# Despite horrible treatment, why don't African-Americans hate white people? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 27, 2015, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753 "2015-02-27T07:55:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![AnthonyElite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@AnthonyElite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnthonyElite)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/81 "2015-03-02T16:10:58Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > \*Please \*say it’s me? Please oh please oh please. Why do you want to be the subject of his ire? He has represented himself as being black and said he was uncomfortable with some of the things said. You want those things to be identified as the things you said. Why do you want to be the one that has made him uncomfortable? My guess is that there is some pain throughout the black community at the unfairness of the situation, but also a certain pride in knowing they have overcome so much and knowing they have the strength to continue pressing on. They are probably busy living their lives by spending time with good friends, family, and taking pride in their work. Hating doesn’t get you anything. They are too busy living lives to waste energy hating people that may or may not be part of the problem. For people that get in the way of their rights to family, friends, and work? Probably still not hate for most because it doesn’t solve anything. They find ways to overcome and then the person isn’t worth hating because they have no effect on the community. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/82 "2015-03-02T17:32:06Z")
> [@AnthonyElite](#): > > Why do you want to be the subject of his ire? I believe **monstro** is a she. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/83 "2015-03-02T17:35:10Z")
> [@Stuffy](#): > > From the time I was 9 until 11 or so, one of the ways I earned extra money was at the local golf course. Mostly picking up balls outside the walls, and caddying when I could get it. The line where we would turn in our buckets was the Sambo line. I was called little darkie, sambo, & colored boy and other charming names by golfers. Ironically I always received extra tips from those groups. > > I also worked with my best friends’ dad who was a handy man. We worked yards, built add-ons, tarred roofs, etc. in the areas around Detroit. I was in many a beautiful home, but never through the front door. You see that wasn’t acceptable in these places, they weren’t racist, but the neighbors, you know. You also wanted to be out of these neighborhoods before the sun set. My Grandfather was a member of one of those ritzy whites only country clubs (they considered themselves pretty liberal as they allowed Jews, dontchasee?:rolleyes:), and I witnessed that myself, here in CA. I remember being pissed off as the Black kids got bigger tips! (but they were better at it, they went after lost balls like crazy) I never heard “little darkie, sambo, or colored boy” but for sure, the black kids were “_Boy_” and I was “_Kid_” Or “Lad”. Mind you, that was in the very early 1960s. It was a sort of benign California racism… no meanness, but condescending. As to the next, since Dad & Granddad both insist I learn stuff during summer, one summer I worked with a handyman friend. _We_ always went in thru the back door. In those days, in a nice house, _tradesmen_ went in thru the back door. Period. No matter what color they were. ---
**Author:** ![AnthonyElite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@AnthonyElite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnthonyElite)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/84 "2015-03-02T19:04:11Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > I believe **monstro** is a she. Sorry! Thanks for the correction, I’m terribly ignorant when it comes to usernames and I of course default to he/him because I’m a guy and “it” just seems wrong. Have we officially solved the genderless pronoun yet? Erf ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/85 "2015-03-02T19:29:44Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Can you give me examples of people who are in prison “by virtue of skin color” - not for any crime they committed? Given the well-established racial disparities in police stops, arrests, charges filed, convictions, and sentencing it is clear that there are many prisoners who are there by virtue of their skin color, because if they had been white they might not have ended up there. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/86 "2015-03-02T19:31:42Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > Given the well-established racial disparities in police stops, arrests, charges filed, convictions, and sentencing it is clear that there are many prisoners who are there by virtue of their skin color, because if they had been white they might not have ended up there. I see. They are in jail because they’re black. Not because of any crime they have committed. Can you give an example? ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/87 "2015-03-02T19:34:18Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > I see. They are in jail because they’re black. Not because of any crime they have committed. Can you give an example? Do you believe racism no longer exists in this country on a meaningful scale? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/88 "2015-03-02T19:36:19Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Do you believe racism no longer exists in this country on a meaningful scale? 90% of people in prison in America are male, right? Does that mean the justice system is anti-male sexist? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/89 "2015-03-02T19:38:47Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Do you believe racism no longer exists in this country on a meaningful scale? Do you have some examples of people who are in prison because of the color of their skin? TIA. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/90 "2015-03-02T19:39:18Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Do you believe racism no longer exists in this country on a meaningful scale? What does that have to do with my question? ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/91 "2015-03-02T19:51:33Z")
{sigh} > [@](#): > > “The race issue isn’t just that the judge is going, ‘Oh, black man, I’m gonna sentence you higher,’” she said. “The police go into low-income minority neighborhoods and that’s where they make most of their drug arrests. If they arrest you, now you have a ‘prior,’ so if you plead or get arrested again, you’re gonna have a higher sentence. There’s a kind of cumulative effect.” [When It Comes To Illegal Drug Use, White America Does The Crime, Black America Gets The Time](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/racial-disparity-drug-use_n_3941346.html) [Blacks are more than 8 times as likely as Whites to be stopped by the New York City Police](http://www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/nyc_police_stops_2010_by_race_ethnicity.html). So what you have is one group who is disproportionately targeted by police and who receive harsher sentences by the justice system. All of that snowballs into the wonderful outcome we have today. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/92 "2015-03-02T19:55:32Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > I see. They are in jail because they’re black. Not because of any crime they have committed. Can you give an example? I’m starting to wonder the same thing the OP is wondering. I continue to be amazed by white men (a club I’m a member of) who just have no clue how tilted the game is in their favour. ---
**Author:** ![BOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@BOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BOOM)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/93 "2015-03-02T19:59:36Z")
It can only be wilfull ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/94 "2015-03-02T20:05:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’m starting to wonder the same thing the OP is wondering. > > I continue to be amazed by white men (a club I’m a member of) who just have no clue how tilted the game is in their favour. Still no example? I have no problem with claims that the prison population is disproportionately black. That’s just a fact. That, of course, is coupled with the fact that those who commit crimes are disproportionately black. That’s also a fact. But a claim has been made that many people are imprisoned “by virtue of being black”. I am trying to find an example of one such person. I mean, there are many, right? Should be easy to find one. ---
**Author:** ![BOOM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c4cdca/32.png) [@BOOM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BOOM)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/95 "2015-03-02T20:23:44Z")
Do you remember that discussion about institutional racism, did all of that go over your head? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/96 "2015-03-02T20:26:04Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Still no example? > > I have no problem with claims that the prison population is disproportionately black. That’s just a fact. That, of course, is coupled with the fact that those who commit crimes are disproportionately black. That’s also a fact. But a claim has been made that many people are imprisoned “by virtue of being black”. I am trying to find an example of one such person. I mean, there are many, right? Should be easy to find one. Well, certainly, the culture in America has kept many Blacks living in poor areas, where education is poor, good job opportunities are scarce, and thus a disproportionate number turn to crime. AKA- poor dudes commit more crimes than well-off dudes. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/97 "2015-03-02T20:26:07Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Still no example? > > I have no problem with claims that the prison population is disproportionately black. That’s just a fact. That, of course, is coupled with the fact that those who commit crimes are disproportionately black. That’s also a fact. But a claim has been made that many people are imprisoned “by virtue of being black”. I am trying to find an example of one such person. I mean, there are many, right? Should be easy to find one. The link I put forth gives us some explanations. If, for example, five percent of the Black population and five percent of the white population have drugs on them, Blacks are going to be jailed more so because police target the their group disproportionately. The example from the California bill also gives some reasoning. Hard drugs that Black people use are classified as felonies whereas meth can either be a felony or a misdemeanor. We saw this a few decades ago with mandatory sentencing laws. Cocaine was an automatic sentence and cocaine had some leeway, despite being mostly the same stuff. Blacks are more likely to go to jail for committing the same crime as whites. That makes sentencing even harsher because they have priors. Never mind the ripple effect: parents are in jail and not taking care of their children, a family stays poor, etc. As Foucault said, “The prison can not fail to produce delinquents.” Or it could be because Blacks are innately, biologically inferior and prone to criminality. Has nothing to do with the \*hundreds \*of years of a justice system stacked against them or the intricate nature of education, economics, and race. Nope. Naturally criminals. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/98 "2015-03-02T20:30:14Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’m starting to wonder the same thing the OP is wondering. > > I continue to be amazed by white men (a club I’m a member of) who just have no clue how tilted the game is in their favour. I think, that today in America- it is far more your socio-economic status, and where you grew up that tilts the game in your favor. A poor white guy from Compton will not have it easier than a rich black kid from Beverly Hills. That said, of course American culture does tend to keep certain minorities in those poor areas. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/99 "2015-03-02T20:30:16Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > The link I put forth gives us some explanations. If, for example, five percent of the Black population and five percent of the white population have drugs on them, Blacks are going to be jailed more so because police target the their group disproportionately. Ok. But Blacks who had drugs on them and were caught, are they imprisoned “by virtue of skin color”? Or by virtue of breaking the law? ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753/100 "2015-03-02T20:45:12Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > What does that have to do with my question? Nothing, I was just wondering. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/despite-horrible-treatment-why-dont-african-americans-hate-white-people/713753.md?page=6)