Rice on race: It matters and always has

The Huntsville Time ^ | November 22, 2002 | Dave Person

[nopardons]

Right you are, dear friend. :-)

[Hermann the Cherusker]

You appear to live in a rarified world of unreality that few will ever attain to.

While you were busy living in Chicago and Manhattan, did you ever bother to go and even check out Washington Heights or Hyde Park as a place to live? Or better yet, Ozone Park or Canarsie in NYC or the northwest side of Chicago or Harvey?

Ain't it grand to be able to afford to pretend to be non-racist in you all-white enclaves?

BTW, I didn't say I was prejudiced. I just stated certain preferences in my living arrangements. Preferences aren't prejudices. At least not according to the English language I learned.

[wardaddy]

No, my ancestors were classier than yours, on account of the fact that their slaves were white with blonde hair.

Damn Thad, well done! I liked that one. You know damn well that I'm pretty much east Mississippi piney woods descended and I can't claim much slave ownership in my past. However, my wife has very strong antebellum ancestry. Can I count her's? That may be your wittiest retort yet.

I hate to be tacky but do you really consider slaves with white skin and blonde hair to be "classier" than slaves with dark hair and non-white skin? Isn't that sort of err.....a racist presumption in it's own right. I suppose since you uttered it then of course not....it couldn't be.

[SkyPilot]

Chris,

I think your post was very eloquent on many many levels. Moreover, something you said about 2 weeks ago was even more telling. I will paraphrase, so please forgive anything lost or misinterpreted:

- Dr. Rice terrifies the "black leaders" and the Liberals because she is achieving without their help, blessing, or aid. On the contrary, she is succeeding without them. Should this continue, she owes them nothing, and marginalizes them to the doldrums of insignificance.

[nopardons]

Your numbers don't add up any more than your bigotted garbage does.

Name me a KKK Dragon ( or whatever Byrd is ), in the present ( or even one in the last three decades ! ) GOP.

AS for the rest of your diatribe, I'd much prefer to live nextdoor to a BLACK Conservative, than nextdoor to you. Though I doubt that you could afford to. LOL

[SkyPilot]

Everybody's got nice homes and clean yards, except for the old white couple behind me.

Every now and then, I am reminded that I am glad you are on this forum. You don't let others get away with sophomoric rants--and it is refreshing.

[mlmr]

Black conservatives that I have read have never discounted the issue of race. But they count it as one of many issues instead of the pivotal issue of the black experience.

[mlmr]

Every year.

[vbmoneyspender]

I think you have your facts wrong about the Republicans and the Civil Rights Act. You need to do a little more checking before you spout off the way you do. 27 Republicans voted in favor of the Act versus 6 against. Here is a link that shows that Republican support was crucial to passing the Civil Rights Act and that in fact only one Republican Senator participated in the filibuster against the bill. Further, the essay set forth in the link makes that if it hadn't have been for the Republicans, the Act wouldn't have passed at all.

Major Features of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

[bootless]

Good point.

BTW, Larry Bird's not white - he's see-through!

[wardaddy]

That was a nice way of putting it.

[mlmr]

I am the mother of four black children, my husband and I are white. I do, to some extent agree with you. People tend to be more comfortable among their own kind. Black, Yellow, and White. There are those of us who break boundaries. But on the whole the most comfortable is the most familiar. I do not necessarily think that this is a bad thing. I agree that it should be recognized and named.

[vbmoneyspender]

The Republican Party was not so badly split as the Democrats by the civil rights issue. Only one Republican senator participated in the filibuster against the bill. In fact, since 1933, Republicans had a more positive record on civil rights than the Democrats. In the twenty-six major civil rights votes since 1933, a majority of Democrats opposed civil rights legislation in over 80 % of the votes. By contrast, the Republican majority favored civil rights in over 96 % of the votes.

The Republican pro-civil rights forces were blessed with gifted leadership. Although Senate minority whip Thomas Kuchel initially managed the party's forces, it increasingly became clear to Democrats, Republicans, the press, civil rights groups, and the White House that Everett McKinley Dirksen was the key man in the entire civil rights legislative effort.

After criticizing H. R. 7152 in March, Dirksen began to work more closely in late spring with Humphrey and the civil rights forces to fashion a strategy that would secure passage of the bill. Dirksen organized Republican support for the bill by designating a floor captain for each of the bill's seven sections. He and the bipartisan leaders believed that five or six "swing" votes held the key to cloture and the end of debate. Almost all of these uncommitted senators were conservative Republicans from rural states without racial difficulties. Their constituents opposed the legislation because it involved expanded federal powers. The problem facing the leadership was how to enlist the support of these uncommitted senators.

By working with Dirksen to swing key votes and by marshaling public opinion and constituent support for the civil rights measure, Senate leaders moved forward with the legislation.

Major Features of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

[mlmr]

Funny, that was my experience living in a neighborhood that turned into upscale Jewish during my childhood

[nopardons]

Gee, Hyde Park is VERY expensive, dear, and while it has some nice places to live, it wasn't where I wanted to live. Washington Heights, when I was growing up, was mostly filled with white, Jews, of European ancestry. The northwest side of Chicago ? As in Wrigkeyville, perhaps ? It just might interest you to know, that now, you can't buy anything there, much under $400,000, for even a " fixer upper.

