Historian Says Don't 'Sanitize' How Our Government Created Ghettos (Comments)

Comments from  Historian Says Don't 'Sanitize' How Our Government Created Ghettos

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NPR News Recommend 20 ShareSort by Best Avatar Cat Jones • 9 days ago I wish I could say I am surprised by some of the comments I am already seeing and this complete blind spot some Americans have. The deeds still exist, I am a Paralegal and have seen my fair share of race restrictions still there on deeds. It doesn't take rocket science or a degree in economics to see how white families would have become wealthier and African Americans would have missed out by the time equal protection laws were enacted. Even building permits and where liquor stores are built is pretty obvious for anyone to see. 22 •Share › Avatar bleemorrison • 9 days ago I remember in Lubbock TX; which is a dry county, attempted to allow liquor stores in the black neighborhoods, stating that it would be an influx of dollars into these neighborhoods. The black Churches came together to vote this down. The whites fought very hard for this to happen. Blacks said ok but why not allow them to be in the entire city. THAT question was never answered. IT was simple we will provide your communities with the industries we have no desire for in our own communities but industries that improve the communities were reserved for white communities. Racism is FAR from running around shouting racist names. IT is stuff like this 40 •Share › Avatar L Humphrey bleemorrison • 9 days ago Spot on. Racism is so much more vast than the "N" word. It's institutional. The liquor store example and this article make that point. Once people understand this, we can see improvements. 19 •Share › Avatar Marieva L Humphrey • 2 days ago I believe the black community could have overcame institutionalize racism because we had however, what we couldn't overcome was the single most destructive force the Johnson administration inflicted upon the black family, replacing fathers with government welfare which, in turn promoted immorality. You tell me how a young black man who had very little if any positive male influence growing up and now has five or six children by multiple women can change his life and become a responsible citizen. Sure he can get a job and marry someone and provide for himself but that isn't what I asking. I'm asking how can a 22 year old become a responsible part of society when it takes a man everything he has just to maintain one family, and for those of you who have divorce and children with other women know what I mean. Invest in the children he has at home and those outside his home who are with other families? This is the very reason I hate the Democrats with a perfect hatred! LBJ and the Democrat party knew exactly what they were doing they have always hated black people and it shows in everything they've done in history from the KKK, segregation to Jim Crow all came from the Dems. 1 •Share › Avatar GoodGawd L Humphrey • 9 days ago To eat the neighborhood from the inside would be the easy way to oppress without feeling responsible. Most urban low income neighborhoods have tall boys for a dollar or liquor stores in proximity. 1 •Share › Avatar Anthony Chopkoski bleemorrison • 9 days ago I was living in Bed-Stuy back in 98 with my Chinese wife and our building near the El was all Black or Chinese and owned by a Chinese lady who ran a liquor store on the ground floor that had bullet proof glass protecting the goods and clerk. Money was handed in through a mouse hole or something like that...goods went out on a lazy Susan.....as I would call it. Life.... 4 •Share › Avatar Fisherguy bleemorrison • 9 days ago That must have happened recently, because Lubbock was dry for a century. So when did they want liquor in (obviously) east Lubbock? 4 •Share › Avatar bleemorrison Fisherguy • 4 days ago Fisherguy it happens when my oldest was 8/9 so that would have been the mid 90's. I moved and never looked back. Yes I was raised in Lubbock but after I moved to Houston I felt no need to return. NOT even for my high school reunion which they closed. I have no love for Lubbock, TX. •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur bleemorrison • 9 days ago To put it bluntly, that sucks. People should be embarrassed. 3 •Share › Avatar funbobby51 bleemorrison • 8 days ago Sort of like when they banned heroin and cocaine and cannabis and put extra penalties on crack cocaine. 1 •Share › Avatar K P bleemorrison • 9 days ago Institutional racism is the culprit. Obama and Holder have been right in trying to undo racism, but the racist have come out of their sewers to spew their hate of anyone opposing racism and to specifically aim it at both Obama and Holder. We need to elect more black men to the presidency. Asking pseudo-Christian racists to cease and desist is folly. Bigots need to be jailed indefinitely. They should not be allowed to parent children. They are the new face of evil in the USA. 2 •Share › Avatar s rw K P • 9 days ago But I thought we had a problem with the industrio-prison complex... your tinfoil is a little too tight... 4 •Share › Avatar therain K P • 2 days ago obama and holder have been doing no such thing, they and mooch are encouraging racism 2 •Share › Avatar Stephen Williams K P • 9 days ago Agreed, Ben Carson is my choice. He's got my vote. 2 •Share › Avatar Robert McEvoy Stephen Williams • 8 days ago Yeah.... His view on tax reform is just out and out scary. Never mind that it just couldn't work in a real world. Maybe you should take a look at what he is planning to do? 3 •Share › Avatar K P Stephen Williams • 8 days ago write in, i'm sure •Share › Avatar J Hart K P • 9 days ago How about a black woman - would she be OK? Or is racism worse than sexism? 2 •Share › Avatar K P J Hart • 9 days ago you need me to answer that question for you? i'll change it for you. We need more blacks as presidents, and some hispanics, too. and some women, too. all colors. one thing we've had too much of is 'white' men thinking they are the only ones qualified to be president of the USA. Obama has proven to be better than any of the GOP presidents except maybe Lincoln and better than all the other presidents except maybe Washington and FDR. what's your problem? 4 •Share › Avatar Steve Kellmeyer K P • 2 days ago We still haven't had a black as president. The press labelled George Zimmerman a White Hispanic. Morgan Freeman pointed out that Barack Obama isn't black. Barack Obama is a White Black. If you want an actual black man as President, then you should vote for Ben Carson. If you want a black woman as president, then Mia Love. If you won't vote for either of them, then you are part of the problem of racism. 1 •Share › Avatar K P Steve Kellmeyer • a day ago no, i'm am not a part of the problem of racism - just the opposite. Obama was the best candidate in both the primaries and general elections in 2008 and 2012. That is why I voted for him. If Love and Carson survive their primaries and are the best candidates in 2016, I'll vote for them. If I determine that they are not, I won't. Obama's color didn't bother me at all. Neither does anyone else's color or ethnicity or gender. I always vote for the best of the candidates running in an election. However, sometimes I find both are not acceptable and write in someone who I think is. If both seem to be equal and acceptable, I ask which one would do the best for the country as a whole and vote for that one. Yes, Obama is a black president. Ask any republican. Ask him and Michelle. Ask their children. Quit pretending. •Share › Avatar J Hart K P • 8 days ago My problem is that you initially said we need more black men presidents. You didn't say blacks, or hispanics or women. You said black men. That excludes everyone else. I agree with you about the need for white men (and women and others) to get past thinking that they are the only ones qualified for the presidency. Or most positions of power, actually. And I think Obama has been better than most of his predecessors. And I agree with your expanded statement in response to my question, But that's not what you said at first. That's why your post sounded sexist and that's why I asked the question. If you say "men" - that does not mean women. And if you say "black" that does not mean hispanic or other colors. •Share › Avatar funbobby51 K P • 8 days ago Here in MA last summer the Black governor signed into law a law allowing white cops to decide if they feel that black people are "suitable" to have any firearm, even a shotgun requires the permission of a white cop to own legally. 1 •Share › Avatar rrgg rrgg K P • 7 days ago Do you mean racists like Romney? Check the full transcript to see what I mean:http://www.npr.org/templates/t... •Share › Avatar Marieva K P • 2 days ago KP, You can't be serious? All of these policies were began and enforced by Democrats! Who do you think FDR and LBJ were? Holder and Obama are continuing the same policies. Obama has been President for SIX YEARS and blacks especially, black teens has fared worse under him than any other president in recent history! The subprime loans debacle came about through President Clinton and later Barney Frank who forced banks to give loans to people who wasn't credit worthy. Why would banks want to have an over abundant of houses they can't sale? Someone tried to get me to buy an interest only home when I was a contractor with the government but the joy wasn't long term. With the little economic education I have I knew I had to have a stable income and a fixed loan before committing to buy a home. Not to mention the reserve cash on hand I needed on hand for miscellaneous and repairs. •Share › Avatar K P Marieva • a day ago Chicken Little - the sky is falling, the sky is falling. All Americans are far better off since Obama has been president than they were before and it's getting even better as his administration continues. •Share › Avatar Robert McEvoy K P • 8 days ago I think you are really looking to have reverse racism. I am so tired of every minority thinking that they are going to do it better and if Obama is an example of a "black" president then I hope it is a long time till we have another. I just would love to see what would happen if Hilary said "white girls rock" just like Mrs. Obama said "black girls rock" its always okay for the people who habitually perceive that there is a bias against them to act in ways that they would flip their wigs over if a white person did it. I just hope that you mean bigots of all races and not just the white Christian ones. Obviously the parents from urban and ghetto areas don't know how to parent or there would be less of their children in jail or in gun fights with police. To say the ghetto was intentionally manufactured by the government is a joke and if that was true, then why have things not changed today? There is no fence locking people in the ghetto. You really need to lay blame on the people who do things wrong and have no problem with it, rather than trying to find anything or anyone else to take the blame for behavior that is clearly wrong to any average human being throughout the world. •Share › Avatar Darryl Crouch Robert McEvoy • 8 days ago Robert, Let's test out this reverse racism theory. Let's use Native Americans. So if the US were too give Native Americans back the land they originally possessed, would that be reverse racism? First there has to be an admission of original racism to have a reversal. Anyone other than Native Americans on reservations? Native American containment would be classified as ethnic discrimination. So with today's laws, if a one person steals an item from another and sells it, if the police find the item that is stolen, it can be returned to the owner. Isn't that reverse theft if the person bought a stolen item but the item is confiscated? But we wouldn't want to return all the land in the US, would we? We wouldn't want to be oppressed out of a decent life either,hence the reason for huge migration of Europeans to a land already possessed. But the oppression of others is perfectly normal. What you see here is formation of a legal double standard. Can you say Mafia? There is really no difference when a government has created a long standard of favorites. So there can only be reverse racism if racism was in fact the basis of creating the advantage and then reversing it back to a non advantage. So what would the Mafia choose to do or not do? The Mafia is not likely to return stolen goods. The Mafia is not likely to pay for damages. Oh, there is no fence locking people on reservations or ghettos. It'[s called politics and economics that provide the leadership and the mediation sources for advantage. Seen any original natives on US currency lately? There is a reason for that. It's not an accident. You don't see Asians, Blacks or Hispanics either on the currency. That too, is no accident. So would you consider that the people not on US currency but highly populate ghetto's and reservations a coincidence? 3 •Share › Avatar bobc4d Darryl Crouch • 7 days ago Genocide is what should it should be called which was practiced against Native Americans 1 •Share › Avatar Marieva Darryl Crouch • 2 days ago When it comes to the native Americans I think you're mixing your fruits. Indians fought a war and lost and then were relegated to reservations that they have not made thriving communities even though their land is sovereign. According, to this article blacks had their rights revoked and policies put in place to segregate them and keep them poor. •Share › Avatar Phyllia Morrelli Robert McEvoy • 5 days ago No joke. The information is true and backed up with real research. If you were truly capable of reading the minds of "every minority" American, who believes they could do it better, please share some of those thoughts because the system as it currently exists isn't working for everyone. •Share › Avatar K P Robert McEvoy • 8 days ago no such thing. it is a figment of imagination, an unimaginative one •Share › Avatar Robert McEvoy K P • 8 days ago How about trying to make a point? •Share › Avatar K P Robert McEvoy • 7 days ago you have an unimaginative imagination. you attribute figments of your imaginations to reality. you do not suffer reverse discrimination. it that clear enough for you? did i make my point? •Share › Avatar seasonya bleemorrison • 9 days ago blacks are not mature enough to be able to have a liquor store in their neighborhood? Seems like an awfully insulting premise 2 •Share › Avatar KEVIN TOBIASON seasonya • 9 days ago Well no... apparently it is the white neighborhoods that must feel they are not "mature" enough to have liquor stores in their neighborhoods. Otherwise there would be liquor stores every few blocks in middle class suburbia just like there are in low-income & and low-education neighborhoods. Unless there is some well understood, destabilizing problem with having liquor stores in environments were kids are trying to grow up? 15 •Share › Avatar funbobby51 KEVIN TOBIASON • 8 days ago should we go back to prohibition, for the children? •Share › Avatar KEVIN TOBIASON funbobby51 • 8 days ago Or just figure out why White middle-class neighborhoods don't allow liquor stores every few blocks. 3 •Share › Avatar funbobby51 KEVIN TOBIASON • 8 days ago I live in a white middle class neighborhood and there are several liquor stores, one is owned by our democrat member of congress. 1 •Share › Avatar therain funbobby51 • 2 days ago democrats are corrupt and only hurt black people 1 •Share › Avatar funbobby51 therain • 2 days ago not only •Share › Avatar KEVIN TOBIASON funbobby51 • 3 days ago Well... we all know that White middle-class neighborhoods have just as many liquor stores as poor neighborhoods. Right? And I am sure that they are all owned by Democrats. Right? So actually the problem of too many liquor stores in poverty neighborhoods is the Democratic party. Right? 1 •Share › Avatar therain KEVIN TOBIASON • 2 days ago Not exactly, but the democratic party is largely responsible for holding black people down, check your history and look at this failed presidency 1 •Share › Avatar KEVIN TOBIASON therain • a day ago Also... according to Forbes Magazine this "failed" presidency of President Obama has given us a better over all economy than Ronald Reagan was able to do. •Share › Avatar funbobby51 KEVIN TOBIASON • 3 days ago I can only report what I see. •Share › Avatar KEVIN TOBIASON funbobby51 • 2 days ago Well... you could also make use of other sources of information than simply your eyesight. •Share › Avatar funbobby51 KEVIN TOBIASON • 2 days ago hearsay •Share › Avatar KEVIN TOBIASON funbobby51 • 2 days ago Perhaps you haven't noticed but we now live in the information age and it is not all hearsay. If you try and understand this complicated world we live in based only on your own little subjective experience you are going to end up not understanding very much. •Share › Avatar funbobby51 KEVIN TOBIASON • 2 days ago yawn •Share › Avatar KEVIN TOBIASON funbobby51 • a day ago substantive and clever! •Share › Avatar Robert McEvoy KEVIN TOBIASON • 8 days ago Maybe it is because the white middle class neighborhood isn't also used as business zone? Doesn't take a bunch of thought to figure that one out. Go to Manhattan where you have some of the most expensive property around and there are all types of stores including a liquor store or two. The ghetto is normally downtown or an area where there are people that don't have transportation and need stores in their proximity. •Share › Avatar KEVIN TOBIASON Robert McEvoy • 7 days ago Yes... it is a matter of zoning. Thats the whole point. And why White middle-class neighborhoods don't want liquor stores every few blocks in the environment where their children are growing up. New York City, where I lived for 15 years, is a extremely diverse vertical city with lots and lots of retail. The issue is not business zoning but rather neighborhood retail where the only retail is for alcohol, cigarettes, candy, soda and chips. And why this is allowed in poor environments when it is not in the White middle-class family environments? We should be as concerned about the consequences of business zoning in poor neighborhoods as we are in the affluent neighborhoods. 2 •Share › Avatar Marieva KEVIN TOBIASON • 2 days ago Kevin, The reason everyone should be concerned about discrimination and zoning laws is because a cancer doesn't remain localize it spreads. In the last twenty years interracial relationships and marriage has boomed. The effects of the discrimination has boomerang back to the white community. White single parent are on the rise. Most of you men here are working longer because of their wayward daughters fathering babies out of wedlock with black and white men who are not supporting them and now you have to help take care of them. I know it's true because I had colleagues who were doing the same thing. Nothing happens in a vacuum. Cancer spreads when it is not dealt with. •Share › Avatar KEVIN TOBIASON Marieva • a day ago Well yes... I agree that when you disenfranchise a subgroup from the whole of society you will pay for that one way or another. But I seem to remember young people rejecting marriage in the 6O's and 7O's and I don't remember that is had anything to do with anyones low-income and low-education culture. I think that it probably had more to do with the freedoms that came with the Pill. •Share › Avatar KEVIN TOBIASON KEVIN TOBIASON • 7 hours ago Specifically... that after the arrival of the pill in the early sixties young people began to feel that they no longer had to get married in order to enjoy sex. •Share › Avatar Fisherguy seasonya • 9 days ago What do you expect in Lubbock—George H.W. Walker's favorite city in America? When I was a kid in Lubbock in the 7th grade, an all-white school of course, none of us had ever met a black person. There was a rare discussion about blacks in the classroom, I forget why. One girl raised her hand and with a heavy West Texas accent, told the teacher with wide eyes, "Their perspiration odor almost knocks you dayown!" That was all she said.... 9 •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur Fisherguy • 9 days ago I have a mixed race homeroom class of 19 boys. By far, the two smelliest boys are white. We keep extra clothes and hygiene supplies at school for them. 1 •Share › Avatar Stephen Williams Beverly Arthur • 9 days ago Uh huh. 1 •Share › Avatar funbobby51 Beverly Arthur • 8 days ago I taught in the inner city and the worst smelling kid I had was white, white kids who live in the inner city are often worse off than the people of color who do. Except for the time that Puerto Rican kid pooped in his pants in the classroom. 1 •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur funbobby51 • 8 days ago One of these boys regularly *sharts* in his pants. His family does not seem to understand the concept of hygiene or the function of indoor plumbing. He is highly intelligent, but oh, so awkward. We try to keep him clean, and the other boys try to be nice, but it is sometimes hard for them. 2 •Share › Avatar funbobby51 Beverly Arthur • 8 days ago I had to literally clear the room for the rest of the day 2 •Share › Avatar seasonya Fisherguy • 9 days ago I grew up in VT- the whitest state in the nation- and few were racist 1 •Share › Avatar Cacimbo Smith seasonya • 9 days ago It is easy not to be racist when you are the majority or in an even mix. Most people, no matter their race, do not like to be the only one in a group where the other 99% are the same. White leftists enjoy having a token black friend. Living in the heart of a black neighborhood - not so much. 7 •Share › Avatar GoodGawd Cacimbo Smith • 9 days ago I am glad that punch was thrown before I could get my account approved. I am also from Vermont. Socioeconomics can play the same struggle as race will. HUD made sure to put poor Irish and Italians into public housing back in the 60's with Urban Renewal just the same. 4 •Share › Avatar Nicholas Larsen Cacimbo Smith • 8 days ago When I went to college, from a high school that was about 25% black, I found out that my experience was much different than some of the people who went to schools with only a few (wealthy) black kids. They didn't have gangs, they didn't have racial fights, they didn't have the full "experience". I still remember carrying a lock in a sock at school, because I was in the wrong group. You learn that racism is a terrible two-way street and that even people you are friends with will band together with their race for a common cause. 2 •Share › Avatar Marieva Cacimbo Smith • 2 days ago Liberals don't mind living in a all black neighborhood if they in that neighborhood are professional athlete, successful recording artist or movies stars you know wealthy blacks but when you talk bout putting a project housing or scatter sight housing next door, well that's another story. They have a problem living next door to people they have created with their lavish social programs but those who have created themselves then they can rub elbows with. They love Oprah, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Beyoncé, LeBron, Ben Carson. •Share › Avatar seasonya Cacimbo Smith • 9 days ago I actually enjoyed my time in norther NM where I was the minority •Share › Avatar Babble Worthy seasonya • 8 days ago If you're comment above is an example of your state, most were racists. 1 •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur seasonya • 9 days ago That was not the point. The point was that liquor stores are "low class" and "tacky" and should not be in "good" neighborhoods. That way, when "good" people go to them, their neighbors won't see them. 5 •Share › Avatar MsGolightly seasonya • 9 days ago Salt Lake City, much of Orange County California and other communities feel the same way about liquor stores in their neighborhoods... 4 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago They didn't *want* one. 2 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago the church did not want one •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur seasonya • 9 days ago I hate to admit it, but I will agree with you here. Being from the "Bible Belt," I am well aware of the hypocrisy that exists regarding things like liquor. As long as no one knows you buy it or consume it, no problem. Therefore, put the stores in "bad" neighborhoods, and no one but other "sinners" will see you there. This is NOT the case with all Christian denominations, but it is the prevailing attitude amongst many Baptists. FYI, I am a Christian, was raised Episcopalian, but currently attend a Baptist church due to the lack of nearby Episcopalian churches and my husband being raised Baptist. 2 •Share › Avatar Marieva Beverly Arthur • 2 days ago You're right about that! However, the Methodist and Pentecostals are right there with them. I didn't know that Christian could drink until I attended a Lutheran church. We knew the Catholics drank wine and beer but who listens to the Catholics, needless to say I changed churches. •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur Marieva • a day ago Not all Methodist churches. Most I have attended preach "moderation," but you are right about the Pentecostal and most Evangelical churches. I do belong to a Baptist church, but was raised Episcopalian. Their basic philosophy is more along the lines of, "love God with all your heart, and do as you please," with the idea being that if you truly love God, what you please won't be particularly displeasing to Him. •Share › Avatar dan considine Beverly Arthur • 9 days ago Regardless of your religious belief. How do you feel in your gut about the morality of the culture that has perpetrated this historical INJUSTICE upon a group of people? the word Ghetto came into existence following the Russian & Nazi treatment of a certain group of people keep all those who are the same in one area and make it difficult to leave! •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur dan considine • 8 days ago I think it is wrong. I think it is immoral. I think people are horrible to each other. How do we fix the past, though? All we can do is try to address it in the present. 