In honor of Black History month

[Foxfyre]

I've never used AA so you need to show me where the qualifications are lowered. Where do you see this? Clarence Thomas is a fool. A uncle tom that dances for the white power structure. To be educated he has a severe lack of knowledge regarding the ability to build an economic legacy that whites enjoyed during the time Blacks were enslaved and discriminated against. AA initially was supposed to close that 400 year gap but instead whites found a way to bring that opportunity into their homes via the white woman being the demographic that benefitted most from AA.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. And I can imagine that you feel that way about all conservative black people? For Star Parker, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Shelby Steele, and many others who have become household names all agree with Thomas on affirmative action. And that leftist policies, including affirmative action, have done far more to prevent and discourage black advancement than they have helped. What any policy is supposed to do and what that policy actually does are often very different things.

So do you think I, a white woman, benefitted from affirmative action? I wouldn't have been able to qualify for any of the great jobs I've had if it wasn't for affirmative action? I would still be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen if it hadn't been for affirmative action? That I wouldn't have been advanced in my various careers without affirmative action? Do you see how insulting that is? Why a thinking black person wouldn't be equally insulted? How any person of character wants to be appreciated for his/her ability and accomplishments and not diminished because people think he/she only qualified because of some quota?

Affirmative Action was initially needed to break down cultural barriers and it indeed did accomplish that at the expense of the people who first got through the door. Those people rarely were allowed their rightful place in whatever organization but were always whispered about behind their back as being the 'affirmative action' people. But AA did break down those barriers. And then it should have been disbanded and allow people to compete on merit.

Any Black person that disagrees with me on AA just has a different opinion. I have no issue with that. Clarence Thomas just happens to be a step and fetch it type of Black person. I despise that sort person because he is the same type of Black person that sold his own people to Europeans slave traders for money.

Sally Kohn: Affirmative Action Helps White Women More Than Others | TIME.com

AA was created to bridge the gap created by preventing women access to jobs, slavery and Jim Crow. Civil Rights was created to break down barriers.

Clarence Thomas is the poster child for denigration by the left purely because he is so visible and they can't stand it that he is on the Supreme Court and is conservative in his views. You obviously have not read Shelby Steele, Star Parker, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, or any of the other more prominent and truly masterful critical thinkers of our time or, based on your opinion of Thomas, you would also be calling them 'step and fetch it' blacks too. And how racist is that to characterize a person that way purely because he is black?!!!

I know why AA was created. I was there when it was created. I headed a large agency that had as its slogan "Eliminate racism wherever it exists and by any means necessary." I know my history. And I also know that when you win a war, you need to stop fighting it or it never ends.

 

[Asclepias]

We'll just have to agree to disagree. And I can imagine that you feel that way about all conservative black people? For Star Parker, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Shelby Steele, and many others who have become household names all agree with Thomas on affirmative action. And that leftist policies, including affirmative action, have done far more to prevent and discourage black advancement than they have helped. What any policy is supposed to do and what that policy actually does are often very different things.

So do you think I, a white woman, benefitted from affirmative action? I wouldn't have been able to qualify for any of the great jobs I've had if it wasn't for affirmative action? I would still be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen if it hadn't been for affirmative action? That I wouldn't have been advanced in my various careers without affirmative action? Do you see how insulting that is? Why a thinking black person wouldn't be equally insulted? How any person of character wants to be appreciated for his/her ability and accomplishments and not diminished because people think he/she only qualified because of some quota?

Affirmative Action was initially needed to break down cultural barriers and it indeed did accomplish that at the expense of the people who first got through the door. Those people rarely were allowed their rightful place in whatever organization but were always whispered about behind their back as being the 'affirmative action' people. But AA did break down those barriers. And then it should have been disbanded and allow people to compete on merit.

Any Black person that disagrees with me on AA just has a different opinion. I have no issue with that. Clarence Thomas just happens to be a step and fetch it type of Black person. I despise that sort person because he is the same type of Black person that sold his own people to Europeans slave traders for money.

Sally Kohn: Affirmative Action Helps White Women More Than Others | TIME.com

AA was created to bridge the gap created by preventing women access to jobs, slavery and Jim Crow. Civil Rights was created to break down barriers.

