The Reason for Poverty Among Blacks is Not Racism

[Lisa558]

With all the crying about how blacks are still so far behind because there used to be racism generations ago, why then is the median inheritance from blacks and from Whites basically the same - in the $80k range?

(Also, in the article, you’ll note that the single photo they selected was of an affluent-looking black family.)

Average Inheritance and 5 Tips for Leaving One to an Heir

Preparing an inheritance can be exciting and stressful. Learn about the average inheritance and strategies you can use to determine how much to leave.

www.annuity.org

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

And what did slavery deprive the black people in this country of? Money. So even the poorest white people could still earn money, the slaves couldn't.

What else did slavery deprive black people of? Education, even learning to read was punishable by whipping.

All of the things that you keep harping on that black people need to do and do better about are things that they were deprived of initially. There has never been a chance to catch up because ever effort to progress was met with legislation to hold black people back as a race. They passed laws that only applied to black people and they were all meant to control their lives and movement and to diminish their rights and freedoms.

We're running a race, we're starting 100 yards behind the starting line while you all are starting 100 yards ahead of the starting line. If you can't understand this simple concept then you're either being disingenuous or you're just evil and don't follow your faith if you continue to intentionally lie about other people knowing the history of black people in the U.S. and the history of racism in this country.

People come to this country all the time that were further behind in the race than any black today. For instance the guy that owns the beverage store I frequent. Came here from India with little, worked day and night 7 days a week. Made a lot of sacrifices to save and open his own business. Because the family were very friendly and gave great service, he was successful. He parlayed some of those beverage store profits to buy rental property. I believe he told me he has 8 units or something like that. About six years ago he bought a hotel outside of our city about 45 minutes away. His wife left the beverage store to run that, and he spends a day or so out there plus weekends.

These people are still working seven days a week in spite of their age and great financial success. They only take two weeks vacation every year.

As much as I hate the guy, George Soros said it best "If you were born in America, you already started off on second base." Yes, that includes blacks as well.

 

[Lisa558]

People come to this country all the time that were further behind in the race than any black today. For instance the guy that owns the beverage store I frequent. Came here from India with little, worked day and night 7 days a week. Made a lot of sacrifices to save and open his own business. Because the family were very friendly and gave great service, he was successful. He parlayed some of those beverage store profits to buy rental property. I believe he told me he has 8 units or something like that. About six years ago he bought a hotel outside of our city about 45 minutes away. His wife left the beverage store to run that, and he spends a day or so out there plus weekends.

These people are still working seven days a week in spite of their age and great financial success. They only take two weeks vacation every year.

As much as I hate the guy, George Soros said it best "If you were born in America, you already started off on second base." Yes, that includes blacks as well.

Absolutely! There is absolutely no excuse for people to remain in poverty, assuming they were born into it, given the wonderful opportunities this country provides. Just think if it: any kid from a poor family gets thousands of dollars a year, via a Pell Grant, from which he can choose from a variety of vocational training programs or a 2-year A.A. program. There’s no excuse for not availing oneself of this gift from American taxpayers.

And yes, that includes blacks.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

This topic always ends up being a circular argument. Bleeding heart libs work tirelessly to lower standards across the board: in education, business, and government.

And they, And BLM whiners twist themselves into pretzels as they concoct endless nonsensical excuses for the lowered standards.

The simple and obvious truth is that blacks could NEVER compete, on a level field, with either whites or asians. Affirmative Action is a way of holding back other races in order to move blacks to the front of the line. All because, honestly, they could NEVER make it there on MERIT.

One truly negative result of this misguided favoritism is that black don't have an incentive to improve their intellectual skills and abilities. Having black skin is all they need.

Meanwhile our schools and businesses are going to shit because of the lowered standards. America as a whole loses, as a result of this ridiculous scheme

We all have challenges in life, different ones perhaps, but challenges.

When I find a challenge of my own I thought impossible to solve, I ask myself "If they could put another person in my body, would they be able to figure out how to solve this problem?" In most cases the answer is yes. To me a problem is a challenge that can't be won under any circumstance.

