Trump is a Confederate president

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Even if Jazz and Blues made white kids realize how cool black people could be, it still didn't give blacks voting rights, the right to hold office, or even protection from the cracker mob who came to murder them. Only the civil rights movement, and following that, civil rights legislation made that possible.
Not a thing to do with class envy. Just resentment that those with power and wealth have attempted to keep the rest of us down and divided.
It's not liberals and Democrats who are harming the rights of individuals. The right has been supporting the rich man whose primary interest has been to hold economic and political power probably before recorded time.
By getting rid of labor laws, civil rights laws, and by opposing not just pay hikes but minimum wage hikes in general, the right is ensuring the existence of a permanent underclass.
I don't believe in the goodness of society - - I'm a Lutheran.

Except for voter suppression, gerrymandering, unfair police practices, pollution, property-tax based education, the for profit prison system, the drug war, poisoned water, corporate welfare... You're being sold the lie of a level playing field. Conveniently, it also coincides with not doing jack s**t to change anything.

Exactly.

Calling Trump "the successor to Jefferson Davis" is silly.

Calling Trump a carnival barker, and a con artist, is right on.

Which party did that?


Which party denied them that?


Which party denied them that?


The Democrat party, AFTER they created the problem in the first place.


The Democrat party, AFTER they created the problem in the first place.


Doom and gloom. Blacks have had power and wealth all along. Business owners, lawyers, law makers, and even judges. And let's not forget the university professors, scientists, etc. If this is a black vs. white thing, blacks have left us in the dust many a time.

Whites couldn't kill black-owned businesses.

Whites couldn't stop black lawyers and politicians.

Whites couldn't stop black judges.

Whites couldn't stop MLK's message of peaceful cooperation and co-existence.

But liberals and collectivists most certainly have tried. How many movements have there been within the black community that pushed for violence against whites? I can name one.


Or if you want to go waaaaaaaay back, try this one:



Hmmm...I wonder what exactly these guys were talking about?

I'm not saying that it's right to lay down and play dead. I believe that violence is sometimes necessary to defend yourself. I understand that words like these are often spoken in times of distress and anguish. But these words are not always understood that way. They are understood as calls to action. They are not cries for freedom for all. They are demands for rights at a cost to other people groups. I doubt this was what King had in mind when he said



Yet this is what leftists support. Actual acknowledgment that much of the dream has been fulfilled would require a violation of Rahm's Law. Without agitation or crisis, there's no cause to get behind. #BLM and police violence are strangely missing from the headlines lately. Mainstream media either don't care/lost interest, or there's little to actually report while the southern border gets shouted front and center. My theory is that enough bad guys have lost their badges that potential baddies are thinking twice about whether their actions are appropriate while the good ones are actually being supported on a national level. They are celebrated in their execution of law enforcement duties at considerable risk to their lives and well being. Radicals are awake to consequences that negate any reward for violence. Blacks HAVE their rights. The best thing leftist agitators can do right now is GET OUT OF THEIR WAY and let them thrive.


Collectivism is inherently harmful to the rights of individuals. Liberal pols and crony capitalists have been making millions on the backs of minorities throughout industrial history. GM has been making the news lately on this exact point. It's sad...I've always enjoyed GM cars. I miss my car. But they made stupid choices and passed the cost of those choices onto the taxpayers because they were "too big to fail." I liked them when they were still General Motors. Now they are all Government Motors. Meanwhile, I could go out right now and buy a brand-new Nissan made right here in Mississippi. THOSE guys are free to make their own decisions, pay workers what they earn, and they don't have the pressure of unions telling them how to run their business. Who knows? As disappointed as I am here, maybe I'll give up teaching and apply for a job with Nissan. I bet someone there is willing to train someone with two hands, a desire to learn new things, and a work ethic. I'm a lot more athletic now than I used to be, so certain things don't seem so bad to me anymore. Work at the plant for 40 hours and still do weddings and maybe even start a band, and find a new church to play in on Sundays...and make a KILLING compared to what I'm doing now.

