The Partisan Divide on Issues

[pbrower2a]

(07-12-2020, 05:06 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(07-11-2020, 10:16 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote: Well, if the current liberal trend continues, the liberals won't have cops to use as political pawns for them to make examples of in front of their base or blame or pick on as they please like they still kind of have available to them right now. Yes. if only the lowly blacks and other lowly folks only had better parents, better teachers, better leaders, better role models, better communities and a better overall environment like most other Americans they'd have a better chance at succeeding. living a better life and a better chance at survival. So, what are you going to do about them as their numbers continue to grow and your barriers begin to disappear and the bulk of us who can read the writing on wall are gone and living with us.

My sister taught first grade in a fairly affluent Boston suburb.  Included among her students were blacks with a success oriented culture that fit in with the white students well enough, but would still have to endure the prejudices of many.  Still, they presented no great challenges or difference from the other local students.

The black bourgeoisie... the Talented Tenth of old times. It can never assimilate its way into whiteness, but it can assimilate white people into its gene pool. That, folks, is the worst threat to white supremacists such as Tom Metzger and David DuKKKe. F--- those bigots!

There are people like that in all ethnic groups, and they recognize what they have in common.   

Quote:But she also had occasional students bussed out from Boston urban areas.  She explained it this way.  The people who had the greatest status and success visible to these young were star athletes, star performers, drug pushers, and mothers.  Thus, many pursued preparation to pursue these careers.

Now becoming a big time entertainer or athlete is a long shot.  One is apt to not be able to compete, or at best play a minor supporting role or get involved in a minor local act.  The other roles are less than desirable, but are still the only ‘success’ that is visible to a minority person growing up.  By bussing a few kids out to the affluent suburbs, they are at least exposed to the idea of a good education and work ethic could lead to a more ordinary and helpful role in the culture.  They choose kids who are already half way there, kids with the ethic to work hard and the intelligence to succeed.

Basically it's all or nothing for people who do not know many examples of the middle class. In the middle are the not-so-showy K-12 teachers, accountants, engineers, computer programmers, salesmen, nurses, medical technicians... I can't be sure that the pro athletes and the entertainers are such admirable models. Part of being a legitimate success is in having character, which used to be an objective in  K-12 education and the undergraduate education at the old-fashioned liberal-arts school. Character is the difference between deciding that low waves at a fast-food place are more likely to get one somewhere other than prison or the morgue than hustling drugs or women... or at a higher level of vocational success, deciding that embezzlement is just simply wrong.   

Quote:One problem with that is the presumption that all blacks have the ghetto mind set.  Some people are prejudiced, set in their ways, and making it difficult or impossible for minorities to succeed.  Many are small government fans, making it difficult to equalize the school or even home environments.  Too many, small government is a racist tool, a way to prevent white tax money from serving the black community.  As long as this mentality persists, that people “read the writing on the wall” they help to perpetuate the problem.

"Ghetto" behavior is becoming commonplace among white people (if not in that district!), although the cultural manifestations are different. So what.  There is distinct "loser" behavior that ruins one even if one gets some early modicum of success. Delinquent behavior, early promiscuity, neglect of studies, drug use (including under-age drinking: alcohol is a relatively tame drug to physically-mature adults, but a hard drug if teenagers are involved with it), and excessive involvement in mass low culture are not going to lead to success. To be sure, hard work is often good at best for many in survival in poverty. The last forty years have been a heyday of plutocracy in which most people seem to exist solely to make people already filthy-rich even more filthy-rich while getting a few table scraps and plenty of abuse. Such is an unstable reality, and it is one that this 4T either solves effectively or entrenches more harshly.         

Quote:And it is not that a well to do kid from the suburb never works at becoming a star athlete or entertainer.  That temptation is there for all kids.  It is just that the parents and the culture better ready the kid for a soft landing should there be failure in the low possibility of success in the dream.

The kid from the suburb (including a kid from the black bourgeoisie) might dream of being a violinist in the Boston Symphony... or being a research scientist. Figure that the Boston Symphony has more players than the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins have together... and that the career is longer. A hint: the cellist will never tackle you by grabbing your face-mask! Or perhaps he will be a chip off the old block and follow Daddy as a green-grocer or a traveling salesman.  That is modest success, but it is success. 

Having suitable role models now looks essential to success.  

Quote:But a key element is the racist presumption that all minority kids are the same and that resources should be hoarded to the dominant culture. To some degree you can work for success in spite of the attempts to monopolize culture and deny access.  It is impossible to achieve success if there is a large subculture attempting to isolate and deny resources.

Racism is intellectual laziness. Such may explain why successful blacks are heavily Democratic: liberals are more likely to size them up and see more than skin tone. I've known bigots, and I often see other problems than bigotry, such as poor control of impulses. The bigots who heavily use the N-word seem to use the F-word a lot.