As I said, I'm no political guru, but I don't see a few of your points ringing true. "Politically correct?" Sure. I try to do my politics based on some commonality of observation BUT I've no degree for this. Just some things don't look right or mesh with the data I'm seeing. All I can give is from such perspective, but I 'think' some of my feedback might at least help. For instance, it isn't just white 'income' that is the problem. That'd be a hasty and imho wrong conclusion or estimation. Getting to it...
I think maybe the perception of AA is a part of it.
Not when you say it isn't supposed to be colorblind. I realize the issue is separating by necessity BUT such is only concerned with self ("what about me?"). It would and will continue to cause a more stark divide in this country, not fix it. It can't.
AA never was supposed to be color blind. It is a recognition that in order to counter segregationist policies of the past, positive steps must be taken to ensure inclusion.
It is one bigot railing against another bigot...on a organizational scale. It imposes upon non-bigots. I agree with you it may have been needed at one time. Now it is simply dysfunction imho. Realize the 'reaction' is because of color too. It necessarily is going to carry bigoted action and response. It is, imho, the 'wrong' way to fix issues. It's why we are in the mess we are in. That and removing prayer, prayer books, mentions of God, and Christianity etc. from our schools. History, biased, rewritten, and censored is an attack.
What affirmative action is supposed to mean is that certain employers who are covered by the requirements are expected to take positive steps (i.e. "affirmative action") to hire people who have traditionally been excluded. This is supposed to involve things like outreach programs and training. If a company only ever hires out of the usual channels, a lot of opportunities will never be available to entire demographics of people, which only reinforces a segregated status quo. If you are hiring unqualified people to try to meet those expectation, you're doing it wrong.
I think part of the problem is that it is being done wrong.
I think we're seeing two things happening at the same time. On the one hand, policy changes made in the 1960s have facilitated something America was very unaccustomed to: the success of people of color. Rich people who are black, and Hispanic, and women. It used to be that all of the rich people, or almost all of them, as well as nearly all the political leaders, would have been white. And at the same time, we've seen a massive 30-year consolidation of wealth. There are fewer rich people, but those few are much richer. And more and more, people are being pushed out of the middle class. And the result of these two things happening at the same time, is that the comfortable position that white people were in in prior generations, where they might not be rich, but they could still count on being better off than all the black people no longer holds. And that just isn't true anymore. Now, white people who can't get ahead, who find themselves without prospects, often addicted to drugs look at the people of color they see succeeding, and they feel a sense of dispossession. And so they turn to really extreme resentments toward people of color.
I don't think that's it. Whites AND blacks are better than all of our nonAmerican counterparts. Even in debt, we aren't starving. There are a few more living on the street than usual, but I think that problem has more to do with the cost of housing being beyond one's ability. It used to be housing was only 1/4 or 1/3 of a single working parent income. Now it is closer to 3/7 or 4/7 of the income of two parents (in my area). Even at less, I'm happy with what I have, by comparison.
Of course, the collapse of the middle class has a lot less to do with the success of minorities and a lot to do with a tremendous effort to change policies to favor the wealthy and increase income inequality. And because white people have been trained to believe in individualism, they don't allow themselves to see the real causes of their pain.
Correlation. I'm not certain of causation. I 'think' part of it is buying on credit and the inability of single-parent-working homes.
I think that's very unfair and inaccurate. I went to see him speak during the 2008 campaign in North Dakota, a state he knew very well he wasn't going to win. He got literally millions of Americans, especially toward the lower end of the economic spectrum, health insurance. He saved the economy from collapsing, which would have impacted all of the masses.
As I said before, I think some of this might be a bit of where we happen to live. I don't think he was any worse than other presidents, he just didn't talk much to families. There was a LOT of attention on gays (still is). I'm not complaining. It is simply an observation. My family and I don't watch a lot of news anymore, nor even regular television. We simply 'opted out.' However, I did listen to a few of Obama's speeches as well as the way media catered to and outlet him. There didn't seem to be a lot of 'help families' messages to me. America on the whole, didn't think so either, whether its very fair or inaccurate. I have no control over perception but don't think it unfair or inaccurate. It is perception.