Liberals won't tell me that. Liberals will tell me it's not my fault that I'm struggling in the music biz, that it's ok to just stay home and wait for my check.

I know a dry spell when I see one. So I double down on doing my own thing and wait it out. I have some YouTube video ideas I've always wanted to try, maybe do some product reviews and tutorials, and crank out some more original compositions. Maybe actually SELL a product for a change, go on a promo tour. I dunno...but just TRYING anything at all is better than sitting around lamenting all the broken dreams and promises.

I'll be ok, because as long as I'm DOING something, I'm having fun. If I disappeared tomorrow, there's a church and a school that would be back to counting one disaster after another. I dislike anyone being that dependent on me, but there's a certain satisfaction in "cornering the market."

I love what I do and the friends I have. That's not why I'm unhappy. I'm unhappy because I'm expecting more and the people who work with me are already giving everything they have. I feel I deserve more, that I'm worth more, and that leaving is the only move left I can make. I hate that. It's frightening. But it's reality. And I can't help but feel a little resentful every time someone tells me "bloom where you're planted." Ok, yeah, you HAVE everything you want. You weren't born where you are. You chose to take that job, or move there. So telling me to "bloom" where I can't take root is a bit of a disingenuous platitude, don't you think?

Which puts me right back to where we started: Nothing but doom and gloom. Like I said, I expect better. Stepping out and starting over is a frightening prospect. But to stay and continue is to wither in hopelessness. I'm just not a negative person.

Liberals don't teach their followers to expect better. They teach doom and gloom. "Hope and change." To sell "Hope," one must have a sense of hopelessness. To sell "change," something has to be wrong. Black people have their rights. To sell them on "hope and change" is to suggest that they do NOT have their rights. Black people have moved between New Orleans and Chicago on multiple occasions. They were FREE to do so. I'm FREE to leave the Delta. I'm FREE to leave the country if I so desire. I'm free to restart my piano studio if I want. Black people are FREE to start businesses, move into the neighborhood, earn raises and promotions, or apply for different jobs if they don't feel valued where they are. They can move where the opportunities are. They can create new opportunities where none exist. They can do everything white, Asian, European, Hispanic, and any other human being with whatever arbitrary ethnic label can do.

And I know I've shared this story before--a former acquaintance of mine who was a single mother out of high school decided to take college classes and ended up working at a bank. Her family DISOWNED her because, in their eyes, she'd betrayed them by what they felt was trying to be better than them. They looked at her as a snob, as a black woman selling out and trying to "act white." They honestly expected her to accept a hopeless situation, to enslave herself to a system that rewards women for being in a minority and for having as many babies as she can. They don't value her as a person. They value her for what they can get from the government THROUGH her. And her politicians value her for her vote and for another, larger generation who they expect to vote the same way.

I don't understand how people can crave hopelessness. But they do. You can EXPECT a better, brighter, livable, and ENJOYABLE world. You can HAVE that world. Who's going to stop you?


What is so wrong with that? Wealth = freedom. Who doesn't want more freedom? You are confusing rational self-interest with envy and greed. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the rewards of your hard work.

The problem is robbing people of wealth that you didn't earn. People who work hard and succeed are under no obligation to share if they do not wish to share.

If I value you as a person and WANT to share my wealth, I see nothing wrong with that.

If you have something I value and want, I'll work out some means of exchange in order to get it from you. But you should not feel obligated to part with your things if I cannot or am unwilling to match your things with value. I have the right to say how much those things means to me, and you are free to agree...or not. If we agree on values, we can trade. If I cannot match your value but still desire your things, I can go back to work until I CAN match you value-for-value. I have to decide whether I think it's worth working towards or not.