 

[Vegasgiants]

People come to this country all the time that were further behind in the race than any black today. For instance the guy that owns the beverage store I frequent. Came here from India with little, worked day and night 7 days a week. Made a lot of sacrifices to save and open his own business. Because the family were very friendly and gave great service, he was successful. He parlayed some of those beverage store profits to buy rental property. I believe he told me he has 8 units or something like that. About six years ago he bought a hotel outside of our city about 45 minutes away. His wife left the beverage store to run that, and he spends a day or so out there plus weekends.

These people are still working seven days a week in spite of their age and great financial success. They only take two weeks vacation every year.

As much as I hate the guy, George Soros said it best "If you were born in America, you already started off on second base." Yes, that includes blacks as well.

If you were born white in America, you already started off on second base."

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Absolutely! There is absolutely no excuse for people to remain in poverty, assuming they were born into it, given the wonderful opportunities this country provides. Just think if it: any kid from a poor family gets thousands of dollars a year, via a Pell Grant, from which he can choose from a variety of vocational training programs or a 2-year A.A. program. There’s no excuse for not availing oneself of this gift from American taxpayers.

And yes, that includes blacks.

Actually it's part of the problem. If a child is raised watching his mother or parents bust their ass all the time, they come to the understanding they don't want to live that way. Stay in school, don't have children when you're a child yourself, stay away from drugs and crime and make something of yourself. However is a child is raised in a suburban house, the mother doesn't do much of anything, you eat better than working people, you still have a big screen, cable television, smart phones, what's the point of working for a better life? You have a pretty good life already.

 

[JoeMoma]

If you were born white in America, you already started off on second base."

Some of us were luckier with the birth lottery than others, and it's not all about color. A kid born to rich black parents may get to start with runs already scored compared to a kid born to poor white parents who have substance abuse problem.

 

[Vegasgiants]

Some of us were luckier with the birth lottery than others, and it's not all about color. A kid born to rich black parents may get to start with runs already scored compared to a kid born to poor white parents who have substance abuse problem.

In general my point is true

 

[Lisa558]

Actually it's part of the problem. If a child is raised watching his mother or parents bust their ass all the time, they come to the understanding they don't want to live that way. Stay in school, don't have children when you're a child yourself, stay away from drugs and crime and make something of yourself. However is a child is raised in a suburban house, the mother doesn't do much of anything, you eat better than working people, you still have a big screen, cable television, smart phones, what's the point of working for a better life? You have a pretty good life already.

I disagree with you here, Ray.

That’s not what happens in real life. How else would you explain kids making the same mistakes as their parents - another generation of out of wedlock babies, and no schooling. I know someone who is struggling, and she had her first baby as a teen, unmarried. Her mother had her when SHE was 16. And her mother before her, the grandmother, had her mother when she was only 14! You would think they would learn, but no.

Then you take a suburban home, where the Mom stayed home. (That was my home.) But that was LAST generation, where a college-educated husband could buy a home for his family on one income. By the time I came up, I knew that I would need to work to provide a nice life, either on my own, or, if married, as part of a team. I live in a very nice neighborhood, and ALL mothers have jobs.

Right now, I am in a row of 8 townhouses, and there is one other retired couple besides me. By 8:00 a.m, the driveways are EMPTY, except for that one retired couple. Everyone understands that adults have jobs (other than young mothers temporarily dropping out of the work force with young kids).

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Some of us were luckier with the birth lottery than others, and it's not all about color. A kid born to rich black parents may get to start with runs already scored compared to a kid born to poor white parents who have substance abuse problem.

People think money is the entire issue. Having money is a responsibility not all are prepared for. I've been to companies where the owner got too old and sick to run the company, or otherwise died and left it to his children, and they ran it right into the ground. There are stories out there of lottery winners where their dream turned into their worst nightmare. They ended up with serious tax problems, loss of friends and family, and ended up more broke than before they hit.

 

[Lisa558]

People think money is the entire issue. Having money is a responsibility not all are prepared for. I've been to companies where the owner got too old and sick to run the company, or otherwise died and left it to his children, and they ran it right into the ground. There are stories out there of lottery winners where their dream turned into their worst nightmare. They ended up with serious tax problems, loss of friends and family, and ended up more broke than before they hit.

From shirtsleeve to shirtsleeve in three generations. Often proves true.

