Fear Of Black Men: How Society Sees Black Men And How They See Themselves

[ThinkForYourself]

I think the new discrimination in America isn't so much black or white as it is GREEN!!!!

Yeah. For decades now they've gotten whites to vote against the coloureds to the whites own detriment.

Who can forget Reagan's Trickle Down Economics? That hero of the Conservatives is the one who really got the ball rolling when he convinced people to vote for tax cuts to the rich. Over and over again.

Because the money was going to "trickle down" to the middle class and poor. Yep, he convinced the poor and middle class that by them giving money to the rich, they were going to be better off. And people believed it. He was a pretty decent actor after all.

 

[SuperCloud]

I think a much greater problem is this: if you're born a black male in the USA, from time of birth till time of death you are considered bad until you prove you're good. Furthermore, you have to prove that everyday for the rest of your life until you die.

The one exception might be if you're openly a gay black male. Then educated black, liberal women more often then not presume you are good until you prove you are bad. But given there is still some strong quarters of hatred and disdain for gay males in Black-America that is not certain in every case.

If I could be given an option in rebirth--if I had no other choice than to be born and raised in the USA--I'd be born anything other than a black male. And I'm mulatto. I'd be born a white lesbian over being a black male. I'd be born a black female before a black male. A white female before any of them.

Must be nice to be always "innocent until proven guilty" or what I call "good until proven bad." Or another way of thinking of it is "respect is given not earned."

I remember getting out of the Marine Corps and opening an account at a small credit union. There was one Black-American women there (out of 3 I believe, and the rest were white) that just had nothing but sheer contempt and disdain for me. She was older than me too. She had to be in her 40s while I was in my early 20s. And no matter how many times I tried to be polite to her she just had that KKK-like contempt in her eyes for me. Like I was worthless and she was all that and more.

Since childhood I've experienced that with black girls then from black women. Not all but a significant enough number.

The there is white American joined along with Obama pushing that one sided nonsense.

If you took children born white and female and from time of birth on subjected them to the contempt and disdain, the demand to everyday prove they are good whilst always looking for them to fall, you'd decimate emotionally and psychologically an entire generation of white females.

But females like gay white men (and at times gay black men) due for no other reason than just being are cheered for and always, always, always presumed to be good if not fabulous until proven otherwise.

 

[SuperCloud]

This is one of the things that makes me not want to be an American. This is just a side effect of our cutthroat materialistic society which doesn't seem to be an issue in other countries, especially Latin, Brazilian, and Islamic. Here in America we all don't look at each other as just American, people need to find ways to separate themselves to get an upper hand.

Eh... yeah... while Brazil is not free of racial issues (whites at a club might presume you're their towel boy--as most jobs as such are filled by impoverished browns and blacks), I firmly believed had I been born and raised there--or in a Muslim country--life would have been emotionally and psychologically far better for me. Materially harder most likely though. But material things in and of themselves can't give you happiness.

On an interesting note about Brazil though. Supposedly, Brazilian women love Black-American men. Well, most of them apparently. It's like the total reverse opinion of ethnic Black-American men over there than here. At least that's what Black-American men that have gone over there say.

And just being American alone, many average Brazilians will likely think you are rich. Or that is what a dark skinned, mestizo, priest from Chile that lived in Rio de Janeiro for several years told me as a warning if I go over there (because some may try to rob me). On the plus side he said Brazilians in general are very warm and friendly people and my race will be less of an issue there.

 

[nightflight]

It's by: Tim Wise, whom scholar and philosopher Cornel West calls, “A vanilla brother in the tradition of (abolitionist) John Brown,” (speakoutnow.org)

No thanks.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Is the perception, whether true or not, of black men's sexual superiority a consideration in this discussion?

 

[nightflight]

Is the perception, whether true or not, of black men's sexual superiority a consideration in this discussion?

Not on CF it isn't.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Not on CF it isn't.

I didn't mean that we need to get graphic about it.

 

[ThinkForYourself]

No thanks.

He shows how the institutionalized racism against coloured people comes back to hurt whites.