1 •Share › Avatar M C dan considine • 8 days ago It makes me sick. I grew up post integration, and when I look back at grade school and realize that the African American kids in my class were bused in from a different neighborhood, a neighborhood that has been black since BEFORE the Civil War, I feel cheated because I had to spell it out for myself. The neighborhood has seen better days, but it is mostly a ghetto now, and it's just taken for granted. Today, I live in a mostly white neighborhood which 5% is African Americans or nonwhite even. Sadly, that's progress, but it's not change. •Share › Avatar seasonya Beverly Arthur • 9 days ago I find blue laws confusing. I grew up in VT where liqour stores are everywhere. Banning freedom seems odd to me •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur seasonya • 9 days ago They are hypocritical to the extreme. Every region is different. They all have their benefits and drawbacks. The hypocrisy of many in the south is the worst fault of it, to me. There are also many delightful qualities of the south and southerners. While traveling through the northeast, I was appalled at the casual use of profanity. It really made my head spin. However, I soon realized that it was usually not being used in anger, and that most of the people I encountered were very nice and friendly. We had an upstate New York couple who were sitting behind us in a restaurant, cussing up a blue streak, offer to drive 45 minutes out of their way to show us a gorgeous, but little known local landmark we were looking for. Utterly unexpected and delightful. 2 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Can you show me that everyone else did? •Share › Avatar MeghanJill LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago don't feed it. 6 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Most Americans support their freedoms •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago So no? 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago read the original post •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago I did, and I'm still waiting for you to show me that everyone else wanted liquor stores. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago I will have to get my list of names..... •Share › Avatar David Moyer seasonya • 9 days ago Missing the point. Again. •Share › Avatar seasonya David Moyer • 8 days ago You live in Canada- you dont even understand what point it is you are trying to make •Share › Avatar David Moyer seasonya • 8 days ago Yeah, because we don't have ghettos in Canada, or non-white people, and we never read, see, or learn anything about any other countries outside our own. Uh huh. Just because YOU don't understand any point that runs counter to your own mind-bogglingly limited narrative doesn't mean that the rest of us suffer from the same deficiency. If you could remember that for more than 15 seconds at a stretch, it might go some way to making you look a little less gormless around here. •Share › Avatar seasonya David Moyer • 8 days ago Canada and the US are worlds apart. 2 •Share › Avatar David Moyer seasonya • 8 days ago No, they're not - not physically, not culturally, and not politically (which may be the biggest gap, but it's been getting steadily smaller ever since our current government took power). Have you ever lived in Canada (or any other country, for that matter)? I live in both Canada and the US, spending part of the year in each country, and I can tell you with assurance that the similarities VASTLY outnumber the differences. Culturally we're more alike than almost any other two countries you could name - and I include Sweden, Norway, and Denmark in that comparison. You continued insistence that anyone who doesn't agree with you therefore has no knowledge of the subject is not only infantile, but utterly illogical. •Share › Avatar BobDobbins David Moyer • 8 days ago Like, yes, they have ghettos in Toronto. And Rob Ford could have just as easily been an Alabama mayor as Toronto. 1 •Share › Avatar Oregon Smitty seasonya • 9 days ago Heck, the Inuits can't have 'em. •Share › Avatar David Moyer Oregon Smitty • 9 days ago Dry communities in the Arctic are dry by the choice of the folks who live there - i.e, the "Inuits", as you call them. It's hardly a rule imposed by patronizing whites, from afar. By the way, the correct plural of "Inuit" is "Inuit"; the singular form is "Inuk". 2 •Share › Avatar Tiny Hands Oregon Smitty • 9 days ago Native Americans, in general, have a really complicated history with alcohol. It was as much an oppression, as much as an object can be, on the Algonquin tribes around here. Still is in some parts. •Share › Avatar Marieva Tiny Hands • 2 days ago Native Americans are the only group that liquor need to be ban because non of them can handle it. I think it's in their blood. •Share › Avatar Lawrence Davis bleemorrison • 9 days ago I grew up on the South Side of Chicago during the 1970s and 1980s, and raised a son in St Paul Minnesota during the 1990s and 2000s. True story, my high school went from integrated in the 1970s during my aunt's 4 years, to 100% black by my 4 years. During the same time I grew up, middle class families began moving to the then all-white exclusive Country Club Hills, a suburb southwest of Chicago. Today, Country Club Hills is 100% Black. Meanwhile, in St Paul, the city began opening its doors to Asian immigrants and migrants in the 1990s. The city then was predominantly white, with Blacks mainly concentrated on its East Side, in an area known as Frogtown, and in parts of the Old Rondo Neighborhood. During the 2000s, the city began cleaning up its communities. Today, Asians are the largest group in St Paul. The Black population stayed about the same, and the Hispanic population began surging. White people? Well, many of them moved out. While this historian seeks to blame the government for creating ghettos, he still hasn't explained why white people in several U.S. cities, like these two, continue to move out of the city and out of schools where Blacks and minorities begin to equal the majority. 1 •Share › Avatar Stephen Berquist Lawrence Davis • 9 days ago That's an odd accusation, since he does specifically address how housing prices and predatory real estate agents fed the racist fears that led to white flight. 4 •Share › Avatar Robert McEvoy Stephen Berquist • 8 days ago The author is only talking about 50 years ago. I don't see any reasoning or government to blame for why they continue self perpetuate the ghetto? Today people don't care when they move for the most part who moves into their old house as long as they get the most money. You can't keep blaming everyone and everything for the problems of minorities, just hope that they will try to help themselves rather than looking for hand outs that never work out. •Share › Avatar Marie Evans Lawrence Davis • 2 days ago I have a similar experience I was raised partly in Chicago, south side which used to have white people on the upper numbers. And, you're right about country club hills however, I think you should listen to the broadcast because he does explain this with block busting. My husband is from St. Paul, MN. White flight might have taken place because of blockbusting and people thinking black people would lower their property value. However, with the welfare state and single parenthood rising in the late 70's the ghetto isn't the same it gang ridden now and extremely violent therefore, white people have cause to be afraid of a lot of blacks in their neighborhood. Single parenthood brings crimes regardless of your race. •Share › Avatar Robert McEvoy bleemorrison • 8 days ago You still need to walk into the store for it to possibly have a negative effect. You are really reaching by using that statement and you think that by having this in a black neighborhood that the whites would not buy liquor there? Also, how do you know it was only in "black" neighborhoods and not just in the business areas of the city? It is not like there is exactly a line where white and black stop or end. •Share › Avatar bleemorrison Robert McEvoy • 4 days ago Robert McEvoy I would believe that if WHITE stuck them every three blocks in their own neighborhoods otherwise they are racist bigots unwilling to embrace their true nature. 1 •Share › Avatar BobDobbins Robert McEvoy • 8 days ago Yes, at that time there was a very specific line where blacks stopped. There are plenty of images of the signs on the internet. The signs usually had the N word and jail or a rope. There was a color line and it was clear and harsh. Whites could cross it (to buy liquor among other things) but blacks couldn't. And it wasn't downtown, it was "the wrong side of the tracks". To this day, people still call the police in Texas when a black man is in the neighborhood without a lawn mower. Don't kid yourself. 1 •Share › Avatar Marieva BobDobbins • 2 days ago I know Chicago is like that. it's usually a busy street that separate the two. However, like the article said those who didn't have a busy street that separated them then it was harder to tell because the edges usually blended. •Share › Avatar J Lee • 9 days ago People are in such denial about the reality that it is in the very DNA of America to straight out regard - and treat - blacks & whites differently! Earlier today on NPR, there was discussion about Michelle Obama's recent remarks on race and the obligatory Fox News/'conservative' phony outrage, backlash! There was one of these 'angry white guy' victim persona callers complaining/lamenting the notion of himself always being regarded as the bad guy! This so-called 'angry white guy', victim, perpetual Fox News watching, personality popularized in the 1990s, is just not cuttin' it anymore because people whom are truly being victimized by America's incongruities are being buttressed by a new 'information age'/media climate in which the biases of our Nation are literally playing out in real time! This is what's getting the Police - an institution that's proved itself wholly comfortable with applying two separate sets of standards towards blacks & whites - into trouble with smart phones everywhere recording their 'actions'. No true 'real world' stat bears out the validity of this whining, so-called 'angry white' persona! Even if middle class and working class whites aren't directly responsible for these officially sanctioned oppressions, we need to be honest and admit that many whites - maybe even a majority - like the Police as an institution - are 'comfortable' with allowing a system that treats blacks and whites differently to continue to flourish because on some level - like evident in today's discussion, It's been internalized that they benefit from it! 26 •Share › Avatar Chris Dorhn J Lee • 9 days ago "DNA of America" What is the difference between a Hutu and a Tutsi? What is the difference between Indian Hindu and a Indian Muslin? What is the difference between Rohingya Burmese and other Burmese? If you think racism is an American phenomenon then you are severely myopic. 8 •Share › Avatar darksabrelord Chris Dorhn • 9 days ago Well for starters, "Muslin" is a type of fabric... It's in our "DNA" because racism was hard-coded into the US Constitution and laws that followed it - remember the 3/5ths compromise? Racism itself isn't an American phenomenon but claiming to be above it seems to be. 11 •Share › Avatar Chris Dorhn darksabrelord • 8 days ago I do remember a few hundred thousand who died to correct it. Do you think there is any DNA in their blood? •Share › Avatar John Scott Chris Dorhn • 9 days ago It's not an American phenomenon but no place does it better or has ever done it at such a scale for such a long time after so many attempts to correct it. When all that is taken into account, American racism can be described as something that stands out on it's own. It is an American phenomenon. 1 •Share › Avatar saintsun Chris Dorhn • 7 days ago Your argument isn't topical to this discussion, but let's humor you. It's odd that you assume "DNA of America" means racism is exclusive to us. It just means it is in the fabric of our nation...it is in the fabric of plenty of other nations as well, but that's not what we're talking about here. You're point of view isn't wrong, just currently irrelevant. •Share › Avatar John Scott J Lee • 9 days ago Another frustrating lie being spread these days, usually by well meaning whites, is, "it's not race it's class". As to suggest that racism isn't really as bad as it is or that it only exist as a function of class. Not true. 1 •Share › Avatar Patriot461 J Lee • 9 days ago ...think you missed your era of affirmative action...most blacks don't want your or taxpayers handouts or help...let us make it on our own, take responsibility for ourself, go to school, work hard and live a decent life. 2 •Share › Avatar J Lee Patriot461 • 9 days ago Wow...! How in the world were you able to twist what I said into that...????? 4 •Share › Avatar Oregon Smitty J Lee • 9 days ago You have to face it, lawbreakers white and black get treated "differently." And, no, I don't think blacks routinely get the short end. 1 •Share › Avatar This comment was deleted. Avatar This comment was deleted. Avatar seasonya Guest • 9 days ago Which race is the only one discriminated against under affirmative action? Oh that s right white males- the only people discriminated against under US law. Everyone else is just complaining 3 •Share › Avatar WarOnChristmas seasonya • 9 days ago Yea, the poor white male is always being held down by 'the man'. The funny part is, the people who say that have no idea how pathetic they sound. 14 •Share › Avatar s c WarOnChristmas • 9 days ago If you've never been poor you don't understand how difficult it is to get out of it. Additional challenges are faced by races when they are discriminated against, but don't belittle the struggle of poor whites just because whites hold systematic power - it doesn't mean anything to the guy who can't find work. 2 •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur s c • 9 days ago That is true, as I know, having been poor in the past. I also know that having been raised in a middle class home, and being white, made it easier for me to escape my short term situational poverty. 4 •Share › Avatar saintsun s c • 7 days ago Agreed. I hate when I see "suffer-offs!" in a discussion; people trying to say who has it worst. It always happens too when the topic is only focusing on one group of people and someone feels the need to bring up a whole other issue as a red herring. •Share › Avatar seasonya WarOnChristmas • 9 days ago What is pathetic is that people think being racist towards white males is somehow OK.. 1 •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur seasonya • 9 days ago I may not think that affirmative action is necessary anymore, but it was needed in the recent past. If you have all the advantages, like white males did in the past, then setting aside a small percentage of university placements or jobs for minority groups is not discriminating against the advantaged group. It is leveling the playing field. 4 •Share › Avatar seasonya Beverly Arthur • 9 days ago It was racism with the misguided justification of fighting racism •Share › Avatar David Moyer seasonya • 9 days ago That goes beyond your usual silliness into outright offensiveness. "Just complaining", indeed. 1 •Share › Avatar J Lee seasonya • 9 days ago Sorry... "Affirmative Action" has always been - and still is - an institution to maintain white suburbia by protecting It from true competition: I guessed you missed the point of the discussion: "Affirmative Action" is actually the default condition framing white suburban privilege: Levittown alone is a prime example of this! Any other 'iterations' lamented are simply 'red herrings' for the privilege to distract & hide from this reality. 1 •Share › Avatar Cacimbo Smith J Lee • 9 days ago Please explain why redlining - in which middle class black families took over white suburbia resulted in those suburbs being turned into new ghettos??? For example Carnarsie in Brooklyn. . •Share › Avatar A J Cacimbo Smith • 9 days ago Because all of the jobs left for the same areas where whites moved to. Back in the 30's 40's and 50's people lived rather close to where they worked - there weren't major highways nor was there sufficient public transportation to commute to work. Add to that job discrimination, which meant that most blacks wouldn't get considered for jobs even if they could get to these new sites. Unions actually kept blacks out and when they were finally allowed in, in limited numbers, they had differential treatment. Add to that that these families had paid a premium to move into homes that were worth less than they paid. And the federal government condoned redlining - a way of coding neighborhoods that routinely listed black neighborhoods as bad investments. So, while blacks moved into these overpriced homes, pretty much losing all of their equity, they also could not get loans for home improvements - their homes were left to fall apart. Check these out (to name a few): Crabgrass Frontier Up South Places of Their Own Living for the City Seeking El Dorado Seattle in Black and White... 2 •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur A J • 9 days ago You make very good points. I have not read all the sources you listed, but I am familiar with enough of them to not need to read the rest. •Share › Avatar Wotan seasonya • 9 days ago In college admissions, Asian Americans. Now go away. 1 •Share › Avatar Patriot461 Wotan • 9 days ago ...have you been on a UC campus lately? 1 •Share › Avatar Wotan Patriot461 • 9 days ago They have no race-based admissions in CA. You're actually seeing what would happen if AA did not discriminate against Asian Americans in college admissions. 4 •Share › Avatar Patriot461 Wotan • 9 days ago ...no, what i see are a disproportionate number of Asian students. 1 •Share › Avatar Wotan Patriot461 • 9 days ago What do you mean, no? I'm not contesting that point. I know well there are nearly 50% Asians at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA and so forth. That's because Prop 209 banned race based admission, or Affirmative Action, and Asian students who were hurt in other states and especially in elite or Ivy leagues, are admitted according to merit in CA and not some soft, implicit, unspoken quotas or notions of proportionality toward diversity. Please take better care reading people's comments and understand them before merely typing up a reply. Seasonya made the point that white men are the only ones who were hurt by Affirmative Action. My reply was to contest his or her point which had been debunked in most of the mainstream for over two decades. 7 •Share › Avatar John Wagner • 9 days ago It’s amazing to me that much of the discussion here has become so personal and fragmented. Mr. Rothstein was commenting on the role that Federal, State and local governments played in segregating neighborhoods, perpetuating the marginalization of African-Americans, and the disparities of wealth and influence that those policies propagated. Nothing more. It was an uncolored, unpleasant history lesson. He patiently and intelligently gave us a 100 year historical record of policies that may explain Baltimore, Ferguson, and other recent episodes that have caused us pause. This wasn’t a global or personal discussion of race, it was a history of American policy. This ain’t Hutu or Tutsi, or whether Jews, Italians or French managed to make it out of their post-Ellis Island hovels. It was a discussion of how despite the Emancipation Proclamation, Federal and State Supreme Court decisions, and the good intentions of enlighten souls, African Americans were and are stymied by indifference, profit and bigotry. How in the name of Heaven can we comment on that with anything but a nod of affirmation? 10 •Share › Avatar s rw John Wagner • 9 days ago I think the frustration is that is those are the only factors that the situation is attributed to, all external factors. No one anywhere is willing to point a finger inward at all, even for a portion of the complex equation. I have a lot of areas of myself that need work that never stops. I blame no one for any of them. Thats where my personal frustration lies, not that it matters. •Share › Avatar John Wagner s rw • 9 days ago Of course it matters. I wasn't implying that we can't take Rothstein's interview personally. We should. And it is frustrating that we, as individuals, have no power to remedy the past, but we should accept it when presented to us as clearly and as honestly as he did. How we react to it, and how we deal with it is the complicated part. Beating ourselves up for past policies or how our fore-bearers does little good. We can only take tiny steps towards acknowledgement and pray we do better. 2 •Share › Avatar L. D. John Wagner • 9 days ago Beyond Rothstein, does enslavement and a continued history of segregation by location, economy and culture remove all free will from an individual, regardless if the history is known or understood by the individual? I realize living it can blind both society and slaves or prisoners to much of reality. An example: the North Korean who was born in a prison-labor-camp, while in prison turned in his parents who were in the prison and watched, without emotion, as they were executed. •Share › Avatar James Hulsey • 8 days ago Boy, did this article bring out the racists. 9 •Share › Avatar Lonnie Veal James Hulsey • 8 days ago It's true...but I also noticed that it's a firm select few. I call them the 'Invisible Actors'. They're the ones who spread the nasty memes, the fake stories, the denigratory myths. And now they are trotting out every single real and imagined crime ever committed by a black person as proof of our Failings as a Race. Truth is, we always knew this History. It was passed down to the children by their Hard-working, Tax-paying parents as lessons what what we had to look out for. It was the Unwritten counterpoint to the National Myth of 'Unfettered Meritocracy' that we found out really only worked best if your skin wasn't 'Brown'. Every African American Parent had to armor their children against that eventual reality against the 'Blue-eyed Apple Pie Patriotism' being spoon-fed us by the TV Set. And these 'Invisible Actors' ALSO know of this true history. In many ways, they know that they're recipients of its benefits, or they out-rightly participated in it...and now they fear what might happen if the Light is shone on them-- because They KNOW that what had Happened and what they Did was Wrong. Even Worse...they're afraid of OTHER Groups that might decide to stand up, push back and demand their Rights as Citizens. For example: Chinese Americans have been nicely quiet about Their Pasts...but anyone who is friends with them knows that everything was NOT 'Wonderful' for them in the nicely 'contained' China Towns their Parents and Grandparents grew up in. So they lash out and they scatter memes, feral posts and lies. 8 •Share › Avatar a h James Hulsey • 8 days ago Attribute it to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... •Share › Avatar therain James Hulsey • 2 days ago And they are all democrats. •Share › Avatar James • 9 days ago Fantastic work and nauseating at the same time. 8 •Share › Avatar Mortie121 • 8 days ago After following this discussion for over an hour this morning. I just wanted to add my two cents. I was an 11 year old black girl who moved with my family to a white neighborhood back in the block-busting era of the 1970's.We became the third black family on the block. In my memory's eye, every weekend there seemed to be a different moving van on the block. Even as a kid, I was shocked at the phenomenon, knowing that it was people like my innocent middle-class black family fueling this mass stampede. Within a space of about five years, pretty much all the white families were gone. But in this situation, the black families replacing them were of a higher socio-economic level so the neighborhood DID NOT go down. The conditions of the homes improved, in fact. I should also note that these blacks were mostly west indian. These days, the house my mom and step-father paid 33K for is now worth around 400K. Still, as an African-American, I have seen up close not only the ravages of racism imposed from without (My god-mother points to the time when drugs began flooding into black neighborhoods sealing their doom.) but what happens to a culture when that racism becomes internalized. In other words, what if for years, let's say a few hundred years, you're constantly given the message that you're garbage. After decades of this constant bombardment, yes, there are some who actually begin to believe they are indeed garbage and act accordingly. So yes, there are some who do export the ghetto mentality with them. (I remember a black male student telling me once that having a pretty house with a lawn and flowers is "for white people". How sad is that?) And there are others like me and my family, who try to live the best lives we can, trying to help lift up others, who nevertheless get stuck with a label. In any case, I believe human beings are also remarkably resilient. With enough wise and loving direction, all of us can evolve out of our own versions of mental slavery. 