

I would but ....... most have been dead 100 years or more ....... I'd say it's time to move on.

Now ..... lets' talk about the 3 or 4 that were killed locally by other blacks last week.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120510065443/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159348,00.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Michael_Donald

And there were states where it wasn't even against the law til only a few years ago!!!

 

[JaniceM]

You get it. A few of these anarchists were asked about the statue of the “Emancipation Memorial” and no one (I believe they asked 5 or 6 of the mob) who the President on the statue was and not one of them knew.

To make it even worse, the mob wants to tear down the statue of Teddy Roosevelt in New York. President Roosevelt was probably our greatest President ever, not too mention that he was also our youngest ever elected.

The youngest person to be elected President was JFK.

 

[JaniceM]

I can understand your hostility towards these Confederate statues, but we really should keep in mind that they were also heroes to many others. It’s a Catch-22. The statues that adorn the Gettysburg Battlefield is a solemn place for many who lost relatives during the 3-day battle. I have walked that battlefield more times than I care to count. Hundreds of thousands of men and women have lost their life while fighting for our rights with the flag beside them. I don’t get it. Such a small thing to ask; to stand and show respect for all the lost lives so that our 1st Amendment rights could be protected.

Seriously?!? You think the Confederates were protecting First Amendment rights- whose First Amendment rights?!?

Oh, oops, I forgot- back in the day, Blacks, Native Americans, and women weren't 'citizens.'

 

[Camper6]

The question "Do you live in a racist nation?" is so unclear that it's meaningless.

If it means the official laws of our nation, our Constitution, etc. are racist, no, they are not. The U.S. Confederacy was racist. The old laws of South Africa were racist. (And maybe still are, for all I know.) But the U.S. is not officially racist, just the opposite.

If it is asking whether racism largely still exists, of course it does.

Please clarify the question.

Sunny. You are aware of course that under the First Amendment and free speech that hate speech is protected.

Hate speech in the United States is not regulated, in contrast to that of most other liberal democracies, due to the robust right to free speech found in the American Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that hate speech is legally protected free speech under the First Amendment.

 

[rgp]

Haven't you noticed whites kill each other too?
eta--I've noticed people kill other people. All the time. Bad habit. Listen to the words of Captain Kirk.

Yes I have, but the "cry" is black lives matter .......So as per your note .... why not , all lives matter ?

Lately there have been people fired for saying that!

As for Capt,Kirk?........I do not base my debates/arguments quoting fictional characters.

 

[rgp]

"Wrong, just plain wrong ........it is based on the behavior [or lack of] of people that just happen to be of a certain color.........

Change their behavior , not their skin color, and everything, I mean everything will improve ..... overnight." And just what "certain color" are you referring to? Change THEIR behavior?

Referring to mostly blacks ......... as I believe the opposing poster was as well.

 

[Em in Ohio]

As far as the US is concerned, I would have to say yes. This is my opinion. What is yours? We live in a divided nation-black and white, Asian, Indian, etc. There is a white culture, which stays all white. Can you guess the race of a Country /Western singer. It's no big secret whites harbor racists views. They interact with other races only when necessary, and certainly not live next to them. Blacks have their own culture, which stays black. Can you guess the race of a R&B/soul singer. They harbor racist views for other races. They also harbor a great distrust of the police. They interact with other races only when necessary, and certainly do not live next to other races. We have almost two independent societies. I believe it is difficult in the US for blacks and whites to shed racism. Both have unjustified fears and long, long traumatic histories.

Seeing the world from the perspective of others:

Martin Luther King: “A Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
“But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million ***** brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “******,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a *****, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you go forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”–then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”

 

[Becky1951]

Referring to mostly blacks ......... as I believe the opposing poster was as well.

So in your opinion if black people the whole race, changed their behavior everything and you mean everything would change over night?

What behavior would you like from the black race?

Back to the days of slavery so you could be called Master?

