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DeathReaper wrote:I have never understood why the media, and most people call him "The first black president"

Was that not Clinton ?

LoneLictor wrote:

Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:

feeder wrote:Wait, now we're pretending there isn't any advantage to being white?

I have yet to experience any life changing advantages...just sunburn and stares when I walk around northeast Philadelphia.

Oh gak, let's see.

White people get, on average...
1. Into college more.
2. Hired more.
3. Paid more.
4. Into jail less.
5. Into political offices more.
6. Beaten less.
7. Killed less.

Yeah, white people have no fething advantages at all.

They don't in this day and age, its all about the money.

Namely, if you are a white chav, living in a sink estate in Britain, with a doley mum and a dad who you don't know, you aren't going to college, getting hired, or running for office. And you will doubtless be beaten up/killed by the other white chavs that live in your neighbourhood.

Lets be honest here, all of your post is true, but its because there are more poor black people. Its got feth all to do with skin colour in this day and age, and all to do with money.

If you are poor and from the under-classes, you have a mountain to climb, be you black, white, yellow or otherwise.

Thus, its pretty disingenuous to say its about colour, because it isn't, its about your class. And I don't see why a black guy in a sink estate should feel any more sorry for himself more than his white next door neighbour who is equally fethed with regards to getting a good job or education.

mattyrm wrote:
feth knows why.. maybe because there are more black people in the states?

We did have that whole war over slavery.

reds8n wrote:

DeathReaper wrote:I have never understood why the media, and most people call him "The first black president"

Was that not Clinton ?

The sort of unstated joke is that he is blacker than Obama.

I do find it odd the preoccupation with Obama being called a 'black' man for either positive or negative reasons, he is as much white as he is black, but to some people, anything off-white makes you black. I work with kids from so many mixed backgrounds that I don't even think about it. Again, when some people think 'mixed' they immediately think of white and non-white, but many are mixed from different non-white ethnicities. Race is a much bigger issue in the US than UK given how frequently that it is brought up.

Ultimately the 'birthers' agenda to challenge Obama's citizenship is rooted in racism, it's thinly disguised behind supposedly legitimate claims for genuine inquiry. You can never quite shake the impression that if he wasn't half black they wouldn't be quite so bothered.

Howard A Treesong wrote:
Ultimately the 'birthers' agenda to challenge Obama's citizenship is rooted in racism, it's thinly disguised behind supposedly legitimate claims for genuine inquiry. You can never quite shake the impression that if he wasn't half black they wouldn't be quite so bothered.

Some of it is, sure. But some of it is also just conspiracy nonsense, on both sides.

You get legitimate racists, and you get people who believe in the NWO, and you get people who believe there are still a ton of KKK members kicking around south of Ohio.

The reality is that there aren't many "birthers" in the sense of "People who actively work to disprove Obama's citizenship." There are, however, lots of people that hate Obama and are willing to give credence to anything they perceive as negative with respect to him.

Amaya wrote:

Polonius wrote:It's important to realize that, as a general rule, the lower down the heirarchy of a society you are, the more aware of the gradiations you become.

Most White people see the world as "white/not white." Now, white people might make a big deal about what kind of white a person is, but black people are seen as pretty homogenous

What white people have you been around? That was a really uncalled for comment implying that whites are both racist and ignorant.

If you can't look at Obama and tell that he is mixed you need your eyes or head checked.

He might be mixed. He might be "light skinned black," which is of course mixed race, just going back a whole lot longer.

No matter what group you are in, you tend to see the subtle gradations in your group, while oversimplifying the differences in another.

But I guess I based that statement on what I've heard from friends and colleagues that were mixed race.

DeathReaper wrote:I have never understood why the media, and most people call him "The first black president"

1) He really is not black, he is mixed.

But the more important point:
2) It does not matter what he is as long as he is the right person for the job.

1. Sounds much better than "blackest president to-date". Also, I think you may have missed the point of him as a symbol for social progress. When Obama was born, his father was not legally allowed to marry a white woman anywhere from Texas to Florida to New York, and would have been lynched in some of those states for trying.

2) Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Are you kidding me?! Y'all haven't had the 'right person for the job' since Kennedy.

Clinton was good. Bush 1 was good. Reagan was good. Nixon and Johnson too.

Bush 2 and Obama are more casualties of our political climate than anything.

Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:

hotsauceman1 wrote:I remember my Proffesor saying
"A drop of black blood in america makes you black" He was Hispanic saying that they dont see mixed race, just a race.
And i cant help but think of my nieces and nephews who are half-black half white. They arent going to get any of the advantages white people get(admit it, there is a bias) only disadvantages.

Time out bro, what sort of advantages do you get for being white? I'm a shade away from glow in the dark and I've gotten the shaft my whole life. There's no "Caucasian American College Fund" I don't get scholarships for being German and Russian. I never got a job because I'm white. I've even had the race card pulled on me in situations. "Aww, its cause hes white isn't it?" I got through life by busting my arse, as it should be.

I could write papers on this. ITs little ways. First, Kids are most likely to have the same income level as their parents, and guess what most black people are? Poor or working class. Yes i know they arent all are but statistically they are more likely too. And its where you live, most ghettos tend not to have nice schools.

LoneLictor wrote:

Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:

feeder wrote:Wait, now we're pretending there isn't any advantage to being white?

I have yet to experience any life changing advantages...just sunburn and stares when I walk around northeast Philadelphia.

Oh gak, let's see.

White people get, on average...
1. Into college more.
2. Hired more.
3. Paid more.
4. Into jail less.
5. Into political offices more.
6. Beaten less.
7. Killed less.

Yeah, white people have no fething advantages at all.

I'll bite, once.

1. Not based upon their skin color, they don't....
2. Oh really? If you say so. I personally would LOVE for my company to be payed solely upon the fact that my skin color means they get payed for hiring me.....
3. No, they do not.
4. Not on their skin, they do not.
5. Honestly, Obama was the first non-white person I've ever heard of that ran for president, but meh, not my strong area of knowledge.
6. Go to a school. Find that nerdy kid with the spectacles and buck teeth. nine times out of ten, he's whiter than sour cream.
7. We all die eventually, and historically more whites have foughten in wars than minorities.

Minorities suffer from being in poorer parts of the country. They do not make less money than a white person solely on their skin color, they make less money because they are located in places with less money all around. We need to start moving people to places where they can actually have a chance of being able to do something.

Ok, This is what happened in my junior year of college.
2 people got caught with weed. One white, one black.
black guy got jail, White guy went home to his parents, White guy continued to steal and drink, never once went to jail.

If you forgive a return to the topic, I think Morgan Freeman is a bit out of line here.

Obama has identified himself as a black man, sure he is 'mixed race' but still he is part black identifies himself as black is genuinely at least partly black and therefore ought to be considered black.

Racial purity politics is not just a right wing nutjob issue, in South Africa someone who is not fully black is considered 'coloured' and are not accepted as black in either Apartheid or post-Apartheid South Africa.

I am no fan of Obama but this isnt a fair critique of him, the US has a black president. Obama clearly identified himself as black and ask the electorate for their votes, America elected him fair and square hence: black president.

Slarg232 wrote:
I'll bite, once.

1. Not based upon their skin color, they don't....
2. Oh really? If you say so. I personally would LOVE for my company to be payed solely upon the fact that my skin color means they get payed for hiring me.....
3. No, they do not.
4. Not on their skin, they do not.
5. Honestly, Obama was the first non-white person I've ever heard of that ran for president, but meh, not my strong area of knowledge.
6. Go to a school. Find that nerdy kid with the spectacles and buck teeth. nine times out of ten, he's whiter than sour cream.
7. We all die eventually, and historically more whites have foughten in wars than minorities.

Minorities suffer from being in poorer parts of the country. They do not make less money than a white person solely on their skin color, they make less money because they are located in places with less money all around. We need to start moving people to places where they can actually have a chance of being able to do something.

You kinda miss the reason why they are in poorer parts of the country...

It is disappointing that the currently accepted way to stop racism...is to use racism. Doesn't really fix anything.