 

[JoeMoma]

People think money is the entire issue. Having money is a responsibility not all are prepared for. I've been to companies where the owner got too old and sick to run the company, or otherwise died and left it to his children, and they ran it right into the ground. There are stories out there of lottery winners where their dream turned into their worst nightmare. They ended up with serious tax problems, loss of friends and family, and ended up more broke than before they hit.

You are exactly right, money isn't the entire issue. No one thing is the entire issue. The thing is we all have to play the cards that are dealt us and to paraphrase Kenny Rogers, every hand is a winner and every hand is a looser.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

I disagree with you here, Ray.

That’s not what happens in real life. How else would you explain kids making the same mistakes as their parents - another generation of out of wedlock babies, and no schooling. I know someone who is struggling, and she had her first baby as a teen, unmarried. Her mother had her when SHE was 16. And her mother before her, the grandmother, had her mother when she was only 14! You would think they would learn, but no.

Then you take a suburban home, where the Mom stayed home. (That was my home.) But that was LAST generation, where a college-educated husband could buy a home for his family on one income. By the time I came up, I knew that I would need to work to provide a nice life, either on my own, or, if married, as part of a team. I live in a very nice neighborhood, and ALL mothers have jobs.

Right now, I am in a row of 8 townhouses, and there is one other retired couple besides me. By 8:00 a.m, the driveways are EMPTY, except for that one retired couple. Everyone understands that adults have jobs (other than young mothers temporarily dropping out of the work force with young kids).

In my opinion the apple usually doesn't fall far from the tree. In a working family environment kids learn what it takes to survive in this world of ours. If they grew up on government goodies that's what they learned to survive. I think those kids are at a disadvantage because that's how they were brought up. But when kids see mom and pop busting their ass 50 hours a week, they try to do better for themselves.

People of our age usually grew up in a two-parent household. Our parents were robbed of education because if their parents passed away while they were young, they had to quit school to support the family like my father did. Some quit school anyway because their parents didn't make enough money.

For a man with only a 9th grade education, my father did pretty good for himself. He was able to raise a family of 5, retired early, and is still collecting his pension at the age of 91. Wealthy? Far from it. My sister went to college and she makes nearly 6 figures a year. I was more a chip off the old block and found a blue collar career in driving, and made real estate investments which are paying off now that I'm disabled.

If we were raised in a Section 8 house in the suburbs by my mother only, I don't think my sister and I would have chosen the paths we did. We would have grown up thinking there is no sense in working or trying to better yourself. Just too much work. It's better to take it easy like mom did.

 

[JoeMoma]

Then you take a suburban home, where the Mom stayed home. (That was my home.) But that was LAST generation, where a college-educated husband could buy a home for his family on one income. By the time I came up, I knew that I would need to work to provide a nice life, either on my own, or, if married, as part of a team. I live in a very nice neighborhood, and ALL mothers have jobs.

Part of the reason that one working spouse cannot buy a home for the family on one income is that people are buying much larger homes than they used to buy (like in the 50s, 60s and 70s). When I was a kid, my brother and I shared a bedroom and the whole family, Mom, Dad, my brother and I, shared 1 bathroom.

 

[Lisa558]

Part of the reason that one working spouse cannot buy a home for the family on one income is that people are buying much larger homes than they used to buy (like in the 50s, 60s and 70s). When I was a kid, my brother and I shared a bedroom and the whole family, Mom, Dad, my brother and I, shared 1 bathroom.

Yup. The whole definition of what is considered a decent lifestyle has escalated to the point requiring both spouses to work.

My family of four (during childhood) also shared one bathroom, and that was considered normal, in an 1100 square foot house. There was one car. Dinner out was maybe once a month at the Hot Shoppes cafeteria, or an inexpensive deli, and a REAL restaurant was reserved for birthdays, and even then, they were inexpensive. Vacation was a one-week rental apartment at the beach. And we all felt we were living a nice, middle class life!

Now people need a separate bedroom for each child, a separate master suite with a bathroom just for the parents, a guest room, in a 3000 s house. There are at least two cars per family. Dinner out is a weekly thing, at nice seafood or steak restaurants. Vacation consists of a a few days in Disneyworld (booooooo…..) over spring break, a ski trip in winter, and a trip out West (or wherever) over summer. Anything less, and people think they’re not living a middle class life.

