Winds of change

General Forums Off-topic Chat
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I was a bit saddened when I heard on the local news the other day that here in Louisiana(Lafayette) there are still segregated schools and they stated that it could be up to 2 years before anything official could start in the way of integrating the public schools in Lafayette, La.
Being a black(I prefer black, because “Africa” is an Italian name and I am not Italian.) person from Portland, Or., it bothers me a bit, but not to the point of getting all “FaraCON” about it. I noticed that the colorISM down here is a big issuse left unsolved and everyone seems complacent or non-vocal about it like it don’t exist. It rubs me a little raw, but I don’t blame anyone because blame perpetuates problems.
I say colorISM because I refuse to believe a “racist” would hate me because of my nationality as opposed to my color. I am black, my father was half Souix and my great grandfather was white. To a racist, I am just an object of hatred because of color, while a white person born in Africa who is a U.S. citizen is fine. Not to mention people who have one black and one white biological parent who are white(baring no visibly black characteristics).
ColorISM. Wow. I’ve heard it all, for the most part, things like “…blacks always ‘this’ or ‘that’ …” But if I treated every white person based on negative encounters I’ve had with a few, that would seem Louisiana-ish. Blacks down here, for the most part, are just as bad. I had to set a couple of “brothas” strait about their hate because half my family is white and most my friends are white. I mean, poop is poop; who’s would one rather have rubbed in their face?
2007 and the civil law here in Louisiana is a throw-back from Strom Thurman’s early political career.
What launched the hatred toward black people? Was it the color of skin, or the inability to rise to prominent social status quickly after the abolition of slavery? The bitterness of social interactions between black and white are based on what? Poverty? Failure on a genetic level? Do most people actually believe that a color of skin should allocate the amount of dignity one receives?
This whole post is kinda pointless, because I offer no solutions, just speaking from a small but painful place in my heart about hatred in the law of the state of Louisiana today. Given that, I won’t be treating white folks based on negative encounters I have had with a few white folk. Besides, if it had not been for 1 white man, I may have never been born.

I will conclude this lengthy post with this:

Here in Louisiana, it seems the “Winds of change” is just flatus:spin:
P.S. Pass da watermelon, yo!:stuck_out_tongue:

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2007 and the civil law here in Louisiana is a throw-back from Strom Thurman’s early political career.
What launched the hatred toward black people?
It’s not civil law. It’s illegal in the United States to segregate schools based on race, via Plessy vs. Ferguson. People segregate by choice, because they like to live in within their own tribe. It’s human nature.

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Forgive me, elam. I must have misunderstood what was broadcast on my television. My bad.

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This whole post is kinda pointless…
Yeah, it is…:yes: Sorry if that sounds “insensitive” but the issues regarding discrimination have long, deep roots in human society… and racism exists in many different forms beyond the color of one’s skin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism

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Hey there dukytyme, I suppose you’re “used to” brainless responses by now…

Just because something is illegal it doesn’t mean a state governor or legislator won’t find ways to do it. Ever look at some of the gerrymandered political maps today in big cities? Ever notice how every time the legislature does it, someone makes a fuss, but nothing changes?

Elam almost makes a valid point, though. Most black people think a perfect racial mix in the neighborhood is about 50% white to 50% black. However, when the neighborhood reaches about 17% black, white people start to move out. By the time it reaches 50-50, then 80-90% of the white people left in the neighborhood find real-estate brokers. But the real kicker is, as the neighborhood grows more densely black, the more affluent black people move out and poorer people move in. Of course, those without sufficient capital to move don’t have the same choice to move out. Any good sociologist could have told you all this.

The problem for the schools is that they are bound to the land. Schools choose their school district when they build. After that, they’re stuck with any changes. Hence: poor schools get poorer and rich schools don’t. Hence, segregation, without legal intervention.

At this point, the legislature can enact laws to try to mitigate the effects this has had on the schools, such as busing, vouchers, etc. (most such programs have had negligible effect on the problem). Richer (read: whiter) people don’t want their kids to go to school at poorer schools, or to have to pay for someone else’s kid’s (read: poorer and/or black/latino/native/etc.) educational environment --especially if it means mixing the two. I don’t have a word encompassing this -ism, but racism is a prominent component.