Collectivist attitudes are the opposite. It's based on envy and greed. I want what you have, but it's not worth working for. So I'll steal it from you, one way or the other. And if the laws say I can't steal it, I'll write a law that says I'm entitled to it on demand. I'll make it legal to do evil and illegal to do good. For a real-world example, this happened when I was in graduate school. There was a particular electronic musical instrument in my prof's studio that hadn't worked in some time, but I knew that he'd composed a lot of music with it. I suggested that after graduation I could raise enough money on my own and have the expensive repairs done, or simply just order the new parts and do the repair work myself. He told me I wasn't allowed to do that--NOBODY was allowed to do that. I asked why. He said because there are laws that regulate what improvements can/can't be done on a college campus, and that any kind of improvements have to be funded from a centralized budget. All the donations come in from one place and get distributed however the school sees fit, which may/may not work out the way individuals want. I asked, "well, who's gonna know?" He said, "forget it, kid."

Instead of good things going to people in genuine need, money and power always end up going to those who are the most jealous and greedy. We have corporations who probably wouldn't even exist anymore if they weren't propped up by government policies. Those people make their money off the government and advance little of real value. Anything you do that lacks long-term merit that depends on institutionalized robbery is doomed to fail eventually. It always happens when you've robbed people so much they have nothing left to rob.

Democrats robbed black people of their physical labor. They continue to rob them of their freedom. In the course of exchange, Democrats extract their power from minorities while sharing a pittance of what they've robbed from people who earn and achieve. They take tax money from those who produce things, then take that tax money and buy things--which means, essentially, that they are taking those things for free. While those in power have enslaved the minds of minorities, THOSE slaves have enslaved the bodies of the producers out there who are losing potential profits.

Why enslave yourself to hopelessness?

And you can't say the rich are making their riches on the backs of the poor, unless you're talking about rich, liberal pols and crony capitalists who can't make a dime without government interference. If you have a problem with "rich, wealthy, white people," STOP BUYING THEIR STUFF!! ! Don't support causes you don't believe in by feeding them money. You don't want Trump to succeed? Don't stay at his hotels. It's just that simple. You don't like how someone treats chickens? Don't buy eggs from them. Stick with cage-free. Don't like Apple/Microsoft/Samsung/FacebookGoogle? Don't buy their products or visit their websites. Don't give anyone anything of value if don't feel those people have any value themselves. Robbing them because you're jealous of what they've worked to achieve WILL NOT MAKE YOUR SITUATION BETTER in the long run.


Who's getting rid of civil rights laws? Minorities already have constitutionally guaranteed rights in the USA. The same rights we all have, regardless of imaginary "class" distinctions. Nothing more needs to be done except to make sure that those rights are protected. If someone infringes on my freedom of speech, or freedom of religion, I should expect that I can hire representation who will get my case before a judge if I cannot approach the violator directly and work out a non-litigious solution. If we have to go to court, we'll go to court. If someone steps onto my property in the middle of the night, refuses to identify himself, doesn't respond to the threat of deadly force, and I perceive him to be a threat, I have the right to defend myself, my loved ones, and my property by giving him a bad case of lead poisoning. If I'm made to feel unsafe where I am, I can move somewhere else where I do.

The problem with min wage is it takes away the ability of employers to assign value to the work people do. If you are unhappy with your wages, QUIT. Get a new job. Find someone who values you for what you do as much as you value yourself. That's a lot of the problem, I think. People don't value themselves at all. They don't see themselves as worth much, if anything. They don't recognize the actual value of what they do. Much of the problem with college grads going back to when I finished college is we were taught to expect certain things purely on the basis of finishing school. I'm a college grad, therefore I am entitled to an upper management job my first year out with a starting salary of $125k/year, working 20 hours a week WITH full benefits and stock options. Maybe you're a genius and you're worth it, and maybe you're not. But your worth to someone else is not for you to decide. You have to make believers of people, and that requires actual work experience. You go as far as you can, jump from job to job if you have to, and MAYBE if you really are that talented you'll command 6 figures in 5 years time. And if you can't, then start your own business. If you are NOT worth it, you can't expect it. People didn't value my work at McDonald's per hour any more than the cost of a double QP with cheese. But a manager who motivates workers, keeps the store clean, maintains good CR, and keeps profits up enough to compete with the BK just across the street? He's earned it. And if the franchise owners disagree, let him apply for the job at BK.