7 •Share › Avatar Lucy Frost Mortie121 • 7 days ago Thank you for sharing your story. I came of age in the 70s, but was still shocked to my core to hear this history. The struggle continues, clearly. •Share › Avatar Ocean Jack Mortie121 • 8 days ago Your comment is as informative as the article. Thank you. •Share › Avatar N G Ocean Jack • 8 days ago Amen! •Share › Avatar Mortie121 Ocean Jack • 8 days ago You're very kind. •Share › Avatar MeghanJill • 9 days ago There was a book published a few years ago called Some of My Best Friends Are Black, written by Tanner Colby, a white man who wanted to better understand the history of racism in America. One section was dedicated to housing, and how unscrupulous the realtors were in playing on the fears of whites. This was St. Louis, by the way. The book is great. I recommend it: http://www.amazon.com/Some-Bes... 6 •Share › Avatar Rfor Reason MeghanJill • 9 days ago How many is a few years ago? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Rfor Reason • 9 days ago Maybe if you click the link you'll find out. 3 •Share › Avatar Rfor Reason LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago OK, smart A@@. I clicked it. It does not answer my question. It is just an ad to sell a book. Does not say when it was published. I guess you never clicked it either. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Rfor Reason • 9 days ago Really? It doesn't? It's right on top. July 30, 2013-right above the rating. Does it help when people hold your hand for you? 3 •Share › Avatar Rfor Reason LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Well, dud, if you read a little further down, it says, " Penguin Books; Reprint edition (July 30, 2013)". See the word "reprint". What does that mean to you ? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Rfor Reason • 9 days ago The copy in question was published at the date specified. What does that mean to YOU? 1 •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Good grief. What an issue to argue over. The date a particular copy of a book is printed, or reprinted, is not the same as when it was originally published. It does make a difference when you are talking about nonfiction and how current the information contained within is. It makes no difference whatsoever when you are talking about a work of fiction, other than the value of a particular physical book. 2 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Beverly Arthur • 9 days ago It wasn't an argument until the guy cussed me out. •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago That must have been one of the deleted comments. However, when someone gets nasty, I usually just disengage. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Beverly Arthur • 9 days ago I'm less pacifistic than that. •Share › Avatar This comment was deleted. Avatar LethargicSynapse Guest • 9 days ago The information in the book was likely updated hence the REPRINT. Duh. •Share › Avatar clio_musing LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago No, then it would be a new edition, not a reprint. Reprint is a technical term with a specific meaning in the world of publishing and book cataloging. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse clio_musing • 9 days ago A fair point, though really a minor thing in the grand scheme of our conversation. •Share › Avatar Michael Hicks LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Some people seem to live for creating distractions when adults are attempting to discuss heady issues such as race in America. Focus people. Be a part of the solution and stop contributing to the problems. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Michael Hicks • 8 days ago I don't know about you, but I can focus on more than one thing at a time. •Share › Avatar clio_musing LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago It appears that this conversation is about the book and when it was printed, so how is that a minor thing? 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse clio_musing • 9 days ago Because the book in question was a reprint from the beginning. He didn't stipulate the original version. That's why. •Share › Avatar clio_musing LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago If it was such an unimportant point, why did you mention it ("The information in the book was likely updated hence the REPRINT. Duh.")? Incidentally, the book referenced was published in 2012, as would have been clear if one of you had bothered to check the copyright page, and the paperback version was printed in 2013. Published and printed are actually two different things, so Rfor Reason is not wrong in trying, however awkwardly, to make that distinction. He is being unreasonably aggressive about it, as indeed are you, but he is not wrong, though what relevance "the timeliness of the data" has to a history of racism is beyond me. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse clio_musing • 9 days ago It was a response to a comment. That's why I mentioned it. Its importance in relation to the conversation itself is miniscule. I actually knew when the original publishing date was-and the date that I cited WAS the publishing date, not the printing date, so no, he wasn't "not wrong in making that distinction." The date I referenced is the reprint's publication date, to be more clear. Also, I didn't even really care all that much, and he initiated the aggression, not me. •Share › Avatar clio_musing LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Word to the wise, it is possible to go back and read what someone originally wrote. And what you wrote was: "Really? It doesn't? It's right on top. July 30, 2013-right above the rating. Does it help when people hold your hand for you?" 2013 is the reprint date. 2012 is the copyright date, and presumably the date of publication. So, no, you were not citing the publication date. And since I'm apparently breaking out my teacher voice this evening, in response to his question to someone else about when the book was published you wrote "Maybe if you click the link you'll find out" (more than a little snide), and then followed up with "Does it help when people hold your hand for you?" Granted he called you a smart aleck, and that wasn't nice, but you weren't being very polite to him either, now were you? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse clio_musing • 8 days ago According to the Library of Congress, the reprint date is considered a new publishing date-I'll take their word for it, not yours. http://www.loc.gov/publish/cip... Of course, if we were going through the process of actual citation for, say, a research paper, you'd want both the new publication date (yes, there is a new publication date) and the original-but we're not, and he didn't ask for that. http://www.cws.illinois.edu/wo... He didn't call me a smart aleck, but thanks for the sanitation, I guess. I wasn't "snide" by pointing out that the date was right on top of the page. I could've been rude about it-instead I made a factual statement. You can consider that "snide" if you like, but I couldn't care less to be honest. And if you don't consider his original comment to be "snide" in regards to the obviously conversational use of "a few" by the previous poster, I'm not sure what to tell you, because you're simply playing favorites, and obviously so. Again, I really didn't care all that much to begin with, and if he hadn't approached me with outright, unsolicited hostility, I wouldn't have responded in kind. •Share › Avatar Rfor Reason LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago That is so lame. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Rfor Reason • 9 days ago So are you. Even more lame is resorting immediately to obscenities because you lack the mental capacity to express yourself otherwise. 1 •Share › Avatar This comment was deleted. Avatar LethargicSynapse Guest • 9 days ago There you go again. It's hard to have a "civil" conversation when you immediately resort to behaving in a tactless manner. Maybe some introspection is in order. •Share › Avatar Rfor Reason LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Now you are guessing. No I don't think so. This is a publication in paperback. Likely it published in hardback to begin with. I don't think any of the information has been update. Just another publication. So we have to look at the original publication to see the timelyness of the data. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Rfor Reason • 9 days ago I'm not guessing about anything. You asked when the particular book LINKED TO-hence the reprinted version-was published, and I told you, despite your inability to actually glean that information for yourself by simply reading the letters and numbers on top of the page. Don't fault me for your lack of reading ability. 1 •Share › Avatar Rfor Reason LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago So lame. The original post said "a book published a few years ago ", Then she linked a reprint edition which has nothing to do with the original printing date. You are the one lacking in reading comprehension. So I will answer my own question. The original publication was in hardback in July 2012. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Rfor Reason • 9 days ago She linked a reprint edition which is obviously the edition she owned and thus the copy in question-and you never asked when it was originally printed, you asked when the linked book was printed. Talk about "lacking in comprehension-" you can't even remember what YOU said. 2 •Share › Avatar MeghanJill Rfor Reason • 9 days ago I did answer like fifteen minutes ago with the link, but it got removed, oh so sad. 1 •Share › Avatar Rfor Reason MeghanJill • 9 days ago Thank you. I was interested in the original publication date, which I did find on line. •Share › Avatar Renegade_Skeptic • 9 days ago "the Federal Housing Administration gave builders like Levitt concessionary loans through banks because they guaranteed loans at lower interest rates for banks that the developers could use to build these subdivisions on the condition that no homes in those subdivisions be sold to African-Americans." Wow. I did not know that. So, on the one hand, I absolutely believe that if you want to make the world a better place, first and foremost look in the mirror. On the other hand, those of us who (or whose parents or grandparents) have benefitted from this system have a responsibility to do our part to level the playing field. 5 •Share › Avatar A J Renegade_Skeptic • 9 days ago Right. Or at the very least, don't go around telling others "you just need to get over it and work hard like my family did." You can't erase what has been done, but you can't ignore that some families were able to build a legacy to leave to succeeding generations and some were not... 6 •Share › Avatar Lucy Frost Renegade_Skeptic • 9 days ago Agreed. 1 •Share › Avatar blue dog • 9 days ago They didn't teach this in my history class. 4 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse blue dog • 9 days ago Our history books are full of falsehoods. 5 •Share › Avatar seasonya blue dog • 9 days ago racist assumptions usually never are 1 •Share › Avatar blue dog seasonya • 9 days ago I think there is lots of evidence that this is not an assumption but fact. 9 •Share › Avatar seasonya blue dog • 9 days ago Their is no "fact" saying white people are responsible for the poor state of the black community in 2015 •Share › Avatar blue dog seasonya • 9 days ago Not totally but in part due to historical maneuvering of laws. Try listening to the interview or reading the article. 9 •Share › Avatar seasonya blue dog • 9 days ago I dont listen to racists of any color •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago I wouldn't say that. You seem to love your own commentary. 11 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet LethargicSynapse • 8 days ago Maybe he isn't listening to himself, either. 2 •Share › Avatar chris9k LethargicSynapse • 8 days ago He does that a lot. Even with all the experts and the evidence that's stacked against his own commentary. He's on the wrong news site if he only wants to be told what he wants to hear. Same reason the typical Fox News watcher accuses NPR of being "liberal." 1 •Share › Avatar therain blue dog • 2 days ago liberals like to rewrite history •Share › Avatar blue dog therain • 2 days ago While Cons like to ignore history. •Share › Avatar L Humphrey • 9 days ago The broader context is usually easier for the majority to digest than the narrower context that is the focus of this piece...unless the focus is on African Americans. The majority race in the U.S. quite often gets nervous when we discuss the historical inequalities of Blacks in this country. They want to insert their own historical trials into the narrative. That's fine and dandy, but please refrain from comparing migrants who came to this country through, say Ellis Island, to attain the American dream to those people who were kidnapped and brought to this country and left to blindly work through the malignant infrastructure that succeeded in many ways to prevent that group of people from attaining that same American dream. Even in the ghetto context, you can't compare the "willing" migrant story with the "forced" migrant story. 4 •Share › Avatar Meghan Kowalski • 8 days ago Easily the most important story I have ever heard on NPR. 3 •Share › Avatar Chron Thompson • 9 days ago George Romney's actions are proof that sometimes the apple falls VERY far from the tree. 3 •Share › Avatar therain Chron Thompson • 2 days ago What is that ignorant statement supposed to mean? •Share › Avatar Jackie Sternberg • 9 days ago Terrific show. Reminds us just HOW institutionalized racism is in our country. I resented President Obama's off-handedly calling rioters in Baltimore "thugs." I knew in my gut that many of the people there must have simmered with anger and frustration, just waiting for a match to light the fuse. Today's speaker justified my gut feeling about that. I think there's much more anger where THAT came from. I really appreciate the wonderful work and research the Economic Policy Institute in D.C. does, and am proud that I worked with them a couple of years. 5 •Share › Avatar Jeff Lebowski • 9 days ago Ghettos are an international phenomenon, not just an American one. The first ghettos in America were "created" by immigrants who wanted to live together in common culture and language before transitioning out; these areas gradually became traps for later groups. If Mr. Rothstein isn't willing to put the American ghetto phenomenon in its larger context, and to allow for factors that pre-existed his given ones, then I'd suspect he was under pressure to get a book written a bit too quickly. 4 •Share › Avatar James Jeff Lebowski • 9 days ago There is a HUGE difference between ghettoization by choice and ghettoization by force. 15 •Share › Avatar louieglutz James • 9 days ago do we get to see some of the documentation for these statements? like the levittown allegations, which, if true, are very serious. •Share › Avatar Tony Reynolds louieglutz • 9 days ago Archives of the Congressional Record and similar state documents. State and county historical societies. I have personally seen and read many of the documents during earlier (much) research. 4 •Share › Avatar louieglutz Tony Reynolds • 9 days ago im glad you have, how does anybody else gain access? and why can't the article post some of that documentation? don't they have it either? •Share › Avatar A J louieglutz • 9 days ago For starters, the 1936 FHA Underwriting Guidelines: http://wbhsi.net/~wendyplotkin... •Share › Avatar louieglutz A J • 9 days ago thanks, i particularly like the reference to "inharmonious racial groups. not unlike the jews, irish, and poles in earlier years. we wasps had it together back then... •Share › Avatar Jeff Lebowski James • 9 days ago Absolutely, and that was my point; both are real historical phenomena, and neither should be touted as the entire story. •Share › Avatar bleemorrison Jeff Lebowski • 9 days ago The Immigrants were forced to live together also due to the the economics. They could not afford to live in other areas of the city THE difference between blacks and immigrants is even if they could afford to purchase a home in another part of the city they were not legally permitted to do this. This is still happening. WE just choose to believe it magically stopped in 1948 with a Supreme court ruling. 2 •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur bleemorrison • 9 days ago True in the past, but not true in the present. Anyone is legally entitled to buy any property they want. Where the issue comes in is with the lenders. Banks will often quote higher interest rates for minority families who seek to buy a home in an area they do not "belong" in and real estate agents will not show homes in neighborhoods that they feel are not "suitable" for a family. I once lived in a trailer park (16 years ago when I was a single mother in college) that apparently had a "whites only" policy. I did not know this until the day I had some new furniture delivered. The delivery people were black. Before the furniture was unloaded, the owner of the park was at my door, wanting to know who they were and why they were there. When I had black friends from college visit, neighbors told me that was not "allowed." My response was to let anyone try to stop me having guests of my choice. I'd see them in court. I was appalled. 1 •Share › Avatar bleemorrison Beverly Arthur • 4 days ago Beverly Arthur The neighborhood called the Highland Park in Dallas still to this day have laws against selling to blacks. They may not say that is WHY a black person doesn't live in that area of the city but that is why. Million dollar homes that even professional Athletics can not afford.... OR no one will sell to them. The Real Estate Agents just don't show black people homes in that area AND the owners are NOT ABOUT to sell to minorities. When one is buying a home they seek homes that are affordable to them. Why would they pay extract just to prove they can live in an area that will soon be black either way. My ex husband and I purchased a home in a neighborhood where we were the second black family by the time we divorced and moved it was more than 80% black. Bet your park is a little darker than it use to be. •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur bleemorrison • a day ago They may have "customs," but they are not laws. That is illegal. And, by the way, that grungy trailer park is still "lily white." No one has had either the money or the patience to take them to court. I wish someone would, but I understand why they don't. I wish people would get their heads out of their rear ends and realize that we are all people - skin color should not matter. •Share › Avatar Jeff Lebowski bleemorrison • 9 days ago Again, true: But this is not the gist of the article, which hints at a conspiracy of sorts. This did not occur, for instance, with early German, Italian, Irish, Jewish, and other immigrants who could "pass." It was the only choice for those who landed without financial resources. How and why it evolved into a semi-enforced situation is, it seems to me, a major portion of the (hi)story. 1 •Share › Avatar Alexis T Jeff Lebowski • 9 days ago That's false. Redlining explicitly applied to Jews and restrictive covenants were placed against them. The difference is that Jews were able to bust redlining and covenants much earlier than blacks--an interfaith couple actually sued in Baltimore in the '40s, but policies and informal discrimination were extensive through the 1960s. If you were Jewish, you'd be shown a home in Great Neck; if you were Catholic, they'd show you one in Manhasset. One town on Long Island made the news in the 1990s when a Jewish person finally moved in. (It was one of the Brookvilles, but I can't remember which.) 4 •Share › Avatar A J Jeff Lebowski • 9 days ago Aren't conspiracies perpetuated in dark corners? This doesn't suggest conspiracy at all, this appears to be pretty overt. •Share › Avatar Katie Kauffmann Jeff Lebowski • 9 days ago Give me a break! Even my little town, with a population of 1800 people in 1920 (to pick a year) had a "Little Italy" also a "Frenchtown". Denver had a "Little Italy" as well. Ever heard of the "Gilded Ghettos", ie, Jewish suburbs? Omaha had an area where Swedish immigrants lived. My childhood hometown, oddly, had no "Little Italy", though it had a huge Italian population. It did have a Polish section, which is still sort of in existence today. Pittsburgh, its parent city, had an Italian, Polish and Jewish section. Squirrel HIll, the Jewish area, is still fairly Jewish today. •Share › Avatar Arnold Flores Jeff Lebowski • 9 days ago I don't really disagree with your statement, except for the part about this book being written too quickly. It seems pretty topical based on current events. Also based on the written story, was this interview about a book? or just a study? Anyway, you are correct about urban ghettos not being only a plight experienced by African Americans. I actually lived on the edge of a white urban ghetto (Richmond VA's Oregon Hill, since raised by developers) and it seemed to have very similar issues to those that are associated with African American ghettos, It always made me feel that the environment does shape the lifestyle as much as (or maybe even more) than culture does. So yes, a comprehensive study about the causes and effects of isolated inner-city poor neighborhoods that examines this phenomena across racial and cultural lines is certainly called for, but for right now this study seems relevant to me. 1 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Arnold Flores • 8 days ago You lived in Richmond and you think Oregon Hill was a ghetto in comparison to most of the Jefferson Davis Hwy in Richmond, Blackwell, Manchester, Church Hill, Monroe Park, Carver, and the Hollywood Cemetery neighborhood? •Share › Avatar Jeff Lebowski Arnold Flores • 9 days ago My impression was that he was taking the specific situation you recognize and generalizing it to explain the entire American phenomenon. That would be a disservice to history. But if, as you say, he's only trying to cover more recent phenomena, he does a pretty good job. •Share › Avatar MsGolightly Jeff Lebowski • 9 days ago Or maybe that these other "ethnic" neighborhoods were later deemed ghettos due to their racial or ethnic homogeneity much later. But lets be honest about something, when someone uses the word "ghetto" in common vernacular, they aren't referring to homogenous Italians, Irish or Asian communities. Or are we going to be equally myopic about the current American lexicon and the way "ghetto" is used in relaxed speech...? •Share › Avatar seasonya MsGolightly • 9 days ago Yes people just "deemed" compton a ghetto •Share › Avatar TOM WILLIAMS Jeff Lebowski • 9 days ago What you say is true, but in later years, ghettos were used and CREATED by the city elite to supply votes to keep the machine politicians in power. When people are kept in close quarters, they can be more easily controlled and manipulated. That's why big city politicians hate suburbs. •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet TOM WILLIAMS • 8 days ago " That's why big city politicians hate suburbs." No, they hate suburbs because the cities don't get to collect income taxes once they hop just outside of the city limits. •Share › Avatar Jan Bauman • 8 days ago In the early 1960s I lived in Los Angeles and was active in our local Democratic club. When we heard that a new tract of homes had opened in Torrance and that the builder was refusing to sell to anyone who wasn't white our entire club went to join the picket line that had been organized to protest the blatant discrimination. As we walked around and around the block the FBI and the police were there to take pictures of us. Across the street were a bunch of young men armed with broken bottles who were yelling terrible epithets at us. Did the FBI or the police take photos of the thugs or even tell them to stop their threats and bottle wielding? Of course not. 2 •Share › Avatar BobDobbins • 8 days ago It was simple across the south...the city drew some lines for each race and you lived inside those lines. "Wards" weren't political boundaries, they were racial boundaries. If you were black and not inside your line, you might not live at all...and if you weren't sure about this, there was usually a sign informing you in no uncertain terms. The Depression presented the opposite problem for the first time - so many poor whites flocked to the cities that they overflowed into the black areas, one example being Clyde Barrow's dad. Blockbusting wasn't a problem until the official racial lines were erased. The history lessons may be sanitized but I think this author has it backwards - they were new tools for the same old dirty work. 2 •Share › Avatar Cat's Paw BobDobbins • 8 days ago Sometimes the lines were the railroad tracks. Thus some came from the wrong side of the tracks. •Share › Avatar Lucy Frost • 8 days ago When a sports team cheats to win, do we blame the losing team for not taking personal responsibility? When a candidate cheats an election, do we say to the other candidate that they have only themselves to blame? I'm all about personal responsibility and accountability. I know that when we show up as our best selves, and do our best, our circumstance usually improve. But it takes a level playing field for those principles to be profoundly effective. 