why is it socially acceptable to.....

[trancesun2]

AND WHATS WITH B-E-T?!!!

that gets me soo annoyed. BLACK ISNT A CULTURE!..ITS A COLOR.

AFRICAN = CULTURE

HAITIAN = CULTURE

ETC ETC.

i wouldnt mind an african american telivision.

you know, a station aimed for african culture..etc etc.

but BET is BLACK entertainment Television.

so what does that mean...as long as your skin color is black..this station is for u..regardless of culture or background...u just gotta be BLACK in color?

to me thats why racism is still arond(a big part...its not the ONLY reason)...blacks are labeling THEMSELVES.

its like..they have BET news..and its the same news as any other station..but its a BLACK newscaster....i dont get it.

what if they started W_E_T

white entertainment television..would that make sense?..no

Culture is culture...thats fine....but there is NOOOO BLACk CULTURE. Black is your color..not your backgroung. If your black from the cariibean..or black from africa..you have 2 different cultures...its like being german and being italian. They should tap into their history and culture more as apose to starting this generic "black culture" maybe im not expressing myself correctly..but does anyone else here know whati mean?.

[punjabpatel]

You couldn't be more off base if you tried. You should really stop reading neo-con tripe. I grew up in the suburbs and I can tell you that there was very little guilt by anyone living there about what was happening in the 'poor black areas'. Actually it was more like spite and ridicule for the people less fortunate. Also... it didn't matter what race you were degrading...black, white, asian..doesn't matter, because the true dividing lines in this country are done by economic class, not race.

Racial tension is a tool for the ignorant, by the ignorant and perpretuated in the hands of the ignorant...usually at their own expense.. and at the benefit of the people who have the clout to have a say in the way this country is run. Congratulations, you help keep those people in charge, and guess what!...You're not one of them!

Open your eyes.

And that's comin from a person of color.

Explain then why scumbags like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Farakkhan, Sista Soulja as well as plenty of black "comedians" are allowed to spew racism & make racial jokes & no one blinks an eye but heaven forbid a white or asian does the same, thw whole world turns upside down.

Also why is the rainbow coalition only catering to blacks "Rainbow" means a variety of colors not just one.

Where is the united caucasion college fund?

Where is the Ivory magazines?

Where is WET or AET?

[trancesun2]

exactly..i posted the same thing right on top. BLACK isnt a culture.

[argdiesel]

You couldn't be more off base if you tried. You should really stop reading neo-con tripe. I grew up in the suburbs and I can tell you that there was very little guilt by anyone living there about what was happening in the 'poor black areas'. Actually it was more like spite and ridicule for the people less fortunate. Also... it didn't matter what race you were degrading...black, white, asian..doesn't matter, because the true dividing lines in this country are done by economic class, not race.

Racial tension is a tool for the ignorant, by the ignorant and perpretuated in the hands of the ignorant...usually at their own expense.. and at the benefit of the people who have the clout to have a say in the way this country is run. Congratulations, you help keep those people in charge, and guess what!...You're not one of them!

Open your eyes.

And that's comin from a person of color.

well put brotha!

[phuturephunk]

Explain then why scumbags like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Farakkhan, Sista Soulja as well as plenty of black "comedians" are allowed to spew racism & make racial jokes & no one blinks an eye but heaven forbid a white or asian does the same, thw whole world turns upside down.

Also why is the rainbow coalition only catering to blacks "Rainbow" means a variety of colors not just one.

Where is the united caucasion college fund?

Where is the Ivory magazines?

Where is WET or AET?

My thoughts:

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are relics from the past who haven't quite modified themselves to the current situation where 'liberal' and 'welfare' have effectively become spinned to mean something completely different then what they originally meant. 'Liberal' used to mean the hallmark of tolerance, no matter what the person's view, as long as you're not hurting anyone in the process, so be it. 'Welfare' used to mean 'well being of the state' which means that if a decimated area of Wisconsin is falling on hard times, its the right thing to give a dollar, even if you happen to live in Cali, to help 'em get back on their feet. Nowadays, their both demonized as being 'evil' and 'un-american' by the right..and truth is, with the God angle backing them, and the left trying to take the offensive, when they really should just try to hype positivity and give real world solutions to real world problems, it doesn't surprise me that we have the situation we have today. Its only natural, in this circumstance, to have guys like Sharpton and Jackson grasp at straws trying to get a voice while drowning in an increasingly self-centered, right-wing society. I admittedly haven't seen many of their speeches, but I don't really recall definite incidents where they used racial slurs like 'cracker' and 'honky' to get the point across. One would suppose thats not the best way to go about things considering that the 'honkies' are holding the purse strings. Then again, with Al sharpton, anything is possible.