My opinion of your opinion is that your a racist.

 

[Pepper]

As for Capt,Kirk?........I do not base my debates/arguments quoting fictional characters.

A Real Person wrote the script. I don't know who but I think Gene Roddenberry was named Gene for Geneius.

 

[Em in Ohio]

A Real Person wrote the script. I don't know who but I think Gene Roddenberry was named Gene for Geneius.

@rgp @Pepper

Astronomer Carl Sagan's son contributes many of the scripts used in Star Trek. RGP might have different attitudes if he watched the social dynamics on the Star Trek series.

 

[rgp]

So in your opinion if black people the whole race, changed their behavior everything and you mean everything would change over night?

What behavior would you like from the black race?

Back to the days of slavery so you could be called Master?

My opinion of your opinion is that your a racist.

"What behavior would you like from the black race?"

Well lets start with them not shooting each other, as reported on the news every damn night.

Maybe get out of the street corner illegal drug business.


Well, what ever your opinion of me is .... it's a hell of allot higher than my opinion of you.

 

[Sunny]

As far as the US is concerned, I would have to say yes. This is my opinion. What is yours? We live in a divided nation-black and white, Asian, Indian, etc. There is a white culture, which stays all white. Can you guess the race of a Country /Western singer. It's no big secret whites harbor racists views. They interact with other races only when necessary, and certainly not live next to them. Blacks have their own culture, which stays black. Can you guess the race of a R&B/soul singer. They harbor racist views for other races. They also harbor a great distrust of the police. They interact with other races only when necessary, and certainly do not live next to other races. We have almost two independent societies. I believe it is difficult in the US for blacks and whites to shed racism. Both have unjustified fears and long, long traumatic histories.

Fuzzy, I beg to differ. Part of what you have said is true, the part about various kinds of singers being primarily one race or another. (Though even that isn't 100%). But these are cultural differences.

Many of us have friends primarily of our own cultural background; again, so what? That doesn't prove that "we live in a divided nation," although that may be true if you leave race out of the equation and just look at our social and political ideas. But having lots of friends from your own cultural background absolutely does not mean that we "interact with other races only when necessary, and certainly do not live next to other races." What ugly, prejudiced corner of the U.S. do you live in, and I might add, in what century?

It sounds as if you live in a world where people of different races dislike and mistrust each other. That is not the world I live in. In my building, people of all races and colorations live side by side, we get along and participate in all our activities together. (Or, at least we did pre-coronavirus). That applies to everything I do here. My bridge group, my theatre performance group, my scrabble group, my political club, the local newspaper I write for, you name it, we like each other and get along just fine. In my own experience, I think the Black neighbors are the nicest, friendliest people living here, and I am privileged to have them as neighbors.

So, where did "two independent societies" thing come from? I'm happy to say it is not true for me, or for most of the people living here. That's an ugly, suspicious way of looking at life, and at least in my world, not true. I'm sorry it is in yours.

 

[Pepper]

Well lets start with them not shooting each other, as reported on the news every damn night.

What about starting with white people not shooting each other? i.e. Las Vegas as well as personal encounters?

 

[911]

Some of you people are simply shameless and unappreciative of the lives given protecting freedom. You will never admit or accept it, so let’s just leave it at that.

What’s going on in the U.S. is just plain unacceptable. This is a “revolution” and the end to it will not be pretty.

 

[Pepper]

Some of you people are simply shameless and unappreciative of the lives given protecting freedom.

I beg you, please tell me you are not including Confederates. If so, and I hope not, given you say "protecting freedom" then I have another question.

I want to thank you personally for all the years you have been protecting the public and the eloquent way you describe your story.

 

[rgp]

What about starting with white people not shooting each other? i.e. Las Vegas as well as personal encounters?

Because you questioned my hope for improved behavior in the black community.........

And maybe because white people don't riot in the streets damn near every time a white suspect is killed by the police.