Higher wages attracted higher-value employees. That's just the way it works. You want to keep good talent? Raise wages. You want your business to fail? Don't reward your employees. Min. wage artificially inflates the actual value of employees.

Collectivists don't really want to just stop at raising min wage. They'd prefer to cap the highest wage one could earn as well. Why stop at leveling the playing field when you can just get rid of the game? That creates yet another problem: eliminating the incentive to achieve.

I think it's wrong to punish people for doing a good job.

So salary caps and min wage, in my view, are both ways of punishing good employees.


Shame. I'm a Christian.

I don't believe in "goodness" of society, strictly speaking. I dunno...depends on what you mean by "good." I look at all of humanity as inherently evil, and it's human selfishness that's at the core of human evil.

In another sub-forum, I used my interest in running as an analogy for self-improvement. For me, because I'm aware of my abilities and limits, I know I'm not going to make it to the podium in overall rankings. I'm ok with that. My goal is not to beat this runner or that runner. My goal is to just beat the COURSE. The only person I'm really competing with is myself, and comparing stats are helpful not because I define myself by someone else's performance--by beating them--but because I'd like a better view of what someone comparable to me in age and fitness SHOULD be capable of doing. I can use that information to predict my own potential outcome and set training goals to make that outcome reality. For me, the greatest success is beating PR, and probably most runners feel the same way.

I bring that up to say this: Regardless of past performance, regardless of whether it's your first 5k or you're an elite ultra-marathoner, everyone is equal at the starting line. Elite runners at even the lowest-participation races MIGHT still suffer an injury or hit the wall at mile 22. Experienced runners still get a DNF and get passed by the guy coming in dead last. Maybe you had the perfect combination of training, nutrition, rest, and PERFECT temperature/humidity on a fast/flat course and came in first in your age group when you NEVER had a good training day before. Maybe you're the fat, ugly, bald guy who never trains and just had a good day and beat the guy who did everything right. Everyone is equal when the starter gun fires.

We're all equal when we're born, too. The path to get to the same place might be different for a lot of us, but a poor man with self-determination can become millionaire and be more successful than the guy born with the money and a clear path and yet struggles just to stay where he is. I'm white, was born into a middle-class family, and took advantage of the best available educational opportunities. I know people of minorities born in much more humble circumstances, never went to school, and are killing it.

And we are all born selfish. That's another thing we all bring with us to the starting line. It's how we survive. It is that selfishness, that desire for money and the things that money can buy, that is the root of all kinds of evil. Selfishness by itself is not evil. God made the universe and mankind for HIS purpose, for His pleasure, and believers don't typically regard God as evil. If God is selfish, then we're not talking about selfishness as a form of evil. We're talking about selfishness as a virtue. It is also the root of all kinds of good, not merely or exclusively a source of evil.

What we really mean when we refer to selfish people--all of humanity, really--are people who are greedy and envy the wealth and power of others they do not earn for themselves. People make the choice to lie, cheat, steal, and even murder to get what they don't value enough and what they don't value themselves enough to work for. If having a possession you are jealous of isn't worth the effort to have, why is it worth your integrity? Do you really see yourself as so worthless that you would debase your character and even risk your life to either take someone's things or deprive them of the right to have those things? That's where all the evil is in all of this.

Liberals are purveyors of envy. Their goal is to exploit those in need in order to gain power over them. If you want to be greedy, use the needy. And yes, there's money to be made in legalized robbery.

It's been suggested that I believe in prosperity gospel. That's untrue. Prosperity gospel is exactly the same thing, and I oppose it as well. Wolves in sheeple's clothing. Empty promises of earthly health and wealth if you just have faith and give us all your money. And look how we turned out! Look at how much God has blessed us! You can have that, too, if you just give, give, give. God will heal your cancer, just give, give, give. And if God hasn't blessed you, you just need to have more faith and give, give, give.

