| Author |
Message |
    
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 385
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 19, 2006 - 10:33 pm: | 
|
I know I’m not going to agree with a single word that this guy have to say. But there is so much hoopla surrounding his new book “ENOUGH” that I can’t ward off the temptation to buy it. Of course I’ll probably end up doing just that, if only to see what the fuss is all about. But before I do it, have any of y'all read it yet? If so, what did you think about it?
Is Bill Cosby Right?
Help thyself, a black social critic says to the upcoming generations.
Reviewed by Peniel E. Joseph
Sunday, August 20, 2006; BW10
ENOUGH
The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America -- and What We Can Do About It
By Juan Williams
Crown. 243 pp. $25
In 1963 James Baldwin emerged as an oracle on race relations in the service of transforming American democracy. A masterpiece of criticism, The Fire Next Time cast Baldwin as a modern-day Jeremiah warning the nation against impending doom posed by segregation, institutional racism and white supremacy. "Time catches up with kingdoms and crushes them," he cautioned.
More than 40 years later, prophets such as Baldwin have all but vanished from intellectual discourse, replaced by a chorus of commentators whose gaze has turned decidedly inward. Lacking the political courage and personal compassion to confront the racism, segregation, poverty and violence that so disturbed Baldwin, these post-civil rights critics observe that, for black people, the enemy is us.
Juan Williams, an NPR analyst and former Washington Post reporter, joins a growing line of such fed-up liberals and disappointed progressives (including scholar Orlando Patterson and entertainer Bill Cosby) who find the state of much contemporary black life alarming and more than a little embarrassing, considering the gains of the civil rights movement.
Williams believes that the 1954 Brown school-desegregation decision and subsequent activism and legislation virtually cured the disease of racism; that heroic era was a 20th-century watershed. For him, the remedies for racism's remaining vestiges are education, self-determination and individual responsibility. Regarding political leaders in the 21st century, he prefers mavericks in the mold of Bill Cosby, whom he considers courageous enough to "call out" the predatory behavior of the black poor. On this score, Williams laments what he sees as a black underclass mesmerized by racial hucksters playing "old school" politics: corporate blackmail disguised as boycotts, naked shakedowns leveraged by rhetorical threats and the like.
Occasionally the depth of historic and contemporary institutionalized racism faced by blacks creeps into Williams's discussion, but he is more concerned with what he perceives as black apathy and self-destructive behavior. This is disappointing: A discussion of post-civil rights racism would have added nuance to Enough 's criticism of contemporary black leadership, reparations, public schools, criminality and culture.
For Williams, Cosby stands out as a prophet amid a searing American wilderness: bold enough to expose the rough truth that individual responsibility is more responsible than "systemic racism" for black crime, educational shortcomings and bad behavior. In Cosby's speeches and Williams's book, fleeting acknowledgments of racism are trumped by simplistic, at times repetitive lectures cautioning blacks to look at their own shortcomings before blaming anyone else.
Beyond Williams's polemics lies a more complex story about the political economy of racism whose effects on poor neighborhoods elude those who romanticize ghetto and "gangsta" culture. His discussions of the "stop snitching" campaigns that discourage cooperation with police and Cosby's outrage over the epidemic use of the "N" word are worthy of serious debate. But that would require the kind of rich analysis, penetrating insight and layered narrative that Enough lacks, as well as a hard look at the impacts of unemployment, racial profiling, police brutality and other features of modern-day racism, along with the lingering effects of slavery and Jim Crow, which continue to disfigure the lives of blacks and distort the shape of American democracy.
Unlike The Covenant With Black America , a bestselling anthology with concrete proposals for community empowerment, Enough concludes with a flurry of righteous condescension, preaching that youngsters can best avoid poverty by finishing high school, getting a job and postponing marriage and child-bearing until at least 21. Williams's praise for African Americans' creative resilience during the rough road from slavery to freedom is commendable, as is his ardor for the achievements of civil rights activists. But even as civil rights victories opened doors of opportunity, white backlash, the decline of industrial jobs and fatigue over racial conflict helped blunt the movement's more ambitious dreams: ending poverty, forging genuine racial integration and eliminating social, political and economic disparities based on race.
Like many storytellers, Williams imagines that his subject, the civil rights movement, had a beginning, a middle and an end. But it may be closer to the truth to regard the civil rights victories of the 1960s as only a historic chapter in America's unfinished saga of racial struggle. · Peniel E. Joseph, who teaches in the Department of Africana Studies at Stony Brook University, is the author of "Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America."