Louis Farrakan is a nutjob. He's an anti-semite, anti-white extremist and has gone on record being as such for as long as I can remember. Being an extremist, he's destined to be on the fringe in this country, and therefore of little consequence.

Sister Soulja I haven't heard anything from since "By the Time I Get to Arizona" by Public Enemy. Maybe I just don't watch activist hip hop that often, honestly I didn't even think it still existed (and keep in mind I grew up in the Suburbs, so I'm pretty hip to what white people pay attention to). Also, that era (late 80's early 90's) was pretty much one of the Apex's of urban decay in America. I guarantee if you lived in Bushwick, Bed-stuy, Soundview or Mott Haven at the time, you'd be pissed and lashing out at the privleged too, using every racial epithet you could think of. Again, its about economic class and trying to find someone to blame.

Most of the jokes I've heard at the expense of whites by blacks center around one of four things: Being bland..Not being able to dance..Being 'underequipped'..and their bizarre fascination with the TV show 'Friends'. Let me tell you how earth shattering those cut downs are compared to stuff like the East St. Louis Massacre. Earth Shattering indeed.

As for the rest:

You're forgetting something here kiddo. The majority of wealth (oooh, here we go again) in this country is concentrated in the hands of caucasians. That is going to cause resentment with the people who don't have such a connection. Take a whole bunch of migrating blacks from the south last century, put them in the projects in the 60's, 70's and 80's..let them have kids and remove social services like education, good honest policework, and neighborhood improvement initiatives..simmer for 20-some odd years and you have what we have today.

Take a group of fleeing caucasians who moved out of the cities and to the suburbs..the whole way blaming 'those people' for ruining 'the neighborhood' without ever even thinking of why it was happening in the first place, have them raise sheltered kids in the suburbs with no contact with anyone unlike themselves and then put caricatures of the 'scary black male' out on the market for them to suck up to feed the danger quotient that they never had and you have what we have today.

Combine both with a greed mentality at all levels of society, distract them with petty things like 'affirmative action' and 'traditional family values' (a fallicy), convince them that some army of black mammies in the Bronx with a thousand children a piece (also a fallicy) is stealing from them and you have what we have today.

The funniest thing about it is, there's a white underclass that outnumbers the black underclass by about a factor of 10, yet its never acknowledged.

Why is that? Oh that's right, its about race..

Again, open your eyes.

[mahrune]

im italian but i make fun of guidos all the time. it doesn't bother me that other people do either, b/c meathead wop's are truly annoying. im not sure if it's a double standard or anything, i think just some people aren't as hung up on their cultural identity as others. im proud of being italian, but i also find humor in italian stereotypes since i dont fall into those categories (wearing coolwater, driving an IROC, belief that the rocky movies are real). if i said all scottish women are built like linebackers, would there be any prejudicial outcry? doubtful.

*goes back to lurking*

[argdiesel]

i had to read that some intresting shit there phuturephunk people need to

wake the hell up

[punjabpatel]

Sister Soulja I haven't heard anything from since "By the Time I Get to Arizona" by Public Enemy. Maybe I just don't watch activist hip hop that often, honestly I didn't even think it still existed (and keep in mind I grew up in the Suburbs, so I'm pretty hip to what white people pay attention to). Also, that era (late 80's early 90's) was pretty much one of the Apex's of urban decay in America. I guarantee if you lived in Bushwick, Bed-stuy, Soundview or Mott Haven at the time, you'd be pissed and lashing out at the privleged too, using every racial epithet you could think of. Again, its about economic class and trying to find someone to blame.

As for the rest:

You're forgetting something here kiddo. The majority of wealth (oooh, here we go again) in this country is concentrated in the hands of caucasians. That is going to cause resentment with the people who don't have such a connection. Take a whole bunch of migrating blacks from the south last century, put them in the projects in the 60's, 70's and 80's..let them have kids and remove social services like education, good honest policework, and neighborhood improvement initiatives..simmer for 20-some odd years and you have what we have today.