In my opinion, both external and internal pressures (read: racism, capitalistic elitism, etc.-ism) on the legislature causes bills to be introduced that, maybe not ostensively, make it difficult to “desegregate”. At the very least, unsympathetic people won’t do anything about the problem at all --except maybe argue about it in session. (In my opinion --I have no factual assertions to back this up. I am not a political science junkie).

Actually, culture has nothing to do with genetics. There is often a correlational association, that is true, but not causal. Successful civilizations are built on common interests and the ability to share culture. That is, history attests to the accomplishments of diversification. Peoples who stick to themselves stagnate developmentally, culturally, and economically. I don’t know of any civilization where this is not the case. Granted, the Romans did it by conquering people…:eek:

So, when’s the last time you enjoyed flushing the toilet? Wearing anything with cotton in it? Ate peanut butter? Got a flu shot? Hammered a piece of wood? Used electricity? Went to school? Our world as we know it today would not exist if it were not for people working together across cultures and generations. Without exaggeration, we’d still be stuck in the worst parts of the middle ages.:yes:

BTW. There’s a PBS documentary tracing the roots of black celebs like Chris Tucker and Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Mae Jemison, and a few others methinks… Apparently your mixed lineage is not that uncommon…

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Apparently your mixed lineage is not that uncommon…

Barack Obama…

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Jeez you’re rude.

How about this, jerk: Culture. Basic, but it suffices. Notice how the only thing in there about genetics is also associated with the word evolutionary. Notice also how narrowly the word culture must be defined in that sense. Drop a Chinese baby off in Hong Kong with Chinese parents and he’ll grow up with a Chinese culture. Drop a Chinese baby off in New York city with parents from the Bronx and he’ll grow up with a Yankee culture. His genes do affect him, but not overarchingly. Should he meet his doppleganger the only thing they’re likely to have in common is their genetic ancestry. I’d like to see every bit of genetic evidence implicate a slap in my face with that.

While you’re at it, next time you’re at the bookstore try picking up some basic books on sociology, ethnography, anthropology, and biology, genetics, and while you’re at it, history. Maybe once you get yerself edumacated you can play with the big boys.

[quote]Peoples who stick to themselves stagnate developmentally, culturally, and economically. I don’t know of any civilization where this is not the case.
I’d love to see you back up that up.[/quote]There are literally thousands of civilizations that have come and gone. For a meaningful response, all you have to do is find one counterexample.

Diversity is a good thing, that is, when it exists in the form of respecting other cultures. Obviously you can’t do that by mixing them beyond recognition.
Ah, you’ve been editing. Well, if you’d read a book from some of the above-mentioned disciplines, you’d know that you can have diverse interaction with other cultures without mixing up with them beyond recognition. However, you’ve missed my point. I’m not talking about touchy-feely crap. I’m talking about socialization --interacting with the peoples and cultures around you. Big businesses do that all day, every day, and overwhelmingly to our individual benefits.

That’s obvious. I’m not arguing for seclusion, but I wouldn’t go as far to say if a black man didn’t smash peanuts, no member from any other race would have thought of it.
I never went so far as to say that either. BTW, George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter. However, the use of the peanut has many surprising and far-reaching benefits to all modern societies all over the globe. The use of the peanut is but one example of diverse benefits of modern cooperation. The costs to enjoy many of the things we do today would be prohibitive if we didn’t work with others around country/continent/world to do it.

You imply that I think we should throw our borders open and let people run all over the US. Perhaps less implication would get at more facts.

Links to Wikipedia courtesy of the Learn to Use the Net Foundation. I used to think you were an OK fella. Oh well.

Have a nice life.
/me leaves this stinkin’ thread.

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Blengine’s right on the money here. How can you possibly say that blacks, asians, hispanics, etc, don’t have very distinct and oftentimes seperate cultures? Is there not a channel exclusively for black music?
Yes, you can put a certain race baby into another culture and they will grow up with it, hell, I would know, my sister is Chinese. But that’s an overwhelmingly small percentage of observed patterns among races.