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081701025. html
Related Article:
Ronald Walters, the University of Maryland political scientist whom Williams acknowledges in the book as one of "my political insiders," considers "Enough," "unfortunate." Blacks are in a unique situation, in "this very public discussion of how screwed up we are and what it would take to fix it," Walters said. "What we need is a thoughtful approach, not this public theater."
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/wire.ssf?/base/news/1155633420297660.xml&c oll=2
More Links:
http://wilmingtonjournal.blackpressusa.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=71769 &sID=34
http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/tilove081506.html
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060815/OPINION/608150371/ 1015
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/142036 |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 604
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 20, 2006 - 01:26 am: |
|
"I know I’m not going to agree with a single word that this guy have to say. But there is so much hoopla............have any of y'all read it yet? If so, what did you think about it?"
I saw Juan Williams and Michael E. Dyson on CSPAN2 Book Notes last week, debating his book. I like Juan Williams and I do plan to buy the book. I liked the biography he did on Thurgood Marshall and his excellent “Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965”. It complemented that incredible series on PBS years ago. I documented everyone of them. They should be at your local library. If anyone has never seen the series, PLEASE CHECK THEM OUT AT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY!
Unfortunately, PBS never released them in DVD format. The only ones that exist are in the VHS format. The first period was released on six VHS tapes that covered a period 1954 to 1965. The series was a critically acclaimed 14-part series dealing with the black American Civil Rights Movement. It was broadcasted nationally by the PBS (check out the web site; PBS.org) .The first six programs, Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954-1965) was aired in January and February of 1987. There was an eight-part sequel, Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads (1965-1985) which was broadcasted in 1990. I remember watching and documenting every single one.
Also, it was produced over the course of twelve years by Blackside, Inc., one of the oldest minority-owned film and television production companies in the country. I recall the series received over 23 awards, including two Emmys (for Outstanding Documentary and Outstanding Achievement in Writing).
I have no idea why the series has not been released in a DVD format. It is a mystery that no one seems to have an answer to. Anyway, as I said, if you have not seen this incredible series concerning the civil and human rights movement by black Americans or read Juan Williams book covering this period, please do.
Back to Williams latest book. Yes, I plan to buy it. As I said, I saw Michael E. Dyson making a very weak and embarrassingly feeble attempt to besmirch Bill Cosby (his favorite subject) and question Williams about the premise of his book. Dyson was in his predictable high velocity verbose over drive manner of speech. Rambling on and on, seeming more concerned with impressing anyone who is listening with his vocabulary vice making a digestible or valid point (something he rarely did –he just seemed incapable of doing so). His uncontrollable hand gestures and animation was very distracting and unnecessary. It’s bad enough he really doesn’t say anything of significance or real importance, but instead, he just rambles on and on and on like someone on a 100000 grams of speed. Williams was very cool and articulate with his factual points and his historical anecdotal commentary.
So, yeah, please buy the book and report back with what you liked or disliked. I plan to do the same.
|
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 390
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 20, 2006 - 11:32 pm: |
|
...We'll compare notes after we have both read the book. Hey, I wish you would have alerted us to the debate; what's up with that, man; what were you thinking!?! 
|
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1256
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 21, 2006 - 01:01 pm: |
|
I have no idea why the series has not been released in a DVD format. It is a mystery that no one seems to have an answer to.
This issue has actually been talked about extensively, with this series as a case example. Mainly the problem involves the expense of getting renewals of copyright clearance for all the archival clips. This is a problem all documentaries have to some extent.
The Eyes Wikipedia entry has background on these difficulties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyes_on_the_Prize
Also, this is a perspective from a writer/blogger who is a family member: http://www.sharp-tools.net/archives/cat_eyes_on_the_copyfight.html
Bottom line: Do NOT support seemingly well-meaning efforts to distribute the series outside the bounds of the copyright laws, do not buy dvd's on eBay (these are definitely illegal copies, since no dvd's were ever made). This will only make the family's and other supporters' continuing efforts to re-release it legally more difficult.
