What is your answer to "The Race Problem"?
- Thread starter Alate_One
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gcthomas
New member
But, I'd keep on trying anyway. The good kids struggling in these schools need something to pin their hopes on.
gcthomas
New member
Absolutely. Poor kids here get subsidies to go to university, and it is a popular way to spend tax receipts.
PureX
Well-known member
The racism is evident by the poor condition of their schools in the first place. There's always plenty of money for arts programs and sports programs and computers and scholarships in the schools in wealthy white people's neighborhoods. But when it comes to the schools for kids in poor black neighborhoods, the buildings are falling down, the teachers are frightened and exhausted, the programs that get kids interested in school and community are unavailable, and scholarships are few and far between. And the kids see this. They know they are society's dregs. They know they are outcasts. Poverty is not primarily a lack of money. It's the lack of opportunity, and the loss of hope.
There is no reason for this to be happening but for the racial/economic bigotry of those who control these conditions.
gcthomas
New member
That's a good point. We used to have special schools for the most disturbed and difficult kids to be referred to, but they were scrapped twenty years ago due to the demands of a tax cutting government. They are returning in many areas now, as the problems in schools worsened, despite the high spend per pupil needed if they are to be turned into productive adults.
That's all good, but the issue goes beyond poverty. Helping people get an education, and find ways to advance doesn't change the fact that some people are seen as in need of protection, while other people are viewed as the people that the first group need protection from.
The Berean
Well-known member
I wish we had more black TOLers. I can only think of one black TOLer in all my years here but he no longer posts. I suspect actual black people would find this thread humorous, a bunch of mostly white people talking about black problems and offering their "solutions". :chuckle:
I don't think we're to the point of solutions, honestly. I think we're still trying to establish that there is a problem to be solved.
But I agree, it would be good to have an actual black voice here.
gcthomas
New member
I think a large part of the problem is economic, and plenty of white people have had experience of those problems too. The disaffected/disadvantaged groups in the UK are mostly white.
Why do you think there are so few black people on ToL?
The Berean
Well-known member
I agree it comes down to economics. In the past Irish, Italian, and Chinese immigrants to America faced economic hardships and racism as well.
I have no idea. :idunno: The one black TOLer I remember was an atheist and his father was a dentist.
ok doser
lifeguard at the cement pond
how do you know whether a poster is black?
PureX
Well-known member
To be honest, I doubt that "humorous" is what they're thinking when they read these threads. There are no small number of overt racists on TOL. And I doubt anyone but themselves find them in any way humorous.
gcthomas
New member
I don't, fool. I was responding to The Berean's comment, which you'd know if you had been reading the thread.
ok doser
lifeguard at the cement pond
yes, and when tb comes back i'll ask him
right now i'm asking you
how do you know whether a poster is black?
The Berean
Well-known member
With long time TOLers personal information comes up after a while. For example I'm sure people know I am Latino. I know that "Granite" is part Jewish, "Knight" is half Italian/half Norweigian, and that "TomO" is an American-Italian whose family works in the construction business, the olive oil business, the casino business, and own a Cocacabana club (see my sig below). I am not aware of any current TOLer that has self identified as African-American. I think Quincy is part black but I could be wrong.
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