Metmike often posts about “making the world a better place”
Human behavior is at the core of making life on this planet better. And how you raise your kids has much to do with this.
Maybe, some of you are proud fathers of one or two sons. You probably tried your best to raise your kids “the right way” .
This means, you probably taught them to
You can probably add a few items to this list.
These are the things I thought were “virtuous” for most of my life.
HOWEVER, as I woke up this morning, I suddenly realized that I am living in a new world…. a “woke” world, where these views are wrong.
It was pointed out to me that the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) on the National Mall in Washington DC, has published a guide which states that all the “values” above are actually signs of white supremacy and white oppression. It’s those “values” that have prohibited African Americans from being successful.
The guide even mentions Christianity as a form of white supremacy and oppression.
Maybe it’s time to go outside, put on some Kente scarfs, as Nancy Pelosi did, take a knee and apologize.
https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness
On the other hand…… I wouldn't really like a life where the opposite of the above are the norm
On the other hand…… I wouldn't really like a life where the opposite of the above are the norm
This is due to your "White Privilege". You can't understand this because you have always had "White Privilege" and are not "Woke"..
I really understand most of what they are saying. Whites, based on the current dynamic/statistic, are in massively better positions from the get go, than blacks, browns and yellows.
Yellows have somehow ignored that and just applied themselves, using the principles that we know result in success in this country but that mainly has to do with their family units.
Many blacks in the inner city are being raised by blacks that were raised by blacks, that were raised by blacks who don't have this long line of applying and passing on the knowledge of the principles that lead to success.
So I get that part of it clearly. However, the position that blacks don't have the same opportunities because of systemic racism that is still discriminating against them is wrong.
The justice system and laws passed since the 1960's are favorable for any blacks that experience discrimination, have powerful legal recourse.
The vast, vast majority of Americans are NOT racists and see the value of everybody's worth to be equal, regardless of skin color.
All the wonderful things our country offers, it offers to everybody, regardless of skin color.
However, blacks are not participating in the American Dream to the extent of whites, especially because their family units are not raising them with the blue print for success, the same way as whites( many fatherless black kids are being raised with the blue print for failure) and its justifiable to allow some "reverse discrimination" if you want to call it that to assist them. but most importantly, we MUST RECOGNIZE THE CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM.
Lack of access to the same level of education and jobs, as well as unsafe neighborhoods/high crime in the urban/inner city settings is the biggest cause of the problem, along with the family unit.
Since many more blacks live in urban settings than rural settings and are poor, this dynamic will affect them negatively as a group.
However, the fix to this is not to make all the non racist whites aware that their whiteness is why they live in the suburbs as much as it is to fix the real problem.......education, jobs, crime in the urban areas and emphasis on the family unit.
This will help whites in the inner cities too...........raised by poor parents, who were raised by poor parents that don't have the knowledge to pass on success to their children.
So its not really white privilege but RICH white privilege thats going on.....yes, I know that more whites are rich than blacks but we need to get over the skin color thing and focus on POOR, UNEDUCATED people.
Let's get real on the perspective. We are obviously talking about what family you were born into that plays a great role in how successful you become. There is 100% supported by the facts.
However, there are 350 million people in this country and almost 8 billion on the planet with billions of them born into destitute poverty and very few opportunities. Not even enough fresh water for a billion.
A black person born in Africa for instance would trade material/opportunity places with the worst off blacks in the US in a heartbeat.
My sister, Patti who adopted 2 Aids orphans from Kenya has mentioned this before. Those were children #9 and #10 for her. Her 8 white privileged children all took things for granted in this country. They were raised by the best parents and are having good lives.
Her last 2 black children, raised in the same white privileged family DID THE BEST OF ALL.
The reason had nothing to do with the color of their skin but in the family that raised them...........plus them totally appreciating what we have here in this country.
Her oldest adopted son, Calvin Osoro is a medical doctor working in the emergency room in Toledo OH. He wants to go back to Kenya to help his people that don't have anything like we do.
When he came to this country, Patti told me that of all her kids, he worked the hardest, did his chores without complaining and the first year, was exited about having so much FOOD.
We worry about so many petty things in the US but there are more people in Kenya that don;'t have enough food, than there are people in the US.
So Patti has told me before(she is obviously not racist) that she thinks this complaining about the plight of blacks because of slavery 200 years ago and not having equal opportunities is bs.
With regards to reparations, this was her best line(something like this-paraphrased):
"The blacks living here in our country today are not the ones that deserve reparations or compensation.......it's the ones left behind...........still living in Africa with nothing because their distant kinfolk were not stolen from the homeland and brought here as slaves.
Many people could never get away with having that opinion and not be thought of as racist. Look at the picture on the next page and ask how a racist could adopt boys that look like them?
