So basically you are saying your side is the best even though they sometimes make implementation errors (unintended side effects) while the other side is total evil ?
Read again what you wrote. We are not living in a movie.
> White people (myself included) have benefited from minority oppression for centuries
I can't get past this. Just because some shit happened ages ago, you can't penalize current generation. I feel so digusted by this idea, it is extremely repulsive. There is no limit, no objectivity, you can go far back as centuries to feel guilt. Instead of looking forward, it is looking backwards.
America is one of those nations where once you're 18, you're on your own. Go win the world, it's your oyster. That's what my parents think. I am successful here as a person of color, not because of my skin but due to meritocracy.
You can twist this as much you want, but it changes the entire idea of 'fairness' in a generation of people. Instead of treating people equally, you're advocating more racism.
> I also think you perhaps don't know what "anarchy" is, if you think we have that in left-leaning cities.
although it is tempting to say let's have a fresh start from today, and we are all equal and all have the same chances, some damage are made across generations (e.g check the wikipedia of Canadian Indian residential school system)
end of slavery in the u.s : 1865
end of racial segregation in the u.s : 1964~1968
gerrymandering : ongoing
this does not seems age/centuries ago to me, and a group(white) definitely profited from this inequality and pass the wealth on their heir, giving them an early advantage in life.
all I am saying, is, invest where the social need is, not based on the color of skin...
Slavery never ended in the US. It's alive and thriving to this day. They just need to throw a bunch of made up charges at you, so you plead guilty instead to a minor sentence instead of risking spending the rest of your life.
I spent a fair amount of time at CHOP. I think folks are blowing things out of proportion freaking out about it. If that's what anarachy is like, it's honestly not that bad.
There were 4 shootings in a span of 10 days at CHOP (the entire thing lasted 23 days and covered 6 blocks). A 16 year old and a 19 year old were killed and four other people were shot, including a 14 year old. That's "not that bad"?
500 shootings - how many of those were homicides? Also, Seattle is 83 square miles. I'm talking about what happened within a 6-block area over a span of 23 days.
As an immigrant to the US, your family likely had some level of success in order to afford to be able to come here. It is not easy to immigrate to the US. After all the people who uproot their lives are the brave ones who are willing to put in the work. This success was aided from a mentality that was ingrained over multiple generations.
I have noticed this mentality with multiple immigrants from various countries. What you may not have internalized is the context in which all these people have grown up in the US.
You need to suspend your biases for a moment: Imagine you are born in the inner city, your parents may not even be together(divorced or missing) during your formative years and money is always a struggle.
Now add in the local community is super rough and there may be a local culture of discouragement in excelling(ie, you are targeted by others if you stick out and try to escape your circumstances).
Now include an overpopulated school system that may or may not be extremely underfunded.
Finally sprinkle on the chance that if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could end up in jail due to circumstance beyond your control(you are around a robbery/killing despite not participating in it) or worse accidentally shot by a cop.
If you end up in jail, you are finished for life as this system is extremely harsh on people who enter the system. It is extremely difficult to escape the system once you enter. You may be hosed for generations.
Now you may ask, how did the family end up in that spot to begin with? Well it could go all the way back to slavery. The White slaveowners may have lost their slaves but they profited from the wealth created by the slaves in the form of infrastructure or equity. That wealth does not disappear and is passed down from generation to generation.
Now combine this with more modern practices like Redlining which served to invest in White America after WW2 while purposely excluding everyone else. Again white families building up additional wealth over generations while minorities are locked out. Is it any surprise we are in the current situation?
On another note: A lot of modern immigrants have tech to thank for their miracle in life. Here is an industry which the local population is not massively adept in and pays way above average salaries. It is a once in a generation opportunity for masses of immigrants to cut the line and catch up to white America that has generations of equity. In some cases, immigrants are blowing past white America (since rural America is flatlining). I hate the fact that many immigrants are ignorant of this reality. It will lead to people worse than Trump and sometimes it terrifies me that it will blow up in the immigrants faces when the incumbent citizenry has had enough and they push back.
When I was younger, I had a hard time understanding Malcolm X’s position; but individuals like Clarence Thomas and the ongoings of the 2020s have made it very clear.
I’d love to see moderate Republicans and the “equal opportunity” Black caucus find more common ground here.
Why? From first-hand experience (non-white) I can also attest to the racism of the liberal camp being present and more insidious.