Take a group of fleeing caucasians who moved out of the cities and to the suburbs..the whole way blaming 'those people' for ruining 'the neighborhood' without ever even thinking of why it was happening in the first place, have them raise sheltered kids in the suburbs with no contact with anyone unlike themselves and then put caricatures of the 'scary black male' out on the market for them to suck up to feed the danger quotient that they never had and you have what we have today.

Combine both with a greed mentality at all levels of society, distract them with petty things like 'affirmative action' and 'traditional family values' (a fallicy), convince them that some army of black mammies in the Bronx with a thousand children a piece (also a fallicy) is stealing from them and you have what we have today.

The funniest thing about it is, there's a white underclass that outnumbers the black underclass by about a factor of 10, yet its never acknowledged.

Why is that? Oh that's right, its about race..

Again, open your eyes.

as for sister souljah

Tolerance on Campus

The first of a series of Diversity Lectures held at the University of Louisville in Kentucky brought the notoriously racist Sister Souljah to campus at a cost of more than $10,000, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal.

The speech, in which Ms. Souljah was reported to have berated white people for more than two hours, was paid for with a $50,000 contribution by Bank One. The bank donated the money as penance after some of its employees were caught handing out racist T-shirts on campus.

Her speech was part of an effort to bring to campus "thought-provoking speakers that would really give us some opportunity to engage in a dialogue on some difficult issues related to race and race relations," said Mordean Taylor-Archer, the school’s vice provost for diversity and equal opportunity.

And it did just that.

One student who attended said: "I came there for a diversity speech only to hear examples against white people. I had to sit there for two hours and listen to this speaker say nothing but hateful remarks. I felt hated."

But a university faculty member who attended a forum about the speech later said the university has a responsibility to place people in uncomfortable situations to help them grow.

Sister Souljah is famous for advocating, after the Los Angeles race riots several years ago, "war" against white people, including a special week set aside each year to kill white people. She says unapologetically that she wants what’s best for "her" people, and that "if my survival means your total destruction, then so be it."

Now,

wanna talk about shattering? how about the crown heights riots, the LA riots, Colin Furgerson, the central park wilding..these are ALL RECENT EVENTS

Now on to the great "white flight" why do you think this happens? what is your reasoning behind this? Hmmmmmmmmm maybe it's the crime rate that goes up, and before you start w/your well practiced racism speach, spare me, if you look up stats they'll speak for themselves.

Maybe question why "The majority of wealth (oooh, here we go again) in this country is concentrated in the hands of caucasians.:, maybe people actually work to achive material success instead of waiting for a hand-out from the government & "reparrations" for something that happened a looong time ago.

Maybe if people in certain neighborhoods wouldn't be discouraged & called sellouts & uncle toms for succeeding this wouldn't be the case.

[lukecasey]

u know what else annoys me? The jews talk about the holocaust...holocaust this..holocaust that..OK NOT ONLY THE JEWS WERE KILLED. GREEKS..ITALIANS..ETC ETC..we ALL got slaughtered pretty much. BUT ALL YOU HEAR ABOUT IS THE JEWS. I mean, the armenians got slaughtered by the turks 10x worse than the jews did in ww2. Do people say anything about that ?..but no...all u heara bout is the jews and how horrible it was that it happened to THEM (as if it didnt effect anyone else in the world).

dude, be careful what you are saying. You might offend a lot of jewish people. You come off as an anti-semitic in your statement.

[phuturephunk]

as for sister souljah

Tolerance on Campus

The first of a series of Diversity Lectures held at the University of Louisville in Kentucky brought the notoriously racist Sister Souljah to campus at a cost of more than $10,000, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal.

The speech, in which Ms. Souljah was reported to have berated white people for more than two hours, was paid for with a $50,000 contribution by Bank One. The bank donated the money as penance after some of its employees were caught handing out racist T-shirts on campus.

Her speech was part of an effort to bring to campus "thought-provoking speakers that would really give us some opportunity to engage in a dialogue on some difficult issues related to race and race relations," said Mordean Taylor-Archer, the school’s vice provost for diversity and equal opportunity.

And it did just that.

One student who attended said: "I came there for a diversity speech only to hear examples against white people. I had to sit there for two hours and listen to this speaker say nothing but hateful remarks. I felt hated."

But a university faculty member who attended a forum about the speech later said the university has a responsibility to place people in uncomfortable situations to help them grow.

Sister Souljah is famous for advocating, after the Los Angeles race riots several years ago, "war" against white people, including a special week set aside each year to kill white people. She says unapologetically that she wants what’s best for "her" people, and that "if my survival means your total destruction, then so be it."