2 •Share › Avatar Chad Dattilio Lucy Frost • 8 days ago Not everyone "cheats" to win. I finished high school, waited until I got married to have children, and I work full-time. There are studies showing that people who do just those 3 things have a poverty rate of 2%. I know there are structural forces at work in the black / white achievement gap (I agree housing discrimination used to be one of them)... but it's still the truth that if you try hard you can make it (whatever your definition of make it is). And I agree that there's not a level playing field when you look at the advantages kids in middle class suburbs have against kids in inner cities. But things just aren't going to get better as long as we have this mindset to just keep blaming white people. We have to encourage the adults in these communities to be better role models and supports also. Read a book to your kid. Make sure they're going to class. Keep them away from drugs. Kids can't do these things themselves. These are simple things but make a huge difference in a kid's trajectory and don't take millions of government dollars to implement. 1 •Share › Avatar Lucy Frost Chad Dattilio • 7 days ago The cheating to which I was referring was the systematic, government-imposed segregation and exclusion from economic opportunities as laid out in the news story. I am interested in whether you listened to the full story and heard the part about post-WWII home purchases, for example. This economist has studied the issue for years and points to that factor as one of the primary reasons that black wealth is just 5% of white wealth. I am also curious as to the source of the 2% poverty rate for those who finish high school, work full time and have children after marriage. If you have a link to any of those studies, please post it. •Share › Avatar Chad Dattilio Lucy Frost • 4 days ago http://www.brookings.edu/resea... •Share › Avatar baxters • 9 days ago Slavery, segregation, racism, prejudice, official policies to keep people poor--and then people are angry at the victims! I must point out, however, if you are white and want to rent a house in West Baltimore, no one will let you rent there. Some will be polite, some direct, some indirect, but no white person will be allowed to rent there. You'll be told that it's not the place for you. 2 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet baxters • 8 days ago People told me that about the neighborhood I was moving to in Cleveland, but it turned out that my money was just as good as a non-white person's. •Share › Avatar Stephen Williams • 9 days ago Yes, I grew up in Oakland, California in the 1950's and 1960's. I watched the city turn from majority White to Black, because of these sleazy practices detailed here. Oakland was once a great city and slid into a slum with a sky high crime rate and it never has really recovered from that. 2 •Share › Avatar Ray Sanders Stephen Williams • 8 days ago How did these sleazy practices turn it from white to black? Why did it turn into a slum after it became majority black? •Share › Avatar James Hulsey Ray Sanders • 8 days ago Lack of wealth, due to the practices talked about in the interview about how the blacks were systematically denied the opportunities to gain wealth that were available to whites. Slums are about lack of wealth. Just look at the ones in Europe. Next question. •Share › Avatar Kathleen Cali • 9 days ago If you're looking for the full report by Mr. Rothstein, here's the link: http://www.epi.org/publication... Enjoy! 2 •Share › Avatar Cat's Paw • 9 days ago There's more. ... why does the article end so abruptly? There are more policies and practices that continue through more recent history and ... has not ended yet. Talk about redlining for example. 2 •Share › Avatar Cat's Paw Cat's Paw • 9 days ago Racism played into redlining. Redlining played into making mortgages affordable for everyone. Affordable mortgages played into weakening economy leading to Bush II meltdown. ... •Share › Avatar Cat's Paw Cat's Paw • 9 days ago Which leads to accusations that irresponsible borrower's -- "That" demographic -- are to blame for the economic meltdown. Which leads conservatives to wish for the good old days of protecting the status quo, and turning a laissez fair eye towards the Ghetto. Good ole supply side economics, in which those who have, have, -- and those who have not, are probably criminals 1 •Share › Avatar Cat's Paw Cat's Paw • 9 days ago Which leads to both kinds of gerrymandering, the kind that gives voice to "That" demographic, as well as the kind that takes voice from "That" demographic. 1 •Share › Avatar J Lee • 9 days ago The EXACT same narrative also applies to Black & Native American Farmers. Government-based "Affirmative Action" in which White Farmers received every possible aid/assistance possible while their non-white counterparts were left to compete within a 'rigged' system. 2 •Share › Avatar Wade Wilson • 9 days ago NPR conveniently stops just short of the Democratic policies in the 60's and 70's that led to condensed low-income housing known as the Projects. Guess you still want to sanitize some parts of how our government still creates ghettos. 2 •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago When will people simply take responsibility for themselves. It's really that easy. once you stop spending your energy blaming others, you can use it to improve your own life. 3 •Share › Avatar enpare Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago Yes, as long as people aren't actively working to keep you down. 6 •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch Raymond Crosse • 8 days ago Pretty easy to say for people who grow up in the burbs, rather than growing up in a struggling neighborhood and seeing all of your friends and family on the brink of poverty. It's pretty easy to understand that people like me, growing up in a middle class home had much more chances to succeed than many in the ghettos. Social mobility doesn't exist in America. the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" idiom only works if you have boots to begin with. In fact, many of the young people in the area do take advantage of the opportunities they have, unfortunately, though, those opportunities tend to be either drug dealing or robbing. Talk is cheap. Let's see you go to the ghetto and raise your kids to be successful or succeed yourself using only what's around you. Bet you can't. 2 •Share › Avatar RageOfAchilles Matt Lynch • 8 days ago You just reminded me of tracking in school based on socio-economic status. Though it is more "class based," historically, blacks were more likely to be tracked into lower groups based on the amount they earned. Yes, this is real. I was in 7th grade "reading class" with a friend who had a 139 IQ, however, we were poor so that is where we ended up. •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse Matt Lynch • 8 days ago I come from one of the worst parts of Detroit. Keep assuming a false narrative, and what you'll arrive at is a fallacy. •Share › Avatar RageOfAchilles Raymond Crosse • 8 days ago Certainly. I can't stand it when whites always blame blacks for their own shortcomings, or perpetuating urban legends. "Oh, I got a better score on the civil service test but they gave the job to a black guy." Who hasn't heard this line of BS? Completely ignore the fact that what gets one a job is: a resume, work ethic, references, and the recommendation of the instructors at the academy. Oh, and civil service test scores aren't public and no, you don't know a "black guy that told his score just to you." I've heard that line too many times. 1 •Share › Avatar kingtuc Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago No. Just... No. 1 •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse kingtuc • 9 days ago The bigotry of lowered expectations. •Share › Avatar kingtuc Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago No way... I felt you were undermining an entire field of sociology. I don't know if you listen to the program but the guest is pretty convincing and his claims align with most sociological historians on the matter (as far as I can tell). The issue of ghettos is vastly complex and cannot be solved on personal will alone. 1 •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse kingtuc • 9 days ago You know how I was able to break out of Hamtramck, Mi? I joined the Army. I didn't even tell anyone, I just did it and left. That was in '97. •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch Raymond Crosse • 8 days ago So you have two options: Kill or die? And that's assuming you are physically capable of serving. What does someone with a bone disease do? 1 •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse Matt Lynch • 8 days ago Oh brother. Pettifog much? •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch Raymond Crosse • 5 days ago My point is that there are not a lot of options for people in that situation. The army is fine, but not everyone qualifies for it. It's in our best interest to provide more avenues for people in poor areas to succeed. That's one, but there should be more that are more universally applicable. •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Matt Lynch • 8 days ago Or dyslexia, autism, cotton allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, sickle cell, immunodeficiency, have dental braces, diabetes, knee problems (or any joint problems, really), severe astigmatism, endometriosis, an undescended testicle, men who aren't 60-80 inches, women who aren't 58-80 inches, obese, asthma, cleft lip/palate, chronic seasonal allergies, epileptic, medication for academic functionality after age 12, transsexual, sleep apnea, sleepwalking, significant eczema, certain types and sizes and locations of tattoos, plantar warts, scoliosis, any type of spinal injury, lupus, bee allergies, motion sickness, HIV, any type of heart defect of any kind, or a single parent without significant documentation to prove without a doubt that your military service will not negatively impact your children. Oh, and "Any condition that in the opinion of the examining medical officer will significantly interfere with the successful performance of military duty or training may be a cause for rejection for appointment, enlistment, and induction." •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch PhysicistVet • 8 days ago That's a lot of reasons. Glad you clarified =] •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago What if someone can't join the military? 1 •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse LethargicSynapse • 8 days ago Of course, because I used myself as an anecdotal example, you're going to assume that I mean this as the only way out of the slums. Of all the people I knew/know that made it out of that place, the common denominator was a father being present in the home. You could start there. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Raymond Crosse • 8 days ago Where did I say that you said it was the "only way" out of anything? I asked you a simple question. What should people in a fatherless home that can't join the military do? •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse LethargicSynapse • 8 days ago Work. They should work hard. So hard that people notice. And read. Not riot, but read. Volunteer. Start a business. No, not Microsoft, child care or lawn mowing, I have a kid that picks up dog crap in my neighborhood for money. He doesn't know it yet, but next summer he'll be working a forklift for me. Because he's reliable, and doesn't do drugs. Let me guess... your next question will be, "What if they can't pick up dog crap?" I'm done playing your game. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Raymond Crosse • 7 days ago Yeah, what about if there are few jobs in the area as is the case in many of these low-income housing areas? Start a business? Is everyone able to be an entrepreneur? That's not really a skill everyone has, you know. How do you make a jump from picking up dog crap to running a forklift which takes training to do? Does OSHA know about this? My point is that you can't just assume there's always an easy answer to everyone's situation. I'm not playing a game, I'm trying to open your eyes to the realities other people face-something you might not be able to empathize with. •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse LethargicSynapse • 7 days ago He's running the forklift, because I'm going to train him. Anyone willing to pick up dog crap, is going to really appreciate the job I give them. OSHA is going to love this guy. Self motivation is the key to success. Anyone who buys into, and succumbs to, the idea of dependance might as well be a slave. It only takes one person with leadership and motivation to create a job for ten others. What you suffer from is the bigotry of lowered expectations. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Raymond Crosse • 7 days ago I don't have "lowered expectations," I'm a realist and realize that not everyone has the same opportunities. Not everyone has someone that can train them on a forklift, or jobs locally that they can work at to gain meaningful employment, or the ability to join the military, et cetera. That's not to say there aren't always some sort of options but they're not always good ones. •Share › Avatar TheUnPossible Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago lol 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago They should've KNOWN better than to be Jewish! 1 •Share › Avatar enpare LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Sad part is people think that way. 1 •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago Are the Jews today blaming any of their shortcoming on the holocaust? Or do they move on striving to get past it and create their own future? Personal responsibility. They don't play the victim. •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch Raymond Crosse • 8 days ago Well, the obvious difference being that the Jews were given land by the UN and $$$$ and guns by the US for decades. Personal responsibility? You mean begging the US government for more and more help? That's the poster child you want to put on this? Let's face it, the nation of Israel would collapse within 5 years if the US stopped pumping Billions into their military. If anything, it's an example of how people CAN succeed if you help them up. Your tax money pays for the success of the Jewish nation state, and you see that as a triumph but helping the poor in your own country is theft? •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse Matt Lynch • 8 days ago Whereas, all the the money being dumped into Ghettos has produced nothing but the proliferation of the ghetto. It won't be until people use that help to help themselves will that situation get better. See where I'm going with this? •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch Raymond Crosse • 5 days ago Giving people money isn't going to produce changes until you can bring people out of their situation enough to properly educate them. Uneducated people are, unfortunately, pretty predictable in that. I think we agree that what we are doing now isn't very effective, but I don't think doing nothing is likely to make things better, since these areas don't really have any ways of generating income. I would much rather see more money spent in smarter ways that actually have been proven to work than try to strip the areas of everything. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago Do you know all the descendants of Holocaust survivors? •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Do you know all of the black people who lived in Ghetto's? What's your point? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago I know a lot of them. You didn't answer my question. By the way, did Jews after the Holocaust continue to suffer the same persecution or policies directed against them? 1 •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago You mean the entire Muslim world wanting to eradicate them. Yeah, they still have that happening. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago So the Nazis were Muslims? •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago You don't know much about Nazi and Muslims. A brief google of the relationship during WWII should clear that up for you. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago Answer me-were Nazis Muslims? •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse LethargicSynapse • 8 days ago They were allies, very strong allies during WWII. The ideology is the same. Their goals were similar enough to influence each others attitudes toward the Jews. Just do a little reading, I promise, it won't hurt you. •Share › Avatar RageOfAchilles LethargicSynapse • 8 days ago No. They were Christians. Everyone knows that. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse RageOfAchilles • 8 days ago That's why the "same persecution" thing doesn't really apply to the Holocaust scenario the way it does to African-Americans in post-slavery America. •Share › Avatar RageOfAchilles LethargicSynapse • 8 days ago No. It means you don't understand the connection between Nazis and Muslims. As the previous poster said. I was just telling you that Nazis were Christians. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse RageOfAchilles • 7 days ago Sorry, but Nazis and Muslims have NOTHING to do with African-Americans HERE. That was my point. I know Nazis were "Christians," but they persecuted Muslims as they saw them as subhuman. That's not even close to being similar. You can gloss over that all you like but it just looks ridiculous. •Share › Avatar RageOfAchilles LethargicSynapse • 7 days ago You're still not following. This is no longer my problem. It is yours. Peace. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse RageOfAchilles • 7 days ago You and I both know you had no point to begin with. •Share › Avatar RageOfAchilles LethargicSynapse • 6 days ago Please re-read the conversation. You asked if Nazis were Muslims, I answered. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse RageOfAchilles • 6 days ago You answered a question that wasn't actually being asked, if you'd read the conversation yourself for context. •Share › Avatar RageOfAchilles LethargicSynapse • 6 days ago "LethargicSynapse Raymond Crosse • 3 days ago Answer me-were Nazis Muslims?" That wasn't being asked? Well, then stop using a question mark. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse RageOfAchilles • 6 days ago Again, context. Did you miss that part? Oh, I get it-you read the parts you wanted to and ignored the rest. That explains things. •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago You must know a lot of people then •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago I do, actually, but I never said I know all of them. •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Just "most" Of course the actual large projects housing thousands of people each- no issue with that reality •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch seasonya • 8 days ago He never said "most" you made that up. He said "a lot". 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago When did I say most, either? Stop making up things that I said. •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Sorry you know "a lot of them" •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Yeah, how many is "a lot?" Is that now "most?" •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago You are the one claiming to know so many people as to be an expert. why dont you tell me? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago When did I say I'm an expert? Your strawman tactics are tired. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago He probably just focuses on the positive things Adolf did like the Autobahn and Volkswagen. 1 •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago What an asinine statement. 1 •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch Raymond Crosse • 8 days ago You certainly aren't painting yourself in a good light here... •Share › Avatar seasonya Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago get use to mindless insults and attacks if you want to argue against the evil white man concept •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago So sensitive. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago I get it- you have nothing to contribute and are here to parrot insults. Now stop wasting comment space for everyone else •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet seasonya • 8 days ago "I get it- you have nothing to contribute and are here to parrot insults. Now stop wasting comment space for everyone else" I get it- you have nothing to contribute and are here to parrot insults. Now stop wasting comment space for everyone else 1 •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago "get used to mindless insults and attacks if you want to argue against the evil white man concept" LOL 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago I have about 20 of them from you alone •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Flagged me, huh? 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago Nope- the mod likely is getting tired of you one line insults over and over •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago You may need help. We've talked about this before. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago such a brave typist •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago I don't feel brave... you're making me cry. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse enpare • 9 days ago Stop laughing so hard, then. 1 •Share › Avatar enpare LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Bah! Got me 1 •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Likewise. I just don't cry about it. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago What was mindless about my comment? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago Because you said so? I suppose you'd be the expert. •Share › Avatar seasonya • 9 days ago Do you hold the jews responsible for their current ghetto Palestine- or do they get a pass because of what hapened in the past? •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch seasonya • 8 days ago I blame the UN for creating the nation of Israel, which in turn gained both IS and AQ a much bigger following than they normally would have had (but I digress). I don't think the Holocaust gives Israel a pass for the nonsense they've committed since. Just like slavery (I'm guessing that's what you're implying?) has relatively minimal bearing on the current situation for the American poor. The fact is that ghettos were created long after slavery was abolished. Many people are still living who lived under active segregation in the US. Systemic racism was a real thing and it wasn't very long ago. Combine that with the fact that social mobility is awful in the US, so the poor stay poor. You don't need active racism to create a perceived racial divide because the effects of racism of old are still very much being felt. Maybe if your grandfather had been legally discriminated against (as in it was actually written into law) you would understand a little better. It isn't about white guilt or anything like that. It's about helping the poor of this country, who, for the reasons stated above, happen to be predominantly black, actively participate in the economy by giving them the tools to do so. Sure, there are racists, but the systemic problem has a lot more to so with the poor (though the two are correlated, as mentioned). Put yourself in their position, for once. It's not easy to be poor in this country. 1 •Share › Avatar FreedomProvider • 9 days ago How novel! Blame white men! What a brilliant, original, and illuminating insight. (Snore.......) 3 •Share › Avatar B.R. Fly FreedomProvider • 9 days ago Actually, white people, men in particular, and their desire for supremacy, are responsible for quite alot that is wrong with the (western) world. We can all try to hide from this, but that does not make it any less true. We have to look it in the face and do better. 4 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse B.R. Fly • 9 days ago True, though to be fair it's a minority of white men that perpetrated these acts... it's also not really fair to blame white men in general for the acts of a few. 1 •Share › Avatar B.R. Fly LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago I'm looking at it historically. White men wanted supremacy even over other white men. The death, destruction and general havoc spread around the world because of this will not go away any time soon. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse B.R. Fly • 9 days ago Historically, men have sought supremacy over other men regardless of ethnicity. Again, it was not the majority of white men responsible for these acts, and to blame all white men-including those that are alive today and weren't at that period in time-is extremely unfair. 1 •Share › Avatar B.R. Fly LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Did you invent money, or the rules for how it is used? No. Do we have to live by rules set down by people long dead? Yes. That is an example of how people who are no longer around can dramatically influence things long after they die. By setting up a system or putting things in place that do not die when they do. Now, the system in the US was/-IS- designed to keep white people on top. Even the poorest white person from Anywhere, USA, used to be guaranteed that they were 'better' than non-whites, no matter what. What we see in some of the attitudes currently on display around the country is a push-back because that is no longer automatically the case. And, no, not all white people are in the 'supremacy' camp, but that does not stop them from reaping the benefits of a system that was set up long before they were born. The fact that I didn't plant the tree, does not stop me from eating the fruit. 