It's wrong. What would be funny to me if it weren't so pathetic is politicians have gone after these guys to put a stop to it. People voluntarily give to these guys. For some, this is their whole religion. You can see that conservative pols don't lack for guilt, either. If we can't rob the needy, we'll rob other greedy people, too. Self-righteous cannibalism. I never heard of liberals going after THESE guys, and I do find it somewhat surprising. Perhaps they recognize a common cause?

I do believe that God wants us to enjoy our world and the reward of our productive activity. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to be healthy. He wants us to have faith in Him and be faithful servants. But I also believe God gifted us with logic and with reasoning minds. We can even use something we call reason to justify NON-belief in God. God gifted us with senses that give an adequate perception of our world and help us form decisions on how to survive. God granted a lot of creative power to the individual. And I do believe an OBJECTIVE view of the world is the best, most effective view.

And whether someone is selling "hope and change" or "health and wealth," I do not believe God intended us to give in to wishful thinking. I believe that God equipped each of us with the capacity to live for ourselves as individuals, to work and actively shape our world according to our selfish desires, NOT to "dream our world into being." So while the human heart is envious and greedy, the human heart is also compassionate and derives selfish pleasure from the presence and activity of those whose values overlap. It's the capacity for love that keeps me the most hopeful about society. I think we're better than "hopes and dreams" and "wishful thinking."

^^^
I'm not going to even try to address everything in, especially since you've included quotes from other WP members in that word salad bar. But here's a few:
The conservative wing of the Democratic party in the south had been responsible for oppressing blacks, but the key word here is "conservative," not the ideological liberals running the Democratic party today. That very conservative wing of the Democrats has since become Republicans.
Black lawyers, judges, and businessmen? They had had their heyday originally under Reconstruction, till white southern conservative reactionaries turned back the clock. Those black professionals who carried on did so only in a segregated world, unable to take a step into mainstream white society. Those who managed to make the leap had done so only in the liberal areas of the north.
Sure, blacks have always been guaranteed constitutional rights, but in reality those rights had been withheld from them by racist whites. Taking an extra step to ensure blacks or any other oppressed citizens those promised liberties are not special or extra rights.
Liberal policies exist only to redress long years of racist and classist discrimination enforced by conservatives.
The idea that liberals promote a collectivist society is the product of conservative fantasy.
There is something wrong with business people stepping on their workers to get richer.
Without a minimum wage, no worker's labor is going to be prized particularly high.
Organized labor allowed blue collar workers to expand into the middle class. With more buying power, the American economy grew exponentially, and with it the general level of wealth.
No, I don't feel any class envy, but I do feel resentment that there is a growing chasm between the rich and poor as the middle class vanishes.
Considering that your brand of Christianity is all about legalism and finger pointing with little love, please don't denigrate my faith.
Good for you that you've become the Nietzschean Ubermensch. Some of us are content to be happy mortals.
Call your last point what you will, but what it is is the prosperity gospel, which is no gospel at all. God's promises never included physical wealth. In fact, we're promised the exact opposite.

I, pretty much, agree with all of the above post (cut for space-saving)----and I had some additional thoughts, on the following.....


Exactly!! One of the things I have been using, lately, in discussions with people, is giving another meaning to the old saying "If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day; if you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime". The original meaning of that saying was to herald teachers----totally warranted----but, I have thought of another meaning.....

If you GIVE a man a fish, what happens the next day? He comes back for another fish. Then, the next day he's back again----and again, and again, and again. This is how the Liberals keep people down / oppressed, by giving people handouts----and, all-the-while, they are passive-aggressively "not saying" "And don't forget me in November". This, to me, is exactly what you're saying----that people don't seem to understand this.

They're not trying to TEACH anybody, anything, cuz then, when people learn to do for themselves, they won't need the handouts; and then, also, who'll be voting for them.