I just don't know where you get that.
See:
I think there's been an alarming surge in racism. I can't help but notice that it coincides with the first black presidency.
I think you DO know where I got that but didn't look close enough for depth. 65% of media is devoted to gay subject matter, yet only 1% of the country are of this persuasion. That # is skewed among media members, but even there, such in-equitability is a bit much.
17% of the country is black. That's about 1 or two programs in ten. I think that is better reflected. Many kids literally have to talk 'minority' or 'sexual identity' outside of themselves to be acceptable or politically correct. They are losing their identity and 'becoming' those they are championing. Well, there is a difference in races. I don't have a problem with that as long as I can celebrate my differences too. We don't have to do everything together. It isn't necessary.
I do think that there is a body of the American population that sees themselves as representing the whole thing, and they tend to characterize anything that benefits other groups as some sort of sop to minorities.
Again, if 'skin' is the reason, we are out of balance. Percentages of accurate representation would seem advisable. 1% would get 1% of everything, no more. 17% - same. I don't care if the numbers are exact. 2% of America is Mormon. They have never had and "LDS" channel on Cable, Netflix, or Hulu. We are out of balance as a nation. I'm not sure if a thing will change. I'm of the mind that I have to affect my own area of influence. It is the prayer of serenity.
How? He didn't even get the most votes. And no one got a majority of them. I think he represents a surge in white resentment, i.e. a whitelash. But they don't represent even a bare majority, let alone a vast one.
Because the rest of us didn't vote for him
but didn't vote for Hilary either.
I don't necessarily disagree, but by far the more activist media is on the Right. Don't think network news reflects your views? There's Fox News for that. Still feel like that's too politically correct? You've got Breitbart. And then you can graduate to InfoWars. And then the Daily Stormer. These outlets keep popping up, and each new one is more extreme, more white nationalist than the last, and they start on the fringes and then become mainstream as white Americans become more and more radicalized and resentful. There's no comparably activist trend on the Left. Left-wing activist media mostly comes in the form of satire.
Then there would be no representation of either of us. The media rarely reflects my values, either the news, or entertainment. Disney seems to be trying again. They lost their way imho, there for awhile. They still don't include cussing for children, unlike DreamWorks. At least they know a lot of parents won't buy it.
It seems to me that the problem is that news is too commercialized. It's a lot harder to justify the kind of public service journalism that never turns a profit, and so it ends up being funded by whatever can bring in money. Frequently, that's ads from drug companies, eager to market their overpriced wares.
Only 35% of America, across board, trusts the news. You'd think they'd take a hint.
How do you know the entertainers don't simply reflect the culture that produces them? They wouldn't succeed if they didn't resonate with someone, right?
Entertainment sells because of entertainment value. I simply don't watch what offends me. I don't watch a LOT of TV or Films. Imho, it is getting worse and disproportionate.
Religion is getting less important to people. I think a part of the reaction that Trump represents is a rejection of that trend.
:nono: The opposite is true. There are signs, but I don't believe they point to what some people think it does.
Thanks for responding.
:cheers:
Again, I'm no guru on politics. I simply am giving a perspective and it is colored by 'what I see.' I haven't kept up in the political 'know' and so it simply reflects a bit of interest as well as observations from what amount I actually do take in. Part of it, I think, is that more people are talking politics than they used to. I'm seeing a lot more of it on Facebook for instance. It's good. It gets us all talking instead of doing more stuff that separates us further as a society and nation. When it comes to color, if the whole group happened to be 'not my color' I'd take them over mediocrity. I guess I'm saying I'm into excellence, not skin color. On a spiritual point, I'm concerned with those following Him. I've told my kids, I'd rather see them pick anybody of strong faith at the neglect of any skin color than someone that happens to be their own shade. I realize you aren't of faith, but 'character' would be about the same in conveyance. I'm not sure what it has to do with the thread other than not really caring about skin color that much, other than when others are wrongly concerned about it (one way or the other).