 

[AZrailwhale]

They don't both start from the same place. Remember, the laws passed when this country was founded were crafted to give white people every advantage possible and oftentimes at the expense of black people while simultaneously relegating black people to 2nd class citizen status via a series of laws and court cases (Jim Crow, Black Codes, etc.)

The Black Codes, sometimes called Black Laws, were laws governing the conduct of African Americans (free and freed blacks). In 1832, James Kent wrote that "in most of the United States, there is a distinction in respect to political privileges, between free white persons and free colored persons of African blood; and in no part of the country do the latter, in point of fact, participate equally with the whites, in the exercise of civil and political rights."[1] Although Black Codes existed before the Civil War and many Northern states had them, it was the Southern U.S. states that codified such laws in everyday practice. The best known of them were passed in 1865 and 1866 by Southern states, after the American Civil War, in order to restrict African Americans' freedom, and to compel them to work for low wages.​

Black Codes (United States) - Wikipedia​

​

Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. Named after a Black minstrel show character, the laws—which existed for about 100 years, from the post-Civil War era until 1968—were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education or other opportunities. Those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws often faced arrest, fines, jail sentences, violence and death.​

​

The roots of Jim Crow laws began as early as 1865, immediately following the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States.​

​

Black codes were strict local and state laws that detailed when, where and how formerly enslaved people could work, and for how much compensation. The codes appeared throughout the South as a legal way to put Black citizens into indentured servitude, to take voting rights away, to control where they lived and how they traveled and to seize children for labor purposes.​

​

The legal system was stacked against Black citizens, with former Confederate soldiers working as police and judges, making it difficult for African Americans to win court cases and ensuring they were subject to Black codes.​

​

These codes worked in conjunction with labor camps for the incarcerated, where prisoners were treated as enslaved people. Black offenders typically received longer sentences than their white equals, and because of the grueling work, often did not live out their entire sentence.​

Jim Crow Laws​

No one denies that Black Americans were discriminated against in the past in the South. But the South is a small part of the USA. When desegregation FINALLY came along, it was the North and mostly northern Whites supporting it and holding the government's feet to the fire to enforce the new laws. If the majority of Whites didn't want Blacks to have a fair chance nothing would have changed. Almost all Whites today want ALL minorities to be treated equally with the majority, not just Blacks, but Native Americans, Latinos, Asians and every other racial, ethnic or religious group. You, as an individual, are owed nothing for things that didn't happen to you. The past is dead and gone. I have never discriminated against anyone, so it's unfair and stupid for you to try to hold me responsible for something someone else's great grandparents did to your great grandparents. All people like you, Paul and IM2 do is create hostility in people who are otherwise inclined to help Black Americans out of a sense of innate fairness. Your words and actions are counterproductive as long as you are a minority. If you were the 86% of the population instead of the 13% you could get away with treating other races like bad puppies that crapped in the house. But you aren't and your words and actions are quickly eroding the support you have among the majority of White Americans.

 

[AZrailwhale]

Part of the reason that one working spouse cannot buy a home for the family on one income is that people are buying much larger homes than they used to buy (like in the 50s, 60s and 70s). When I was a kid, my brother and I shared a bedroom and the whole family, Mom, Dad, my brother and I, shared 1 bathroom.

That's part of it, but the larger part is the government at all levels is taking far more in taxes than in our parent's day. If you add up the taxes you pay NOT counting sales tax, the government is taking more than half your gross income. Yes, some of that is Social Security and Medicare which will come back to you, but the majority just goes into government coffers. Next time you buy gas, take a look at the sticker on the pump that shows how much of that price per gallon is taxes, you will be shocked.

 

[Lisa558]

No one denies that Black Americans were discriminated against in the past in the South. But the South is a small part of the USA. When desegregation FINALLY came along, it was the North and mostly northern Whites supporting it and holding the government's feet to the fire to enforce the new laws. If the majority of Whites didn't want Blacks to have a fair chance nothing would have changed. Almost all Whites today want ALL minorities to be treated equally with the majority, not just Blacks, but Native Americans, Latinos, Asians and every other racial, ethnic or religious group. You, as an individual, are owed nothing for things that didn't happen to you. The past is dead and gone. I have never discriminated against anyone, so it's unfair and stupid for you to try to hold me responsible for something someone else's great grandparents did to your great grandparents. All people like you, Paul and IM2 do is create hostility in people who are otherwise inclined to help Black Americans out of a sense of innate fairness. Your words and actions are counterproductive as long as you are a minority. If you were the 86% of the population instead of the 13% you could get away with treating other races like bad puppies that crapped in the house. But you aren't and your words and actions are quickly eroding the support you have among the majority of White Americans.

