Comments on: Report: Race Gap In U.S. Persists

Income, Education, Home Ownership Disparities Remain Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics

[huskerarmy]

wpope11,

100 years ago: "Seperate but equal."
Today: "Be responsible..."

[tstyles5]

"Herein lies the greatest obstacle to the advancement of blacks in America. It is the habits that many blacks have regardless of why they have them, (i.e. slavery, etc).......but middle class black Amercia will become tired of trying to protect the rest of black America from their own worst enemy - themselves."

wpope11 couldn't have said it better. While Black America blames everyone else for their problems, their hole is only getting deeper. Now, even the latinos have surpassed the income AND status level of Black Americans and they did it through their collective hard work and commitment to family. It's time to hold Black Americans accountable for their own fates and for themselves to quit blaming whites for their self-inflicted short comings!

[karanjasan]

White advantage (affirmative action) gives whites the jobs, and keeps them in them, regardless of whether or not they work hard or even perform, and white affirmative action puts white privileged kids in prestigious schools, and keeps them there. No one complains about white advantage %u2013 and yet, when it comes to trying to even out the playing field for blacks, it is called handouts. Blacks our own worst enemy? Slavery, racism, xenophobia, divide and conquer are all white actions on blacks, so how you conveniently ignore the facts of the effects of all these actions is quite amazing. I repeat again, and again, only we blacks can fix our mess, but to somehow suggest that we put ourselves in this state of disadvantage is incredulous to say the least. It%u2019s interesting, no one ever expects Jews to forgive Nazis, and no one ever says that Jews need to just move on, but Africans need to stop whining and just carry on?! Its not even like racism is in the past, it still goes on, but somehow we need to just do it? This is life not a Nike commercial.

[wpope11]

To: whatithink,

I am not advocating forgetting slavery. Many of the programs I mentioned (affirmitive action, etc) were designed to try to help those whose ancestors were slaves. But the truth is, no one alive today has ever been a slave. If you cannot succeed in the America of 2006, you cannot succeed anywhere. I am sure that many Hispanics face discrimination. Few Asians who have immigrated to the country inherited large tracts of land from their non-existent American ancestors. Yet both groups keep trying to get to America. My point is slavery cannot continue to be an excuse, though it certainly is a contributing factor to the habits of some of black America. For the good of African - Americans trapped in poverty, we must teach them responsibility, not continue the "new" slavery of government entitlements which teaches the recipients the same lessons the slaves were taught by their masters 250 years ago.

250 years ago: "Work for us and we will feed and clothe you. Beware the evil abolitionists"

Today: "Vote for us and we will feed and clothe you. Beware the evil conservatives"

[whatithink-2009]

To Huskerarmy,

In the end, you need to have an underclass in order to have an upperclass. Economics says there are not enough resources for everyone to be wealthy. I'm not sure those who are wealthy want to have more competition vying for the wealth. History tells us that blacks in this country were never intended to be a part of anything other than a slave class. In fact, the battles of the 1950s and 1960s also supported this idea. The South did not want others to make black people think they could have as much as white people. In the end though as many have said, although the problem was not created by black people it will ultimately have to be solved by blacks. For those who have no boot straps to pull themselves up by, they will need a miracle and support from blacks that do.

[whatithink-2009]

To wpope11,

How can one ignore slavery that existed for 400 years as not being a leading problem in what has been steadily (albeit slowly) improving for only the last 30 years? Blacks in this country through slavery were trained to mistrust each other, fight amongst each other, etc. Black families didn't exist in America for 400 years. How do you just ignore this? I agree that blacks will ultimately have to fix this problem. As someone said earlier, you can't expect the rapist to help the rape victim.

[huskerarmy]

The same folks who say "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps," advocate tax breaks for corporations, tax breaks for the wealthiest 2%, tax breaks so they can send their own kids to private schools while undermining public schools, and have no problem making college tuition assistance harder to come by for the disadvantaged. And everything that seems to hurt the poor actually helps and everything that is designed to help, really hurts. This is a bit disingenuous. What they're really saying is take care of me (the deserving) and it will (may) trickle down to you (the undeserving.) Truth be told... they really don't want it to at that.

[wpope11]

Affirmative Action can give you a job, it can't make you work hard. Social Programs can give you money, they can't teach you how to manage it. Public Housing can give you a house, but it can't keep it clean. Welfare can pay to feed your kids, but it can't raise them for you. Herein lies the greatest obstacle to the advancement of blacks in America. It is the habits that many blacks have regardless of why they have them, (i.e. slavery, etc). Blacks must heed the voice of Bill Cosby and others, and fix these problems or this window of oppurtunity will close, and not only white Amercia, but middle class black Amercia will become tired of trying to protect the rest of black America from their own worst enemy - themselves.

[perception5]

You want to know what the problem is?? It's really simple and it's been in front of us for decades......... but we ignor it because it keeps a certain group in power........

There's a reason why the most "Democrat" city in American have elected Republicans for the past 12 years and that's because "they" made a difference. New York City is a great place again with "low crime" and "great schools". Meanwhile the DEMs base, black Americans, continue to suffer greatly in American cities that for decades will only elect "DEMs", all these cities have the same issue.... high crime and poor POOR schools. Republicans can't reach these city schools because the local papers like the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, New York Times have for decades protected their pals the DEMs......... Nothing will change for our poor black population until they decide to vote for a party that's interested in "security" and "strong city schools"........ facts are there for everyone to see...... a history of failure in our big cities because the folks are brain washed by the "newspapers" to vote for the candidate with a "D" behind their name......... sad and shameful.........

[hb52003]

what a shame that in the year 2006 we are still discussing what is the obvious. time rolls on and nothing seems to change. those that have are not willing to acknowledge their inherit racism and until they do, nothing will change. Whites reap the benefits of institutional racism without acknowledging that it exists. then they turn a blind eye to those that are hindered by it and believe that somehow it has nothing to do with them. shame.