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Its more complicated than that. Blacks were not enslaved after the civil war but were second class citizens up until the sixties. At least legally and socially they were treated as such. Unlike Mexicans who come accross the border from a cohesive culture, blacks were brought here against their will and had no social support system in place. Among caucasions, if one member of a group fails, he might have an uncle, or a brother or a friend, who has a connection to help him find a job. Blacks in this country don't have this sort of social infrastructure. Much of success in this country is as much about who you know as what you know. If you are black and middle class, and you begin to have economic problems, chances are, you're on your own.
Many whites just don't appreciate the way this culture caters to them and how much this helps. If you encounter suspicion and distrust everywhere you go because you are black, you start out having to overcome a cultural bias to get ahead.
I think you need to read a book called "How the Irish Became White" by Noel Ignatiev or "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair.
Irish SLAVES in America were treated worse then their black counter parts because "An Irishman costs less"
Polish immigrants worked 20 hour days, 7 days a week making very little money, basically slaves. Then they were stuffed in rooms with other families no bigger then the average living room, just to get by.
I also love how people always seem to forget how man free blacks owned black slaves of their own:
http://americancivilwar.com/authors/black_slave...
"In New Orleans over 3,000 free Negroes owned slaves, or 28 percent of the free Negroes in that city.
To return to the census figures quoted above, this 28 percent is certainly impressive when compared to less than 1.4 percent of all American whites and less than 4.8 percent of southern whites."
newbie0420 - um WHAT? Is this guy for real? What is less than FREE? you need to let your hem out your ignorance slip is showing! I hear this about the Irish all the time The Irish are White You don't have a problem with white.
What is the relevance here, what is your point? Are these blacks just making more of this darn slave thing than need be made? Do you have any idea how stupid your post is?
"I also love how people always seem to forget how man free blacks owned black slaves of their own:"
Fred blacks didn't own slaves, how could they. it was against the law!
I take it in your ignorance you didn't even bother following my link:
According to federal census reports, on June 1, 1860 there were nearly 4.5 million Negroes in the United States, with fewer than four million of them living in the southern slaveholding states. Of the blacks residing in the South, 261,988 were not slaves. Of this number, 10,689 lived in New Orleans. The country's leading African American historian, Duke University professor John Hope Franklin, records that in New Orleans over 3,000 free Negroes owned slaves, or 28 percent of the free Negroes in that city.
Interesting newbie... Black people also discriminate among themselves. Country or tribe of origin may have produced the dramatic results Ignatiev claims during Civil War times - but I see no lingering signs of any desire among Afro Americans to perpetuate that past. Whatever history might have been has long since been outstripped by civil rights issues that involve not only Black people but other visible and non-visible minorities also.
You are missing a key point. Visibility. An Irishman only stands out as an Irishman if he has an accent or if his name is very Irish sounding. After a few generations, his heirs will blend more fully into the white establishment.
Who cares how many slaves blacks owned? What is your point? That it was okay for whites to own slaves because blacks did? Or blacks are degenerates for enslaving their own people? I how this relates to or detracts from the validity of my point. The tone of your post is that blacks are inferior to whites and they are soley responsible for their lower social and economic status in America. I am not suggesting that blacks have no responsibility for their own welfare but I also believe it would be naive to suggest that the playing field is level or that their aren't structural impediments. It isn't. Whites have dominated the culture here for the last 250 years. Blacks have only enjoyed equal legal status within our life time.
Hanyman -Well said I have said this for years but it falls on dumb ears, coming from a white man maybe others will take the time to listen and understand.
Thanks, but sadly I doubt that most prejudices can be overcome. Among conservatives, there is a need to exploit and perpetuate the angry white man myths in order to set the working classes against each other. Its an industry of sorts. By appealing to peoples baser instincts, you can generate cover and support for an agenda that would not be palatable otherwise.
The best way to overcome racism in America, in my opinion, is addressing economic ills. We must finish what begain in the late sixties. Lyndon Johnson had it right with the great society, but those noble efforts were undermined and cut short by the war in Vietnam and a cultural backlash that sprang up in response to general perception that lawlessness and moral decay were on the rise. Many of the ideas of the Great society were naive but failure of the war on poverty was not a forgone conclusion in my opinion but an unfortunate combination of events and the forces of reaction.