12-02-2003, 06:51 PM
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Confirmed User
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: midwest
Posts: 2,765
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Quote:
Originally posted by Mike33
That is fair but you do know that is only a dream. It's never been a reality. Even the great Roman civilization fell, not from non-white minorities but by implosion.
I don't have figures on slave trade numbers but there was a point I believe where the ratio was 1 slave for every 5 whites (don't quote me). I don't think the numbers are relevant. There were millions of slaves. Most whites did NOT own slaves. But the issue of that time was not how many people owned slaves, it was that slavery was legally sanctioned. It was legitimate policy. Slavery was the backbone of the south which is why southerners didn't want to give it up. It was a necessary evil in their eyes because it's what maintained the southern economy.
Blacks do have to take more responsibility for themselves. Looking to the white man for a fair shake in a white dominated country will never work. It's just not going to happen. Opportunities are definitely there that some blacks take full advantage of (more need to) but that manysquander (access to education etc., ability to operate own businesses etc). Whites also have some obligations to try to level the playing field more than it is because of recent/current inequalities. Affirmative Action practiced correctly should not allow a less qualified worker to be hired over a better qualified one. It will hire a minority worker with the same qualifications as a white worker. Misapplications of Affirmative Action that we read about were not the original intention of the policy and it's been abused (sometimes for political reasons - it's easier to rally white voters if you publicize an unqualified black getting a fireman job over a more qualified white applicant).
I think what many of us here fail to see is that we see things as they are right now. We're upset at the upheavel and racial issues that seem ongoing and never ending. But what seems like an eternity to us is really only 30, 40 years at most. From 1950 to now, I believe there has been great progress on racial issues and other issues such as Gay and Woman's issues. We may not be here for the next 40 years but I'm confident that the progress will continue.
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