Now,

wanna talk about shattering? how about the crown heights riots, the LA riots, Colin Furgerson, the central park wilding..these are ALL RECENT EVENTS

Now on to the great "white flight" why do you think this happens? what is your reasoning behind this? Hmmmmmmmmm maybe it's the crime rate that goes up, and before you start w/your well practiced racism speach, spare me, if you look up stats they'll speak for themselves.

Maybe question why "The majority of wealth (oooh, here we go again) in this country is concentrated in the hands of caucasians.:, maybe people actually work to achive material success instead of waiting for a hand-out from the government & "reparrations" for something that happened a looong time ago.

Maybe if people in certain neighborhoods wouldn't be discouraged & called sellouts & uncle toms for succeeding this wouldn't be the case.

Fair enough, Sister Soulja is extreme, not that you had to tell me that..and again, she's on the fringe just like Farrakan.

---

Again, as for the rest:

Seriously, get out of the friggen suburbs. I've known very many people of color on this earth and most of them are pretty hard working working-class people trying to survive. The great misconception, thats never been addressed, is that all these people are sitting there saying 'give me' when the truth is alot more complex. Most of them, in fact, aren't saying that at all.

What they ARE saying is... Give me good schools for my children to learn in, give me a police force that won't shake me down when I'm trying to walk the groceries home, give me the social infrastructure so my neighborhood doesn't fall apart..give me clean streets...and you know what? That's not too much to ask, because if they had that, we wouldn't have the problems with crime in those areas and the mass misconception that they're sucking off the public dole and never giving back.

And plus, in a way it would suceed in what YOU want. If we made sure that ALL people had at least the basic access to the foundation of being successful in this life..read: a good primary and secondary education..the onus is on THEM to suceed after that because they've at least been equipped with the tools needed to survive in at least a decent state in our society.

Oh...and by the way...the majority of the people saying 'give me' in this country aren't in places like NY and LA..they're in those heartland states that are primarily agriculturally based and/or post industrial towns that have lost the main economic engine (usually a factory or some kind of manufacturing plant) to their community...oooh..and that's right..they're mostly white..

Keep this in mind: Out of the 280~ million people in this country, 237 of it are either white or white/something else half breed.

We're going to define 'asking for a handout' as anyone who lives below the poverty line.

Of 'white only' citizens of the United States, according to the census bureau, there are approximately 23,492,000 people classified as 'white' in this country below the poverty line. On the flip side, there are approx 8,709,000 blacks below the poverty line. This is coming from the census bureau website straight to you.

So I'll ask you: Who's asking for the bigger handout?

Open. Your. Eyes.

[jared5b]

Trancesun are you Armenian?

[trancesun2]

nope, greek

my statement was based on nothing personal. and i should have worded it better. What i really meant was. Sometimes we focus on something(which obviously needs to be focused on) but at the same time.sometimes because we focus so hard on that one thing. We neglect other things that deserve the same attention. Thats all. I didnt mean a single drop of offense.

[lukecasey]

nope, greek

my statement was based on nothing personal. and i should have worded it better. What i really meant was. Sometimes we focus on something(which obviously needs to be focused on) but at the same time.sometimes because we focus so hard on that one thing. We neglect other things that deserve the same attention. Thats all. I didnt mean a single drop of offense.

I see your point but sometimes you need to watch what you say on public message boards. Just a friendly advice.

[danihawk]

true..makes you think. But i actually use that word guido as a description for the typical "nj spikey hair, juicemonkey crowd" has nothing to do with being italian at this point. Second of all...they call themselves guidos..these morons are proud to be the ROACHES of true electronic music club culture.

www.njguido.com <~~example.

same here...in my friend's Italian class at Rutgers they actually had a class discussion about how the definition of guido has evolved, and a lot of guidos aren't Italian anymore...most of the guys I refer to as guidos are Russian, Middle Eastern, Indian, etc.

[punjabpatel]

Fair enough, Sister Soulja is extreme, not that you had to tell me that..and again, she's on the fringe just like Farrakan.

---

Again, as for the rest:

Seriously, get out of the friggen suburbs. I've known very many people of color on this earth and most of them are pretty hard working working-class people trying to survive. The great misconception, thats never been addressed, is that all these people are sitting there saying 'give me' when the truth is alot more complex. Most of them, in fact, aren't saying that at all.