Clarence Thomas is the poster child for denigration by the left purely because he is so visible and they can't stand it that he is on the Supreme Court and is conservative in his views. You obviously have not read Shelby Steele, Star Parker, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, or any of the other more prominent and truly masterful critical thinkers of our time or, based on your opinion of Thomas, you would also be calling them 'step and fetch it' blacks too. And how racist is that to characterize a person that way purely because he is black?!!!

I know why AA was created. I was there when it was created. I headed a large agency that had as its slogan "Eliminate racism wherever it exists and by any means necessary." I know my history. And I also know that when you win a war, you need to stop fighting it or it never ends.

I'm not really concerned with what the left thinks. My own personal observations of the man and his explanations of his stances are is what i am referring to. I have read Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steel, and others. I agree on some points and disagree on others. None of them come off as step and fetch its. Clarence does. You can feel free to honor him. I wont because he is a sell out.

Just because you had a slogan doesn't mean you know what AA was about. Civil Rights was what your slogan was promoting. I would be a fool to stop fighting a war that is still ongoing.

 

[Foxfyre]

Any Black person that disagrees with me on AA just has a different opinion. I have no issue with that. Clarence Thomas just happens to be a step and fetch it type of Black person. I despise that sort person because he is the same type of Black person that sold his own people to Europeans slave traders for money.

Sally Kohn: Affirmative Action Helps White Women More Than Others | TIME.com

AA was created to bridge the gap created by preventing women access to jobs, slavery and Jim Crow. Civil Rights was created to break down barriers.

Clarence Thomas is the poster child for denigration by the left purely because he is so visible and they can't stand it that he is on the Supreme Court and is conservative in his views. You obviously have not read Shelby Steele, Star Parker, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, or any of the other more prominent and truly masterful critical thinkers of our time or, based on your opinion of Thomas, you would also be calling them 'step and fetch it' blacks too. And how racist is that to characterize a person that way purely because he is black?!!!

I know why AA was created. I was there when it was created. I headed a large agency that had as its slogan "Eliminate racism wherever it exists and by any means necessary." I know my history. And I also know that when you win a war, you need to stop fighting it or it never ends.

I'm not really concerned with what the left thinks. My own personal observations of the man and his explanations of his stances are is what i am referring to. I have read Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steel, and others. I agree on some points and disagree on others. None of them come off as step and fetch its. Clarence does. You can feel free to honor him. I wont because he is a sell out.

Just because you had a slogan doesn't mean you know what AA was about. Civil Rights was what your slogan was promoting. I would be a fool to stop fighting a war that is still ongoing.

Sorry but I cannot agree because I know I am right on all counts. But I wish you well.

And from some Americans who happen to be black who I think deserve a great deal of recognition and applause:

. . . .Affirmative action has always been more about the restoration of legitimacy to American institutions than the uplift of blacks and other minorities. For 30 years after its inception, no one even bothered to measure its effectiveness in minority progress. Advocates of racial preferences tried to prove that these policies actually helped minorities only after 1996, when California's Proposition 209 banned racial preferences in all state institutions, scaring supporters across the country.

But the research following from this scare has been politicized and discredited. Most important, it has completely failed to show that affirmative action ever closes the academic gap between minorities and whites. And failing in this, affirmative action also fails to help blacks achieve true equality with whites -- the ultimate measure of which is parity in skills and individual competence. Without this underlying parity there can never be true equality in employment, income levels, rates of home ownership, educational achievement and the rest. . . .--Shelby Steele
Shelby Steele -- Affirmative Action Doesn't Solve the Real Problem

. . . .The history of blacks in the United States has been virtually stood on its head by those advocating affirmative action. The empirical evidence is clear that most blacks got themselves out of poverty in the decades preceding the civil rights revolution of the 1960s and the beginning of affirmative action in the 1970s. Yet the political misrepresentation of what happened—by leaders and friends of blacks—has been so pervasive that this achievement has been completely submerged in the public consciousness. Instead of gaining the respect that other groups have gained by lifting themselves out of poverty, blacks are widely seen, by friends and critics alike, as owing their advancement to government beneficence.

