I haven't accused you of bragging about anything. I was only pointing out that "I’ve not said what I think is best for the black community" and "I have never claimed to know what’s better for an entire race" are not true.DColeKC wrote: ↑Fri Sep 18, 2020 1:24 pm I'm just now realizing this is a message board. I was confused. Please point out where I was "bragging". I'm not disagreeing I talked about my personal time spent with members of the black community in an effort to understand, learn and be a ally. I'm pointing out it's ridiculous to call me discussing those efforts "bragging". That sentiment possibly comes from a place of shame, considering most people who like to talk in defense of the black community haven't spent any time in it.
It's not a question of "bias," it's a question of value. Opinions have little value when they are held by people not qualified to form them. For what it's worth, I'm not only talking about you here. I would say that whatever ideas I hold about "what it's like" to be black are actually not worth anything either. But that is why my position is to trust black people to know what is best for themselves instead of telling them that the side they overwhelmingly reject actually holds all the answers that they need.My opinions are of course going to be biased to some degree. I think it's impossible to have non biased opinions, but they're absolutely educated opinions. Not born out of hate, racism or whom I support politically. I'm also very aware most people who engage with me on here are of opposite opinions.
The trumped up concern about "black on black crime" is a right-wing trope. And yes, flawed stats that are warped by the very problem they are being employed to analyze are meaningless. You might wring some value out of them in some other context to make some other point, but it is essentially tautological to say that "black people are more likely to be criminals" when crimes themselves have been defined to be things that black people are more likely to do, or not to be things that white people are more likely to do (see, e.g., the famous distinction made between crack and powder cocaine), even where the social harm from the two legally-distinct acts is actually the same. The law didn't simply materialize out of the ether, it was made by people (and, more specifically it was made by people with the power to make law, which in this country has historically been, and generally continues to be, white men) and it is enforced by people (who, again, are generally white men), and as such, it reflects the beliefs and values of those people (that is, once more, white men). This extends even to murder, yes, because, after all, not all homicides are "murder" or even illegal at all, and some homicides that might appear to fit the legal definition of "murder" are not prosecuted as such (see, for instance, many of the white cop killing black person cases that you don't mean to downplay at all BUT have we thought about black on black crime at all???) and so don't end up as part of those murder statistics.And what about FBI statistics are "right-wing tropes"? Being 13% of the population and committing 53% of all murders is meaningless? What's the point? The point is the black community are killing each other at alarming rates and no amount of policing will stop that. We have to help the black communities in dozens of ways, starting with better access to quality education. Establishing the importance of family and a two parent household. Having 5 kids with 5 different women shouldn't be a bragging point. Access to small business loans are essential. Get young black kids excited about starting their own small business. Legalizing marijuana and ensuring a large percentage of dispensaries are minority owned. Decriminalizing possession etc.
Sorry, will try to do better about getting carried away with quick-fix easy answers like "confronting the intrinsic racism that irreparably compromises the entire criminal justice system" and focus more on hard conversations about school vouchers and small business loans.It blows my mind liberals want to ignore the crime stats. It just shows you don't actually care to fix the issues, just keep dancing around the hard conversations and realities hoping it all gets better. Let's get Biden and Harris in there! With their track record of locking black men up in the thousands, I'm sure they'll be the ones to fix it all.
What is the difference?• Solve the right problem. The problem is not poverty. The problem is that too many Americans are not self-suficient.
People should be valued. Work is just a thing that people do. Under capitalism, it is actually a thing that people are coerced to do under the implicit (or sometimes explicit) threat that those who don't work will be left to die in the gutter, while the value that they generate by doing work is siphoned away by the owners of the business to line their own pockets. The "dividing line between the poor and non-poor" is not work, it is poverty. Poor people also work, but it does not lift them out of poverty. This is because individual workers have essentially no bargaining power and have no choice but to take what the employer will offer them. "Then," Republicans say, "they should get another job." But all employers are offering them pretty much the same deal. "Then," Republicans say, "they should learn new skills to get a better job." But how will they buy food or pay rent in the meantime, not to mention that the acquisition of the skills will itself likely cost money? And so, under the nebulous banner of "all policies should be pro-work," maybe you say that the government will provide loans or cash assistance for job training. But what happens if every poor worker avails themselves of this option, so that what were once higher-level jobs become the new entry-level (and are paid accordingly), while the formerly entry-level jobs also still need to get done by someone, but everyone is now overqualified for them? When labor is commodified, there will always be working poor.• All policies should be pro-work. Work is valued—it is a source of pride and self-esteem, as well as the dividing line between the poor and non-poor.
In theory this is supposed to be accomplished with elections, but entrenched politicians work hard to ensure that these are as ineffective as possible. This actually is a genuine "both sides" issue, although Republicans are worse.• Taxpayer dollars must be accompanied by accountability for outcomes.
I'm gonna be honest, I don't even have the energy to get into this one right now. Suffice it to say, yes, children need a lot of social support, and yes, that can be provided by a two-parent home, but whether this is necessary or merely sufficient is a different question, and a blanket statement about "federal programs" in general requiring "better parents and stronger marriages" in order to succeed is vague to the point of meaninglessness. Which programs? How are they intended to work? What is the goal and how do you measure success?• Federal programs will fail without a social foundation of better parents and stronger marriages.
I don't really think you're wrong in the abstract, I just think you're wrong on the details, and you're also wrong to think that Republicans are different or better. People with power want to keep power. It's as simple as that.EDIT: Democrats' policies hurt those they claim to help. You can't tell me they're interested at all in a equitable society. They've made their living off of keeping poor people poor.