It's in your self interest to watch it.

Did you know that the 2008 housing crisis began with the discriminatory lending practices that started decades earlier?

Very briefly:

1. Banks wouldn't lend to blacks. They literally took a red felt pen, and outlined areas on a map where they wouldn't give loans. (It's called redlining, and it was made illegal by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, although in reality it lasted much longer)

It didn't matter if someone in that area had the same credit, the same job, the same everything, they wouldn't loan them money. Those were black neighbourhoods.
(Redlining) (Mortgage Discrimination)

2. After decades of disenfranchisement, mortgage brokers realized they could go into black neighbourhoods, and that the people there were so desperate for a loan they would pay a higher rate of interest (Predatory Lending).

Mortgage brokers made these high interest loans, and immediately sold them, so it made no difference to them whether banks foreclosed on the blacks.

3. The government did nothing about these predatory lending practices because it primarily affected blacks and latinos.

4. People who couldn't afford the suburbs, or who didn't like the increasingly racially mixed suburbs, moved to the exburbs.

5. Mortgage brokers realized that they could rip off blacks and latinos, and nothing was done about it, so they decided to do the same with whites, especially the ones moving to the exburbs. They gave predatory loans, and immediately sold them, not caring if the borrower was foreclosed upon.

6. Eventually the house of cards collapsed, and welcome Housing Crisis.


So nightlife, the only person you're hurting is yourself by not watching the video.

 

[SuperCloud]

The subprime housing scandal was a lot more to do with people with poor credit getting loans they shouldn't have qualified for. And rather than get on fixed rate loans that signed up for adjustable rate loans.

And adding to that were a lot of black and Latino criminals making money off of carrying out real estate schemes.

In Chicago it was really bad. I believe it was the Black Disciples (BD's), a Black-American street gang, that were heavily involved in buying real estate. They owned whole Chicago apartment towers. Had snipers positioned on the roof. Ran drug dealing out of the buildings. And were paid by the government through Section 8 Housing programs. When tenants didn't pay rent they sent gang members to evict the tenants. The gang members often stood guard outside the building regulating who could enter and exist.

Easy Money - Criminal past no barrier to mortgage field


Milwaukee not Chicago in this case:

Criminal past no barrier to mortgage field

Ex-cons who got loan-originating licenses commit scores of frauds that cost customers millions

By Cary Spivak of the Journal Sentinel
March 14, 2009

A killer, a handful of drug dealers and a onetime leader of the Latin Kings - these are just some of the criminals who have received state-issued licenses to write your mortgage loan.
Those ex-cons are among hundreds of people with convictions ranging from prostitution and drunken driving to burglary and armed robbery who obtained state permits to work as mortgage loan originators, commonly called loan brokers - a profession that operates with minimal state oversight.

Today, regulators and investigators nationally are discovering scores of illegal real estate schemes that helped contribute to the nation's mortgage meltdown, particularly in the now-moribund subprime market. Many of the illicit deals were hatched by people who had criminal histories before receiving state permits to enter the business.

College of criminality

Sometimes the seeds for a real estate career are planted in the prison yard.
Real estate is a popular subject among the drug dealers and white-collar criminals doing time in low-security federal prisons - facilities often called Club Feds.
"A lot of the guys I dealt with in prison were good guys, sharp guys - a lot of businessmen, stockbrokers, lawyers," said one drug dealer turned mortgage broker who insisted on anonymity for fear of hurting his business. "Real estate is always an area guys talk about . . . they make it sound so easy."
Michael Rowsey's foray into real estate began almost the moment he was placed behind bars.
Rowsey was sentenced to 17 years in prison for first-degree reckless homicide for shooting and killing a Milwaukee man in 1991.
A cellmate at the Dodge Correctional Institution talked incessantly about real estate. When Rowsey transferred to the Waupun Correctional Institution, he made a visit to the prison library.
"The first book I picked up was a real estate book," he said.