Within the black community itself, the possible ending of affirmative action has been portrayed as a threat to end their economic and social progress. Thus whites are resentful and blacks are fearful because of policies which have in fact done relatively little, on net balance, to help blacks in general or poor blacks in particular. Among black students in colleges and universities, those admitted under lower standards face a higher failure rate and those admitted under the same standards as other students graduate with their credentials under a cloud of suspicion because of double standards for minority students in general. . . .--Thomas Sowell
Affirmative Action around the World | Hoover Institution

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GGTliL1wxo]Walter E. Williams: The Effect Of Affirmative Action on Poor Communities - YouTube[/ame]

Affirmative Action and Racial Resentment
In addition to the injustices that are a result of preferential treatment,
such treatment has given rise to racial resentment where it
otherwise might not exist. While few people support racial resentment
and its manifestations, if one sees some of affirmative action’s flagrant
attacks on fairness and equality before the law, one can readily understand
why resentment is on the rise. . . .

. . . .Affirmative action proponents cling to the notion that racial discrimination
satisfactorily explains black/white socioeconomic differences.
While every vestige of racial discrimination has not been eliminated
in our society, current social discrimination cannot begin to explain
all that affirmative action proponents purport it explains. Rather than
focusing our attention on discrimination, a higher payoff can be realized
by focusing on real factors such as fraudulent education, family
disintegration, and hostile economic climates in black neighborhoods.
Even if affirmative action was not a violation of justice and fair play,
was not a zero-sum game, was not racially polarizing, it is a poor
cover-up for the real work that needs to be done. . . .--Walter Williams
http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/1997/5/cj17n1-1.pdf

An exchange William Raspberry had with a a cabbie:

. . . .I told him it sounded like what the top official of U.S. Track and Field was saying about the Kenyan situation. ``We're not limiting opportunities for foreigners but creating opportunities for Americans,'' is how Craig Masback put it.
``I heard him, but it doesn't quite figure. If Kenyans have been the big winners in recent years, and now they're rigging things so there'll be more American winners, doesn't that limit opportunities for Kenyans?''
``But Jesse Jackson says you can open up more opportunities for African American students at Berkeley and UCLA - and also get them better prepared for the job market - without reducing opportunities for whites or Asians.''
``Makes sense to me,'' the cabby said.
``So you're for admitting more black students to the elite universities, even if they fall a little short on the established criteria?'' I asked.
``Sure. We've got a lot of catching up to do.''
``Then you must be for giving more trophies to American runners, even if they lag behind runners from other countries,'' I said.
``If you're asking me, am I for discriminating against Kenyans because they train harder, take better care of themselves and run faster than Americans, the answer is no.''
``Even if it will deliver a winners' circle that looks more like America?'' I asked. ``I must say, my friend, you seem a bit confused about what you do want. Let me just put it to you in the simplest terms I can: Are you for affirmative action or against it?''
``Yes,'' he said.
Can Affirmative Action Create Opportunities For Some Without Limiting Them For Others? The Bolder Boulder Case Raises An Intriguing Question: Should The Race Always Be To The Swiftest? - Philly.com

It really bugs me that someone will tell me, after I spent 20 years being educated, how I'm supposed to think.--Clarence Thomas

 

[Asclepias]

Dr. Shirley Jackson

First African-American woman to acquire a Ph.D. from MIT

Dr. Shirley Jackson: Telecommunications Inventions

 

[katsteve2012]

Aside from crack, what has a black person ever invented?

Look it up you idiot. The internet is your friend

Google crashed went I tried to search black inventions.

There is nothing wrong with Google, you inbred dunce. Here you go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Niemann_(chemist)

 

[Bumberclyde]

Aunt Jemima is my favorite black person.

 

[aplcr0331]

Dr. Shirley Jackson

First African-American woman to acquire a Ph.D. from MIT

Dr. Shirley Jackson: Telecommunications Inventions

From her Wiki page:

"Beatrice and George Jackson, strongly valued education and encouraged her in school.[4] Her father spurred on her interest in science by helping her with projects for her science classes. At Roosevelt High School, Jackson attended accelerated programs in both math and science, and graduated in 1964 as valedictorian"

Seems she had some great parents who really valued education to go along with her great aptitude. How's parental involvement for AA kids going in this day and age?

