I did not think that at this late date we would be relitigating Emancipation, the aftermath of the Civil War, and the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and early 1970s. But we appear to be. What’s next? The reincarnation of the American Colonization Society?
I think one of the problems is the very light exposure so many present Americans have to the history, culture, and people of the United States other than the neighborhood in which they grew up and what they’ve seen on TV. We’ve made tremendous progress in social development over the last 70 years. You don’t have to take the word of an old white man for it. Ask an old black woman. She will tell you the same thing.
The United States is the genesis of all that’s wrong with the world.
Slavery only ever existed in the United States and was propped up by evil white men until it was suppressed by noble self-sacrificing escaped slaves and other POC.
All government institutions were made by evil racist white man in order to continue to oppress those lower down the intersectionality pole.
This is the history being taught in secondary schools (if at all).
I don’t think those sentiments run very deep, but the trends lines are deeply concerning, and the rhetoric reminiscent of a cultural revolution. On the whole, I don’t think such ideas should go unchallenged and I don’t think they are. But battles always bring unintentional casualties.
“This is the history being taught in secondary schools (if at all).”
No it isn’t. Spend some time and talk with some high school kids.
“the aftermath of the Civil War”
Visit the Civil War Museum in Richmond Virginia and the other sites in the city. They still litigate the Civil War, officially called the War of Northern Aggression.
“I think one of the problems is the very light exposure so many present Americans have to the history, culture, and people of the United States other than the neighborhood in which they grew up and what they’ve seen on TV. ”
For sure. On your blog now all I read is that blacks are lazy scum and crooks, or is that the Hispanics? Asians only care about money. Yet the young black man I worked with yesterday went to trucking school to drive and make enough money to go nursing school than advanced practice nursing school, making 6 figures now. His kids are smart as can be with excellent reading and math skills even before entering kindergarten. Or the young black woman with a bronze star and purple heart who is superb at her job and donates lots of time to working with troubled kids. The black woman who has been one of our most reliable staff for years and her husband who retired after a career with the corps of engineers. The pair of middle aged black lady clerks on our trauma ICU who bring in food from home for the families of trauma victims and visit their homes to help. I could go on with examples from other groups also.
“Ask an old black woman. She will tell you the same thing.”
I have. Older Hispanic and Asian people also. It is clearly better, but there is concern among some that we have regressed recently. Also that the last steps may be the most difficult. Having gone from being treated as though you are 50% human to 90% was a slog, but it was eliminating behaviors that were easier to address via laws and were more obvious. That last 10% will involve cultural and attitude changes.
Steve
Not from me. I don’t believe you have ever seen me say anything of the sort. Quite to the contrary, I’m more likely to praise just about everyone. Is that really all you read here? Actually, there are only one or two commenters who make such comments. Is the standard you are holding up that there be no bigoted or unfairly judgmental remarks? Where is that standard met? I make a practice of not censoring what my commenters say or, in general, debating with them. I find debating on blogs practically useless.
I have also heard elderly black women say that Millennials are an entitled bunch of whiners (that’s a verbatim quote).
Steve:
Are my lifelong personal experiences invalid? I have no power or desire to harm them. They do have the power to harm my family, they’re armed, I’m not. They are not all nice old ladies or sweet children. And, being a physician, you don’t have to live where we live. I think you have met a self selecting group, that is, if they weren’t like you and your class, you’d never have met them.
Steve, you are cocooned in a safe world, insulated by a cushion of money, everyone WILL be nice to you.
“really all you read here?”
From those who comment upon race, excluding yourself, yes.
GS- I grew up fairly poor in small Midwest towns after my Dad got out of the service. I was enlisted in the Navy, serving with many people of color. I worked part time while a corpsman at two inner city emergency rooms and did hime visits, continuing this to support family through undergrad and medical school. Worked with and was friends with a lot of people of color. There was no cushion of money. I got shot at by a black and stabbed by a white man working at these places, but I didnt come to the conclusion that all black people or all white people are bad.