Subprime mortgage basically means a person with below par credit gets a mortgage loan for a house. Bill Clinton was a big reason this happened. It artificially propped up the US economy under his presidency but it was essentially creating a housing bubble--along with other frauds going on in the banking sector packaging all of these debts in America to sell to foreigners overseas.

That does not mean Black-Americans have not been discriminated against in the housing sector. They have. And in metro Milwaukee (not the city proper really--but the greater "metro area") it is racially "hyper-segregated." Almost all black people live in the City of Milwaukee. And when the whites in the larger metro area speak of "Milwaukee" on the internet or radio they are using a code language for "blacks."

Kind of like many whites are fond of using the word "thug" as code language for "black person."

 

[ThinkForYourself]

The subprime housing scandal was a lot more to do with people with poor credit getting loans they shouldn't have qualified for.

That's what I said: Desperate people taking loans with jacked up interest rates. Once the interest rates go up a point...it's foreclosure time. Meanwhile, the broker who signed the borrower up has long since sold the mortgage, and made his profit.

And rather than get on fixed rate loans that signed up for adjustable rate loans.

All adjustable rate loans are not equal.

And adding to that were a lot of black and Latino criminals making money off of carrying out real estate schemes.

I never said anything about the race of the mortgage brokers, or anyone else.

It is immaterial.

In Chicago it was really bad. I believe it was the Black Disciples (BD's), a Black-American street gang, that were heavily involved in buying real estate. They owned whole Chicago apartment towers. Had snipers positioned on the roof. Ran drug dealing out of the buildings. And were paid by the government through Section 8 Housing programs. When tenants didn't pay rent they sent gang members to evict the tenants. The gang members often stood guard outside the building regulating who could enter and exist.

I never said anything about the race of the mortgage brokers, or anyone else. It is immaterial. What this has to do with the Housing Crisis is beyond me.

Are you trying to create a strawman?

 

[SuperCloud]

You were insinuating the Housing Crisis was a pure result of racism.

And I was suggesting it was not.

I am an ethnic Black-American male. And in the City of Milwaukee a lot of black males from my generation and younger have felonies. I would say the vast majority of those my age or younger in my neighborhood have felonies. My point here being is that at the very minimum, the very minimum, the majority of Black-American males my age or younger are as corrupt as me. Many more so.

And lies and crimes are part of the American tradition. Whites in the USA have been doing it a long time.

That's what was at root of the Housing Crisis. A long American tradition of dishonesty. And that tradition of dishonesty was more systemic in the culture of Chicago than say in the culture of Milwaukee. Chicago also being one of the major financial capitals of the USA.

And while predatory loans may exist individuals--if they are smart enough to vote for a President and smart enough to distinguish which candidate will make the best President--do have some responsibility in accepting or declining a loan they take out.

The whole thing involved the dishonesty of Republicans and Democrats.





All that aside... I have been followed around in stores before to my great annoyance. As far as I can recall I was always wearing jeans. But I can't recall being followed by store personnel when dressed in what some would regard as "dress slacks."

When I'm dressed in said slacks the police do not bother me either. Some have eyed me but with a look more of a surprise or appreciation that I'm not dressed "hood" but dressed what some consider "up."

The way you dress and carry yourself will have some bearing on how others perceive you. Walk around looking like a Hip Hop cultural version of a "thug" and yeah... some people in predominately white areas might fear you.

I'm a smaller guy too. So, I'm also less intimidating looking. I'm also "light skinned," so, many whites can find me less threatening. But then again... race is extremely important to Americans, so, back in the early '90s after "light skinned dudes went out of style" as many American women put it (see how shallow women can be?), a lot of white women had some level of contempt for men of my hue and had a strong preference for dark skinned black men. Or "real black men" as some of them liked to put it. So, it all depends.

Some of that has changed since the huge popularity of men like Obama, The Rock, Vin Diesel, Tiger Woods and so forth. All anything is in this life is a popularity contest.

So, if you want to be popular in your area dress to be popular (helps if you have the right racial features and skin hue of what's "popular" in society at that given time). That might mean dressing like a "thug" in one area or dressing in suit and tie in a different area.