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Quoting tepring:
This is a very hard post to comment on since it has so much in it.
Why is there a pervasive and persistent racial divide in America (along with a lot of other countries)? Joblessness. (Irish fought their way up in America too) National economic factors are becoming more debilitating than the actual color of one's skin. Until class isn't so closely tied to race, racial tension will continue.
Also, racial disparities in US health are persistent and widening. African Americans are more likely to develop cancer, to suffer from diabetes, heart disease and stroke, and to contract and die from HIV-AIDS. The infant mortality rate for African Americans is more than twice the rate for white infants. From birth to old age, race marks the quality of life and access to health insurance and care for Americans.
To conclude, white privilege continues to go unrecognized, which fuels resentment and exacerbates black-white tensions.
As Barack Obama says, "most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives...They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away...So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time."
Together we can all fight racism though. Improve health care, improve education, improve economic growth and understand that proper use of power is to help others.
And of course vote for Barack - like nike says, Just do it!
=) Nice post. Good to get the dialog started.
This is a very hard post to comment on since it has so much in it.
Why is there a pervasive and persistent racial divide in America (along with a lot of other countries)? Joblessness. (Irish fought their way up in America too) National economic factors are becoming more debilitating than the actual color of one's skin. Until class isn't so closely tied to race, racial tension will continue.
Also, racial disparities in US health are persistent and widening. African Americans are more likely to develop cancer, to suffer from diabetes, heart disease and stroke, and to contract and die from HIV-AIDS. The infant mortality rate for African Americans is more than twice the rate for white infants. From birth to old age, race marks the quality of life and access to health insurance and care for Americans.
To conclude, white privilege continues to go unrecognized, which fuels resentment and exacerbates black-white tensions.
As Barack Obama says, "most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives...They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away...So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time."
Together we can all fight racism though. Improve health care, improve education, improve economic growth and understand that proper use of power is to help others.
And of course vote for Barack - like nike says, Just do it!
=) Nice post. Good to get the dialog started.
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