What in the hell is a racist country? Explain that. Out of the 150 million or so peole that populated America during the memphis garbage strike, how many could you have possibly known? How many could MLK have possibly known? In both cases, a handfull, right? So, how in the world can you maintain that the US is or ever was a racist country?
Well, Olivant, how much time do you have.
Lets start with slavery. Capturing human beings in Africa, forcing them on to boats, moving them across the ocean, breaking up their families, putting them up for sale and forcing them to work without pay as a national policy is in your mind not racist, I guess.
Slavery was not abolished evenin the North until well into the 1800's, by the way, so most of the old infrastructure of this country was built by African slave labor. That is not racist in your mind, I guess.
When they wrote the constitution... our beloved infallible founding fathers decided the way to count population in the various states was to count each slave as being three fifths of a human being. That is not racist in your mind, I guess.
When they wrote the "divinely inspired" bill of rights, they left out slavery, which was not abolished until the middle of the 1800's. That is not racist in your mind, I guess.
In 1896 the United States Supreme Court ruled that a person who had more than one eighth "negro blood" could be forced to ride in a restricted part of a train. That is not racist in your mind, I guess.
In 1942 American citizens, born in this country whose parents came from Japan were sumarily rounded up and placed in concentration camps without lawyers, trials or any other rights. That is not racist in your mind, I guess.
Not until 1954 did the Supreme Court of the United states rule that it was the law of the land that schools could not be segregated (which has since set off a racist based mantra against "activist judges:). That is not racist in your mind I guess.
Not until 1964....could black people stay in hotels of their choosing, go to restaurants of their choosing or even sit next to white people of their choosing as a matter of law. This is not racist in your mind, I guess.
Not until the following year were black people "allowed" to vote freely without government sanctioned poll taxes and other restrictions. That is not racist in your mind I guess.
Taking advantage of the white backlash against civil rights progress, Richard Nixon invented the "Southern Strategy," which has created a reactionary majority in presidential elections in this country since 1968...one of the more recent developments of which was George Bush's famous claim in SOuth Carlina in 2000 that John McCain was unfit to be president because he had an illegitimate black child. A lie that forced McCain to inexplicably defend the confederate flage, for which he later apologized. That is not racist in your mind I guess.
In this presidential primary Hillary Clinton, with her back to the wall, and speaking in thinly disguised code says Barak Obama may be qualified to be president but he is "unelectable." That is not racist in your mind, I guess.
Please Olivant, I think your mind is going soft from all that comedy your'e playing with that young girl.
Racism is America's "Original Sin" and it has yet to be purged.
Almost all peoples whether defined by race or ethnicity have been slaves at one time of some other race or ethnicity. What does it have to do with racism and especially as a national characteristic? The Spanish enslaved the Incas. The Turks enslaved Sicilians. The British enslaved Irish. The west African kingdoms of Benin, the Kongo, the Gold Coast, and Mali enslaved each other and Africans of the continent’s interior and facilitated their sale to others. Racism?
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts eliminated slavery in their domains in 1780 and 1781 respectively. Several other states followed soon thereafter. The Constitution wasn’t ratified until June 1788. So, what nation are you referring to as racist?
You know it was entirely possible to be anti-slavery BECAUSE you were anti-Black. Many of the white inhabitants of the Northern and Western states and territories held severe racist beliefs. Some went so far as to ban ANY Black residents. Others had numerous petty segregation laws. In very few of the states which forbade slavery were any Blacks extended all of the rights which whites had. Black schools were burned down; Blacks were prevented from voting or giving testimony in other states; still others states prevented Blacks from owning property or running businesses. And of course there was always the danger of pogroms to drive Blacks out. Some people were pretty open and honest about a dedication to white supremacy back then. If you don't find that racist well that's that.
Originally Posted By: olivant
In its opinion in the 1896 case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the US Supreme Court opined that the Louisiana’s public transport segregation law satisfied the equal protection provision of the Constitution’s 14th amendment which it did. The Court did not opine on racial segregation.