What they ARE saying is... Give me good schools for my children to learn in, give me a police force that won't shake me down when I'm trying to walk the groceries home, give me the social infrastructure so my neighborhood doesn't fall apart..give me clean streets...and you know what? That's not too much to ask, because if they had that, we wouldn't have the problems with crime in those areas and the mass misconception that they're sucking off the public dole and never giving back.

And plus, in a way it would suceed in what YOU want. If we made sure that ALL people had at least the basic access to the foundation of being successful in this life..read: a good primary and secondary education..the onus is on THEM to suceed after that because they've at least been equipped with the tools needed to survive in at least a decent state in our society.

Oh...and by the way...the majority of the people saying 'give me' in this country aren't in places like NY and LA..they're in those heartland states that are primarily agriculturally based and/or post industrial towns that have lost the main economic engine (usually a factory or some kind of manufacturing plant) to their community...oooh..and that's right..they're mostly white..

Keep this in mind: Out of the 280~ million people in this country, 237 of it are either white or white/something else half breed.

We're going to define 'asking for a handout' as anyone who lives below the poverty line.

Of 'white only' citizens of the United States, according to the census bureau, there are approximately 23,492,000 people classified as 'white' in this country below the poverty line. On the flip side, there are approx 8,709,000 blacks below the poverty line. This is coming from the census bureau website straight to you.

So I'll ask you: Who's asking for the bigger handout?

Open. Your. Eyes.

A. I don't live in the suburbs, I grew up in Brooklyn & saw first hand my neighborhood turn to shit & probably have had more interaction with people of color than you did growing up in a white suburb, for all I know you're a Huxtable kid who found his "ethnicity" only when you went away to school.

B. You cried about "shattering events" but when I brought up some shattering events you choose to ignore them. Typical. Only whitey can do wrong right?

C. Maybe people wouldn't be shook down walking to the store if their peers weren't up to no good, ever hear of "guilty by association" & "birds of feather flock together"?

D. Whenever there is an incident that involves police - the community leaders are out in full force, where are these same leaders when crime is rampant & there are thousands of fatherless children born to teenage mothers? I guess they are the same place when a Korean grocer gets robbed or when a white woman gets raped simply for their color.

Open. YOUR. Eyes.

[phuturephunk]

Now,

wanna talk about shattering? how about the crown heights riots, the LA riots, Colin Furgerson, the central park wilding..these are ALL RECENT EVENTS

Now on to the great "white flight" why do you think this happens? what is your reasoning behind this? Hmmmmmmmmm maybe it's the crime rate that goes up, and before you start w/your well practiced racism speach, spare me, if you look up stats they'll speak for themselves.

===

Maybe if people in certain neighborhoods wouldn't be discouraged & called sellouts & uncle toms for succeeding this wouldn't be the case.

I read these two parts again and I want to comment:

The Crown Heights riots were caused by an agent provocateur who incited the crowd because the ambulance drivers were taking away the man who hit the children rather than the children themselves. The crowd reacted, as any mob would, through emotion. Is that right? NO. Is that's what's going to happen in these cases? Yes. Should the people who beat the driver gone to jail? Yes. Should the guy who incited the whole ordeal? Yes.

The LA Riots were because of Rodney King. Being particularily close to law enforcement, I can tell you that most cops take the view that if you have to hit a guy that many times to 'get him under control' and still don't have the cuffs on him, chances are you're a shitty cop with an inferiority complex. Most cops laugh at that tape for the simple fact that the LAPD comes off as a bunch of ineffective, scared, morons who can't handle a single perp. The rest of the country saw it as the perfect testament to American history and race: A bunch of white guys in power beating on a black man. Now when you turn around and let those dolts go without much punishment, what in the hell do you think is going to happen?

Colin Fergussen was a nutjob and a monster. I don't think ANYONE, regardless of race, with any kind of common sense, disagreed with that sentiment... Black people got just as outraged at that one as white people got with Jeffery Dahlmer... That example isn't even pertinant to this conversation..the guy was a freakin' mass murderer for chrissakes. I'm sure you meant the whole 'black rage' defense that his attorneys (before he dumped them) came up with as the point. Truth is, if I was an attorney assigned to that case and I was looking for an angle to win...cuz remember, that's the point.. to WIN the case..and I was presented with such a hopeless case like his..why the fuck not?? It's worth trying..

