Eric Holder: American Greatness never really existed

[rjs330]

LOL! Only me and about 30% of the US population.

Thanks for the advice. You are certainly free with it, telling people what it means to be a American. Who gave you that authority?

Perhaps I should have clarified. I meant people who really liked through it. That was what 50 years ago? Not everybody in America experienced the segregation. And no one is alive who experienced slavery.

Mental health professionals will tell you in order to live a healthy life you have to get over the past. If 30% if the African American community experienced segregation then that means 70% haven't. That percentage should be doing great. And the 30% needs to be grateful that we ended the stupidity and move forward instead of living in the past. I actually have a feeling that most of them that are still alive have.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

LOL! Only me and about 30% of the US population.

Thanks for the advice. You are certainly free with it, telling people what it means to be a American. Who gave you that authority?

I would like to share this article addressing Native Americans being told to get over the past and move on: ‘No I Won’t Just Move On’ Hashtag: Why I Made It, We Need It.

I'm sick and tired of the double standards of telling minorities to just "Get over it!" when there are white people insisting the South will rise again, never forget September 11th, remember Pearl Harbor, remember the Alamo or commemorating many other American related triumph or tragedies.

I was once asked what I wanted in order to move on and get over the past and I responded with quite an extensive list. I began with respect and acknowledgement. No more mockery and insults of Native Americans and our culture or of our pain and hardships. I want a real apology from the government and not a mere announcement from the President that sounds like a tree falling in a forest. I want acknowledge of the atrocities that were committed against my ancestors during the continuous theft of our tribal lands and no more petty attempts of justification. I would like an apology similar to the apology at Standing Rock that took place during the stand-off against DAPL. An apology like this one here would also be good. I want the government to honor the treaties and pay our tribal nations back payment in accordance with those treaties. And lastly, I want Native Americans to be shown respect. I want respect for native culture and stop all the misappropriation of our culture. There are better ways to honor Native Americans than through racist caricatures for sports entertainment.

Native Americans today may not be facing the horrific atrocities our ancestors once faced at the hands of white Christians in the past, but we still are facing many struggles and hardships today.

I'm not just talking about the continuous breaking of the treaties to encroach upon what scraps of tribal lands are left like in Standing Rock and with Keystone XL or the late Senator John McCain attempting to sell Oak Flats San Carlos Apache land to a foreign mining company or Trump's advisors wanting to privatize NDN reservations or Trump wanting to built his border wall on Tohono O’odham Nation tribal land or the attempted tribal land grabs by Republican senators or the water crisis in the Navajo Nation where 40% of the Navajo don't have clean water. I'm also talking about dealing with the long lasting effects of trauma, PTSD and the suicide rate among native youth as well.

The current Native American population is only 2.9 million or about 0.9 percent of the entire population in the U.S. (source). From the current statistics, it does feel like Native Americans are almost extinct. Police brutality against Native Americans is the highest in the country according to the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (source), but it is the least talked about when police brutality against black people and other minorities is being addressed. And the suicide rate among native youth is also the highest in the country. It's not so get to get over all of this.

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[Pommer]

Especially when there is no one living who were abused by slavery. It's time to get past that. A lot of Americans died to end the slavery. It's time to be grateful. It's also time to be grateful to the people that cleaned up the Civil Rights and ended the nonsense of segregation. There's not a lot of people around that we're alive during the segregation period either.

There have been throughout history people that gave been conquered, enslaved starved and abused. Sometimes we just have to move past the past and quit living there. Especially when we weren't actually there to experience it ourselves.

So the 99 years AFTER the Civil War where blacks were systematically discriminated against (GI housing programs) people “should get over that too“...or what?

 

[PeachyKeane]

He could say it then as well, we could point out his white privilege like Obamas and Kaepernics.

Free speech is white privilege? Are you sure?

 

[LoAmmi]

Perhaps I should have clarified. I meant people who really liked through it. That was what 50 years ago? Not everybody in America experienced the segregation. And no one is alive who experienced slavery.

Mental health professionals will tell you in order to live a healthy life you have to get over the past. If 30% if the African American community experienced segregation then that means 70% haven't. That percentage should be doing great. And the 30% needs to be grateful that we ended the stupidity and move forward instead of living in the past. I actually have a feeling that most of them that are still alive have.

You can get over the past but still be profounded affected by it. A system that intentionally produces poverty and oppression against a group has a long lasting effect. We are still seeing the effects today.