That’s an excellent point. Blacks need support from whites, and thus far, they’ve gotten plenty - particularly in regard to Affirmative Action, which was proposed and put into actions thanks to the efforts of whites. This demonization of whites who point out choices that are causing the black underclass to remain stuck in poverty not only fails to give blacks the confidence to know that they themselves have the power to move beyond it, but it builds anger among whites who are being unfairly blamed for it.

The worst example in recent time that I can think of is when the BLM leader out of NY said that if whites don’t give blacks what they “demand,” they will burn the whole system down. As you point out, they are a minority in this country, and they do more harm than good when they demand that the majority bow to their demands.

I have proposed a solution to the current race-based favoritism in admissions: make it a combination of need and merit, and have students competing within their own cohort (thereby eliminating the advantage that comes from a prosperous school district): the top 5% of each high school in the country, who meets SES guidelines, gets a fully paid ride to the state university. For this suggestion, because it does not benefit blacks exclusively, I have been called racist.

In summary, you’re correct: blacks like Vine, Paul, and IM2 are doing the black community harm by vilifying whites, and making demands of them for which they have no right. It just builds hostility among the very people - the majority of the country - from whom they need support.

 

[IM2]

I didn't know who he was so I looked it up. As I stated earlier, the officer was held responsible, charged, but found not guilty by a jury of his peers. One juror gave this statement to the media:

What we were looking at was some pretty obscure things to a lot of people, like culpable negligence. You think you might know what it means: It's negligent, but maybe pretty bad negligence. Well, it's gross negligence with an element of recklessness ... We had the law in front of us so we could break it down.

It just came down to us not being able to see what was going on in the car. Some of us were saying that there was some recklessness there, but that didn't stick because we didn't know what escalated the situation: was he really seeing a gun? We felt [Yanez] was an honest guy ... and in the end, we had to go on his word, and that's what it came down to.[89]

I find it very difficult to believe a police officer would shoot a motorist for no reason at all; jeopardizing his career, violence, and of course his job which he was fired from regardless of the verdict. In our system of justice an accused is innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around the way liberals would like to see in this country. If you know a police officer feels threatened by your actions, the best thing you can do is simply freeze which apparently this guy didn't do.

And here is something else for you to know:

In fact, as of July 9, whites were 54 percent of the 440 police shooting victims this year whose race was known, blacks were 28 percent and Hispanics were 18 percent, according to The Washington Post’s ongoing database of fatal police shootings. Those ratios are similar to last year’s tally, in which whites made up 50 percent of the 987 fatal police shootings, and blacks, 26 percent. (The vast majority of those police homicide victims were armed or otherwise threatening the officer.) But Butterfield could be forgiven his error, given the virtually exclusive media focus on black victims of police officers.

Police Shootings and Race

Does the distribution of police victims confirm the Black Lives Matter allegation that policing is biased? That depends on the assessing of police actions.

www.manhattan-institute.org

Funny how you don't use per capita here. These are more bullshit excuses. This is not open to debate. The root cause of the problems blacks face is white racism. Period.

“It would neither be true or honest to say that the Negros problem is what it is because he is innately inferior or because he is basically lazy and listless or because he has not lifted himself by his own bootstraps. To find the origins of the Negro problem we must turn to the white man’s problem.”

-Rev. Martin Luther King Jr

 

[IM2]

That's part of it, but the larger part is the government at all levels is taking far more in taxes than in our parent's day. If you add up the taxes you pay NOT counting sales tax, the government is taking more than half your gross income. Yes, some of that is Social Security and Medicare which will come back to you, but the majority just goes into government coffers. Next time you buy gas, take a look at the sticker on the pump that shows how much of that price per gallon is taxes, you will be shocked.

Bullshit. The government took more taxes way back when.