2 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse B.R. Fly • 9 days ago I'm perfectly aware of how history affects the present. Unfortunately that doesn't negate my point at all. People being guaranteed something by others hardly makes the situation their fault. Guilt by association? Really? Are white people supposed to apologize every day for being white? What's your point, exactly? •Share › Avatar B.R. Fly LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Pardon me. I thought the person who wrote: "How novel! Absolve whites of any wrongdoing in the past and lay all the blame at the feet of the victims! What a brilliant, original and illuminating insight." would be a little more illuminated and nuanced in their thinking. If you think I'm throwing guilt then I am wasting my time. Have a good one. •Share › Avatar seasonya B.R. Fly • 9 days ago If you think I am going to feel guilt for being born white then you are wasting my time •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse B.R. Fly • 9 days ago Just because someone doesn't agree with every single aspect of your arguments doesn't mean they're unintelligent oafs or lack a point. Any educated person would know the value of objectivity. I see you're now refusing to actually comment on the merits of my post, instead going the route of "you're white, so you're reaping benefits from racist policies" without explaining what should be done about or how to change things. Shall every white person leave the country? Will that make things better? My comment was obviously about whites in the past-not whites in the present being somehow responsible for past wrongs. It's hard to see how you're doing anything *but* "throwing guilt" when you make statements about modern whites benefiting from historical wrongs, as if it's somehow our fault. It would appear you're wasting your time indeed. •Share › Avatar B.R. Fly LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago ""you're white, so you're reaping benefits from racist policies" " This is a fact. I already said what I think will help our country with the legacy of institutionalized racism: "We have to look it in the face and do better." Pretending no one alive today is benefitting from it is absurd. Acknowledge it. Examine your personal attitudes toward non-white people, and DO BETTER. We are currently NOT doing a decent job of being as decent as we should be. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse B.R. Fly • 9 days ago "Do better" is a completely ambiguous statement and doesn't really say anything. I never said no one alive today benefits from the past policies in question. Please point me to where I said that. Again, I'd like some actual examples of how we can "do better" beyond just saying such, and I'd like to know how us benefiting from past wrongs somehow is our fault or can be changed. •Share › Avatar seasonya B.R. Fly • 9 days ago What policies do white people benefit from? •Share › Avatar Johnest LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Are you seriously trotting out the "not all white people" deflection? •Share › Avatar B.R. Fly Johnest • 9 days ago He doesn't understand that I'm trying to say that while "all" white people may not be interested in actively maintaining supremacy, they have indeed benefitted from it. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse B.R. Fly • 9 days ago I do understand that, but you've yet to explain how that matters in any way. I'll ask again, would it make you feel better if every white person just left so that we aren't benefiting from the past in any way? Are we supposed to feel guilt for said benefit? If not, what's the point of mentioning that? •Share › Avatar seasonya B.R. Fly • 9 days ago I did not benifit from affirmative action •Share › Avatar Johnest seasonya • 9 days ago I'll bet you have benefited from affirmative action. Or certainly someone in your family or circle has. It has been the norm in North America for 400 years. Historically and currently, white people are the largest beneficiaries from affirmative action since it's white people who have wielded power and the power to hire and who have more often than not excluded people of color in favor of good ol' boys who look and act just like them. Even where whites haven't affirmatively tried to hire other whites, since many hires occur via networking, who do you think will be hired when a white boss is networking with his white friends and family to fill a position? 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya Johnest • 9 days ago It helps to understand what affirmative action is •Share › Avatar Johnest seasonya • 9 days ago The affirmation of whiteness in this country is so absolute and so taken for granted, it's easy for one to not see it. Like missing the forest for the trees. Then again, some people are willfully blind to it. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya B.R. Fly • 9 days ago There is always Liberia or Zimbabwe •Share › Avatar B.R. Fly seasonya • 9 days ago Why would I want to do that? OOOOHHH I get it. You think that just because I show more than cursory understanding of why race relations in this country are so fraught, that I MUST be black..... 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya B.R. Fly • 9 days ago Because Liberia is a country founded by former US slaves seeking a land for themselves. And Liberia took away any rights of whites and all of their property. You should love such utopia's free of the white mans negative influence •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet seasonya • 8 days ago "Because Liberia is a country founded by former US slaves seeking a land for themselves." Ah yes, Liberia. The first US attempt at nation building and spreading democracy, which consisted entirely of sending as many former slaves overseas as possible with a government structure that we built as their only real resource. •Share › Avatar seasonya PhysicistVet • 8 days ago You dont understand let alone know your history •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago This is the reality for white men. •Share › Avatar seasonya B.R. Fly • 9 days ago Those darn mongols, romans, Egyptians, and chinese •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Stop attacking! 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Yet this is just what you are doing •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Clearly an attack here 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Really? When did I do that? Please, show me examples. •Share › Avatar enpare LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago He's really sensitive... 2 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago Mini lethargic synapse •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Every post you attack me for pointing out white people are also poor and affirmative action is the only racist US policy •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago I didn't "attack you," I'm merely pointing out the flaws in your logic-you're basing your views on simple numbers and not ratios, which is the more important measure. Affirmative action is designed to alleviate past ills, not create new ones, and I'd love to see some sort of hard evidence that shows white men have been negatively impacted by affirmative action. 2 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago holding innocent people responsible for problems long ago in the past is what racism is all about •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago No, it's not. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Nobody's doing that. I brought up the fact that white men in power instituted racist policies. •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago "Affirmative action is designed to alleviate past ills" And white men removed those same racist policies- including at a loss of hundreds of thousands of men.. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Not all at once, and it took centuries for those policies to be eradicated completely-plus the fact that today's blacks are still suffering from those policies through lifetimes of poverty and discrimination affecting their children's mobility later. •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago that is just not true. Each person lives their own life. My family was more poor than your average black family of the time in the 60's- I dont hold them responsible for my lifes outcome •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago It IS true and anecdotes don't eradicate generalities. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago so I am doomed becuase my family was in poverty...Got it •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago I guess you didn't comprehend my post. •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Your agenda does not apply to white folks....got it •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago I never said anything remotely close to that. Is making things up that others said really your main argumentative tactic? 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago poor black family= victim poor white family= privileged racists I fully understand your argument and the argument of this article •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago No, you only understand the arguments you make up so that you have something to attack. 2 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago No, you're making up arguments to try and attack them. •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Lol attacking you... here we go again. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago onward keyboard warrior •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Stop attacking me! 3 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago A brave typist such as yourself can handle it •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago I can't take this anymore! These personal attacks! Leave me alone! 2 •Share › Avatar seasonya B.R. Fly • 9 days ago Wow- that is some racist stuff right there •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Keep trying. •Share › Avatar B.R. Fly enpare • 9 days ago Keep flagging. •Share › Avatar enpare B.R. Fly • 9 days ago Me? •Share › Avatar seasonya B.R. Fly • 9 days ago I wondered who was flagging all my comments. I guess some never leave the sandbox. •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago PLEASE!!! 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse FreedomProvider • 9 days ago How novel! Absolve whites of any wrongdoing in the past and lay all the blame at the feet of the victims! What a brilliant, original and illuminating insight. 2 •Share › Avatar MsGolightly FreedomProvider • 9 days ago Not at all. This article was about understanding American history. There is a difference. 1 •Share › Avatar Bonnie Krupp • 2 days ago Good grief, the comprehension level of the comments is laughable. All the liberal democrats should return to 6th grade. The racism is from Democrats who started this with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat president. They created the ghettos for their purpose. Why? So they had a block of voters to influence elections to Congress. Look at Conyers, Rangel, Johnson, etc.. Take a look at yourself and just how mind boggling your statements are. Roosevelt wiped out mixed neighborhoods for public housing and how did that turn out? Bedford Stuyvesant was a prime example. Now take a good look at Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit and look at who has been elected to office running these cities into the ground. Baltimore is a prime example. It isn't just African Americans, the hispanic politicians prey on their voters too. Reread the article! 1 •Share › Avatar Marieva Bonnie Krupp • 2 days ago I totally agree! •Share › Avatar Matthew Arntzen • 7 days ago We can always introduce the theory of the CIA's involvement in inner-city drugs too... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... 1 •Share › Avatar Mortie121 Matthew Arntzen • 7 days ago Thanks for the link, Matthew. And I think you can actually go further back, to the 60's when heroin began pouring into black neighborhoods to get to the young people and break the back of the civil rights movement. Drugs have been working like a charm ever since. Kind of reminds me of a poster that was popular when I was growing up. It said: "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you!" 1 •Share › Avatar Forlorn_Hope Matthew Arntzen • 6 days ago The huffington post? Really? Stop it. •Share › Avatar Alykhan • 8 days ago Well done Fresh Air! Instead of fretting about other folk's backyards we should clean out our own stables. Once again: Bravo! 1 •Share › Avatar ed johnson • 8 days ago All good and well but segregation doesn't cause people to kill each other at 8 times the national rate. Segregation doesn't cause people to sneer at pursuing education as "acting white". You can use history to blame anything that goes on today but at the end of the day individuals have choices. 1 •Share › Avatar Mortie121 ed johnson • 8 days ago Actually that's EXACTLY what racism does. And I'm still astounded at how powerful cultural brainwashing is, coming from either side. 2 •Share › Avatar Cat's Paw ed johnson • 8 days ago Abuse is a trait that mimics a genetic trait. (I didn't say abuse is genetic ... I said it MIMICS a genetic trait) That means an abusive parent was probably an abused child, and is more likely to abuse his children. My great grandfather was a small boy during The Civil War. If he had been an abused child, my grandfather may well have been an abusive parent to my father, and I would be an abused child, ... not unlikely to be an abusive parent. .... It is hard to imagine any abuse worse than conceiving children through rape into slavery, only to sell them downriver. Yet we know, this was the plight of many slaves prior to The Civil War. So please do not dismiss history so lightly in regards to this issue. Slavery was not that long ago in the first place, and in the second place our society has fought enlightenment tooth and nail ever since. Our society fights integration even today. 1 •Share › Avatar a h ed johnson • 8 days ago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... 1 •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols • 8 days ago I think we'll see a different kind of poverty as the inner cities become gentrified and poverty moves to the suburbs. It's already there, and it is harder to see. 1 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Linda Nichols • 8 days ago Already happening. 1 •Share › Avatar RageOfAchilles • 8 days ago You forgot redlining. That has only recently been repealed in parts, probably still in effect in others. 1 •Share › Avatar Cinda Gorman • 8 days ago This term has deep and deliberately sinister roots: "The Venetian Ghetto was the area of Venice in which Jews were compelled to live under the Venetian Republic. It is from its name in Italian ("ghetto"), that the English word "ghetto" is derived: in the Venetian language it was named "ghèto". The Venetian Ghetto (incidentally, the first Ghetto) was instituted in 1516, though political restrictions on Jewish rights and residences existed before that date."[1Weiner, Rebecca. "The Virtual Jewish History Tour" link: https://www.jewishvirtuallibra... (Wikipedia) 1 •Share › Avatar Daedalus • 8 days ago This guy better have some serious evidence to back up his libellous assertions. 1 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Daedalus • 8 days ago You mean like the serious evidence he has? 1 •Share › Avatar Don Westerlund Daedalus • 8 days ago History should never be "sanitized." Likewise, history should never be based on "cherry-picked" facts. I am personally in no position to make that kind of assessment on this issue. However... I do believe that historians' accounts of history should reflect "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." (All sides of any issue -- however unequal they may be -- need to be reflected in any fair/accurate/unbiased assessment.) But... IMHO, that complete truth is what always comes out.... eventually. And... I absolutely hope that in this case "eventually" is sooner rather than later. •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols Daedalus • 8 days ago Did you read the article?? •Share › Avatar dan considine • 9 days ago Slavery 2.0, My 11 year old African-Japanese daughter suffers some description here in Japan. But it is basically from a few kids. Perhaps their attitudes reflect that of their parents. Bt over all I feel more confident that she will be able to grow more like the rest of the citizens here than she would in the USA. African Americans should move to more tolerant countries with less historical/institutional bigotry towards people of color. 1 •Share › Avatar Ray Sanders dan considine • 8 days ago I suggest Africa. There they wouldn't have to be subject to white oppression and racism. It would be like living in paradise. I don't know why oppressed black people don't leave. It is a free country and nothing is stopping them from leaving. 1 •Share › Avatar a h Ray Sanders • 8 days ago false •Share › Avatar T Y • 9 days ago I learned from my parents that African-American families were not to be sold houses or given mortgages in my city for decades. That didn't change until about 40 years ago. There were still virtually no black kids at my high school when I was there 10 years ago. These legacies still linger. Anyone who suggests black people in ghettos are there by their on fault is beyond ignorant. 1 •Share › Avatar Ray Sanders T Y • 8 days ago Yes, it doesn't matter that you are still in the ghetto because you dropped out of school or had babies out of wedlock. No those are the fault of white oppression and racism. I didn't even realize I possessed this power. I guess I am just to ignorant to figure it out. •Share › Avatar James Hulsey Ray Sanders • 8 days ago You just refuse to believe that those destructive behaviors are merely symptoms of the lack of wealth and opportunity those communities face. You turn the cause/effect relationship on its head. I had a cousin who talked a lot like you. He was a lower-class white guy who got jerked around by the system, but instead of blaming the more wealthy whites for his problems, he aimed his anger at the blacks who were in much the same boat as him. Getting out of the conservative news bubble is a good first step. 1 •Share › Avatar Richard Kosich • 9 days ago Try to not get caught up in the graveyards of the past, and look for solutions moving forward that will actually do more good than harm. Education is key, especially basic English literacy, so lets concentrate upon that first. . 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Richard Kosich • 9 days ago Ignoring the past is one of the least intelligent things we can do as a species. 3 •Share › Avatar Richard Kosich LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Agreed. But by fixating upon it you rob your future self. That's why I gently suggested not getting too caught up in that. These type of race-baiting, accusatory stories NPR luvs to run don't help solve anything, other than stir-up the pot just to see where the s*#t lands. 1 •Share › Avatar Johnest Richard Kosich • 9 days ago This story isn't race baiting. It's a factual recounting of history. If this story is race baiting, then a story about the French and Indian War is franco-baiting. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Richard Kosich • 9 days ago I disagree. The past is the most important learning tool we have, and to not learn from it is to repeat it-this has been shown to be the case repeatedly. •Share › Avatar Richard Kosich LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago You're not listening to what I'm saying, AND making false inferences where none are warranted, since you're obviously fixated upon a particular point at the expense of everything else. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Richard Kosich • 9 days ago I like how you say I made false inferences without explaining what they were. The past in this circumstance is paramount to moving on-it's impossible to do so without a good understanding of where we came from, which is why your point isn't a very valid one. •Share › Avatar Richard Kosich LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago And exactly what was my original point? •Share › Avatar L. D. Richard Kosich • 9 days ago Here it is your original post: "Try to not get caught up in the graveyards of the past" Don't focus on government policies that sponsored or condoned segregation and that were touted as the solution. "look for solutions moving forward that will actually do more good than harm." Talk about something positive now, in the present. Do not talk about or feel responsible for our past. "Education is key, especially basic English literacy, so lets concentrate upon that first." I do not have any interpretation for this statement you made. Is it?: If black kids in the ghetto just read, wrote (and spoke) like "everyone" else they would have a better start? Not if they are hungry, sleepy, afraid to come to school, afraid of people where they live and afraid to ever contact police, or, as adults, to ever have contact with white people who deal with them honestly and treat them fairly. 2 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Richard Kosich • 9 days ago Not sure why it was moderated but I'll repeat: Your original point was apparently to move on. That's something you can't do without an eye to the past. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Richard Kosich • 9 days ago It seems that your point is to "move on." •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch LethargicSynapse • 8 days ago I think the point is, that no matter what happened in the past, we can't change it, so for this specific issue, it makes sense to do what we can now to make life better for those stuck in poverty. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Matt Lynch • 8 days ago A fair point and one I can definitely agree with. •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch Richard Kosich • 8 days ago I agree, there are problems that seem to be specific to black people, but all in all, even those would go away if you removed the problems specific to poor people. The question is, though, how do you provide that education? It's pretty well documented, at this point that children who grow up in poor neighborhoods are very hard to educate properly. It seems that the poor in America need to be lifted up together for it to work. •Share › Avatar TheUnPossible Richard Kosich • 9 days ago No, please! This is supposed to be a happy occasion! Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who ... •Share › Avatar Richard Kosich TheUnPossible • 9 days ago He's come to rescue me father... •Share › Avatar bernese mountaindog • 9 days ago There were covenants that restricted Catholics, Jews, Asians, and African American. 1 •Share › Avatar L. D. • 9 days ago Thanks Terry, for another outstanding guest and your interview. 1 •Share › Avatar callitspade • 9 days ago Will people ever get over fear and hatred of each other....I doubt it so guess it's time for another great flood. 1 •Share › Avatar B.R. Fly callitspade • 9 days ago Oh don't worry, Climate Change will take care of the culling that needs to happen. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse B.R. Fly • 9 days ago What do you mean by this? •Share › Avatar Patriot461 callitspade • 9 days ago ...it is raining where i am spade. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Patriot461 • 9 days ago Ah, racial epithets-tool of the intelligent. •Share › Avatar FreedomProvider callitspade • 9 days ago Yeah, those dumb Americans were so scared of Obama they twice elected him to the highest office in the land. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse FreedomProvider • 9 days ago Some Americans did... and some Americans decided instead to begin a campaign of racial hatred against him. 3 •Share › Avatar s rw LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago And some Americans voted for him for only one reason... •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse s rw • 9 days ago And some voted against him for only one reason. 1 •Share › Avatar s rw LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Both equally deplorable, one completely "understandable" in the eyes of the media and the left. Both keeping the country in reverse. Both have absolutely zero respect from me and their opinions are invalid and discounted. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse s rw • 9 days ago I don't see how you can say it's keeping the country in "reverse" when it's an unprecedented move in history and gives affirmation to the desires of a historically oppressed class of people in this country. Obviously credentials should come first-but look who he was running against in light of the previous POTUS. •Share › Avatar s rw LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago I said nothing of the President, only of the rational of some of the voters for and against. Is it ok for one group to vote for and wrong for a group to vote against (both small subgroups in reality)? I don't overestimate how much impact DC has on the real course of the county. Valid point about who his competition was. I supported Obama in round 1, in round 2 I had no dog in the fight as they are all equally worthless. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse s rw • 9 days ago I didn't say you said it about the President. I also never said voting for or against in general is wrong-but the underlying reasons can be, for sure. I also didn't vote for him in the last election, but when your competition is, again, a white man who makes the mistake of insulting half of the country, he was virtually a shoo-in. •Share › Avatar jader3rd • 9 days ago It was President Franklin D. Roosevelt who did this in the US with his Red Line neighborhoods about where the government would and would not help with housing loans. 