It’s not “willful ignorance” – you’re just repeating brainless, lazy right-wing talking points that don’t mean anything. What does it mean? How does a community “FIX IT”? Just use my wife as an example. What is she supposed to do, as a member of the black community? If she isn’t supposed to do anything, then how is “the black community” responsible?
These are very straight forward questions, that you’re refusing to answer again and again. If you can’t even answer a single question, about what a single member of “the black community” is supposed to do, then you aren’t offering anything at all.
No, no, and no. So I answered your questions – care to answer mine? Once again, what is she supposed to do, as a member of the black community? If she isn’t supposed to do anything, then how is “the black community” responsible?
Then how is “the black community” responsible, if the vast majority of them “already did [their] part”? It doesn’t make any sense to blame millions and millions when the vast majority aren’t doing anything wrong.
Are you and your wife accepting of that fact, or are you blaming the white people for the woes of the others who DID NOT do their part?
Not all men are serial gropers, but we can have discussions about how to limit the men that are, THIS conversation is the exact same thing.
Not all black people are incarcerated, or impregnated or involved with drugs, yet somehow I think there is still a conversation to be had about how to go about fixing that contingent, that doesn’t revolve around you excusing it as racist.
It may be a tangent, but I don’t think it’s silly per se. It’s okay to object that one person should not be smeared based on claiming that “a community” needs to clean up “their” act. But the same caveat should apply to other groups as well.
I agree. If iiandyiiii is able to bring up his black wife as a counterpoint whenever anyone wants to talk about failings in the black community/communities, then I should be able to bring up my white son, or my white nextdoor neighbour, my white dentist, or whatever as a counterpoint whenever anyone brings up failings in the white community/communities. You’re absolutely right that we shouldn’t have one standard for group A, and another for groups B, C, and D.
However, I think it’d be more productive if we just agreed to use a different standard instead. Rather than force everyone to pepper every discussion of any large group with #notall style caveats, we should all just agree to presume that whenever anyone talks about ‘The black community’ or ‘The white community’ or ‘men’ or ‘Muslims’ or ‘Christians’ or whatever, they’re not talking about every single member of that group. I’d be happier if that was the single standard we applied to all groups.
I think community blaming is dumb and I don’t do it, except in the somewhat rare circumstances in which pretty much every member of that community actually could be doing something that they aren’t (i.e. the law enforcement community – every single cop should be reporting every single act of misbehavior by their fellow cops, to the media if necessary, and I’m not sure if any of them do that consistently). When it’s just a group with nothing in common other than skin color or whatever, it’s basically a meaningless statement – millions of strangers with nothing in common and no formal leadership or legislative ability aren’t going to be able to solve complex problems as a group. I hold America as a nation responsible for the things America has done, and it’s America’s responsibility to fix it – i.e. enact the various forms of legislation and such that accomplishes the things necessary to make our society truly equal. But America is a country – with laws, a legislature, etc.
Sorry, I did read into that more than you said. You said you were being judged, and I mentally inserted the “for being white” part in. That was entirely my fault for being presumptuous.
So, since you are not being judged for being white, what is is that you feel you are being judged for that means that you can judge others for being black?
See, even though I’m entirely certain your intention in posting this was to pull a “hurr durr let’s see how you like it” style gotcha, I actually have no problem with that formulation in the context of discussions of racism in the white community. I know you’re not talking about every white person, and to waste time huffily pointing out that #notallwhiteppl are racist would be to center white feelings at the expense of talking about black oppression.
k9, I didn’t say that I was being judged either, I was simply pointing out that people judge, all day long.
iiandyiii, the FACT that there is fault to be fixed(or at minimum worked on) by the people choosing these bad things that get them into trouble, or keep them in poverty.And the fact that not all the woes of the black community are the fault of someone else, white man or otherwise.
As long as you are comfortable talking about groups of people in broad brushes that generalize a problem rather than actually confront it in a useful way, then that sounds like a plan.
The white community also needs to do something about its drug problem, its out of wedlock birth problem, its educational problems, and its violence problem.
And you say this because they are over-represented in the prison population, out of wedlock birthrate or educational standards?
I thought not
I would confront any problem within a community to directly address the issues that plague that society. Right now, all we have gotten are excuses as to WHY it is.