But if you look in (I think it’s) Alabama’s constitution, there is still a law mandating segregated schools. It’s harmless because the courts overrule it, but the scary thing is that when they voted to just get it out of there, the vote didn’t pass. :frowning:

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Lol! Where do you get that from? Native Africans did not originally have a name for the continent, a name had to be given by someone, propably ancient Greeks, but there is no solid proof of that either. By which name would you like to refer to this continent?

Anyway, I do agree with you on the topic of not being called African, if you really are not African. Funny, I was born here in Africa and have lived here my whole life, just as my ancestors. I speak an African language as my first language, just like my ancestors, yet my ‘non-racial’ government officially classify me as European! On the other side of the ocean we have black Americans, who insist on being called African-Americans. Most of whom have never been near this continent, don’t speak any of it’s indigeonous languages or follow any sort of African culture.

Living in South Africa, I’ve learned one thing: people are really strange when it comes to racial issues. All logic gets thrown out the door and every problem is blamed on racism.

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Well, I came back here to apologize for my outburst of anger. But it seems I didn’t realize who I was dealing with…

You all can believe whatever you like. I originally responded because this happens to be my area of expertise and study. My teachers are leaders in their fields: sociology, ethnography, education, child development and psychology, etc. Rutgers doesn’t hire people that subscribe to leftist web-propaganda and unsubstantiated implications on <whatever you want to belive>. I believe in the scientific method. Disprove it.

Valarking, I never said that culture and race are not related. I did agree that they are in fact correlated --just as you assert.

I disagree that there is a causal relation between culture and genetics. Valarking’s sister is case in point: culture is learned. The vast majority of people with racial culture grew up with that culture. Correlation does not imply causality!

Failing a valid point of rebuff, blengine chooses to attack me personally, and blithely accuses me of the very thing I accredit to him: reading a couple of web blogs to be “smart”. I haven’t the time or inclination to provide hundreds of thousands of peer reviewed journals, books, and case studies to bolster my point. Anyone who cares can visit their local bookstore, library, or university. I recommend Academic Search Premier --it is an easy to use start on your journey of enlightenment. But be warned: most knowledge doesn’t come in bite sized cookies. It has to be studied and experimented upon to be gained.

It sounds right because I know something about what I am saying. Now, you go and prove I plagiarized anything in my posts from Wikipedia.

Sigh, I suppose this post too will be quickly read, misquoted and abused before too long… I’m going back to my crib.

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Just because something is illegal it doesn’t mean a state governor or legislator won’t find ways to do it. Ever look at some of the gerrymandered political maps today in big cities? Ever notice how every time the legislature does it, someone makes a fuss, but nothing changes?
Gerrymandering has nothing to do with school segregation. Gerrymandering simply a voting map that’s redrawn every 10 years or so. The reason nothing changes is because it’s legal. People make fusses all the time. It’s the American way. Your confusing the issues here.

At this point, the legislature can enact laws to try to mitigate the effects this has had on the schools, such as busing, vouchers, etc. (most such programs have had negligible effect on the problem). Richer (read: whiter) people don’t want their kids to go to school at poorer schools, or to have to pay for someone else’s kid’s (read: poorer and/or black/latino/native/etc.) educational environment --especially if it means mixing the two. I don’t have a word encompassing this -ism, but racism is a prominent component.
I have another word(s): common sense. My fellow American is under no obligation to look after my kids or their welfare. They certainly aren’t responsible for the failure of my local government to keep their schools in good shape. I don’t want my kids going to a shitty school because it negatively effects their lives. Your argument amounts to ‘life isn’t fair, it’s all because of racism.<insert more whining here>’.

I originally responded because this happens to be my area of expertise and study. My teachers are leaders in their fields: sociology, ethnography, education, child development and psychology, etc.
Wait, your a college student? Hilarious. Have any kids, every owned a house? Or did you just read about it all?

Lol! Where do you get that from?
The Romans called it Africa terra, (land of the Afri).

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LOL! That damn internet!

With statements like that, of course people will quote, misquote and abuse your post.

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The origin of the name unknown, though it seems likely to be either Latin or Greek.
Quote from Wikipedia (that leftist web-propaganda site): “the word aphrike, meaning “without cold.” This was proposed by historian Leo Africanus (1488-1554), who suggested the Greek word phrike (φρίκη, meaning “cold and horror”), combined with the negating prefix “a-”, thus indicating a land free of cold and horror”
However, as far as I know, there isn’t a ‘local’ name for Africa amongst any black African language. Here in South Africa, the name ‘Africa’ is used in every indiginous language.