I had the great pleasure and honor of meating Mr. Henry Hampton at a screening of the documentary at the African Meeting Hall in Boston when it first came out. (He has been deceased for some time now.) He was a wonderful, open man who took the time to shake the hands, embrace, and talk at length to a few jeans-clad college kids (including me) even in the midst of all the big name Glitteratti also present at the event. I hope that we can honor his spirit by getting this incredibly important documentary more widely (legally) available.
|
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 613
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 21, 2006 - 06:58 pm: |
|
Nice info Yvettep! I just got off the phone 10 minutes ago talking to a friend about the series and why it has not been released on DVD. I will forward him this information ASAP. Thanks again. |
Serenasailor
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 732
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 22, 2006 - 10:36 pm: |
|
There was nothing feeble about Michael Eric Dysons argument. But of course you Black ppl who are so ashamed of your inner city ghetto cousins jump up and down everytime you see Bill Cosby. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 627
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 08:19 pm: |
|
”There was nothing feeble about Michael Eric Dysons argument.”
Yeah…right! He sounded like someone on speed under time restrictions trying to make a point –a point that was weak and made no sense.
"But of course you Black ppl who are so ashamed of your inner city ghetto cousins…..”
Yep! This is true. I have no use for self ghettoized Negroes who have no respect for themselves or anything else. They have no ambition other than wearing their pants around their ass, ball caps on backwards, wannabe fake gold grills in their mouths and Wal-Mart blings hanging on their necks, driving down the street in an SUV with a note that costs more than their rent, blasting music that insistently calls people the “N” word and women bitches and ho’s, on their way to pick up their homies who have gathered on a street corner with 40 ounces and blunts in their mouths. I drove through Coon Town this afternoon and seen this ongoing circus that runs 24/7.
“ …….jump up and down everytime you see Bill Cosby.”
Right again! You’re on a roll today young man. I can appreciate that. I like the idea of a black man standing up to the self defeating culture and mind set of victimization and entitlement. THANK YOU MR. COSBY!
Mr. Cosby has given more money, sent more people to college and donated more to the black community (before you were born!) and has long proven himself to be a man who is truly concerned about the success and opportunities for young blacks. All those vapid attacks on his personal life is a ruse, a cheap attempt to besmirch the man in a desperate attempt to discredit him because of his brutally honest statements that offended excuse making cowardly Negroes.
Sorry your feelings got hurt, son, but the break-down of the black family - by black people- is the cause of these problems -not solely and exclusively white racism, slavery, the police or the ever famous "corporations". Until the early 1980's, black educational levels and academic achievement was RISING. Then, suddenly, it started to fall as the culture of low expectations, adoption of a silly genre of music that produces lyrics and videos that have had a devastating affect on poor unsupervised black males, poor personal and non-existent family values and gleeful embracing of ignorance set in. So yes, I jump and down to salute Mr. Cosby. E’nuff said….
|
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6228
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 08:38 pm: |
|
Ntfs,
Dyson was attempting to INTERVIEW Williams rather than simply DEBATE him. And when you're interviewing someone, you're required to suppress your position in deference to what the other person has to say.
Were it a straight DEBATE, I'm betting Williams would have been at a decided DISADVANTAGE versus Dyson.
PS: Do you have a wife and children? Because, really, My Brother, the CURE for ALL of that which you so eloquently assert starts THERE. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 414
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 09:16 pm: |
|
"Until the early 1980's, black educational levels and academic achievement was RISING. Then, suddenly, it started to fall as the culture of low expectations, adoption of a silly genre of music that produces lyrics and videos that have had a devastating affect on poor unsupervised black males, poor personal and non-existent family values and gleeful embracing of ignorance set in. So yes, I jump and down to salute Mr. Cosby."
Yeah. Like the Reagan Admin and the residual effects of black/white flight had NOTHING to do with that. Jeez. By the way, you think you can be a little more original next time? Tons of Cosby wannabes have got every bit of that clichéd seething rant locked up. (And word of advice: try not to blow a fuse from all the bitter self-hate.) |
Troy
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 410
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 01:26 am: |
|
Tonya do ou really think it is self-hate that Ntfs is expressing? I would disagree with Ntfs on on issue; our decline started before 1980.
Coming up in the 60's and 70's I literally witnessed and lived through many of the things Ntfs is complaining about.
I still live in a place where people do all of the thing Ntfs describes. I think it is terrible and I do not like it but I believe understand how they got to this point.
I'm note sure what caused this condition but black flight is a symptom not a cause. And Reagan had nothing to do with either... I think we are just simply seeing the acceptance, tolerance and even an encouragement of a ghetto mentality that is actually creeping into the larger culture.
