Quote:
Originally posted by AchtungBaby80
Blacks are not the only ones in the history of this country to be discriminated against. Yes, maybe their experience was the worst, but that is the past. I don't want to hear about it anymore, because that has no relevance to what's going on today. (I know others disagree.)
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I do have to disagree, ActungBaby80. It does have relevance. The reality is that centuries of subjegation and hard-core discrimination (such as making it illegal to teach a Black person to read) contributed to (notice I did not say "is solely responsible for") the socio-ecomomic situation in which many Blacks find themselves today. That, in turn, can contribute (again, not necessarily does contribute) to all manner of things, including educational achievement.
Quote:
Originally posted by AchtungBaby80
Many blacks were made to come here, but not all other immigrants came here because they wanted to. Many Irish people, for example, came here because they were starving and had nowhere to go in their own country, not because they just up and decided to move someplace more exciting.
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"Wanted to" is a tricky criteria. Yes, using the example of the Irish, many were starving (and discriminated against because of their religion) in Ireland, and that was what prompted them to come here. And no doubt, they knew they would face challenges and discrimination here. Yet, they still "wanted to" come here in the sense that they believed that, as bad or challenging as it might be here, it was worse at home. In that sense, it was a choice, or was at least motivated by the desire for a better life.
And Hoosier. Yes, they are perceptions, and they may have some basis in fact. They are also stereotypes.
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