Mr Hyena wrote:It is disappointing that the currently accepted way to stop racism...is to use racism. Doesn't really fix anything.

Could you elaborate.

Kovnik Obama wrote:

Slarg232 wrote:
I'll bite, once.

1. Not based upon their skin color, they don't....
2. Oh really? If you say so. I personally would LOVE for my company to be payed solely upon the fact that my skin color means they get payed for hiring me.....
3. No, they do not.
4. Not on their skin, they do not.
5. Honestly, Obama was the first non-white person I've ever heard of that ran for president, but meh, not my strong area of knowledge.
6. Go to a school. Find that nerdy kid with the spectacles and buck teeth. nine times out of ten, he's whiter than sour cream.
7. We all die eventually, and historically more whites have foughten in wars than minorities.

Minorities suffer from being in poorer parts of the country. They do not make less money than a white person solely on their skin color, they make less money because they are located in places with less money all around. We need to start moving people to places where they can actually have a chance of being able to do something.

You kinda miss the reason why they are in poorer parts of the country...

They are not in the poorer parts of the country because of their skin color......

dogma wrote:Clinton was good. Bush 1 was good. Reagan was good. Nixon and Johnson too.

Bush 2 and Obama are more casualties of our political climate than anything.

Nixon is the reason you have the health insurance mess that you currently sit in, and Reagan is the reason your economy has fallen apart. And Johnson sent everyone to Vietnam, though he did some good work towards the civil rights movement.

Slarg232 wrote:

You kinda miss the reason why they are in poorer parts of the country...

They are not in the poorer parts of the country because of their skin color......

Those parts became poor because ''of the color of their skin'' (if by that sentence we mean the sleugh of social characteristics which has been the minorities lot's in modern nations).

azazel the cat wrote:
Nixon is the reason you have the health insurance mess that you currently sit in...

No, Ted Kennedy is, at least if we're talking about Nixon's plan.

azazel the cat wrote:
...and Reagan is the reason your economy has fallen apart....

In what sense?

azazel the cat wrote:
And Johnson sent everyone to Vietnam, though he did some good work towards the civil rights movement.

And Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus.

Good doesn't mean "Not at all bad."

dogma wrote:

azazel the cat wrote:
Nixon is the reason you have the health insurance mess that you currently sit in...

No, Ted Kennedy is, at least if we're talking about Nixon's plan.

Ted Kennedy? What? Huh?
The reason you don't have a fully socialized system of medicine like Canada, the UK, France, Germany, basically everywhere in the western world except for the USA, is because Nixon gave in to pressure from insurance company lobbyists in the early 70s.

dogma wrote:

azazel the cat wrote:
...and Reagan is the reason your economy has fallen apart....

In what sense?

Deregulation of your financial sector.

azazel the cat wrote:
Ted Kennedy? What? Huh?
The reason you don't have a fully socialized system of medicine like Canada, the UK, France, Germany, basically everywhere in the western world except for the USA, is because Nixon gave in to pressure from insurance company lobbyists in the early 70s.

Kennedy pretty much killed Nixon's compromise, which was basically Australia's system.

azazel the cat wrote:
Deregulation of your financial sector.

Clinton did much of that as well. You could also blame Carter.

Frazzled wrote:technically most people in the US are some glavor of Heinz57. Mayhaps a nice reminder that there is no "white" and there is no "black." Just people, and their proper masters the wiener dog legions.

Dachshundskrieg: when all your ankles are belong to us!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a wiener.

How much black = black? Is it no longer about the color of your skin and now purely about who your parents were?

/insert a bunch of universally funny, if a little racist, comments here. I'm not actually a racist, but any joke that offends someone has to be good, if for no other reason than to offend someone.

Good to know that everything in the US is running so smoothly that you have the time to dwell on the colour of a man's skin. Just out of interest does Lance Reddick get to look down his nose at Morgan Freeman and Jesse Jackson, dismissing them as a pair of "whitey's"? Sheesh, if there wasn't enough problems in the world people have to even divide up the shades of black!!