Things will get worse before they get better.
|
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6240
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 01:14 pm: |
|
Troy,
I agree the slide started somewhere between the 60's and 70's, which, ironically, was when Black foks were being given MORE rights than they'd ever had previously.
Why do you suppose we have so utterly surrendered to the "ghetto mentality"? |
Troy
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 413
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 09:54 pm: |
|
Abm, I ask myself that almost every day... I said I understood, but heck if I "Know" what started this mess.
I can tell you I recall as I was growing up that, even in the ghetto, that more and more peole began to accept the unacceptable. I'm still old enough to remember when an unwed teenager had a baby it was shameful to most people. Today I see it celebrated at every turn. Her school might even provide on site daycare.
When I was a kid I clearly remember feeling that I needed to do a little time (in jail) just to be considered a real man. I was once teased for not having any kids yet (I was in college at the time). Now that I think about it, we really treated each other terribly as kids. We made fun of each other and fought on almost a daily basis -- for fun.
I gambled, drank, screwed around as much as I possibly could and wasted a lot of my youth. I was surrounded by people who did the same things, I was aware of others who were more hardcore (drug users or criminals) and did much worse... Otherwise you were "soft" or a "sellout" and not "keepin it real".
I think we and the larger society made excuses for poor behavior, a distain for education, athority, other peoples property and as a result did nothing about it. We blamed the white man; and in a lot of ways white people accepted the blame or exloited it -- either way it was to our detrementt.
Kids raised in this framework raised kids raised their kids the same way, and soon we forgot what sacrifice, hardwork, delayed gratification, and communal support meant.
What do you think Abm?
|
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6245
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 10:27 am: |
|
Troy,
I agree with all you said. And I’d ad that many politicians, social scientists, community activists, etc. helped FACILITATE many of these maladies via advocating public and social polices and programs that EXACERBATED the issues you cite.
I'd include within such certain Welfare programming (including that which PROMOTED the separation of fathers and mothers), elements of radical feminism ("Girl! You don't need no mayne to raise 'your' kids!"), 'blame whitey' rhetoric (Which, apparently, Juan Williams references to in "Enough".), fallacious War on Drugs (with its accompanying Rockefeller Laws, 3 Strikes & You're out, locking up petty offenders while never even TOUCHING the big distributors & their money launderers, etc.).
And the ascendancy of the thug-gangster element of hip-hop which now permeates through ALL of the social fabric of the nation REALLY complicates the issue. Because it makes it very DIFFICULT to address all the problems we have when being a thug is made to seem so legitimate, even amongst the more honorable and decent of amongst us (Snoop Dogg's a friggin' cultural ICON.).
To quote what I posted in another thread created by Rustang:
"We're NEVER going to get a handle on these problems UNTIL Black foks begin to impose some fairly rigid, harsh...perhaps even (momentarily) some DRACONIAN standards upon each other. For example, and I think I've state such or similar here: If you have out-of-wedlock kids, beat or abandon your family, carjack someone, sell rocks to grade schoolers, etc.; your a$$ gets WHOLLY and, perhaps, PERMANENTLY disowned by your family, fired from your job, excommunicated from your church, etc. And these things must happen amongst BLACK foks.
I think it’s only when we go fairly HARDLINE with each other that many of these problems are addressed." |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1272
Registered: 01-2005
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 02:34 pm: |
|
Why do you suppose we have so utterly surrendered to the "ghetto mentality"?
For one: Because we have completely assimilated into our modern-day American surroundings:
*Short attention spans
*Disregard for history/privileging of the present
*Love of money and capitalism
*Credit/debt/spend mentality instead of planning/saving/sacrificing
*Individualism instead of collectivism
*Indivual "rights" mentality instead of collective responsibility
*Fads in education instead of rigorous training
*Short-range vision that doesn't reach beyod our borders
*Arrogance that no one can tell us what to do
*"Might makes right" mentality
...and on and on. In many ways we had less to begin with, started out later, have fewer people--and as a result less margin for error.
But we are only the extreme points on a continuum that has increasingly included most Americans. a ghetto mentality that is actually creeping into the larger culture??? No, I think it is the other way around. The way that the modern American mentality has manifest in some Black communities may be "ghetto," but the mentality was already there.
|
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6261
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 03:00 pm: |
|
Yvettep,
Interesting argument.
