Not hacker, not news.
I swear, comments like this only come out of the woodwork on articles about things like racism or sexism.
Walking While Black
21–30 of 177 posts
Re: Walking While Black
#22When I was growing up I remember the pride our educational system tried to instill in us and it seems so fake in retrospect. It's impossible to be proud of a nation that is only a land of opportunity for those who are white and middle class. Its not that I'm not proud to be an American so much as I don't consider myself one I'm just a person who happens to reside here because I don't have better options.
Even if you don't feel pride or you don't have better options, one could still have a connection to a place or a sense of familiarity with it. Even though I will never feel as safe or comfortable as a white person, or feel that I belong as much as they do, I still have a connection to where I live merely from living here and walking through it, knowing people, etc. It's best to channel that sense to work to make that place a better place, into something you can be proud of. If I didn't have that sense, and I think if other POC didn't, we'd never get up in the morning.
A lady once said "Still I rise." I think that's the right attitude to have.
Re: Walking While Black
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's impossible to be proud of a nation that is only a land of opportunity for those who are white and middle class. I had a conversation with a black man who pointed out that North America was in fact the ideal that Hitler had aspired to. North America, Australia, New Zealand is the realization of Anglo Saxon lebensraum. South Africa and India was also supposed to be turned into similar places but the natives foug…
North America is in fact nothing like the Third Reich. These truly incredible, bizarre claims require extraordinary evidence, not a supposed conversation with a random person. The random person's skin color doesn't make it any more or less likely.
I do remember hearing that Hitler admired American treatment of the Native Americans.
And apparently Jim Crow too. So there's probably a grain of truth to the comparison: https://www.history.com/news/how-the-nazis-were-inspired-by-...
Re: Walking While Black
#24When I was growing up I remember the pride our educational system tried to instill in us and it seems so fake in retrospect. It's impossible to be proud of a nation that is only a land of opportunity for those who are white and middle class. Its not that I'm not proud to be an American so much as I don't consider myself one I'm just a person who happens to reside here because I don't have better options.
Is that what the educational system does? Maybe during the Cold War. Now, the goal of the educational isn't to install pride in America, the goal is to divide America into camps.
I think you might underestimate how much of American education inflates the idea of America as a land of opportunity for all. Even when it isn't stated explicitly, society and culture communicates that message.
Re: Walking While Black
#25I can't find it, but I first read a piece about Walking While Black when I was still homeless. It was a different piece, written by a successful American man, a lawyer iirc, whose car broke down not too far from home. So he walked home into his upper middle class neighborhood to his own home and was harassed by the police about it.
I got some very small taste of such treatment while homeless. Walking while homeless is another reason for well off people to call the cops on you or for police to generally assume you must be up to no good.
I don't know how to fix this, but I am glad to see it getting more attention and I am glad to see such compelling writing on the subject.
Re: Walking While Black
#26[deleted]
Re: Walking While Black
#27When I was growing up I remember the pride our educational system tried to instill in us and it seems so fake in retrospect. It's impossible to be proud of a nation that is only a land of opportunity for those who are white and middle class. Its not that I'm not proud to be an American so much as I don't consider myself one I'm just a person who happens to reside here because I don't have better options.
I don't think its true that it only affords opportunity for the white and middle class. I think you would find many Americans who fit into other categories who disagree with you. Not to say cynically that 'if you don't like it leave', but I'm curious when you say you just happen to reside here for lack of better options -- is there a country in the world you consider to be the ideal, a place more just than America? I…
Racism in America varies greatly, depending on where you live. The following is the most objective metric I could find for racist tendencies in America:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/08/acros...
Looking at the map, the Pacific Northwest is one of the least racist, and the south is one of the most racist. This matches pretty well with what I would have expected. Interestingly, NY state itself ranks pretty highly in racist tendencies, which is a major part of the author's experiences.
In contrast, here's the same map of Europe:
http://theconversation.com/this-map-shows-what-white-europea...
If you put any stock in this data, the UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium are all less racist than NY-state.
Re: Walking While Black
#28When I was growing up I remember the pride our educational system tried to instill in us and it seems so fake in retrospect. It's impossible to be proud of a nation that is only a land of opportunity for those who are white and middle class. Its not that I'm not proud to be an American so much as I don't consider myself one I'm just a person who happens to reside here because I don't have better options.
Even though there is racial disparity and studies show discrimination in housing, jobs, loans, etc. I wouldn't go so far as to say that only White people can get ahead.
Yes I'm Black, live in the south and think I'm doing pretty well. I have quite a few friends who would also disagree.
Re: Walking While Black
#29[deleted]
Re: Walking While Black
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's impossible to be proud of a nation that is only a land of opportunity for those who are white and middle class. I had a conversation with a black man who pointed out that North America was in fact the ideal that Hitler had aspired to. North America, Australia, New Zealand is the realization of Anglo Saxon lebensraum. South Africa and India was also supposed to be turned into similar places but the natives foug…
North America is in fact nothing like the Third Reich. These truly incredible, bizarre claims require extraordinary evidence, not a supposed conversation with a random person. The random person's skin color doesn't make it any more or less likely.
> North America is in fact nothing like the Third Reich.
No one said that North America is like the Third Reich. The point is that Hitler aspired to lebensraum (breathing room) for Germanic people and was inspired by the fact that USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand became breathing room for Anglo Saxon people. It is not bizarre or in-credible to see that this analogy holds true and the context of the article "Walking While Black" reinforces this.
> These truly incredible, bizarre claims require extraordinary evidence,
I assume your request is about the planning of this and partitioning of world regions in a racially structured way. There's ample evidence of Anglo Saxon/Germanic leaders talking about the partitioning of the world in this way. Here's Churchill's quote about China.
" I believe in the ultimate partition of China—I mean ultimate. I hope we shall not have to do it in our day. The Aryan stock is bound to triumph.
I am not greatly concerned about Russian development in China. I would rather have them develop in that way down south into India. Russia has a justifiable ambition to possess a warm water port. It is really embarrassing to think that 100,000,000 people are without one. "
"I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."