Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2017 17:27:45 GMT -6
I know you've done quite a bit of work within the inner cities, but I'm not sure the picture is as bleak as you paint it either. There are 43 black Congressmen, giving them an 8% stake in Congress. That's a bit lower than the average representation, but hardly a sign that they've been gerrymandered out of the process, especially given that black tend to live in the more heavily populated urban areas, which in general have more population per Congressman. I have no doubt that it happens, but I've seen the other side of it where districts are drawn in such a way to ensure a black congressman as well.
I also have no clue how Illinois does funding (though given how corrupt that state is, perhaps they should look at themselves a bit)... but I do know that in Indiana, money is diverted from the richer districts to over fund schools in poorer districts. Perhaps Indiana is simply an odd duck in that area, I truly don't know. One thing I can say though is that funding doesn't solve that problem. I live in the best school district in the state. It's also the lowest funded district. This is where I tend to agree with Reignman, you cannot just throw money at the problem and expect it to go away. He's right that black culture has not been helpful here. Money doesn't solve the problem of single parent households, nor does it solve the problem of a culture that discourages education. We've talked a lot about gangs, and it's not an accident that they prey on people who grow up in said single parent homes.
But that said, you kind of hit on a point I've been making for a while. The problem today has nothing to do with racism. Nothing. You've phrased it as hopelessness. That's probably a lot closer to reality than what BLM has done. BLM feeds on hate and for the most part has done nothing but throw fuel on the fire. They feed on the fact that we cannot point out obvious racism found in the black community. When it's a white cop getting murdered, or just a white person, that gets ignored altogether. When it's a black person being murdered at the hands of a white person, it clearly must be racism, regardless of whether or not it was justified. I'm just tired of hearing that some lives clearly matter more than others.
You say that they deserve something other than a bootstraps speech... that's fine. But tell me, what exactly does "humanity" entail? How is humanity going to solve this problem? We've been throwing money at it for more than 60 years, so why then is it getting worse? Tell me how you're going to give them hope?
On gerrymandering. Inform yourself.
Reignman is right about just about nothing. Let's be real frank about that and move on from that individual. Black families are single family, in large part, because we throw black men in jail for crimes white dudes walk away with community service. This is a fact. It's something you'll find someone like Rand Paul on the side of even. You can't sit there and say "There is no systemic racism! We just need more black men in their family's lives!" Well, they're not freaking there because we put them in jail. How in the hell hard is it to connect those dots?
On school funding. Inform yourself.
No lives matter more than others, but BLM is about pleading for help for a race suffering. If you're a lifeguard, do you worry about saving the guy doing the butterfly stroke or the person 2 feet under water and flailing? If you're a doctor, do you treat the person with a sprained finger or a bullet wound first? It's about saying "hey....we need to be a priority here! You think things are fine, but they are not" That's all. And the fact that you STILL cannot understand this (I know this has been explained to you before elsewhere) tells me you either don't care to listen or you secretly just don't care. So I guess you can decide on that.
We have an entire segment of our population exponentially more enraged about what some dudes are doing during a song on Sunday than they are about torches in the hands of Nazis and KKK in American streets. That says a lot. We casually say with a shrug "Ah, well I don't like those Nazis being around" but the same people have their blood boiling as they b*tch about NFL players. Humanity should tell us our priorities are way the f*ck off. That maybe we should listen to the idea that systems put in place long before many of us may be contributing to oppression for several communities. (Native Americans as well as blacks) We have to change the way we fund schools so that every child has a fair shake. We need to change our criminal justice system so we aren't flooding our prisons with black men. We need to hold police accountable when they are bad actors - we can fire a dude who roughs up a white nurse, but guys shooting black dudes go back to work. We can recognize that the gang problems and violence are the result of hundreds of years of oppression and hopelessness. And we need to recognize that hundreds of years of racism won't be outdone in a day. That we may indeed flush some money in our efforts, but we will ALL be better off if we invest the time, money, and care into fixing our nation's most morally egregious actions.
And the truth is...you don't understand what those kids are going through. I didn't either. You should go into conversations like this more humble, you started by saying something definitive about what you later admit to knowing nothing about. How about we start with admitting we don't understand and try to? If you did, you might discover how ass backwards you are. Read the links, it's a start. And then I dare you to put yourselves into the lives of some people living it and see if your preconceptions remain. The data says you're wrong and reality says you're wrong too. If you're going to ignore the data, then go experience reality and actually inform yourself.