Already tried previous to the Civil War....
Posted on 10/15/2005 12:20:23 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
No, this is not about the Rev. Louis Farrakhan and his march in D.C. Instead, it’s about an article today (15 October) in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer entitled, “ 'Slave syndrome' may still affect black behavior.” The thesis of the professor appears in the early paragraphs:
“The troubling images of African Americans displaced by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans' impoverished neighborhoods didn't startle researcher Joy DeGruy-Leary. ‘All Katrina did was reveal what was already there. I wasn't confused, wasn't surprised,’ she said....
“DeGruy-Leary, an assistant professor in Portland State University's Graduate School of Social Work, will discuss her theory of the relationship between race, culture, poverty and history today at the third Seattle Race Conference and tonight in a separate talk. Her theory of "post-traumatic slave syndrome" concludes that African Americans needed to adapt to survive more than two centuries of slavery, and that those adaptations are reflected in their behaviors today.”
Source: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/244686_seattlerace15.html
There are two problems with this professor’s “slave” thesis, neither of them noticed or mentioned in this article. The first is that emotional reactions are not biologically inherited by children, much less great-great-great-great-grandchildren. If you go back far enough, all Americans are descended from humans who bashed in the brains of other humans, and had no aversion to cooking and eating them for dinner. Those traits are exceptionally rare among modern Americans.
The second error in the article is this: the history of race relations in Seattle itself demonstrates that the professor’s theory is a vat of snake oil, designed to deceive rather than inform. Washington State was one of the areas from which Japanese-Americans were rounded up and put in prison camps without charges or trials, at the beginning of World War II. The specific story about Puget Sound was told in the book, Snow Falling on Cedars.
Surely this reporter was aware of that. The broader story is told in the book, Manzanar, about the imprisonment of approximately 110,000 Japanese-Americans for no crime, for racial reasons only. These people, most of them American citizens, lost all or most of their property and remained in prison until 1944-1945. They were treated no better than slaves for the time of their imprisonment.
And yet, Japanese-Americans today are among the highest of all demographic groups in their achievements and success, measured by any standard. If the professor’s theory about a “slave” syndrome had an ounce of truth to it, damaging effects should appear in the Japanese-American community in Seattle itself. But they don’t. That strongly suggests that the professor’s thesis is false, and that the reporter and his editor missed the story that was right in front of them
John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
John / Billybob
Facts are to a liberal, what salt is to a garden snail - death.
I guess "slave syndrome" sounded better than "welfare syndrome."
This is being discussed here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1503038/posts
I do not deny that there might be something like a post-slavery syndrome. There has to be. No other group of people, even Africans from other nations who immigrate here, don't act in the same way. It is clearly not biological but sociological. That being said, the solution to the problem is not with more "programs" hand-outs, western civilization bashing re-education, but with internal change in the black community itself. No one except them can change it. However, this appears unlikely given the "keeping it real" crowd. This explains why most of us, almost all of us who have had family members who were slaves (think Rome) got over it. Because we did not want to "keep it real", not because we had a government program help us. (To date, Rome has not asked for forgivness or paid reparations for their conquest and subjugaton of Spanish peoples after the Punic Wars).
That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality.
George W. Bush ( Katrina aftermath address to America )
FMCDH(BITS)
In poverty, the correct quote would be, "give everyone a fair opportunity, encourage everyone to take advantage of it." As my all-so-brief article notes, failure is not a racial matter. It is a matter of family, and commitment, and hard work.
John / Billybob
Although I must say the whole agenda was given away by the first sentence::
DeGruy-Leary, an assistant professor in Portland State University's Graduate School of Social Work, will discuss her theory
There's no way an assistant professor in the "graduate" field of "social work," with the foresight to hyphenate her name, in Portland (of all places!) is going to produce anything scholarly. Maybe scatological, but certainly nothing of intellectual substance.
Why didn't you respond to my post of the article...and your views more important than anyone else's?
...and did you do a search to see if it was posted???
Well, it is true that the "hillbillys " of Appalachia exhibit much the same behavior. My wife's sister-in-law , who is from West Virginia, has very little contact with her family, who are caught in the same cycle of poverty as urban blacks. But one can see still see the same lethargy in white families who migrated to the iindustrial areas of the north. A culture can be a prison.
But one can see still see the same lethargy in white families who migrated to the iindustrial areas of the north.
--
Yeah and unfortunately these poor whites aren't given the same assistance such as affirmative action, business loans, etc. because their skin isn't the right color.
It's not race, it's culture, stupid. I wish this dirty little secret would get out so we could stop hearing about racism. And maybe even fix the problem.
That coul also go a long way in explaining it, I agree.
Black people are oblivious to the problems of the white poor.
Oh yeah that book is awesome. I higly recommend it! I learned more in the first 25 pages about the South than I ever did in AP American History!
That was Lincoln's plan (though maybe not his reason), but he was assassinated before he could implement it.
On a parallel note; I'd offer instead that a submissive, quiet, "accept authority", fear freedom, fear economic risk, live silently and passively tolerate ANYTHING that the government does IS an in-bred trait in societies like Soviet Russia, an perhaps, by extension, to the slave trade beginnings in Africa and Muslim Sahara.