So now I do have a cushion of money, but I still work in the “bad areas” that we cover. Now it is in coal country with the white people on meth and heroin. We have had one staff assaulted and had cars broken into, in an area that is desperate for good medical care. (I really cant, and won’t, describe how bad some of the care was at these places when we took over.) Dealing with the addicts is a real pain, as well as all of the alcoholics and all of the people on disability who won’t do anything to take care of themselves. But guess what? There are also a bunch of really good people up here also. Incredibly hard workers who are good people who would do anything for you. I dont feel the need to bash everyone because of the behavior of the bad people. (I do not send black employees up there or Hispanic males.)
Steve
Steve, I was honestly taken aback by your posted comments. In coming and going from this blog, I haven’t run across the derogatory descriptions about blacks and Hispanics that you seem to acutely remember.
And, what was the reasoning behind reeling off anecdotal stories describing productive lives of blacks and Hispanics? Most of the people I know don’t pair success with the ethnicity of a person. As for laziness, it’s a broad-based trait found in all color hues. The same goes for attributes dealing with high motivation, self discipline, seen across all color lines, and activated by a myriad of variables having little to do with racial considerations.
As to whats next, suspect an concerted effort to decolonize and intersectionally rewrite science.
To the other point, on the whole, racial relations are much better, yet, there’s money, fame and power still to be had in feeding the fire and will always be, we are primates fighting around the water hole.
jan- Then you haven’t be reading here often. Look at July 5 to start.
“And, what was the reasoning behind reeling off anecdotal stories describing productive lives of blacks and Hispanics?”
After hearing that blacks only want to rap and deal it was easy to think of dozens of black people I know who do neither. I simply listed some of those people and what they did.
So there are plenty of awful crappy people who are black and who are white. I find it hard to believe that if you have moved around or worked in multiple places so that you have been exposed to many different people (back to Dave’s original point) that you won’t have met people of color who are good, decent people. If you have lived in one place all of your life and all of the people there are scum, then you should have enough awareness to know that your experience is limited.
“I have also heard elderly black women say that Millennials are an entitled bunch of whiners”
When in the history of the world have we not had old people complaining about “kids today”?
Steve
Well, that’s true but I’m not sure it’s a material response.
I actually get along pretty well with Millennials—nearly everyone with whom I interact on a daily basis at work is a Millennial. I doubt I’ll live to see a time when Millennials actually have hold of the reins. Heck, Baby Boomers don’t even have hold of the reins yet.
The Millennials with whom I interact do not have a great background of information or a good basis for understanding events. They operate with a great handicap: Google. Google can be an invaluable tool if you know what you’re looking for but very misleading if you don’t.
“On your blog now all I read is that blacks are lazy scum and crooks, or is that the Hispanics?â€
WTF?
“the very light exposure so many present Americans have to the history, culture, and people of the United States”
Regarding history, I think that this is true for a lot of young people who feel disconnected from the past, and to some extent I don’t blame them, because the relevancy issue is not obvious. At my kids’ school, the AP US History course is considered the hardest course outside of AP foreign language classes, and from what I can gather its because there is a focus on trivial facts. For example, they are expected to memorize the names of all of the Presidents, including the years they served. I can name the Presidents in order, which I expect is exceptional (and I would put to a devise to help bore me to sleep), but knowing which year various Presidents died in office is trivial.
So, higher level students, presumably the most motivated learners, are stuffed with more facts without appreciative knowledge of the circumstances and deeper consideration of why past actors thought or acted as they did. The important thing lost is the context of compromise, abetted by reductionist views that point to even a speck of racism as compromising all the institutions we presently depend upon for liberty and equality. The only people content by the state of things that can see this are either Leftist revolutionaries who want to burn it all down, and libertarians who don’t want those institutions to be effective in the first place.
This has , I guess, gotten overheated. What it boils down to, is we now fear the POC in our neighborhood. You treat them all, you are a good man, a good doctor. If you’ve followed my comments on this blog, you know I married a POC (Native), 46 years ago now. I have debated over and over getting a handgun for protection. My wife wants that. She overestimates my reflexes. Steve , you keep at it, and I’ll try to rein in my nativist sentiments. Mostly you see, it’s not hate, but fear. But I’m too manly for fear, so let’s call it concern.