Even if you take out the scheming attorneys, the guy was nuts enough to say he wasn't there and he was being framed, when passenger after passenger came out and said 'No shithead, it was YOU!'... I don't remember any black leader coming out and saying, after the facts had been presented, that he was being setup by 'the man' and crying injustice. Again, maybe there were fringe idiots doing that, but the majority of people OVERALL (black white, whatever..) knew he was a friggen monster.

Speaking of off-topic, what does the gropefest in the park have to do with anything, except the fact that packs of drunk males will, from time to time, regardless of race get out of hand and put their hands on women in inappropriate ways? Have you been to a frat party ever?

[phuturephunk]

A. I don't live in the suburbs, I grew up in Brooklyn & saw first hand my neighborhood turn to shit & probably have had more interaction with people of color than you did growing up in a white suburb, for all I know you're a Huxtable kid who found his "ethnicity" only when you went away to school.

B. You cried about "shattering events" but when I brought up some shattering events you choose to ignore them. Typical. Only whitey can do wrong right?

C. Maybe people wouldn't be shook down walking to the store if their peers weren't up to no good, ever hear of "guilty by association" & "birds of feather flock together"?

D. Whenever there is an incident that involves police - the community leaders are out in full force, where are these same leaders when crime is rampant & there are thousands of fatherless children born to teenage mothers? I guess they are the same place when a Korean grocer gets robbed or when a white woman gets raped simply for their color.

Open. YOUR. Eyes.

First, read my comment above, I addressed those situations you mentioned.

Second, I didn't go away to school, I was working middle class in suburban Central Florida, probably the whitest place you can find. Due to my economic roots, I had the privelege of associating with a wide range of people up and down the spectrum (I can fade equally into classy and hardscrabble when I need to). My 'ethnicity' was found when I started realizing that people would lock their doors when I'd walk by, even in a suit. Those furtive glances that make you feel just soo good about yourself inside. Gee, I'm sorry I'm dark, even though I work all day and pay taxes just like you.

But that's right, I'm part of this feather group you're going on about, so I should be persecuted because at any time I can become a 'scary black guy'. Is that what you're getting at?

And finally, community leaders have been talking about the plight of inner city America for the last 30 years, ever since the decline started...No, I'm sorry..it's probably more like 40..but then again, no one listened until living in the downtown areas became fashionable again, and all of a sudden there was funding to subsidize luxury housing and boutique shops that sell $300 T-shirts.

Edit: In fact, YOU got screwed by that mentality too (urban renewal when its fashionable), because the people who were pushed out of their homes, no matter what their condition or income level and then left out in the cold with absolutely no where to go (look up the practice of 'Red Lining' and the history of Title 1 and Title 2) had to find somewhere to settle, so they came to YOUR neighborhood. And the places that they used to inhabit, instead of your front doorstep? Well, I know for a fact that there's several new multi-million dollar lofts going up in Tribecca, an area of the city that used to be downright scary. But that's right, its all the people of color's fault..never the people who are calling the shots. Right?

[punjabpatel]

I read these two parts again and I want to comment:

The Crown Heights riots were caused by an agent provocateur who incited the crowd because the ambulance drivers were taking away the man who hit the children rather than the children themselves. The crowd reacted, as any mob would, through emotion. Is that right? NO. Is that's what's going to happen in these cases? Yes. Should the people who beat the driver gone to jail? Yes. Should the guy who incited the whole ordeal? Yes.

The LA Riots were because of Rodney King. Being particularily close to law enforcement, I can tell you that most cops take the view that if you have to hit a guy that many times to 'get him under control' and still don't have the cuffs on him, chances are you're a shitty cop with an inferiority complex. Most cops laugh at that tape for the simple fact that the LAPD comes off as a bunch of ineffective, scared, morons who can't handle a single perp. The rest of the country saw it as the perfect testament to American history and race: A bunch of white guys in power beating on a black man. Now when you turn around and let those dolts go without much punishment, what in the hell do you think is going to happen?

Colin Fergussen was a nutjob and a monster. I don't think ANYONE, regardless of race, with any kind of common sense, disagreed with that sentiment... Black people got just as outraged at that one as white people got with Jeffery Dahlmer... That example isn't even pertinant to this conversation..the guy was a freakin' mass murderer for chrissakes. I'm sure you meant the whole 'black rage' defense that his attorneys (before he dumped them) came up with as the point. Truth is, if I was an attorney assigned to that case and I was looking for an angle to win...cuz remember, that's the point.. to WIN the case..and I was presented with such a hopeless case like his..why the fuck not?? It's worth trying..