A passive, non-rebellious figure survives. Has the potential for children, even if under slavery or socialism. A rebellious, or freedom-seeking, or ANY individual who stands out gets sent to Siberia, killed, outright, or forced into poverty and prison. Loss of jobs, food, travel, education means less (or no) breeding.
So, over the years beginning in Czarist Russia in the 1600's, rather than a Renaissance and explosion of economic freedom, the Soviet people get bred into submissive, passive, freedom-fearing people.
And slave descendent's (those who were survivors of slaves in taken from Africa to the US) are the ones who were NOT killed, actively resisting, or who were taking slaves themselves in Africa.
Or "break the window and steal the flat-screen TV syndrome".
Has to be. I remember reading an article about the book a while ago. Definitely will check it out.
Bush makes his case for nationwide reparations. After all, there are millions and millions of those who fit his special-needs-due-to-discrimination theory, in other cities besides New Orleans.
What determines that those in New Orleans receive these better living conditions? Destruction of their community? What then is to stop those eligible from burning down their cities and having them rebuilt bigger and better?
Except when they get attacked by Chechen terrorists. Then they get MAD!!!!!!!
Blacks are capable of being as competent as any race, but until they throw off the yoke of slavery fostered upon them by the lies their "leaders" tell them, and so-called "social welfare" programs that only foster increased dependency on government, then unfortunately, Blacks will continue to live in a form of self-imposed slavery no government program can ever cure.
Nice column!
"Blacks are capable of being as competent as any race"
True, in theory.
So, I did both. I responded to the post of the original article here on FR. But I also wrote a separate piece for Newsbusters. Despite the size and success of FR, the reach of Newsbusters is even greater.
John / Billybob
That's not true of the Scots-Irish and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for making those kinds of generalizations.
The overwhelming migration of the Scots-Irish to American came between 1720 and about 1760 and from that group came the majority of American presidents and generals.
They were the poorest group to immigrate here from the British Isles and they did very well. Aside from material considerations, (they weren't wearing velvet and jewels) they were the ones who took the brunt of the Indian Wars of all kinds.
If there are pockets of lassitude and white poverty in Appalachia, these pockets exist in every culture. But maybe they like the country life.
Shame on you!
Minnesota Vikings?
The problem is that people accept this notion that the whole World is against them. The World is neutral. Unless a person achieves fame or notoriety, the World isn't taking notice of what anyone does.
read latter.
Already tried previous to the Civil War....
Huh? I assume you're being sarcastic? I was talking about a backward group from that area, not all Scots/English?
"If there are pockets of lassitude and white poverty in Appalachia, these pockets exist in every culture. "
Yeah you are right. The success of a group of people is less tied to their culture than their adherence to a couple of values, including a strong work ethic, moral values, respect for life, etc.
A simplified version of this is reflected in the fact that is something like if you (1) finish high school (2) don't be a teenage mother and (3) don't have a baby out of wedlock they you will have some high chance of not living in poverty. Does anyone around here know the exact statistic?
Wait a minute. It does sound better!
And since I'm of Slavic heritage, last of the peons in Europe to be freed from slavery, and from whence the term 'slave' come from....
WooHoo! I'm owed reparations!!!!
Isn't that something many of us know, and the Liberals want to hide? I forget the exact numbers, but among people who get at least a high school education, get a job (even minimum wage), stay off drugs, and get married before having children, only 15% are poor (regardless of race). Of those who don't, 85% are poor.
And more African-Americans than whites or Asians fail to do those things.
The facts don't suit the Liberal agenda - they put the responsibility on the individual. The Liberals need to have a "downtrodden" class, otherwise they have no claim to power. And African-Americans are willing to fill that role.
Yes there is, however I would think the linkage is more culturally based than genetic if that's where you were going.
Regards,
GtG
PS As my sainted Great-Granny used to say;"Die Welt ein besserer Platz würde mit deutschen Weisen sein."
This is along the same lines of the so called "black rage" defence.Remember the man who killed white pasangers on a bus(?)several yrs ago?His attorney claimed an uncontrolable rage against whites(because he felt opressed)drove him to kill.I don't think the jury bought it.IMO,people who believe this tripe simply want to believe it.As far as Katrina is concerned,the press went out of their way to MAKE Katrina a racial issue.They propagated the unfounded rumors of wholesale rape and murder.
Huh?
The ex-slave immigrants from the Caribbean Islands now in New York don't act this way. They also have a higher average income in NY than the average white income. One immigrant was quoted as saying: "Isn't America great, all you have to do to get rich is work."
The ex-slave BS is for the birds and intended to elicit another level of give aways for people who refuse to work and be responsible for themselves.
Yeah, and how about post Potato Famine syndrome. It makes me want to have a drink.
Nice. Thanks for the pointer.
The terrorist quote bothers me because it is annoyingly euphemistic. The poverty quote is an insidious talking point for reparationists.
Come on; How can you demand reparations for welfare syndrome???? Sarcasm / wide and deep
You are so very correct however a word to the wise I made the same point about three weeks ago and congressman billybob lit me up as a racist.
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