Race is only an issue when we make it one. Of course, the purpose of the game is to create a sense of "seperateness" among the people. The more we bicker amongst each other, the more we lose sight of the greater picture. That is the point. If you don't play, there is no game. Choose to see connectivity instead; stop looking for race issues, and eventually there will be none to find.

Let us not forget the words of the Reverend Wright who said that Obama would "turn the tables" on the whites.

If I remember correctly wasn't Detroit in big trouble before this with something like half the city abandoned or boarded up?Anyway the one guy says it all "this is like 4 welfare offices rolled into one"

I'm not sure but maybe a liberal Dem would be the last person to ask about this.
As an unwavering libertarian this is how I understand it- a majority of African Americans are victims of their own "culture"-they CHOOSE to segregate themselves from the rest of America and let it regress from there. And apart from Black racism towards whites, it's not a race issue. I know many blacks in America who have gone beyond the "African American culture" and realized there is more to the world. They are personally successful, they can formulate proper sentences, and have a semblance of proper dress for the business world. I could assure you they also would have a better understanding of US civics than to attribute their welfare to "Obama's Stash."

I was out of the US this summer and met and befriended many Black French people and they are quite a bit more civilized. Yes I said civilized. They were polite, sophisticated, and wore pants above their butts.
One major difference I suppose is the ability to utilize community resources. While a dem might argue they need more gov money is all, I'd say it's the welfare that is holding them back. Predominantly black communities in the US must build themselves up and also quit being so racist.

I'm Caucasian and live in the densest Somali community in the US and I know would experience more hassle in certain areas mostly African American. Its black racism I tell ya.

I do think that there is a race issue in the US, though not the way we traditionally think about it, outright discrimination, lynchings, and such.

I see it as being more of an ignorance issue. People who may very well not be racist, nor hold bad feelings towards people of other races, that just don't see a connection with their actions to racism. They think that because they don't feel racist, they just aren't racist.

Yet they laugh at things like "Barack the magic negro", or they speak of Jews being good with money, things like that. They can't see the connection between things like that and someone feeling hatred or a dislike for those of other races.

I believe that Pat Buchannon does not feel hatred towards other races, but he did strongly oppose the civil rights act, and he has defended people who sent out pictures of the watermelon garden at the white house.

Is he a racist, or just ignorant. I think he's more ignorant than racist.

Thus, I believe people who subscribe to a more "old school" attitude towards those of other races, while not hating people of other races, are racist in another way perhaps, like being ignorant of racially sensitive issues, language, and stuff like that.

So yes, I do believe that Race is an issue in the US, but I do not believe it manifests itself in the traditional way that we view racism.

Originally posted by genius/idoit
Why are they all black?

It's the West Side of Detroit. That's who lives there.

Google images of "homeless" and you'll see that poverty and homelessness don't have a color.

Originally posted by mikerussellus
I can imagine black families just shaking their heads, watching the news and agreeing with the caucasians on this.

Don't you dare assume that I, as a Caucasian, agree with you on this. Whatever that means.

This thread makes me absolutely ill.

Firstly, why is one video/audio sequence considered representative of an entire state welfare system?

Secondly, what difference does it make? There are idiots expecting a hand out all over the country, every race, every age group, every social standing.
So some news guy goes to a line in one area and interviews a load of black people, it could be argued that it was carefully edited, that the location was chosen for that reason, that if he'd walked an hour down the road he could have found a line of white people saying the same things and acting the same way.

To the first initial question of "is there a race issue"... yes, there clearly is. You have thousands of people now complaining that their rights are being taken away, none of these people seemed to be complaining when Bush was trampling all over the constitution.
Where were these people when Bush was going to war in two nations, spending you into debt?

There are clearly a lot of people protesting and arguing simply because "their (white) guy" is no longer running the show. They dress it up as arguing for this or that, but a lot of them are simply just unable to accept a black guy as president.

But, having said that, there are more people angry that their government is selling them out. There are more people who had a lot of faith in Obama and have seen him do absolutely nothing he promised. There are far more people, across your country, simply waking up to reality. They don't see the difference between Obama and Bush, they don't see a racial issue, they see that it's the same routine over and over; screw the nation for the profit of a few.

Regardless, as others have said, forget the race issue, forget the partisan issues, forget the media-driven frenzy of "domestic terrorism" and "right wing conservatism". You all need to recognise that regardless of party or race, you're all Americans, you are ALL being screwed by your government so that the wealthy elite can have more and more control.

Originally posted by genius/idoit
Will you at least try to be honest and explain why it makes you sick?

I started to make a post listing all the things that people have said and why I disagree with them, but I realize that it would just fall on deaf ears. I really just can't do it. If you don't know what's wrong with posting a group of needy American people and pointing out that they're all black and insinuating that poverty is a "race issue", I can't help you. I can't help you at all. I'm sorry.

The fact that thousands of people in ONE CITY are homeless, jobless and in desperate need in America should make you CRY, yet what you notice is that "they're all black". I won't even post a link to the white Senators and Congressmen who are "lined up" begging for free stimulus money that they opposed in the first place.

apparently no one has lived in the smaller towns of the south here in america. believe me, racism is alive, and well. it's just easier to notice down in the south, it's not as discreet and hidden as it is in other parts of the country. i'm white and i even notice it down there.

There is a major Race issue in this country, that issue is that we keep bloody bringing up race in this country.

Listen, you go to Canada, find one of the 5 black people that live in Canada and ask them how they Identify themselves and you would get, Bob, Chuck, Larry, Claude, and Steve.

What you would not get is "I am an African-Canadian. No, you wouldn't. Why? Because they if pushed would just say, "Well, I'm Canadian, what's it to you Hoser?"

That's the problem here in America, we are forced to call American's by a name that segregates them from us. It really does, African-American can only truly apply to someone that was born in Africa and came to America (NO DON'T GO THERE)

The NAACP is another organization that segregates us from one another. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. What the hell is that? Everyone is colored, if somehow you found someone that was clear, they might be offended by that seclusion.

We have been conditioned to automatically segregate ourselves by race from our youth. Each side does it. And the bull dunk of the African American culture has got to stop. That is racist bull dunk. Wearing your pants around your ass is not a culture, being "gangsta" is not a culture.

We all have acknowledged that BET is a racist channel on the TV, so why hasn't anyone done anything about it? Someone needs to put up the White Entertainment Television. It would be a porn station in a week. (cmon, WET?)

I'm not saying get rid of BET, I am just saying it would serve the public better as a gambling channel.

The point is, there will never be racial equality in this country as long as we care about what is racially equal. That person sitting next to you in the theater is not a black person, it's just another American. When you point out that it's a black on white crime, you point out the differences that don't matter.

People have to stop perpetuating a stereotype. Believe me, after a year of working in Detroit. I know racial stereotypes. And frankly this bull dunk African American culture does it to themselves, thereby feeding into that stereotype and keeping themselves down. Cause in all reality the only thing "keepin a brotha down" is your fracking "brotha"

That is the major problem with Detroit. It's the Culture of ghetto thug lifestyle. It's complete bull crap and it perpetuates a bad stereotype that keeps other people from achieving. When going to jail is a proud day in a young man's life because it gives him "street cred" that's not a thing to be proud of. It's a self induced stereotype that people put on themselves.

The point of all this is, racial problems would end simply if we just stop self segregating our cultures. Stop with the African American/NAACP/Gangsta/Thug bull crap and just be an American.

Once you see that the person is just another American, you soon realize that that American is just a total douche for wearing their pant's down around their ass. Eventually the cultures will come together.