As for the other places, I don't choose to live in a slum and since I could and can afford better, I did. Obviously, for all of your preening and dropping of your " pedagree ", your ancestors , not only didn't leave you any of their couth, nor money. :-)

I told you, that where I lived wasn't an " ALL WHITE ENCLAVE "; but your reading comprehension isn't quite up to snuff. Yes, NOW , my closest neighbors are white; however, that wasn't always so and our country club, here, has members of ALL races and religions. So does this town ; my immediate neighbors ( and there aren't many ), just happen to be white. If a black or Asian couple moved in nextdoor, I wouldn't have a fit; unless they were damned Liberals or someone like you

Look up the word " preddjudice " ; the meanings are varied and many. You still fit the bill. LOL

[Hermann the Cherusker]

My family was also pro-Civil rights, and we always lived in integrated neighborhoods growing up (University City and West Mt. Airy in Philadelphia).

Most of the chest-thumping about how "unracist I am" is all so much hot-air.

I doubt most of those people have a clue about what the Civil Rights movement was about, or why the Clintoonized "race-discussion" is such utter nonesense in comparison to it.

[mlmr]

Actually the statistics about comfort with mixed marriages is about 66% against it and 33% for it.

[mlmr]

That is why I left the Left. They were poisonous for my Black children

[wardaddy]

Thanks for you candidness....and your altruism.

There is much to be said for that. I pray your children have done well by your endeavors. Raising children of any hue in this modern age isn't for sissies.

[Theophilus]

Hermann the Cherusker wrote:

"For all the supposed non-Racist whites here, lets get an honest answer to a couple of questions. Would you have a problem with your white daughter marrying someone of a different race, especially a black man? Would you have a problem moving to a middle class all black neighborhood? Or with your neighborhoods suddenly becoming 50% black as a bunch of middle class blacks moved in?"

docmcb: you gave this reply: Answers: No, not if he were a Christian. No, and no.

and I say: DITTO!

and To: Hermann the Cherusker

As a matter of fact I'd rejoice if he had the character of Walter Williams, J.C. Watts or Colin Powell - character, I'm not talking about the money or power - they are just examples we will mutually recognize. Now if they were like Jesse Jackson, who cheats on his wife, then not only NO but HELL NO - why? it has nothing to do with a man's skin color, but his individual unique character. I would discourage my daughter from marrying a white fella if he was like Slick Willy or any other liberal fruitcake philanderer and fornicating cheat. So, are all black men cheaters? Are all whites "saints"? Hell no, and no one but God knows exactly how many and which ones are what really matters - of good or bad character - cheating sacks of horse hockey or worthy of my daughter, and in the end, "there can be only one" when it comes to marrying my daughter, which means that every other man, be he white or black is REJECTED, and that equally. Which just goes to show if you make a decision based on skin color alone you're a racist - and you in fact just did, asking / baiting us to make such a weak-minded and lazy decision. See, to true Christians and Conservatives, the skin is really transparent, and in that way shouldn't matter - we all bleed red and we all die. It should be seen past: "man looks on the outside, and God looks in the heart"... to the inside where it counts. "It is not what goes into a man that corrupts a man, but what comes out" and the pharisees were great looking on the outside but they were "white-washed sepulchers full of dead men's bones" and a sepulcher can be painted any color, it still is rotten to the core. So if liberals could quit focusing on the skin, and consider each person uniquely for his or her own merit - character, conduct and behavior, then we'd be truly evaluated for who we are, not who you or anyone elsethinks we are, based on what you or they heard and chose to believe what someone else said. You yourself are a victim of stereotypical prejudice as you assume the honest answer to your questions before you know the answer - you yourself are prejudging. And just because a selection of persons ever answers a certain way on any question, never gives you the right to "assume" and pass judgement on the rest of the group or any one individual who hasn't yet answered. You may suspect in your own mind, but you should always verify what you believe to actually be truth before you preach it. You poor hypocrite. Conservatives and persons who call themselves Christians who pursue Christ and acknowlege they are wrong when found in opposition to His teachings (the base definition: a follower of Christ) who say as Paul said "neither Jew nor Gentile, bond or free, etc." but all brothers and sisters, never purport otherwise to separate and judge by "unchangeables" (things we don't choose) like race, ethnicity, gender, (notice I didn't mention sexual behavior -it's not preference, either you commit sodomy or you don't), because God alone controls these unchangeables and to oppose Him or find fault with His handiwork is, well, to be blunt, stupid. So, you've proved your racist bias by asking us to make a decision on racist premises! Why should we make decisions based on race without knowledge of real factors? That's called pigeon-holing and entrapment - testimonies of a weak and biased mind. Hope you learn what you think you are trying to preach! Now here's a question for you: what color and gender am I? What's the right anwer? I'll tell you: Don't answer it!!! Because who cares and why does it matter! Do you? Does it? Why? When we get to heaven, not on our skin color or even on our merit but on His, it certainly won't matter either! All skin colors cook the same and feel pain the same in Hell as well, and all equally long - forever! Hope to see you in Heaven (no more squabbling over dermitology!) God Bless!