 

[Asclepias]

Dr. Shirley Jackson

First African-American woman to acquire a Ph.D. from MIT

Dr. Shirley Jackson: Telecommunications Inventions

From her Wiki page:

"Beatrice and George Jackson, strongly valued education and encouraged her in school.[4] Her father spurred on her interest in science by helping her with projects for her science classes. At Roosevelt High School, Jackson attended accelerated programs in both math and science, and graduated in 1964 as valedictorian"

Seems she had some great parents who really valued education to go along with her great aptitude. How's parental involvement for AA kids going in this day and age?

The dynamics were different back then in the Black community. Parents still do value education. My parents were the same way with me in the 90's. it was a hard sell that school was a viable option to get ahead. I was too worried about catching a stray bullet from gangbangers or being shot by the cops. They had to bribe me with sports to keep me in school with good grades.

 

[aplcr0331]

Dr. Shirley Jackson

First African-American woman to acquire a Ph.D. from MIT

Dr. Shirley Jackson: Telecommunications Inventions

From her Wiki page:

"Beatrice and George Jackson, strongly valued education and encouraged her in school.[4] Her father spurred on her interest in science by helping her with projects for her science classes. At Roosevelt High School, Jackson attended accelerated programs in both math and science, and graduated in 1964 as valedictorian"

Seems she had some great parents who really valued education to go along with her great aptitude. How's parental involvement for AA kids going in this day and age?

The dynamics were different back then in the Black community. Parents still do value education. My parents were the same way with me in the 90's. it was a hard sell that school was a viable option to get ahead. I was too worried about catching a stray bullet from gangbangers or being shot by the cops. They had to bribe me with sports to keep me in school with good grades.

How did other black kids treat you since you got good grades? Any pushback? Many boys and young men are bored with school, especially in it's current climate. I can see why some parents have to push the grades or no sports thing.

 

[Asclepias]

From her Wiki page:

"Beatrice and George Jackson, strongly valued education and encouraged her in school.[4] Her father spurred on her interest in science by helping her with projects for her science classes. At Roosevelt High School, Jackson attended accelerated programs in both math and science, and graduated in 1964 as valedictorian"

Seems she had some great parents who really valued education to go along with her great aptitude. How's parental involvement for AA kids going in this day and age?

The dynamics were different back then in the Black community. Parents still do value education. My parents were the same way with me in the 90's. it was a hard sell that school was a viable option to get ahead. I was too worried about catching a stray bullet from gangbangers or being shot by the cops. They had to bribe me with sports to keep me in school with good grades.

How did other black kids treat you since you got good grades? Any pushback? Many boys and young men are bored with school, especially in it's current climate. I can see why some parents have to push the grades or no sports thing.

There is a difference between being a nerd and being smart. I got nothing but respect for getting good grades. I definitely was bored and I knew even back then it was indoctrination but if I wanted to ball I had to keep at least a B average. I still barely graduated because i was seriously unmotivated after basketball season.

 

[oldfart]

Aunt Jemima is my favorite black person.

And Uncle Ben is your second favorite?

 

[Asclepias]

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz

Interesting story about an African centered school that uses him as a role model

An African-centered success story - CSMonitor.com

"For many of us who went through the public school system, the way our history was presented to us was from slavery to freedom," says Kevin Bullard, coordinator of African-centered education at several schools in the district. "With the African-centered model, we ... look at that as part of the context of our history and our struggle, but only a small piece." Their timeline includes the intellectual legacy of ancient African civilizations.

 

[Flopper]

From her Wiki page:

"Beatrice and George Jackson, strongly valued education and encouraged her in school.[4] Her father spurred on her interest in science by helping her with projects for her science classes. At Roosevelt High School, Jackson attended accelerated programs in both math and science, and graduated in 1964 as valedictorian"

Seems she had some great parents who really valued education to go along with her great aptitude. How's parental involvement for AA kids going in this day and age?

The dynamics were different back then in the Black community. Parents still do value education. My parents were the same way with me in the 90's. it was a hard sell that school was a viable option to get ahead. I was too worried about catching a stray bullet from gangbangers or being shot by the cops. They had to bribe me with sports to keep me in school with good grades.

How did other black kids treat you since you got good grades? Any pushback? Many boys and young men are bored with school, especially in it's current climate. I can see why some parents have to push the grades or no sports thing.

Being bored with school is not a black white thing. I don't think I have ever met a kid who didn't say school was boring.