So, basically, America is and really always has been a 'ghetto' and that we Black foks are amongst the NEWEST purveyors of such? |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1276
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 05:18 pm: |
|
Well, ABM, you know what WAR says: "The world is a ghetto..." LOL! |
Troy
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 417
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 09:37 pm: |
|
ABM I agree with everthing you said. I remember when the government in Singapore was planning to cane a White teen for vandalism (I believe) and white folks here went bananas! I wish they would cane folks here sometimes.
Yvettep the ghetto mentality may have always been around, but it reflects our lowest form of developement. The ghetto mentality is what you have by default, if you don't work at cultivating yourself. Sure there are some who are just born enlightened, but most of use need to be taught, raised how to behave.
Some groups have rights of passage where one must demonstrate their ability to fully particpate in society.
As a parent I know it is hard work, time consuming and expensive to raise children.
Somewhere along the we stopped doing rearing our kids and turn that responsibility over to the government. When they failed as they inevitably do, we do nothing.
By the time the kid is an adult they have no ability to participate in society -- even if they had the desire. Their antisocial behavior eventually cathes up to them and lands them in jail -- then we get upset (in come cases proud as junior achieved an important milestone...street credibilty).
We blame the government saying that their laws (not our laws) are biased, and overly harsh. However despite knowing this we but STILL do the things like land us in jail. It is always someone else'd fault the parents support this BS, the school DEFINITELY support this and WE get bent over without the lubricant.
This has NOTHING to do with money. Poor people can be civilized and rich people can be barbarians. It has to do with the mentality. Out society and, at an excelerating rate, our Black men continue to embrace the ghetto mentaility. We have a long road ahead of us.
Now what are we gonna do?
|
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1284
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 10:44 am: |
|
Now what are we gonna do?
There are many, many efforts--lots of them grass-roots--to turn things around in some of our communities. We need to publicize the crap out of these efforts, support them, assist with them, assess how/why they are working and how/why they can be improved, help formalize them by "taking them to scale" with grant monies...
In many local/state governments, any effort to build anything has to be accompanied by an "environmental impact report": We could do something similar and require that anyone who wants something from us (e.g., votes, our business patronage, our concert/CD sales/sports team/movie dollars) show us a "community impact report" where they document with hard figures how they are helping and avoiding hurting our communities...
We need to stop pretending that nothing is being done because there are people out there busting their butts every day to turn the tide. We need to stop pretending that there is nothing that we can do because of something that "They" have/do/think/feel...
Most of all, though--and this was the point I was making above--we need to stop believing that this is some uniquely "Black" pathology. We are doing what Americans do--from underachieving and calling it our "freedom of expression" to depending on our government to bail us out and help us up. To me, labelling it a "Black thang" just contributes to a victim mentality that is unproductive and unwise. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 4993
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 01:18 pm: |
|
And, in re-assessing the "ghetto mentality", black folks have to avoid the pit fall of trying to justify their short-comings by saying that "white people do it, too". Getting past that attitude is the easy part. The hard part will be trying to pull the draw strings in order to gather together the diversity that permeates the black american community in America. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6265
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 03:16 pm: |
|
Yvettep,
The fakewannabee social scientist in me is really digging that "community impact report" concept of yours. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 448
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 04:46 pm: |
|
Cynnique. I don't know whats going on but I'm starting to agree with you more and more. For awhile now all of your posts have been on the money. |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1286
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 06:58 pm: |
|
Hey, ABM, go for it--you're not "fake" cuz all of us are "social scientists" by virtue of our membership in the social sphere and our ability to think logically and systematically. ANd I would add to my list of who should be required to provide such a report "those who want our tithes..."
And as Cynique said, "the hard part will be trying to pull the draw strings in order to gather together the diversity that permeates the black american community in America." But it can be done.
Tonya: the Dark SIde is calling you, girl. Go 'head, take the Red Pill! LOL! Seriously, though, I am the last person to deny the importance of social structures in playing a role in any social ills. But to me that means only two things: (1) we accept that things are not going to change until/unless the system changes, or (2) we each take personal responsibility to change the social system that all of us are a part of.
I gotta go with number two. And I go with it despite my assessments of the chances of anyone else doing the same.
|
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 5003
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 27, 2006 - 01:41 pm: |
|
Yep, Tonya, we've established a shaky bridge between us because after all this time, we have found a little patch of common ground. |
|
Email This Page