1 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet jader3rd • 8 days ago It was a compromise between the northern liberal Democrats and the southern Dixiecrats. Without the compromise, it would have gone nowhere at all. •Share › Avatar B.R. Fly jader3rd • 9 days ago Does that make it any less racially motivated? Nope. •Share › Avatar V McCoy • 9 days ago I long wondered why blacks did not purchase and own more of their own neighborhoods. The impact on the black family is profound in that they were excluded from the equity growth that contributes to the ability to educate children, leave legacies for future generations and become as engage, through ownership, as others. It is an injustice that will never find enough support to address. 1 •Share › Avatar FreedomProvider V McCoy • 9 days ago Right....just look at the Obamas, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. Oops... I guess those examples don't fit your liberal, ignorant analysis. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse FreedomProvider • 9 days ago Obviously, those very few examples are representative of African-Americans in general. Talk about ignorant. 1 •Share › Avatar MsGolightly FreedomProvider • 9 days ago Did you also bring up the Obamas, Eric HOlder and Loretta Lynch when you participated in comments about articles from Ferguson and Baltimore...?? •Share › Avatar loyallistening • 8 days ago Keep blaming your problems on outside forces. Look at far that attitude has gotten you in the last 50 years... 1 •Share › Avatar Mortie121 loyallistening • 8 days ago Recognizing realities, both external and internal, are necessary in order to create real change. 1 •Share › Avatar Mac Krable • 8 days ago Spend some time in what's commonly referred to as "the hood" and find that the attitude, activities and dysfunction have nothing to do with the above history or that someone else is doing it to them. 1 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Mac Krable • 8 days ago I've lived in several p-laces that you would probably call the "hood." For the most part, I just saw worn out people with few job opportunities, a sub-standard public education, and a desire to feed their families. 1 •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols Mac Krable • 8 days ago You're letting your racism do your thinking instead of that tiny part of your brain capable of critical thought. 1 •Share › Avatar Ray Sanders Linda Nichols • 8 days ago You obviously have not spent any time in the hood. •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Ray Sanders • 8 days ago I have, and I still think it's pretty racist. •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols Ray Sanders • 8 days ago Neither have you. •Share › Avatar Ray Sanders Linda Nichols • 8 days ago I worked in North St. Louis. 40% of the workforce was black. I lived on Lafayette Street in St. Louis back then. It was the Mason Dixon line between white St. Louis and black St Louis. I was on the black side. I moved to the suburbs after having my apartment burglarized and my car stolen. I know more about black people than all the clueless liberals know. Most of the blacks I worked with were good people who worked for their lively hoods just like I did and I respected them. One elderly black gentleman I worked with told me a story about what happened to him one time. He was leaving for work and a neighbor with 8 children asked him where he was going and he said he was going to work. The black neighbor was in a rocking chair on the porch and said, you are crazier than hell. That is a prime example of a welfare entitlement mentality. •Share › Avatar James Hulsey Ray Sanders • 8 days ago There is a phenomenon called "learned helplessness." When you see all the older people in your community work hard for their entire lives and still get nothing because the greater society beats them down, it's understandable that some people just would give up. I wonder how *you* would fare if people always assumed you were a lazy, good-for-nothing criminal just by the color of your skin. 1 •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols Ray Sanders • 8 days ago I don't need to have "spent any time in the 'hood'" to know you're full of hatred. 1 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Ray Sanders • 8 days ago So you are saying that black people are lazy criminals, but you aren't racist because you worked with some black people who weren't? •Share › Avatar Gilman • 9 days ago Many major midwestern cities had thriving black economic corridors in the 50's when the interstate highway system was built. Guess whose self-sustaining economic centers were demolished to build the highways. How many times can you tear up a culture by the roots and still whine about "those people's" lack of unifying culture? 1 •Share › Avatar Joe Bagodonuts • 9 days ago What an utterly ridiculous story Right down to trying to make the term "ghetto" racial. It existed way before the 50's/60's BTW, This ENTIRE thing is the result of the welfare state. The war on poverty has been a HUGE failure 1 •Share › Avatar L. D. Joe Bagodonuts • 9 days ago No. As a white, from a poverty family, to a middle-class, senior, retired, male - the war on poverty has NOT been a huge failure at all. Do you see all government programs related to poverty as racial only? Do you know any of the programs that came under the term "war on poverty"? It included: education, nutrition, healthcare, Social Security minimum benefits, legal services... 4 •Share › Avatar Kirk Bready Joe Bagodonuts • 9 days ago I believe this story is quite accurate since I grew up in and near Baltimore from 1942 to 1960 and witnessed most of the things Mr. Rothstein reports. Neighborhoods, schools and many commercial facilities were strictly segregated. "Blockbusting" was a common and hated practice until it was outlawed. It hit my grandparents community and in a few years they were the only white folks on their block. But, being eminently decent, sensible people, they refused to move because they were very happy with the stable, responsible Afro-American families who replaced the disruptive "transients" who moved out. I went on to witness first hand the terrible social and economic discrimination when I entered the workforce during the Jim Crow era. Incidentally, the term 'ghetto' originated in Europe where it generally referred to the long standing official practice of forcing Jews to live in strictly segregated communities. Although I've not seen Jewish ghettos in the U.S., anti-semitic discrimination was blatant in the Baltimore area (and other areas on the east coast), signaled by signs stating "Restricted" on restaurants, hotels, etc. I was surprised when I moved to Memphis and discovered that the locals, though accustomed to "White" and "Colored" labels, had no idea what "Restricted" meant. When I explained it, they looked at me in disbelief and asked, why? Damn if knew. I still don't. 3 •Share › Avatar clio_musing Joe Bagodonuts • 9 days ago Yes, ghettos existed before the 50s and 60s, and they've always been an effort to exclude or segregate "undesirable" populations by various means including those described above. The original ghetto was in Venice, where the city's Jews were forced to live after the 16th century. 1 •Share › Avatar Patriot461 • 9 days ago Can we just blame this on FDR and Dems ideas to fight poverty by creating a dependence on Uncle Sam. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Patriot461 • 9 days ago Nah, I'd rather blame the extreme income disparity and loss of jobs due to horrible fiscal policy. 4 •Share › Avatar Patriot461 LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago ...ok,ok...I'll agree...poor fiscal policy...since the Dems controlled Congress for most of the last 4 decades! •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Patriot461 • 9 days ago Yeah, of course. It's always all the Democrats' fault-nothing is ever to be laid at the feet of the GOP. At all. 2 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Why not? We sanitize everything else, like Thanksgiving or Columbus. 1 •Share › Avatar Ados LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago A Thankgiving turkey should be sanitized or you get worms ... I don't know about Columbus. •Share › Avatar seasonya • 9 days ago Its amazing some people actually think all white people are rich and powerful. apparently this "historian" does not get out much 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago I don't think that's what anyone's saying. Want to compare statistics, though? 4 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Sure- then do explain how in 2015 it is whiteys fault that black people are in poverty- for their is plenty of white people in just as bad of poverty •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago I think the point is that there are many more rich white people than there are rich black people. This is due to decades, and even centuries, of control. 3 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago I already explained, but you must have glossed over it-there's a history in this country of institutionalized racism including through policy directed at African-Americans. It's well-documented, but you probably won't look into it because it doesn't fit your views. White people have much more social and economic mobility than blacks. 2 •Share › Avatar Patriot461 seasonya • 9 days ago ...he's locked away in the confines, safety and protection of his 'Ivory tower' just like most academics. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Patriot461 • 9 days ago Says the guy typing from the anonymous safety and protection of his personal computer. 1 •Share › Avatar Patriot461 LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago ...but you've really exposed yourself...you're so transparent...kinda just like Hilly...right. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Patriot461 • 9 days ago That doesn't make much sense, but if it makes you feel better, then whatever. 1 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Patriot461 • 8 days ago Yes, those dumb academics don't know anything at all. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Racism works both ways. By far the majority of interracial violence happens to white victims. It isn't close. 2 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Mike Stephenson • 8 days ago Almost all violence against white people comes from white people, so put that one to bed. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson PhysicistVet • 8 days ago We are talking about racism. You do understand why white on white violence is not all that relevant? More to the point, what you say is simply and profoundly false. Which makes you either ill-informed or dishonest ro go with some serious baseline foolishness. You know little of the world. You know almost nothing of my world. And yu are willing to make false statements. That's not a promising combo. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago No mention of trillions of dollars in subsidized housing for blacks. 2 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Mike Stephenson • 8 days ago What about all the subsidized home purchases exclusively available to whites? •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson PhysicistVet • 8 days ago Those exist in exclusisively in your mind, Phys. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago You're right, that totally makes up for everything else. •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago What is there to make up for in 2015? shall we subsidize swisher sweets? •Share › Avatar This comment was deleted. Avatar seasonya Guest • 9 days ago You would have to let me know 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago All I can do is observe you and make judgements based on empirical evidence. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago If you say so. I just think it might bear mentioning in all this racism accusation. •Share › Avatar MsGolightly Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Why is it so hard to consider that during a time when Blacks were a) legally barred from attending schools with their white counterparts, b) legally discriminated against by business institutions that government policies might have mimicked the social norms and thought processes of the time...??? 4 •Share › Avatar seasonya MsGolightly • 9 days ago That happened in 2015? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago I really hope you're not actually this dense. 1 •Share › Avatar MsGolightly seasonya • a day ago This article is about 2015? •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson MsGolightly • 9 days ago Who said it was "hard to consider"? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Are you denying that there's a history of policy designed to keep blacks under "control?" •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Yes... •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Then as far as American history goes you're ignorant. •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago I dont live in history i live in 2015 •Share › Avatar Johnest seasonya • 9 days ago History has no effect on you, is that what you're contending? So you don't live by the Bill of Rights, don't drive an automobile, don't read printed text, don't use a wheel, or don't otherwise benefit from any endeavor from human history? You invent and then reinvent everything by yourself as you go along? 3 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Wow, you're pretty dense. •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Head in the sand, my friend. •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago this is 2015 •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Well, you peaked your head out to find that out. That's a start. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago you can make absurd claims that white people have some secret program to keep you down or you can accept your own fate for what it is This is 2015 -no one is holding you back •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago So you think the day slavery ended, everyone just changed, huh? I'm sure people were saying, "Oh, this is 1870, racism is long gone." 2 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago two centuries ago •Share › Avatar This comment was deleted. Avatar seasonya Guest • 9 days ago Slavery ended two centuries ago- get over it. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Racism didn't. You're proof. 4 •Share › Avatar Daryl's Poncho LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago BOOM! Mic drop 1 •Share › Avatar enpare LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago My point exactly. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago How so? by pointing out the discriminatory affirmative action? by pointing out every other race also suffers from poverty? Or is it becuase I am interupting the pity party? •Share › Avatar This comment was deleted. Avatar This comment was deleted. Avatar enpare Guest • 9 days ago Says you. And here: http://www.census.gov/prod/201... It honestly took two seconds. Do your own homework, I'm sick of "information welfare" 3 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Guest • 9 days ago Compare the actual statistical ratio, and not whole numbers, then maybe you can start to see your lack of a point. •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago That would show native americans being the poorest. They actually have something to complain about •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet seasonya • 8 days ago "That would show native americans being the poorest. They actually have something to complain about" Agreed, but not the subject at hand. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago That's a separate topic from the one at hand, but nice attempt at a dodge. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Things like your "Swisher Sweet" comment are good examples. It's not about every race suffering from poverty-it's about the extreme disparity statistically. 1 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet seasonya • 8 days ago "Slavery ended two centuries ago- get over it." Your math skills are highly questionable. •Share › Avatar clio_musing seasonya • 9 days ago Not exactly. In the U.S. slavery officially, and only officially, ended in 1865. That's 150, not 200, years ago for those who have trouble with math. •Share › Avatar seasonya clio_musing • 9 days ago we are in the 21 century- remind me what century slavery occured in •Share › Avatar clio_musing seasonya • 9 days ago Pretty much all of them, including the 21st. 1 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet seasonya • 8 days ago "this is 2015" So stop acting like it's the 30s. •Share › Avatar seasonya • 9 days ago Yes- your fate is your own. blaming what happened long in the past for all your current problems is just whining •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago All of those things that happened in the past have repercussions that we still see today! 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse enpare • 9 days ago If it happened earlier than yesterday, to seasonya, it didn't happen. 1 •Share › Avatar enpare LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago And if my eyes are closed, I can't see it. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse enpare • 9 days ago That's a perpetual state for him. •Share › Avatar MsGolightly seasonya • a day ago So studying, acknowledging and understanding what has happened in the past is "blaming"?? •Share › Avatar seasonya MsGolightly • a day ago This is using history as an excuse for current actions. Like Israel saying its OK to have the Palestinians treated like dirt because - the HOLOCAUST! •Share › Avatar MsGolightly seasonya • a day ago No, it isn't. Its exploring the origins of a present day issue. And understanding the various contributing factors leads to solutions more likely to have a positive impact... •Share › Avatar seasonya MsGolightly • a day ago Those poor kids born today stuck in a ghetto long torn down.... •Share › Avatar MsGolightly seasonya • 3 hours ago Huh? •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet seasonya • 8 days ago " blaming what happened long in the past for all your current problems is just whining" Says the person who complains about the past ALL THE TIME. •Share › Avatar clio_musing seasonya • 9 days ago Like this "seasonya MsGolightly•3 months ago Problem is "go to college" was a boomer copout to providing real world advice. "go to college" means little in todays economy when biologists are spraying roundup on invasive plants for a living as that is all they can get with their degree( a real world example btw). And many college kids like my former self were given no other option than going to college- to do anything else was considered failure- even if college was a terrible idea"? Or this "seasonya Whatnthe • 3 months ago Ah how times have changed- you literally are unable to work yourself through college in today's day and age. Just one of the many boomer fallacy's in thought, in that thinking they had it so much harder. I always just think to myself how I could not mow lawns for a summer to afford a shiny new car like those in the boomer generation could. LOL- uphill both ways- those $30 an hour factory jobs must have been rough- especially before the modern era of part time and temporary work for absolute minimum wage that modern teenagers fight over(a boomer created economy BTW)"? (http://www.npr.org/sections/ed... •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago That's probably the dumbest thing you've ever said. •Share › Avatar Frank Milhouse • 9 days ago How is it possible that nobody ever talks about what the black community does to keep itself down? At some point and time the discussion needs to turn towards self. Constantly looking to blame others decade after decade is getting old. Especially since programs, and organizations devote massive amounts of energy and money to try and make a difference. But I guess none of that matters. How many white people died in the Civil War to free black Americans. I bet they were all racist as well. 1 •Share › Avatar Beverly Arthur Frank Milhouse • 9 days ago Generalizations and stereotypes are not helpful. Many people of African descent are poor. Many people of Caucasian descent are poor. Some make all the right choices and never get ahead. Some make many wrong choices and do improve their situation. I spent the evening on my dock with colleagues of both races, celebrating the end of standardized testing for this year. We all have degrees, though our socioeconomic backgrounds and upbringings vary widely. The common denominator is that we had goals and tried to achieve them. People need to be viewed as individuals, not as interchangeable members of generic groups. Life would be much more pleasant that way. 2 •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Most of the white people I know in my town are charitable towards blacks. In return they are robbed raped and shot. 1 •Share › Avatar enpare Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago I'm sure that applies to every single person in your town. 2 •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson enpare • 9 days ago You don't seem to read well. For the record I have had an aunt and a student raped, a friend shot dead through his car window, multiple home invasions, stick-ups.. you name it. •Share › Avatar TheUnPossible Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago When will people simply take responsibility for themselves. It's really that easy. once you stop spending your energy blaming others, you can use it to improve your own life. 2 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Mike Stephenson • 8 days ago Then you must be the unluckiest person alive. I spent plenty of time living in poverty stricken majority black neighborhoods, and the worst that happened to me was losing a catalytic converter and being roughed up by the cops. Even in high crime areas, the crime rates indicate that you are highly unlikely to be a victim of any crime other than theft or vandalism, both of which I had more trouble with living in rural white areas. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson PhysicistVet • 8 days ago You seem to think I should look at my own experiences through the lens of what you say happened to you. You are a very foolish person. •Share › Avatar seasonya Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Their fault for being white apparently 1 •Share › Avatar Johnest Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Most of the people in your town are robbed, raped, and shot? •Share › Avatar TheUnPossible Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago In that order? •Share › Avatar seasonya • 9 days ago this is nothing more than the babbling of a racist fool 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Your post? I concur. 6 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago looks like whitey is to blame again •Share › Avatar Shiratori90 seasonya • 9 days ago Keep crying....... •Share › Avatar seasonya Shiratori90 • 9 days ago Keep whining its white people causing you to fail •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago C'mon, you walked right into that. •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago If you really think this racist nonsense has any value then you seriously need to re consider you values (hint- not all white people are rich) •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Hint- no one said they were. 3 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago The entire article is based on that assumption •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago No it's not, it's just your reading comprehension. 3 •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch seasonya • 9 days ago I love sentences that describe themselves! This consists of five words! 5 •Share › Avatar seasonya Matt Lynch • 9 days ago i dont suffer from white guilt •Share › Avatar B.R. Fly seasonya • 9 days ago You don't suffer from an over abundance of intelligence either. 5 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet seasonya • 8 days ago Based on your comment history, I'm not certain that guilt is something you are capable of. •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch seasonya • 8 days ago Good for you. I don't either, I just want to give everyone a fair chance no matter where or to whom they were born •Share › Avatar seasonya Matt Lynch • 8 days ago which would mean repealing the only race based law in the US- affirmative action •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch seasonya • 8 days ago Affirmative action is a misguided attempt at fixing the symptoms of the problem, unfortunately, the only way to fix the root of the problem is to implement a basic quality of life for every single person in the country, regardless of anything else. •Share › Avatar seasonya Matt Lynch • 8 days ago affirmative action is nothing more than racism •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch seasonya • 5 days ago Ok... That had nothing to do with what I said, so I'm not sure why you even bothered to respond.. •Share › Avatar Ray Sanders • 8 days ago A black 4 year old asked his mother where the white neighbor was going early in the morning. The mother said he is going to work. The child said, why aren't you going to work. The mother said, because the white guy gets money taken out of his check to support me and my family. The child said, doesn't that make him mad. The mother said, Yes, it does. That is what we call racism. 