 

[Asclepias]

The dynamics were different back then in the Black community. Parents still do value education. My parents were the same way with me in the 90's. it was a hard sell that school was a viable option to get ahead. I was too worried about catching a stray bullet from gangbangers or being shot by the cops. They had to bribe me with sports to keep me in school with good grades.

How did other black kids treat you since you got good grades? Any pushback? Many boys and young men are bored with school, especially in it's current climate. I can see why some parents have to push the grades or no sports thing.

Being bored with school is not a black white thing. I don't think I have ever met a kid who didn't say school was boring.

I would think it was vastly different. As a youngster I could see no way i would make it to 21 alive. if I did, I still could not see what use an education would get me in my environment due to racism. That's what Black parents in the hood are up against trying to get their children educated. I would think little white Johnny in the suburbs did not have those problems.

 

[aplcr0331]

Being bored with school is not a black white thing. I don't think I have ever met a kid who didn't say school was boring.

Agreed.

 

[aplcr0331]

How did other black kids treat you since you got good grades? Any pushback? Many boys and young men are bored with school, especially in it's current climate. I can see why some parents have to push the grades or no sports thing.

Being bored with school is not a black white thing. I don't think I have ever met a kid who didn't say school was boring.

I would think it was vastly different. As a youngster I could see no way i would make it to 21 alive. if I did, I still could not see what use an education would get me in my environment due to racism. That's what Black parents in the hood are up against trying to get their children educated. I would think little white Johnny in the suburbs did not have those problems.

So, are black parents not in the hood the same as Jonny's white parents? As in they have no problems at school?

There are poor white kids who get shitty educations as well, but they're rednecks so nobody cares.

You grew up in the hood. How was your success in school viewed by the people in your community?

 

[Asclepias]

Being bored with school is not a black white thing. I don't think I have ever met a kid who didn't say school was boring.

I would think it was vastly different. As a youngster I could see no way i would make it to 21 alive. if I did, I still could not see what use an education would get me in my environment due to racism. That's what Black parents in the hood are up against trying to get their children educated. I would think little white Johnny in the suburbs did not have those problems.

So, are black parents not in the hood the same as Jonny's white parents? As in they have no problems at school?

There are poor white kids who get shitty educations as well, but they're rednecks so nobody cares.

You grew up in the hood. How was your success in school viewed by the people in your community?

I think sex has a lot to do with it to. My wife and brother in law grew up in a predominantly white affluent area. My wife hated going to school with all white people but she was the valedictorian of her class. My brother in law barely graduated and was almost expelled his last year for beating some white boy that called him the n word. Both of them had to deal with racism but they still saw success around them so it was not like what I went through and in many ways sounded harder. They just had examples of success staring them in the face all the time.

Its a myth that you get teased for being smart in the Black community. You get teased for being a nerd. Several of my teammates were good to great students. I was always respected for getting good grades. I wasn't a nerd so thats the difference.

 

[Mertex]

Melissa Victoria Harris-Perry (born October 2, 1973; formerly known as Melissa Victoria Harris-Lacewell) is an American writer, professor, television host, and political commentator with a focus on African-American politics. Harris-Perry was born in Seattle. Her father was the first dean of African-American Affairs at the University of Virginia.Her mother, Diana Gray, taught at a community college and was working on her doctorate when they met.
Harris-Perry graduated from Wake Forest University with a bachelor's degree in English and received a PhD in political science from Duke University. She also received an honorary doctorate from Meadville Lombard Theological School and studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
Harris-Perry was associate professor at the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University and left in 2011 after being denied a full professorship because of “questions about her work and an assessment of where she is” in her career, according to the Center's director at the time, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Currently she is Professor of Political Science at Tulane University. MSNBC announced on January 5, 2012 that Harris-Perry would host her own weekend show, which began airing on February 18, 2012.
Wiki:

 

[aplcr0331]

Its a myth that you get teased for being smart in the Black community. You get teased for being a nerd. Several of my teammates were good to great students. I was always respected for getting good grades. I wasn't a nerd so thats the difference.

Ah, didn't know it was a myth. You hear it a lot, but it's not true? Sucks to be a nerd no matter what what color you are it sounds like. Nerds used to get teased pretty well where I went to school too.

Nowadays nerds are fetishized a lot in our society.

 

[R.D.]

And fashionista