Most centrist Republicans value equality. They've moved further left to capture the moderates. The problem is the Berkeley progressives (the extreme left) has no concession in their sights. They want to tear down institutions and gut it out. Kind of how the cryto currency guys want to start seasteading and destroy the US Federal Gov but entirely on a different axis.
I find race discussion from Columbia University linguist and NYTimes Columnist, John McWhorter, fascinating and profoundly pragmatic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gQj5bkUeAc
I am so worn out from all this. Living here in Oakland, I cannot, absolutely will not raise my children here. Actively seeking jobs in Texas, Florida, Colorado, Georgia and North Carolina.
You know its funny I recently visited LA for the very first time for two weeks. (Im from the east coast). I was expecting a barren waste land because of all the talk from Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro about how terrible LA is. Instead what I found was a busting city with a lot of nice and interesting people from all walks of life. Did I see homeless? Yes, it was uncomfortable but after visiting many neighborhoods I came to realize that this right wing bashing of liberal places is exaggerated. California has a lot of problems and looking at the stats, it is actively losing population of people who make less than 100k. This is not good long term but honestly Texas or wherever else would have these same problems if they had this kind of economic gold rush in such a short amount of time. At the same time though it is not as bad as the right wingers seem to make it out to be.
If the Liberals are to be blamed for losing people, its because of decades of promises and not ever delivering.
Ha! This has been happening a lot longer than the 2020s. Its really a class issue not a race issue. The culture war is a distraction that allows the upper classes to continue the status quo. Sure we might have a pendulum swing to more right wing authoritarianism or we might move even further left wing woke but going back to moderate is a pipe dream because it ignores the fundamental issues that caused us to end up here in the first place: namely lack of fundamental reform.
First of all none of what I said has anything to do with 'wokeism' so your link is not relevant at all. I am simply looking at the statistics of people who manage to successfully arrive here and how they fared afterwards. The immigration process to this country is extremely hard. Therefore it is self selecting of people who are willing to make that effort to get through the process. You do not understand the context in which others grow up in this country. Thats where your ignorance is coming from. Too many people have a lack of historical knowledge of race relations in this country, especially immigrants.
many immigrants tend to be republicans out of ignorance. My family was too(they were single issue voters eg. Republicans would leave their home country alone). They do not know the history of the modern Republican party and what many of its leadership have done in the past. The Democrats are not some rosy heaven either but on many of the core issues, immigrants are shooting themselves in the foot long term by going Republican.
Wokeness is an extreme response to lack of fundamental change occurring over the last few decades. It has now mutated into this current monstrosity because people like Obama do nothing but pay lip-service. It has now boiled over into something...anything that can affect change, even if it is destructive. Wokeness is not sustainable but nonetheless it is now used as a rallying cry for the right wing to make up for their own declining cultural influence. Frankly I don't care for wokeness but I would never join the other side because as a minority and child of immigrants, I know I have no place there.
The world doesn't run on "well-meaning" but realpolitik (look it up). The sort of discriminatory policies you espouse besides being corrosive poison to the unifying forces that create a nation state, fail to account for competition among nations.
The USA is free to teach CRT to kids, "decolonize mathematics", destroy meritocracy in public schools, lower the standards and burden young minds with race guilt and a feeling of entitlement (instead of striving for excellence) but one shouldn't be surprised if other countries that have maintained their connection with reality leave us in the dust.
I have a feeling it won't be dialed down, but dialed up to 12. There was an awesome cartoon that I can't find anymore - two VW busses side by side. One with a bunch of classic progressive stickers - "Liberty", "Civil Rights", "ACLU", "Free Speech", "EPA", etc. Another one that's beaten up, with "Race", "CRT", "Hate", etc. representing contemporary progressivism.
It’s crazy. I had a lot of respect for the ACLU, but the days where they stood for something; and everyone could point to the principles and at least begrudgingly admire it are long gone.
I'm starting to believe this white guilt syndrome is a modern day version of the old American puritanism, or some other weird mutation of an idea of sin that somehow found its way into 21st century liberal consciousness.
And e.g. cancel culture is the new age version of Salem witch hunts, it comes from the same kind of self-righteous psyche, and is always about the collective vs. individual
Having lived in SF for more than a decade, I couldn't agree more. When I left, years ago, the guilt syndrome was so prevalent among well-compensated young tech workers that one could talk about mass-psychosis. I'm told it's gotten a lot worse...