So the point is, that there is a big picture and profoundly different ways to look at what is/has really gone on.
One side, won't let the wretched past of slavery 200 years ago go away(mainly for political reasons) . Focusing mostly on this is almost entirely counter productive because.
1. It does not address the real problems in the inner cities..........where more blacks AND POOR people live.
2. You are looking at a glass that, on a global scale, is pretty filled up but seeing it as almost empty by dwelling on items from the distant past in this country.
Regardless, I am in agreement that there IS a problem even though my perspective is somewhat different.
We never officially said "yes" to taking in a boy from Kenya, but had promised to pray about it. One thing led to another and in the end, many lives were changed.
Calvin’s coming to us was an amazing answer to his seemingly impossible prayer. Years earlier, he had read a book about a boy who left Kenya to go to school in the United States. ”Maybe I could go there someday,” he dreamed and prayed, “Dear God, please let me go to the United States.”
Great post, metmike !!!!!!!!
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Donald Trump fails miserably on many of these things. What a horrible example for our children to follow. If i had young children right now, I'd be embarrassed to talk about him (opposite of Reagan). Furthermore, thanks, Trump, for being so awful that you're leading the US toward domination by the socialist wing of the Dems. Hopefully that will be temporary. And the good news is Trump is almost definitely going to lose and quite possibly in an embarrassing landslide.
Thanks for starting it Gunter.
And when parents raise their white privileged children like Patti and her husband Mark did.............sometimes.........this happens(their son Luke dedicating his white privileged upbringing to help brown children in a distant poor country):
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/34791/
Thanks much Larry!
I didn't see any mention or reference to Trump by anybody in this positive thread. It's totally ok to bring him up any time or anywhere and start new threads and to criticize him but its getting crazy how every point on everything has to be connected to Trump somehow.
BTW, I agree 100% with what you stated but am trying to help people to stop letting Trump wreck their peace of mind and contentment as they dwell and fixate their lives (always in a negative way) on every little new item related to him.
It's wrecking alot of relationships in this country right now.......mostly because of hatred.
Hard to do so, Mike, when you consider Trump is in a very powerful position. The negatives about him need to be mentioned whenever or wherever possible. And the extreme hatred is warranted.
david, no argument with your reply. No doubt, Trump has a long list of flaws. Yet I am glad that Hillary Nuke'm Clinton did not win... and I am quite uneasy about Joe Quid-pro-quo Biden's plan for our country.
Gunter,
That was not Dave............it just sounded like Dave.
By WxFollower - July 16, 2020, 2:17 p.m.
"Hard to do so, Mike, when you consider Trump is in a very powerful position. The negatives about him need to be mentioned whenever or wherever possible. And the extreme hatred is warranted."
Suit yourself Larry,
I understand that emotion hate more than you will ever know. I can tell you that extreme hatred has almost always hurt the hater by several orders of magnitude.
You must realize that it doesn't hurt Donald Trump 1 iota. What it does, when somebody becomes neurotically obsessed with expressing hatred for somebody else, its hurts the hater and those observing it are not thinking, "Wow, that Larry really knows alot about hatred, I'm glad he's not posting those dumb natural gas/weather and other posts because his real expertise is in hating.
That sounds silly but hate it blind. Those that let it define them, don't realize how they are perceived. It never bolstered anybody's credibility.
In fact, one the many things that I dislike about Trump is that he is a man driven by hatred and he causes others to hate even more than he does. Why wrestle with a pig in the mud? Trump causes people to take the low road and they blame it on him. We all have choices. Nobody makes us think or act certain ways. They can be a big factor..........but we all still have choices.
Granted, you have always expressed every thought here, generously and respectfully, with no exceptions and I welcome any posts that you have on Trump...........and again, I agree 100% with your assessment of his off the charts personality and character flaws......including his constant display of hatred.
There is almost no way that he will be elected again and am, in many ways looking forward to that.
And I really get why so many people hate the easiest to hate person in American history..........even though many don't realize that they don't NEED to hate him to be part of those that want him out.
I may not understand or even have the thought correct so please help me understand why those 10 sentences or thoughts [what ever] are bad and examples of white privilege and oppression
Canucks can be really dumb some times
I don't even know what you mean by "woke"
What am I missing???
Educate me. I am willing to learn
I can't walk a mile in somebody else's shoes
for our kids... we never bought them any toy guns.
never bought them any violent video games.
instead we Did buy them things like legos, mindcraft games, sim city, where you learn to build things.
and today our son is an architect. and one of our daughters is studying interior design.
our attitude... it is better to learn to create, and build things,... rather than destroy things.
Congrats bear, on raising some great kids!
Got any grandkids yet?
For many adults, when they have kids, they bring them up using the same philosophy that their parents used.
But times are extraordinarily different today.