2 •Share › Avatar Sean Kurnow Ray Sanders • 8 days ago Science has taught us that the universe is made of protons, neutrons and electrons. Your comment proves that the universe also consists of mor ons...... 5 •Share › Avatar Zita Ray Sanders • 8 days ago While the facts in this story go a long way to explain conditions that would lead to black unemployment they do little to explain conditions that would lead to your kind of bigotry. 1 •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago My first day on a summer job as a teenager I was attacked by a gang of young blacks for the crime of being white in their neigborhood reading meters., Kicked, hit with sticks, hit with bricks. So spare me your drivel. 1 •Share › Avatar thrillhouse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Skin color does not make one do terrible things. 3 •Share › Avatar enpare Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Made up. We can tell by your endless comments that are similar to this. If that happened, it'd be the first thing you said. 3 •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson enpare • 9 days ago Don't try to make it as a mind reader. Everything I said is the literal truth. Feel free to believe what you wish. •Share › Avatar enpare Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Using the logic I see on this thread, why don't you just move? Aren't you responsible for yourself? 3 •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson enpare • 9 days ago Why should I move if I made the story up? •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols Mike Stephenson • 8 days ago Okay, you're "Victim For A Day". Here's your tee shirt. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson Linda Nichols • 8 days ago I'm far from a victim. I'm just making a point that you apparently don't understand. •Share › Avatar Lucy Frost Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago I wondered the same thing, reading through the comments. You've mentioned a number of horrible crimes committed against you and those you know -- all white people victimized by black people. Why do you continue to live where such things go on? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Lucy Frost • 9 days ago He doesn't. 1 •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Mike Stephenson • 8 days ago Apparently every single crime committed by a black person against a white person happened directly to you or someone you know. Very bizarre. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson PhysicistVet • 8 days ago You are not very familiar with crime in my city. You in fact know almost nothing about it, yet you can't resist trying to sound authoritative. That is what I find to be bizarre. •Share › Avatar TheUnPossible Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Was that in one of Dearborn's "no-go zones" where you have to a moooooslim? •Share › Avatar richard40 • an hour ago Of course pretty much every racist housing decision cited in this article was made by dems, that party of racism. •Share › Avatar therain • 2 days ago So again I must remind people that democrats put black people in the position they are in, and democrats keep them down. This article is just more proof. •Share › Avatar Solutionsolution1985 • 2 days ago After listening to this interview I heard something really interesting. George Romney, secretary of housing and urban development, father of Mitt Romney and a republican came up with a solution to fix race relations, segregation and poverty in these communities in 1970 which might helped these communities today and prevented so much madness, and Nixon a liberal denied him and ended up making George Romney resign. Wow! C'mon people, you have to scratch your head and get a little upset when you hear that there was a solution on the table that might of really helped prevent these awful policy's which has shaped the living situations of millions back in 1970. It's time people, congress and our president stop making excuses and distractions so they can actually come up with an intelligent and effective solution just like George Romney did back in 1970. Blaming the police, blaming white people and dividing a country to turn against eachother is just another distraction and not a solution.....thoughts anyone? •Share › Avatar Brian Welker • 2 days ago Who knew that "progressive" Democrat FDR was such a racist. •Share › Avatar SCStreet • 2 days ago This is a ridiculously bad sentence: The second policy, which was probably even more effective in segregating metropolitan areas, was the Federal Housing Administration, which financed mass production builders of subdivisions starting in the '30s and then going on to the '40s and '50s in which those mass production builders, places like Levittown [New York] for example, and Nassau County in New York and in every metropolitan area in the country, the Federal Housing Administration gave builders like Levitt concessionary loans through banks because they guaranteed loans at lower interest rates for banks that the developers could use to build these subdivisions on the condition that no homes in those subdivisions be sold to African-Americans. Can someone decipher this for me? Who "guaranteed" the lower interest rates on the condition that no homes be sold to AAs? •Share › Avatar JohnSchappert • 2 days ago Jane Jacobs documented these facts in the Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961). She was, in that respect, as in so many others, ahead of her time. •Share › Avatar Nicholas Munyan • 3 days ago This program was interesting and informative. However, so far in this conversation the focus has been the cause of the problem rather than the solution. I am eager to hear policy recommendations from experts that can work to reverse the government sanctioned segregation discussed here. •Share › Avatar S. Rose • 5 days ago This is one of the most usefully informative segments I've heard. I'd like to read more, but oddly there doesn't seem to be a reference to a corresponding book or journal article. This information makes a pretty good case for reparations. •Share › Avatar Karen Ferguson • 6 days ago I just can't believe still to this day Afro Americans and Whites are talked about. What a Racist world we live in, and in my eyes nothing has really changed! I am white and feel I am no better than any colored person on this earth. I feel bad for the way they have been treated in the past and still to this day. “Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.” ― Muhammad Ali •Share › Avatar Forlorn_Hope Karen Ferguson • 6 days ago So you're going to pay the reparations? •Share › Avatar Tom Joad • 7 days ago This book has the subject totally explained: The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas J. Sugrue. •Share › Avatar Crispin Pierce • 7 days ago I'm disappointed Ms. Gross didn't critically evaluate the exaggerations made by her guest Mr.Rothstein, who made repeated claims that local, regional and national government housing entities explicitly discriminated against African-Americans throughout the 1900's. A close reading of Mr. Rothstein's principal source (Heathcott 2011) finds that this author stated that St. Louis housing officials were complicit in supporting a project "designed exclusively for white nuclear families," however no evidence of intentional discrimination is presented. The audio interview includes statements by Mr. Rothstein that discrimination prohibiting blacks and allowing whites was explicitly included in home purchase documents, but again no evidence is provided. ... There is no doubt that government played a role in allowing for housing discrimination (e.g. "redlining" of neighborhoods by the FHA), but the bulk of blame goes to the private sector land owners, banks and realtors. ... The Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 was the most important step towards non-discrimination. •Share › Avatar rrgg rrgg • 7 days ago It's interesting that this summary article omits what Fresh Air said about Romney. Check the full transcript:http://www.npr.org/templates/t... •Share › Avatar bobc4d • 7 days ago then answer this, why is it when blacks move into a neighborhood or subdivision property values drop and crime goes up? •Share › Avatar Forlorn_Hope bobc4d • 6 days ago Because they're disproportionately poor and uneducated. Their great, great, great, great great grandparents were slaves, where they couldn't make money or become educated-not legally anyway. They were released but the laws were still as such that they couldn't make money or become educated, even in the North. The laws remain the same until... 1965, 4 generations later when Civil Rights Acts and amendments to the Constitution give them the right to vote so their great grand parents voted to change laws and can finally begin become educated and make money. Unfortunately, they only go the right to go to public schools, which suck, because they're still poor. When you're poor, you can't afford education. When you're dumb, you can't make money. When you don't make money you can't afford to be smart. When you're not smart, whatever money you have will be wasted. When your money is wasted you're poor. When you're poor you can't afford to protect yourself. When you can't protect yourself, whatever money you have gets stolen. Get it? When the government stops you from going to school or getting a job until 1968, you learn you have to break the law to survive. When real estate brokers notice a trend of people with something in common moving to an area, then crime going up, they speculate. When they speculate, prices drop even faster and further. When prices go down anyone can afford the homes. When anyone can afford the homes, the rich move to homes that not everyone can afford but they can because they're rich. Criminals are normally poor, they move in. Ta Da! •Share › Avatar Jack Broadnax • 8 days ago To err is human, but if you want to mess up big time you need government intervention. Recall that these policies were made by officials who thought they were doing the right thing. Someday, we will be ashamed of affirmative action programs. •Share › Avatar Mortie121 Jack Broadnax • 7 days ago Well, the way some of them were set up, I would tend to agree. My dad, for instance, having worked for the federal government saw first hand how they would hire some blacks with no entry standards at all. Then when these people inevitably failed, affirmative action was blamed. On the other hand, I heard of one affirmative action program, where motivated students were given intense remedial education before they were allowed to enter their programs, and from what I understand, those students did well. As a semi-retired teacher, having seen students of all stripes up close and personal, I can tell you what I know for sure. That is, there are a significant number of black students who learn just as fast as any one else. Actually faster, than other students. The problem is with retention. Since under class black culture, generally doesn't value education or 'talking white' for that matter, my frustration was that these students rarely studied in order to retain what they had learned. On the hand I found, that as both a student and a teacher, Asian students studied- all the time. •Share › Avatar Ryan Pearson • 8 days ago I am curious how the lack of racial integration in the USA compares to other countries. It is my understanding that natural segregation is a world wide phenomenon. Is there evidence that present day USA is worse at integrating compared to other nations with similar racial demographics? And did these other countries practice similar policies in the past? •Share › Avatar a h • 8 days ago This guy is the truth. All you out there still spewing unsupported prejudice and nonsense, you're the one's who will slowly become marginalized. Enjoy any relevance/credibility you have left while it lasts.... •Share › Avatar Ted Alex • 8 days ago I detest these racist stories. The government didn't create ghettos or force people to live anywhere. Work hard in school, have a good attitude an employer would want in their company, save your money and you can live anywhere you please. Be lazy, have a bad attitude and mooch off taxpayers and you still get provided with a life fully funded by hardworking people. Shocker that welfare recipients aren't handed private single family homes in the most expensive neighborhoods but instead are offered cost effective housing in apt complexes. Even the welfare housing was nice and new before residents trashed them....so who really made them ghettos? •Share › Avatar a h Ted Alex • 8 days ago did you not listen to him when he said segregation was enforced by law? 1 •Share › Avatar Sean Kurnow • 8 days ago sadly, it's still happening...every time a new community or suburb pops up, it siphons off tax dollars....the new community ends up getting new schools, police departments, roads, new public works, etc. when there are OLD existing schools in the city that need to be updated. Before a state or local government pumps money into a new community they need to make sure that existing schools and public works are updated first. •Share › Avatar funbobby51 • 8 days ago next can we look at the term "suitable persons" for firearms licensure? •Share › Avatar funbobby51 • 8 days ago "serious barriers to exit" •Share › Avatar Ray Sanders funbobby51 • 8 days ago Yes, when you drop out of school before finishing high school and have babies out of wedlock those are serious obstacles to overcome. •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Ray Sanders • 8 days ago "Yes, when you drop out of school before finishing high school and have babies out of wedlock those are serious obstacles to overcome." So rural Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee? •Share › Avatar funbobby51 Ray Sanders • 8 days ago and that has what to do with "ghettos"? •Share › Avatar captnboston • 8 days ago One thing I find missing from Rothstein is a discussion on forced busing. Busing was/is the final act in assuring ghettos existed in places like Price George's County, Boston, Kansas City, LA and many others. It seems to me that the result of forced busing after two painful generations was a huge loss of educational and employment opportunity for African Americans. A new policy is needed to assure good education for all instead of continuing to spend money to move kids around these cities/counties for no reason. Desegregation policies may have ended but, the schools do not improve and too many African Americans are left further and further behind. •Share › Avatar Ray Sanders captnboston • 8 days ago Kansas City spent as much as $11,700 per pupil--more money per pupil, on a cost of living adjusted basis, than any other of the 280 largest districts in the country. The money bought higher teachers' salaries, 15 new schools, and such amenities as an Olympic-sized swimming pool with an underwater viewing room, television and animation studios, a robotics lab, a 25-acre wildlife sanctuary, a zoo, a model United Nations with simultaneous translation capability, and field trips to Mexico and Senegal. The student-teacher ratio was 12 or 13 to 1, the lowest of any major school district in the country. The results were dismal. Test scores did not rise; the black-white gap did not diminish; and there was less, not greater, integration. A culture that doesn't value education and students who don't have parental involvement are not going to do well in school and no matter what you do it is not going to make a difference •Share › Avatar Jon Brock • 8 days ago The white families who panicked would then sell their homes to the real estate agents or the speculators at prices far below what they were worth. When are we going to talk about reparations for white families affected by these racist policies? •Share › Avatar Ray Sanders Jon Brock • 8 days ago Why would white families panic because black families were moving in? What could possibly go wrong? 1 •Share › Avatar J. B. Jon Brock • 8 days ago Right after we talk about reparations for blacks. •Share › Avatar McAlvie • 8 days ago I think what this article has to say about the effects of racial discrimination is important, but I wonder if the author isn't doing a bit of 'washing' of his own. For example, he makes it sound like ghetto is an American invention deliberately created to segregate races. In actuality, the concept of ghettos is much older than the U.S., and segregated communities have sprung up somewhat naturally as people from different cultures and religions move into an area and create a community that caters to needs not served in the wider environment. So you have ethnic grocers, for example, and churches with services given in foreign languages. When you are a stranger in a strange land, creating your own tribe this way provides a kind of stability and comfort. He also neglects the point that today's ghettos are not always a product of yesterday's public housing. Neighborhoods do change, people move in and move out. As afluent communities migrate, out to the suburbs, for example, that creates a void filled by those who don't have the means. And now we are seeing a bit of a reversal, with young couples preferring a more urban neighborhood with convenient shops and restaurants that they can walk to, and less emphasis on land. There have been plenty of articles in recent years and months citing the decline of suburban shopping malls, just as an example. So older neighborhoods get renovated and gentrified. That grand old townhouse that was split up into apartments fifty years ago is being gutted and turned into whole floor or floor through condos, or maybe even back into single family homes. I'm not denying that the effects of deliberate segregation happened, or that they are still felt, merely pointing out that the author has left out a whole lot. Whether that was deliberate, or deliberate ignorance, it's hard to say. But if he's supposedly researched the subject, it's equally hard to understand how he could leave those factors out. •Share › Avatar J. B. McAlvie • 8 days ago Jeez... How does this guy "make it sound like ghetto is an American invention deliberately created to segregate races"? The man is talking about the creation of black ghettos in America. If he was talking about American cuisine, would you say he made it sound as if American invented food?? Also, he is specifically discussing governments role in creating black ghettos, not every.single.factor.affecting. every.single.ghetto. in the world or in the US. It's called limiting the scope of your thesis, for crying out loud. •Share › Avatar James Hulsey McAlvie • 8 days ago Paragraphs are useful. •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols McAlvie • 8 days ago http://www.epi.org/publication... Someone posted this link earlier. Same guy and a lot more information. •Share › Avatar Milo Kretona • 9 days ago White neighborhoods adjacent to black ones melt away as crime and decay crawl over the line. No big mystery to solve here. •Share › Avatar Ray Sanders Milo Kretona • 8 days ago KInd of like a cancer spreading through the body. Sometimes the cancer metastasizes. •Share › Avatar John Scott • 9 days ago What's upsetting is how this history is common knowledge to people of color yet white people, conservative and liberal, are clueless to the struggles of their fellow citizens. Even liberals who are gentrifying cities are clueless. They claim that they are simply a part of a natural cycle of city living and fueled by market forces. •Share › Avatar AFCz • 9 days ago Unfortunately the result of the War between the States was that blacks were freed from the agrarian plantation system in the Democratic South to the industrial plantation system (necessitating cheap housing i.e. ghettos) in the Republican North. If only the cotton gin had been invented 20-years prior to the onset of hostilities, the cotton gin would have made the bulk of the slaves redundant and with no market for slaves would have undoubtedly been freed to relocate (warehoused) in the industrial North providing the cheap labor required at that time as immigration from Europe had slowed substantially. How different the transition would have been if only the cotton gin been invested a tad sooner? •Share › Avatar Ray Sanders AFCz • 8 days ago Black picked the cotton. The cotton gin did not pick cotton. It only processes the cotton after it is picked. I know I am white and was born poor and I picked cotton. The mechanical cotton picker was not invented until latter. 1 •Share › Avatar AFCz Ray Sanders • 8 days ago Picking cotton is far less labor intensive than pulling the seed from the cotton ball hence my reference to the cotton gin rather than the mechanical cotton picker. •Share › Avatar John Hamilton • 9 days ago Great interview. I love the wide spectrum Terry Gross is able to span in people and topics. In this interview one mention that caught my ear was the Kerner Commission, and was reminded of its chairman, former Illinois governor Otto Kerner. He was a very distinguished governor, doing much to advance trade with Japan, but more so to advance the lives of African Americans in Illinois and nationwide. He was charged and convicted on what many believe were trumped-up charges in retaliation for the Kerner Report. The prosecutor was Nixon-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, "Big Jim" Thompson, who indulged in a series of questionable prosecutions. He ended up being governor himself, from 1977 to 1991. He was a terrible governor, and among his questionable activities afterward was serving on the "911" Commission. He undistinguished himself by aggressively questioning former National Security Adviser Richard Clarke, likely the only person of integrity in the Bush regime. Putting this in further context, former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist engaged in voter-suppression activities against African Americans in Arizona before he was appointed to the Court by - coincidence of coincidences - Richard Nixon. The vote for president in Florida in 2000 was tainted by voter-suppression of thousands of African Americans. It wasn't enough, so the deal was sealed by the - more coincidence of coincidences - William Rehnquist led U.S. Supreme Court. We know the rest: 911, invasions and occupations of two countries, torture, kidnapping, assassination, domestic spying, the "patriot" act, the Roberts Court, the Citizens United decision, and the economic collapse of 2008. This certainly puts the recent spate of voter-suppression laws around the country in context. They have been passed by "Republican" dominated state legislatures, themselves resulting from gerrymandering of election districts. These laws primarily affect African American voters. And so it goes. We are entering another election season. The "Democrats" have been reduced to "Republican" lite in their efforts to stay alive. If Nixon hadn't been so successful pedaling his phony plan to end the Vietnam war we may never have had Thompson, Rehnquist, Bush, Roberts and Alito. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O.... •Share › Avatar Katie Kauffmann John Hamilton • 8 days ago Kerner went to jail for accepting bribes and income tax evasion. http://content.time.com/time/n... •Share › Avatar James Hulsey Katie Kauffmann • 8 days ago Many people believed those charges were trumped up in retaliation for the Kerner report. Do you read the posts you respond to? •Share › Avatar Anthony Chopkoski • 9 days ago Hmm, well, Terry could have asked about how things were before Big Gov...Rothstein did mention at least once there was a mixing of races before Gov projects. I would like to know more about that period that blended into the New Deal. ( Oh, even Alan Lomax, who recorded Leadbelly and other Black blues singers in the 1930's, had a funny way of keeping himself in the money with Leadbelly's music.) But as to Rothstein..well, his used books start at .01 on Amazon, to .10 and after that most are under 2.00. Not a tangible success. •Share › Avatar Raymond Crosse • 9 days ago People say the government plantation is a myth, and here we have an actual example of it on NPR. •Share › Avatar KevinLenzen • 9 days ago Ironic that WWII, the watershed moment in the creation of the middle class, was fought against a country that had institutionalized racism, ghettoization, and the barring of a hated group from professional and political life. What narrow-minded legislators and Federal administrators ignored that aspect to create much the same policies in this country? Perhaps in their minds the war was purely a military struggle where Nazi ideology could be ignored -- only to reappear in new clothes in Washington to keep blacks out of the housing and labor markets. •Share › Avatar JinxFogle • 9 days ago I have lived long enough to see that government help is NOT THE WAY. LBJ's great society caused the break up of the black family by not giving assistance to married families. Thus less marriage in the black community. But the time has come to stand up and WORK. Living on welfare or getting your Obama phone will not get one ahead in life. My grandfather was thrown in jail and set to be executed for a crime he did not commit. When he got released he had nothing but what he learned in prison, how to bake. He raised a family and succeed in life. Stop taking crumbs from the government and WORK. You are in the position you are in because of decisions you made in the past. Start working hard stop blaming "the system" and get to work. If you are working hard enough you will not have time to whine. Remember when you don't have a job, finding work is a full time 40+ hours a week looking for work. Don't whine over your starting wage, work hard and the money will come. •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet JinxFogle • 8 days ago "getting your Obama phone" Obama phones don't exist. Just one more made up fantasy of the fear mongers. "Remember when you don't have a job" . . . . . . that there are more people looking for work than job openings and that job opportunities in poverty stricken areas are almost nonexistent. •Share › Avatar Vern Wells • 9 days ago There are evidently a lot of blacks who don't like living among blacks. Those neighborhoods don't seem to have much in common with the celebrated Chinatowns around the country that actually attract tourists. •Share › Avatar MingTheMerciless • 9 days ago duh, blame it on the sleazy real estate agents! •Share › Avatar A.J. • 9 days ago Housing and transportation policies started off like most evil things, with the best of intentions. After 50 years we now see their effects: Sprawled out cities, income inequality, and cycles of poverty as direct result of the subsidies for road building and home ownership? Why not leave a crowded city and the problems therein if the local, state, and federal government are make your cost of living cheaper with taxes taken from the cities? I really want that to be the future of the Democratic party, one that realized these Big Government programs were taken over by Big Business' motives/interests and now only work as a transfer payment from taxpayers to corporations. If you don't believe me, look at what businesses line a state highway or interstate off ramp. People point back to the 1950s as a "golden era" in America. And that's because we had good function cities, with many small businesses, and fair wages being paid to labor. Sure it wasn't perfect in historical hindsight but it was a lot better than what we've got now with Suburban Sprawl. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse A.J. • 9 days ago I always find humor in statements like "why not just move?" Like everyone can do that. 2 •Share › Avatar A.J. LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Absolutely, if you had the means to do that in the 1960s/70s, and almost exclusively if you were white. The programs meant to increase home ownership as the "American Dream" were even more effective than Jim Crow. It's like now not making enough money to take advantage of tax loopholes. 1 •Share › Avatar L. D. A.J. • 9 days ago So if we stop doing everything that is subsidized by government, only the good businesses that have only good intentions and plans will thrive on their own and anyone and everyone will have less taxes and more income and only support the good businesses? When and where did "cities function pretty well" before any government subsidies? •Share › Avatar A.J. L. D. • 9 days ago I think if we stop subsidies that are de facto transfer payments from tax-payers to corporations, like building interstate off-ramps for "development." Those big-box retailers wouldn't build in these massive malls if the roads and their accompanying expenses were given to them. And if that were the case we'd have a much smaller scaled fine-grained economy denying Big Business debt-fueled government created economies of scale to dominate markets and leverage that power against the workers. And to your question where did cities function pretty well before central government subsidies in history...every city in this country before WWII, some for nearly two centuries. Note: I didn't say perfect. But if we look at the problems of today, crime and poverty as this interview made clear, they were created by Big Government intervention. •Share › Avatar L. D. A.J. • 9 days ago Subsidies helped build and provide housing, public transportation, roads, water, sewers, power, schools, and health services in urban cities long before WWII and still do. Business, government and populations both demanded and required such development and continued support. Yes, Wal-Mart and alike is the worst possible thing to happen to any town, city or suburb. As many workers (and families) from rural areas moved to suburban areas as fled nearby cities. Cities have no monopoly on crime and poverty. •Share › Avatar Hector Cepeda • 9 days ago I'm surprised the article didn't mention Mayor Daley and Chicago's hyper-segregated neighborhoods. •Share › Avatar enpare Hector Cepeda • 9 days ago You're right, they should have. •Share › Avatar The_Fixer • 9 days ago Most people know the social programs for blacks over the past 50 years have been failures e specially ones by Reagan. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson The_Fixer • 9 days ago The same failures have been repeated all over the world •Share › Avatar Patriot461 Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago To :The Fix-...and you know who's controlled Congress most of those decades...Democrats. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Patriot461 • 9 days ago Did you know you can reply directly to a comment? 1 •Share › Avatar enpare LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Hahaha 1 •Share › Avatar Harry Tuttle • 9 days ago In Atlanta the black folk on the south side of the city are making insane amounts of money on their homes as gentrification occurs. Homes that were selling for $30,000 10 years ago are now selling for $200,000. Suburb communities, like Stone Mountain (ironically the birthplace of the KKK), have seen their property values fall by 60% and the demographics there have changed from 80% white to 20% white in the last 10 years. Young white people want to be back in the inner city and want to turn these slums around. The 'place' to live is no longer in the burbs. •Share › Avatar TOM WILLIAMS Harry Tuttle • 9 days ago KKK was actually born in Pulaski, Tn. 1 •Share › Avatar Harry Tuttle TOM WILLIAMS • 9 days ago We are each 33% right! I was confused, but there have apparently been 3 of them, each a seperate organization. the second one was at Stone Mountain. Either way Stone Mountain is now mainly AA. Which is all good with me. •Share › Avatar Harry Tuttle Harry Tuttle • 9 days ago Also, I don't know why the property values of have fallen in Stone Mountain in a close to direct proportional relationship with the change in demographics. I hope it is just correlation but it is probably a racist causation. 1 •Share › Avatar jamesalias • 9 days ago This is very interesting. It was something I long suspected, but being white didn't know about. This is why no one should be forced to disclose their race to the government as they have a history of misuse and abuse of the information they collect. •Share › Avatar Cacimbo Smith jamesalias • 9 days ago That would disrupt the Democrat party election strategy of dividing people into groups based on ethnicity, race, gender..... •Share › Avatar Keefer2112 • 9 days ago Wow. A column called "Race". Why doe's this not surprise me? Get on with it y'all. •Share › Avatar kingtuc Keefer2112 • 9 days ago Take a listen... it's pretty good! 1 •Share › Avatar Keefer2112 kingtuc • 9 days ago I have . I just feel the more we emphasize our differences, the less we get along.IMHO. •Share › Avatar Kyle S Keefer2112 • 9 days ago Another way to phrase that is that the more we talk about these real problems, the less satisfied and comfortable we all are with the status quo. 3 •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols Keefer2112 • 8 days ago Don't you think it's important to know the background of things? •Share › Avatar Keefer2112 Linda Nichols • 8 days ago Howdy. Of course it's important. I just think there was an agenda here. As much as I don't think so highly of 'em, I can't buy into a Gov. conspiracy to keep black people down. That's all. •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols Keefer2112 • 8 days ago I think it was that and a lot of other things, too. But there was definitely something to the idea that poor people were being concentrated into one area. Those high rise projects like Pruitt Igo were built for that exact reason. •Share › Avatar Keefer2112 Linda Nichols • 8 days ago True that. Thank's. 1 •Share › Avatar L. D. Keefer2112 • 9 days ago I had not notice the faint NPR column index heading until you pointed it out. At the bottom, tags: segregation, poverty, race relations I liked this interview, guest and Ms Gross' manner of presenting the topic. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Keefer2112 • 9 days ago I dunno, why doe's it? •Share › Avatar Keefer2112 LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago It doesn't. Duh? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Keefer2112 • 9 days ago Boy, you're a quick one. •Share › Avatar Joe Bagodonuts • 9 days ago Maybe we can get the US Govt to give away more free stuff You know, because free housing, education, food, health care, and welfare checks aren't enough •Share › Avatar clio_musing Joe Bagodonuts • 9 days ago Did you know that we spend four times (4 times!) more subsidizing the wealthy with mortgage rebates than we do on housing subsidies for the poor? We do. 2 •Share › Avatar enpare Joe Bagodonuts • 9 days ago I don't know what the red states would do then. 2 •Share › Avatar kingtuc Joe Bagodonuts • 9 days ago so why do these things exist? could it have been avoided? if so how? •Share › Avatar moebius2249 • 9 days ago No mention of the Great Society. Typical. •Share › Avatar TOM WILLIAMS moebius2249 • 9 days ago Bingo. Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society", "War on Poverty" and "Model Cities" programs contributed more to racial segregation and the creation of government built, subsidized and controlled urban ghettos than anything else. He purposely segregated black people so they could be controlled politically, geographically and economically to provide votes for the Democrat machines that run the big cities. It was the modern day version of the plantation. •Share › Avatar seasonya TOM WILLIAMS • 9 days ago No one was 'forced' to live there •Share › Avatar kingtuc seasonya • 9 days ago Just curious (seriously). Did you listen to the program? 2 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago You'd know, having been there. •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago Again- no one was forced to live there •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Where else were they going to live considering the lack of social and economic mobility they faced? I'd like examples. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago that is the reality for all poor people- been to Appalachia? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago So, by that token, all poor people are forced to live where they live, then, right? Meaning your statement was completely false. 3 •Share › Avatar Patriot461 LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago ...hey man, we chose to live with our own people...if we get an education, a decent job and want to move out then we do that...i live with my white neighbors and we get along fine bc i'm respectful of them and they respect me...so leave us alone to make our own choices. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago no- poor people are everywhere and they are of all colors. And there is other options no one is 'forced' to live anywhere in the US unless you are incarcerated •Share › Avatar Oregon Smitty • 9 days ago An early and vauable contribution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Oregon Smitty • 8 days ago So your argument consists of invoking the report that boiled down to saying that black people are inferior and brought it all on themselves? The report that was directly responsible for the phrase "victim blaming" and the recognition that victim blaming is both real and widespread? •Share › Avatar Oregon Smitty PhysicistVet • 8 days ago Yes. And remember this. I lived among thriving black middle class families in Detroit in the 40s and 50s and in Columbus, Ohio in the 60s. Lives were centered around the church and family unity. The support networks were vast--again, within families and the community. Look at MLK's rallies and the crowds which heard him. Do you see counter-culture people? No. Something terrible happened in many black inner-city communities and only a complete fool would take it upon himself to blame all the peripheral nonsense about what the majority society did or did not do. •Share › Avatar Shiratori90 Oregon Smitty • 9 days ago Wrong again bob. Wikipedia is not a scholarly source. •Share › Avatar Matt Lynch Shiratori90 • 9 days ago It's a terrific collection of references. If you read something you think is unbelievable in Wiki, you're welcome to look it up in an independent reference at the bottom of the page. The sentence usually has a link at the end of it, even. If you find an error, you should correct it. Or you can just dismiss something you don't like out of hand because you don't actually care. Either way. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya Shiratori90 • 9 days ago Its actually become a very peer reviewed source of info •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Since everyone is able to edit it, it's not considered a valid resource by educational standards. •Share › Avatar Oregon Smitty Shiratori90 • 9 days ago It cites the Moynihan Report. Every responsible citizen should read it. •Share › Avatar Tim Parker • 9 days ago Role up their sleeves, pull up their pants, work hard & maybe they can move on up to a deee-luxe apartment in the sky. •Share › Avatar oakspar77777 • 9 days ago These communities have been created by the policies and actions of Northern Liberals. FDR, Johnson, etc. The problem is government, the solution is not more government. •Share › Avatar Johnest oakspar77777 • 9 days ago LBJ was a Northerner? 5 •Share › Avatar oakspar77777 Johnest • 9 days ago He was a liberal maven. •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols oakspar77777 • 8 days ago He was mentored by Sam Rayburn, also another Texan. Nice try. •Share › Avatar oakspar77777 Linda Nichols • 8 days ago None of which keeps him from being a liberal. •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols oakspar77777 • 8 days ago But not Northern. You've amended yourself. •Share › Avatar oakspar77777 Linda Nichols • 8 days ago Liberalism is not a uniquely Northern disease, but it certainly is centered there and draws its power and influence from that region. •Share › Avatar James Hulsey oakspar77777 • 8 days ago A disease? Really? You believe that liberals should be eradicated from society? Have you listened to yourself? •Share › Avatar oakspar77777 James Hulsey • 8 days ago Liberalism is the disease. People afflicted should not be eradicated - stop projecting. They should be cured of their affliction. You cure a disease by eradicating the disease, not the patient. No one is a liberal by identity, but by belief system, which can be cured with ample exposure to objective truth rather than subjective consensus. You may want to eliminate those whose views you oppose. I would rather educate those who I disagree with so that they are enlightened. •Share › Avatar Jim Ciuca oakspar77777 • 9 days ago I beg to differ. The problem is how representative the government is. Size is irrelevant in comparison to this. The more a government is influenced by a sliver of the elite (any type of elitism - money, race, etc.) the less representative and discriminatory and unfairly tilted its policies will be. The more a government is representative of the general public the more effective and efficacious it will be. 2 •Share › Avatar AFCz Jim Ciuca • 9 days ago In the history of the world every government has been first & foremost pro-government focused on self sustainment. The larger the government the greater the self interests, hence the government that governs best, governs least. •Share › Avatar Jim Ciuca AFCz • 9 days ago Nice sound bite. But a government that governs in any quantity, if it is not representative of the general public is a poor government. I will take quality in any amount over non-representative government in any quantity. Your approach is to assume that a larger government is more corrupt than a smaller one. The problem is a concentration of power in government from within it or exerted from outside it, not the size of government. In the history of the world, governments that have failed have failed because they were not representative of the general public that they are intended to serve. 1 •Share › Avatar James Hulsey AFCz • 8 days ago So you are saying that anarchy is the best government? Great! I'll let the warlords know! •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols oakspar77777 • 8 days ago You think LBJ was a Northern Liberal? Funny. 1 •Share › Avatar Lucy Frost oakspar77777 • 9 days ago These communities were created by federal, state, and local policies and practices by ill informed, fearful white people from all over the country. 1 •Share › Avatar James Hulsey oakspar77777 • 8 days ago Calling Southie Boston or Daley's Chicago "liberal" is kind of a stretch, don't you think? •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago If you are going to seriously discuss a topic, you might want to talk about more than one side of the ledger. In my little sleepy southern city, whole new neighborhoods were built for blacks by the government, They were turned into slums within a decade •Share › Avatar enpare Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Did the government also set up jobs and businesses in that area? 1 •Share › Avatar Oregon Smitty enpare • 9 days ago You are joking, right? •Share › Avatar enpare Oregon Smitty • 9 days ago Nope. It's valid. •Share › Avatar seasonya Oregon Smitty • 9 days ago No TP either? •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Grow up. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Oregon Smitty • 9 days ago That doesn't seem like much of an answer. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson enpare • 9 days ago It was a neighborhood, with nice modern houses and wide streets and sidewalks. They were destroyed in no time. I'm sure you woud like to find someone to blame for this. •Share › Avatar enpare Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago How is the neighborhood supposed to sustain itself with nothing but start up costs? 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse enpare • 9 days ago You're trying to reason with the unreasonable. 1 •Share › Avatar enpare LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago It's worth a shot. I'll give up soon enough. 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago Like every other neighborhood- by maintaining your property •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago That doesn't cost anything lol 1 •Share › Avatar seasonya enpare • 9 days ago And yet formerly nice areas are destroyed when they become majority black owned. Just look at Compton or Oakland or Sacramento, or detroit, or chicago, housten, etc •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse seasonya • 9 days ago Where is Housten? 2 •Share › Avatar enpare LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago In Taxes. 2 •Share › Avatar TheUnPossible enpare • 9 days ago Is that in southern 'Murica? 2 •Share › Avatar enpare TheUnPossible • 9 days ago Yes, where the Bible is the only book and bullets flow like wine. 1 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse enpare • 9 days ago Lol! 1 •Share › Avatar enpare seasonya • 9 days ago Because of reasons mentioned in the article and that I've mentioned. 1 •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson enpare • 9 days ago The same way every other neighborhood in town does. This one just had free house for black people. •Share › Avatar Ados Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago There is that too. I was also struck by the author saying that house prices/rents in ghettos were higher due to supply/deman and "so" they became slums!(?) •Share › Avatar TheUnPossible Ados • 9 days ago What's confusing? Low supply and high demand causes prices to rise. Lack of competition also removes incentive to maintain properties by landlords. •Share › Avatar Ados TheUnPossible • 9 days ago I was questioning how high prices could lead to slums. You have a point about landlords but then Manhattan has high prices and lack of competition to foster lower prices and yet it is not a slum. More must be at work. •Share › Avatar TheUnPossible Ados • 9 days ago Manhattan has plenty of compettion in regards to office space. As far as living space goes, they are not exactly well kept palaces going for $55/sqft •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago If you are going to seriously discuss a topic, you might want to talk about more than one side of the ledger. In my little sleepy southern city, whole new neighborhoods were built for blacks by the government, They were turned into slums within a decade. •Share › Avatar PhysicistVet Mike Stephenson • 8 days ago I assume you are talking about the government funded housing developments using the lowest bidder and were exempted from many regulations on housing quality and safety? •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago NPR continues apace with its support for deciding issues based on genetics rather than merit. If they were just a little smarter, they would realize they are doing the opposite of what their ideological forebears claimed they wanted. •Share › Avatar thrillhouse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago You can go someplace else if you don't like the news here. There are several that will reinforce your world view. But where would the fun in your little game be then? •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson thrillhouse • 9 days ago I thought you folks valued diversity? Is that not the case? •Share › Avatar thrillhouse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago I just gave you the option. You are free to froth at the mouth anywhere you choose. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson thrillhouse • 9 days ago The option is not yours to give, my friend. Enjoy a different view for a change, why don't you? •Share › Avatar Johnest Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Your view is not as different as you'd like to imagine. Your point of view pretty much represents the status quo over the past 400 years on this continent. That's the point of the interview. The challenge now is to eradicate the ante-bellum and Jim Crow thinking and actions from our nation. 3 •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson Johnest • 9 days ago I see why you prefer herd-think •Share › Avatar Johnest Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago You represent the status quo and thus, the herd. I'm trying to steer the herd away from the cliff you and your ideological compatriots have been racing towards over the past 400 years. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson Johnest • 9 days ago So you say. So you no doubt think. •Share › Avatar Johnest Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Do you think your brand of separatism and internet racism is cutting edge and way outside the mainstream? Are you a hipster racist? Do you think you're inventing new anti-black talking points and slogans that haven't been regurgitated ad nauseum since the early 17th century? Do you think you sound different than the the average white person in the 19th century or the white citizens council members of the 20th century? You're not original. You're not new, fresh, or different. You're one of the many, the boring, the entitled. You're the same ol' same ol' good ol' boy apologist. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson Johnest • 9 days ago So you say. So you no doubt think. •Share › Avatar thrillhouse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Of course it's not mine to give. If you want to be specific about semantics, I was reminding you of the option. Also, specifically, we are not friends, and I will not be enjoying your thinly veiled hate anytime soon. I do enjoy hearing from all kinds of backgrounds, but they have to have some merit first. 1 •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson thrillhouse • 9 days ago Do as you wish. It does not concern me much. •Share › Avatar thrillhouse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Concerned you enough to reply. •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Someone tell me where blacks live well by themselves. Surely without the noxious effects of white racism, there is some town, city, state, country where blacks all flourish. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Show me a country in which all whites flourish, first. 3 •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago So you gave up that quickly? •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago You can't, can you? My comment was designed to illuminate the idiocy prevalent in yours. 1 •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago The idiocy is that whites cause black underperfomance. The opposite is much closer to the truth. •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago Whites don't outright cause it-but they've certainly contributed to it drastically in a country with so many opportunities for whites. 1 •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson LethargicSynapse • 9 days ago But you only want to talk about one side of the equation. Why is that? 2 •Share › Avatar LethargicSynapse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago When was that? I guess you didn't actually read my other comments. •Share › Avatar Linda Nichols Mike Stephenson • 8 days ago You really want to be a victim today, don't you? •Share › Avatar Mike Stephenson Linda Nichols • 8 days ago Once again, you misunderstand my point. Whites help blacks to live better, not worse. You would think with all the disparate treatment, black would live less well the more they were around. But the opposite is true, all over the world. •Share › Avatar thrillhouse Mike Stephenson • 9 days ago There is no need to separate races.