Even if you take out the scheming attorneys, the guy was nuts enough to say he wasn't there and he was being framed, when passenger after passenger came out and said 'No shithead, it was YOU!'... I don't remember any black leader coming out and saying, after the facts had been presented, that he was being setup by 'the man' and crying injustice. Again, maybe there were fringe idiots doing that, but the majority of people OVERALL (black white, whatever..) knew he was a friggen monster.

Speaking of off-topic, what does the gropefest in the park have to do with anything, except the fact that packs of drunk males will, from time to time, regardless of race get out of hand and put their hands on women in inappropriate ways? Have you been to a frat party ever?

It was more than a gropefest it was a brutal beating & I've read interviews that the female was chosen because of her race, just like Tawana Brawley

Reginald Denny & the countless other whites that were attacked because they were white had nothing to do with Rodney who was by the way under the influence of a lot of drugs & was resisting & has been arrested numerous times before.

Crown Heights the Australian man that was murdered by Lemrick Nelson had nothing to do with an ACCIDENT that happened. In the same instance Dinkins a black mayor let the riots go on for days, where was the investigation into this? Back to my original point about the double standard when it comes to racism towards any other ethnic group than blacks.

[oldtimer]

whoa it looks like opened the floodgates here...

but... i skimmed through a lot of that bc i dont really have that kind of time to be reading paragraph after paragraph of opinions... someone mentioned that certain underprivalged communities don't have access to education, clean streets, healthcare etc. etc. BULLSHIT!!!

im a social worker in a hospital and i can tell you straight up that that is bullshit... im at work still so i'll finish this later... BUT about garbage removal.. PLEASE!!! look at upper class neighborhoods and you'll never find trash all over the streets... WHY? bc people take pride in their homes, in their neighborhoods... in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods this does not happen as much... more later..

[mishkanchuvak]

I think the plight of blacks in America is too complicated to be easily explained and corrected. There are many factors that go in, both due to the whites in power and blacks themselves. However there is most definitely rampant racism in white America. I grew up in a wealthy Fairfield County, CT town near Greenwich. I remember being shocked as a young boy when I would go over to my friend's homes and have dinner with their business executive fathers and stay at home mothers. Almost always at one point or another I would hear the word "nigger" from their parents, or at least some other racist remark (in my home saying something like that was unthinkable, I would get KILLED by my parents for that). These are the same people that run this country, and their kids are the ones that are now going to top universities and are the leaders of the future. They might like P.Diddy and had their parents buy them rims for their audi, but deep down inside blacks are still "niggers" to them. Until that changes, we will never have equality in this country.

Another clear problem is the inequality in the education system, and it is so often mentioned that it is almost cliché. In the last 20 years great strides have been attempted in fixing this. How? The government throws money at minority schools. Yet I am not sure if this solves the problem entirely. When I was in HS, we had a two day student exchange with a HS in a nearby relatively poor, mostly minority town. When I spent time in class in this HS, I was shocked. I realized that if I went to a HS such as this, I would not have been able to learn in it - the environment was just not hospitable to learning. However, this school district spends $4000 more per pupil than the district I came from. The teachers are well paid, and the building was in much better shape than the one my HS was in. I did not see any metal detectors or any more violence than in my school, and I received a warm welcome from the students there (even though I was "whitey" with the "yoooo this car is phaaat"). I now go to a good public university (UCONN) and see the results of an unequal education firsthand. Students that came from minority school districts often simply do not have the basic educational foundation that would help them succeed in college. And it is sad to see, because oftentimes these are very smart kids that would have had 1300 SAT's and 4.0 GPA's in college if they were not failed by our education system. Especially when I know complete idiots from my school district who now go to top schools and will do well in life simply because their parents are rich and white. I don't profess to know the solution to this problem but know the problem most definitely is there and that contrary to what certain black activists say, it is not all about money (although it certainly plays a part - CT is a good example because it is relatively progressive in that regard).

Yet maybe equality will never be achieved. Racism might be an inherently human trait that even concise logic cannot break. After all, in all the history of humanity, not one government has succeeded in creating a truly equal multiracial state. I hope I am wrong.

[mishkanchuvak]

By the way, does anybody know a racial slur for Russians? I could think of one for every nationality except them. Incidentally, on a recent trip to Italy, I had an Italian waiter rant to me about how he hates the "[italian American] guidos that come here and visit" and how they "are an insult to Italians" when he found out I am an American.