 

[bhsmte]

So the 99 years AFTER the Civil War where blacks were systematically discriminated against (GI housing programs) people “should get over that too“...or what?

Understandable.

With that said, if one has to hang onto things to a point, where they see everything today, as discrimination, because they are so entrenched in the past.

If i worked years for a company that discriminated against me and the folks who did so are now gone, it would be hard for me to be my best, if i carried a chip on my shoulder, with new leaders, who have changed the atmosphere.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

So the 99 years AFTER the Civil War where blacks were systematically discriminated against (GI housing programs) people “should get over that too“...or what?

However bad it is here it would be worse for them anywhere else in the world, including Africa. That's why they remain here while millions of people of other ethnicities leave America for other countries. It seems that they are stuck with America.

Emigration from the United States - Wikipedia

 

[Pommer]

However bad it is here it would be worse for them anywhere else in the world, including Africa. That's why they remain here while millions of people of other ethnicities leave America for other countries. It seems that they are stuck with America.

Emigration from the United States - Wikipedia

They should be grateful, too, remember.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

They should be grateful, too, remember.

I think thankful is a better term.

 

[Pommer]

I think thankful is a better term.

To whom, exactly?

 

[PeachyKeane]

However bad it is here it would be worse for them anywhere else in the world, including Africa. That's why they remain here while millions of people of other ethnicities leave America for other countries. It seems that they are stuck with America.

Emigration from the United States - Wikipedia

Canada, the UK, West Europe, Australia, or New Zealand?

 

[cow451]

To whom, exactly?

The Man.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

To whom, exactly?

Their 'lucky stars' of course.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Isn’t Eric Holder the prime suspect in a shooting?

 

[OldWiseGuy]

The Man.

Isn't "the Man" the source of most of their troubles?

Or maybe you mean this Man.

 

[Verv]

Eric Holder: American 'Greatness' Never Really Existed

Appearing Wednesday evening on MSNBC, former Attorney General Eric Holder told Ari Melber he believes the notion of American “greatness” never “really existed.”

This all comes back to the way that the Left has to intrinsically view the world: a linear progression toward Utopian socialism, and everything that hasn't explicitly taken a step toward that is to be viewed negatively.

It's rather quite interesting that he would say this because he was a member of the establishment, and for the longest time the progressive left contented itself with saying that these were all a series of steps in the right direction leading to the current moment. They were able, in a sense, to share admiration for the past as well as to anticipate their more utopian tomorrow...

But now they don't want to bother with the admiration part.

 

[cow451]

Isn't "the Man" the source of most of their troubles?

Or maybe you mean this Man.

Johnny wasn’t THAT Man.

 

[rjs330]

So the 99 years AFTER the Civil War where blacks were systematically discriminated against (GI housing programs) people “should get over that too“...or what?

Yes. If we are going to move forward we cannot live in the past. The VAST majority of African Americans alive today did not live during those times. Psychologists will tell you that to move forward we have to let go of the injuries of the past. That applies to everyone.

Apologies have been made. Laws have been passed. Rights have been given. All ABSOLUTELY needed. All ABSOLUTELY vital. If segregation was still happening then no you shouldn't get past it. But at some point we all have to be grateful for the good that has happened. At some point you have to stop looking at the past and start working for the future. At some point you have to grab the present by the horns and ask what can we do now to make the future brighter and better.

 

[Pommer]

If 30% if the African American community experienced segregation then that means 70% haven't. That percentage should be doing great. And the 30% needs to be grateful that we ended the stupidity and move forward instead of living in the past. I actually have a feeling that most of them that are still alive have.

What I’m hearing is
“Past injustices just ‘go away’ when the majority finally does the ‘right thing’; anyone not grateful for this societal-shift is just ‘living in the past’.”

Or am I incorrect?

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Yes. If we are going to move forward we cannot live in the past. The VAST majority of African Americans alive today did not live during those times. Psychologists will tell you that to move forward we have to let go of the injuries of the past. That applies to everyone.

Apologies have been made. Laws have been passed. Rights have been given. All ABSOLUTELY needed. All ABSOLUTELY vital. If segregation was still happening then no you shouldn't get past it. But at some point we all have to be grateful for the good that has happened. At some point you have to stop looking at the past and start working for the future. At some point you have to grab the present by the horns and ask what can we do now to make the future brighter and better.

You nailed it!