The Plessy v.Ferguson decision codified racial segregation for another sixty years. Ironically it did so by accepting the ridiculous idea that a man who was "seven eighths white" was nonetheless Black enough to be forced to sit in the Black section. It also pretended not to notice distinctions by claiming that only Black people were injecting race or a feeling of inferiority into the discussion. If you are questioning why Obama and other "biracial" Americans often identify as "Black", look no further than the attitudes revealed by this decision.
Originally Posted By: olivant
Prior to the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, Japanese in the US were not interned, were they? So maybe, just maybe, their internment had something to do with national security concerns and not with racism. By the way, along with Japanese, Germans and Italians were interned also. There are plenty of sources on the subject. I guess their internment was racist also.
Without the slavery compromise embodied in the US Constitution, there would not be a US Constitution nor a US nor a civil war and slavery might just still exist in parts of America. In that case, if you are black, you might very well be a slave this day.
Maybe, just maybe if white slaveowners had been proud enough to do their own work instead of being so lazy and vicious that they forced others to work without pay for hundreds of years, things could have gone differently.. Slavery and genocide was not inevitable. Perhaps if the issue had been forced then the United States would have gotten rid of slavery much sooner than it did or not had it at all. In that case if you are white you might very well not have to deal with a heritage of slavery. In fact the concept of "white" might not even exist.
Originally Posted By: olivant
Since the subject of a Bill of Rights was initially proffered during he Constitutional Convention and since the success of that Convention was a function of compromise (including about slavery), it seems unlikely (even inane) to suggest that just two years later, James Madison’s composition of his 19 rights could have contained a provision regarding slavery. Even if it had, it would not have obtained the ¾ state legislatures’ approval threshold required by the Constitution.
365,000 Union soldiers gave their lives to end slavery and ensure the application of the 13th amendment in all parts of America. God knows how many others died of their War wounds not to mention those that were maimed during the War. America’s racism at work again, huh?
And by the 1880's the white North was interested in reconciliation with the white South and so allowed the reintroduction of slavery in all but name. Black politicians were murdered. Black schools were burned. Lynching became the law of the land. Any Black person who even looked like he or she was attempting economic or political independence was literally taking their lives in their hands, as well as the lives of their families.
BTW some of those Union soldiers who died were Black. They fought and died even though they were paid less, segregated and couldn't advance in the US Army.
Originally Posted By: olivant
In its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the Supreme Court opined that racially segregated education was inherently unequal; it didn’t opine that it was racist. That decision was the modern Court’s first use of substantive due process in forming its opinions which gives Constitutional or statutory law provisions substance which their legislative history does not support.
People of any race or ethnicity could stay in any public facility of their choice all over the north, the Midwest, and the west prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There’s no substantive historical evidence of racial or ethnic discrimination against people in those regions of the country in public facilities. So, how does racial discrimination that was largely confined to the south extrapolate to America?
Olivant, what the f*** are you talking about here? That's just plain ridiculous. There was plenty of segregation in the North, West and Midwest prior to Civil Rights Act of 1964, and for that matter even afterwards. CORE was organized to fight segregation in the North AND the South. Segregation was not as codified as in the South but Blacks were definitely subject to segregation depending on the whims or habits of the local whites. Some areas were better than others..others were worse. Las Vegas, of all places was notorious for segregation. Some towns were sundown towns. This meant that any Black person had better be out of there by night time or s/he was subject to arrest or worse. These towns were mostly in the North- Indiana, Iowa, Michigan...
Originally Posted By: olivant
The Poll Tax was imposed on all citizens when they registered to vote and in only 11 states all in the south. By 1964, only 5 of those states still retained it. America’s racism at work again?
Oh and I guess Blacks were just voting in droves throughout the South in those states that didn't have a poll tax. Hmm, so I guess you never heard of grandfather clauses, literacy tests, white only primaries, good character clauses, economic retaliation against those attempting to register to vote, intimidation, arrest and ultimately assault or murder? Just what in the hell do you think Black people were so angry about? Why was a Civil Rights movement even necessary in your opinion?
Originally Posted By: olivant
How in the hell does a claim by a candidate for public office that a candidate has an illegitimate child of any race evidence of America's racism? How in the hell is a claim by a candidate for public office that an opponent is unelectable evidence of racism to begin with and, as you are fixated on, America’s racism?
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives." Winter is Coming Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
