Hispanic man, and University of Arizona GRADUATE chiming in:
Wasn’t going to get into this, just lurk, but I hate this whinning “I’m a minority, pity me you white male bastards” crapola…it just makes me grit my teeth. In my family, we were raised that, in spite of our ‘race’ or sex, we could do anything in this country. Certainly, we can do a lot more than we could of if our family would of stayed in Mexico.
Honesty writes:
"In this country, it has been less than a hundred years since women were allowed to vote, a bit more than forty years since the civil rights movement, and Americans have the audacity to say, “Yep, we sure fixed that. Let’s all be equal now. Got problems? Well just tough it out, you’ll make it somehow.”
To me, this makes a great point…but its a point I’m sure he didn’t intend. Its only been “less than a hundred years” since women could vote…and “a bit more than forty years since the civil rights movement”. Yet look at the progress we’ve made!! Women not only vote, but are out in the work place, in force. One of the engineers I work with is a woman, and she is one of the best engineers I’ve ever worked with. We have the same amount of experience, and while I have a college degree, she has a lot of experience…and we make the same salary. Fancy that. My boss is black. I’ve never seen him be asked to dance or sing, Honesty, but he IS a top notch engineer and administrator. He wasn’t hired 'cause he’s black, he was hired 'cause he’s GOOD. I asked him if the white man is keeping him down while I was writing this, and he just laughed and said ‘bullshit’.
The race barriers ARE coming down. In my fathers day, mixed couples were almost unheard of, even in Arizona. I still remember my dad lecturing me on not trying to date ‘white girls’, cause I’d only be bringing myself trouble (kind of dates me). I’m now married to one of those ‘white girls’, and looking around, I see a LOT of mixed couples these days (and I rejoice when I do…to me its a clear sign that things have changed). Open your eyes and you’ll SEE that things are better. Are they perfect? Nope. We have a long way to go still. But, every generation seems to get better and more integrated…IMO anyway.
In my grandfathers day, he could work on a farm, picking lettuce, or MAYBE, if he was really lucky, he could work construction. When my grandfather died, my family was forced to go on welfare just to survive. My father went into the military to get an education, and now he owns his own company through his own guts and will. Myself, I’m a senior network engineer for Williams and I like to think that I got my position because I’m good, not 'cause I’m hispanic. How have the white boys kept my family down? We excelled in spite of them, and now they HAVE to respect us. And now, they have to ACCEPT us too, because things have changed. My dad talks of when he was a boy and people called him a ‘spic’, and did all kinds of things to him and my family I won’t bring up…anyone calls ME that and they will get a boot up the ass. You know its true…how maybe white boys would call you ‘niger’ now?? Not any that expected to live through the encounter, I’m sure. And they’d KNOW they were in the wrong, too. Yet, 30 years ago, it was common place. Sure, maybe some of that ingrained prejudice has gone underground, but some of it has washed away as well…as one of the posters said, time heals all wounds.
Honesty writes:
"Long as we play basketball, football, sing our tunes, and entertain the masses we’re ok. When blacks are given the opportunity for just a breath of a chance, America’s “free” calls foul. The whole thing is just a pimp-slap to every minority in this country, in an atempt to tell us exactly who “our massa’ be.”
:mad: All I can say to you is, I don’t NEED the white boys to GIVE me anything. In THIS country, its there for the taking, if you have the will and the guts to take it…the white boys can’t stop you, if you REALLY want to do something. Maybe it is a bit harder for me (or you perhaps) to make it, though I think thats not as much the case as it once was, but you CAN make it, if you want too. If you really think its so bad, go back and look at whatever is your ‘old country’ and see how much better things are there (snort), were everyone is your same ‘race’. I still have family in mexico, and to me, this country is heaven on earth compared to there.
AA played a part in getting us where we are today. Without it, I’m sure my family would still be picking lettuce somewhere, or maybe have the coveted mechanic or construction job if they were REALLY lucky (I certainly used the grants to help get me through college). But its time is past. Its counter productive now. Now is the time to heal, and to allow time itself to weld us into one nation of AMERICANS, not a bunch of splinter groups.
Maybe I’m overly optimistic on this, but I see the progression from how things were in the past, to today, and I’m amazed by the progress we’ve made. Considering we are the ONLY country in the world with the mix of different races and religions that we have, its telling (and amazing to me at least) that we have so few problems…and its also telling that we are the greatest country on the earth as well.
But thats just my opinion…I could be wrong.
-XT
p.s. I appologize if this was more a rant than a reply to the OP. Reading back through this, I guess most of its the subject for another thread entirely.