I agree----it worries me, as well!!

I'd like to add that every dictator (which, IMO, is what alot of Liberals are, because they're constantly dictating to people, that they can't do anything without the Dems' help) fears those they oppress, because they know, deep down inside, that one day those they oppress will rise up, against them----and fear them, they should!

I pray that one day soon----and I hope it's by 2020----people will realize the ways in which they're being screwed-over by the Dems. It IS happening----slowly, but surely----and it's quite joyous to me, every time I "discover", for instance, another black President Trump supporter; it tells me that they're THINKING, and not willing to be blindly led into "a sheeple think", and I LOVE that!

I agree. If black people couldn't / were not capable of succeeding, there would be no Oprah, Chris Rock, Tyler Perry, Denzel Washington, etc., etc., etc.


Yep----and yep, there sure are haters, out there. I have even thought that there are more black people keeping black people back / holding them down, than white people----and black people, whom I have bounced this theory, off of, have agreed with me.

There are so many black people, IME, that diss other black people, who are successful. My theory is that they put them down, because if people see some black people being successful, then they will be less likely to believe / willing to support black people who say "I don't have", "I can't do", or whatever----and they don't want that, cuz then it'll make it harder for them to cry the blues.


Boy, ain't THAT the truth!!


Oh, God----don't get me started on FDR! I believe Ms. Eleanor (whom it has been said, time-and-time-again, was the catalyst for many [maybe, most] of FDR's programs and policies, and so-forth) truly felt she had people's best interests, at heart----and I believe at the beginning, they DID help people----but they (the programs, etc.) were SOOOOOO taken advantage of (just like Labor Unions, IMO).

Also, I'd like to add to your list: Who made it a criminal offense for parents to spank their kids----and thereby, IMO, often creating narcissists, and spoiled rotten entitleds? Democrats.


That's the first of the Liberals' Ten Commandments, right!! LOL

Good stuff.

Yes, what you said about teaching. Teaching is a part of what I do, although I like to emphasize that unlike most teachers, I consider myself an artist first and foremost. I don’t look at teaching as “bringing up the next generation,” but as a means of propogating my own approach and my own ideas. My students are free to take the skills they learn from me and make
up their own minds as to how they put those skills to use. But, personally, I think it’s hypocrisy to teach what you yourself do not do. If you aren’t a scientist, if you aren’t studying and learning and writing and contributing, you have no business teaching science. There’s a misconception that such people belong in the ivory tower academy far removed from the masses, but anyone can work in their own field of study using their own resources if they so choose.

My attitude now is that I’ll teach anyone I think is worth teaching. I’ve just gotten sick of all the flakes. I’m not an easy teacher. So if I take you as a student, it’s because you actually have a strong aptitude for music.

I’m ok with “feeding a man for a day” as long as he pays me for the “fish.” My biggest frustration has been that I’m the only fisherman in town. Suits me. I make good money that way. I don’t OWE it to anyone to teach them all my tricks and make them my biggest competitor. I do hold a sort of monopoly. But if a student takes over or someone else puts me out of business, good on them. I’ll simply find something else I do that nobody else can do and destroy my competition if I can. That’s how we get better at what we do and improve our world.

My “secret” to success, if I have one, is that I’m always willing to learn something new. I take responsibility for my OWN learning. The man who teaches himself to fish, in other words, will know what makes the best cane pole, the best monofilament to use, the best bait, and where the most fish can be caught, when, and under what weather conditions, etc. The man who is taught to fish is at the mercy of his teacher’s level of experience.

Most of your teachers, btw, are out there teaching how to fish and they’ve never actually been out to the pond. Never even baited the hook.

I don’t teach trumpet without picking up a trumpet. I majored in clarinet and racked up graduate hour credits in performance and pedagogy. I KNOW how to play, I STILL play, I WRITE music for clarinet, AND I know how to show kids how to get results.