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I can see how this topic has spread to a more general discussion of race, but I have some thoughts on the original topic. I’m born, raised, and live in a small town in Louisiana. Racism is so ingrained here! We have elementary, middle, junior, and high schools in town. But just a couple miles out, there are two school that run K-8th. These two schools are white only. Not one black person has ever went to these schools. There are a great many people that drive their kids there just so that don’t ‘mingle’. But once they get to 9th grade, they’re popped back in with other races(mainly black). Maybe it’s like this in lots of places(I hope not), but at the high school(when I went), the whites were on one side of the school, and the blacks are on the other(outside when they first arrive, recesses, lunch, etc), with 200 ft separating us, noone in between. Recently,white kids(rednecks) hung nooses on a tree in the school’s square, which led to blacks beating up whites, to whites beating up blacks…In town, Whites live one place, Blacks another. Whites have their baseball fields, Blacks have theirs… You should see the looks I get being a pale whitey hanging out with my only friend(black). If someone is in a relationship with a person of another race, Everyone in town knows it. Maybe it’s because of the population(about 2500), or it’s just the south, or just old people resisting change and trying their best to influence the new generations, or… there’s no excuse. It’s just sad is all, as I don’t see a change a’comin round here anytime soon.

As a side note: Does it bother anyone else that we boil down our shades of browns to white and black? I’ve never seen a truly white person, or a truly black person. Plus, there’s the stereotype of white=good, black=bad (magic, others[can’t think right now]) that perhaps subconciously influences people(a stretch, or not?)

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My town in Arkansas is considered the result of “white flight” from Little Rock (the capitol). In reality though…the airbase located a few miles away has just brought in thousands of ppl to our town, and they live here cause its close to base. They’re mostly white and all the blacks (not being racist, just saying) consider us racist. Not my fault the airbase has lots of white ppl in it.

We have lots of foreigners though, because the LR Airforce Base is the number one C-130 training facility in the world, so the world trains their pilots here.

 We do have rednecks who <i>embrace</i> the idea and act like it, but 99% of the ppl tell them that they're insane and dumb and give us a bad name.  And the News stations will act on this 1% of idiots and call the entire town racist.

Thats just dumb.

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The separation of color here is an unspoken law. I’ve seen white people here trying to embrace different cultures here but, like Normal said, there are schools here that are segregated, public dinners and and clubs that black people here “just know” that they are not allowed there. I had an encounter at a bar in a small town here where a guy came up to me and told me to get out and everyone was laughing, even the bar-tender(I’m not even going to type what he said.). It’s not so much that black and whites are against each other as blacks and whites are raised almost to be separated down here, so it seems. I’d say that the Louisiana community waltzes with the civil rights issuses, but it’s more like a mosh-pit of negative talking points that enlarges the rift between black and white communities.
I just reciently joined my cousin’s Jazz-Pop group and on my first meeting with the group, they told me that they want to get all the albums rehursed and get out of Louisiana and that they want a white drummer, not just because they want to cross color barriers but because a friend of theirs is an excellent jazz drummer and he is white.
My cousin’s first visit to Oregon blew his mind, he really wants to move to the west coast. And the keyboard player got his music degree at UCLA on scholarship and he wants to move from Louisiana. Most people born and raised here who get the opportunity to leave louisiana hardly ever return. I’m not going to get into the crooked cops and polliticians here, but I’d just say that for over 30 years Louisiana has had heavy tax…There is a tax on everything here, but you can almost count the few weather beaten and overgrown broken sidewalks on your hands and toes. In Oregon, there is no sales tax and they have the best public transportation system in the Nation, most neihborhoods are well lit and there are emergency phones along the highways and even have skateboard and bike lanes downtown. I even miss seeing a guy in a suit skating to work. People using alternative transportation and walking lots. Louisiana is all about oil refineries, Catholisism, and blame.
All I can do is be the best me I can, no matter how negative a given environment. As far as “Winds of Change”, Louisiana can’t “rub two nickles together” to make change.