To me, liberal ideology is about staying as far removed from the unwashed as they can get. They come up with theories, they write books, they make
warm/fuzzy/feelgood speeches, but they don’t worry themselves with the struggles of those they purport to reach out to. I’m ok with libs not teaching them. What I have a problem with is libs themselves don’t actually know where fish come from, steal fish from fishermen, and give the fish away to people who aren’t actually hungry.

My brother and sister WPers: as I'm sure you've all read the malarkey in the last two conversations, I am asking you all rise up to respond. As of late today, I am feeling so washed out that I'm not sure I can carry on another protracted war of posts for the time being.

I’m not quite the proponent of spanking that I USED to be, but it’s never off the table. It’s not illegal where I live. We’ve reached a point in our family it’s not really needed anymore. I’m ok with that.

You don’t HAVE to spank. You DO have to correct your kids. The problem with parents is they don’t act to EFFECTIVELY correct them, whatever method they choose to employ. What frightens me, though, is kids grow up learning better—through experience if not from parents—and make narcissistic choices anyway. I can’t directly blame liberals for that, though I do see liberals as enablers.

A lot of things start as “for the public good,” but FDR programs never had a cutoff limit. It starts as an “emergency” measure, then it becomes an entitlement. Threaten to take away entitlements and the public will take away votes. So it’s politically deadly to threaten entitlement programs. It’s going to take the entire collapse of society for them to learn their lesson.

I have to stress that I have NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER with helping those who really are in need. I have no problem with public welfare for the disabled and the elderly. All I can say is I’d feel better about my taxes going to causes I actually support, and I think I should have some say in the matter.

We were discussing white supremacy specifically, and I was purposefully avoiding racism against whites or division among the black community. The problem with black division is a simple matter of indentity politics. The usual pattern of liberal strategy is if you want to be greedy, use the needy. Successful blacks defy black identity. They aren’t part of the struggle. They have everything other blacks want but cannot have without betraying black identity (identity as poor, uneducated, and part of the victim class). So black people envy and ostracize them for not playing the race game. If all men are created equal and are endowed with certain rights, why identify as part of a minority and as a victim? I’ve had a pretty tough victimhood streak throughout much of my life, and from my own experience I can tell you it’s a life of doom and gloom.

Black people are PEOPLE, and as such do have control over their own existence. Accept that stuff happens, that everyone sometimes has a bad run of luck. Stand up for your rights, demand protection. The government and justice system DO owe you at least that much, and the Civil Rights era was not without merit. But we do NOT live under Jim Crow or slavery any more. There’s no point to the pettiness we so often see in the media.

For the record, Cat, I’ll have you know I’m a member of the smallest minority in existence, and I’m doing just fine!

Relax, dude...I write long posts when I have nothing else to do and cover pretty much everything all at once. I’d be supremely entertained if someone else took up my exact position and carried it forward, but it looks to me like we’re pretty much done here, don’t you think?

Yep, I knew you are a teacher. I've been a teacher, off and on, practically my whole life, too----beginning in 6th grade, when I, as a former Special Ed student, tutored 1st and 2nd graders, in reading (is that not poetic justice, or what LOL); then, a Sunday School Teacher; then, my last job in the military was Director of Training; and other teaching / training positions, since then!!

MAN, you said a mouthful, there (especially the part I emphasized)----you are SOOOOOO RIGHT!!

Yeah, I agree! First-off, one does not have to abuse their kid, to discipline it----but, they MUST, IMO, discipline their kid. Secondly, I feel a part of why discipline doesn't work on some kids, is because their parents aren't consistent----if a parent says "No", they have to follow-through; kids are BORN knowing how to wear one, down.


DEFINITELY!


Yep----especially, the part I emphasized.


Yep----TOTALLY!


What minority is that?

The minority of the individual. There’s only one of me!

COOL!!

Individuals are not minorities.
There is no level playing field. Ask anyone of color about that.
Just because some minority celebrities have been successful hardly means all minorities have it easy.
You two sound like you're blaming the poor for being poor.