Eric Holder: American Greatness never really existed

[PeachyKeane]

You may well be. I can't tell from here.

Is there a reason I wouldn't be?

 

[PeachyKeane]

Most white people don't live in communities with large minority populations. We do watch the news however. I interact with minorities from many countries but I don't pay much attention to their ethnicity. They are individuals and I respect them as such. It's when they become troublesome as a group that gets my attention.

Which minorities are troublesome as a group? How so?

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Which minorities are troublesome as a group? How so?

The Latinos on the border are causing some problems.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Is there a reason I wouldn't be?

I think you are trolling, hoping for an outright racist comment. Sorry,"No soup forrrrr you."

 

[rjs330]

1. When I was young a my dad co-owned a garage, and they had a computer. I used to sit and learn how it worked. My dad would get me computer magazines and I got pretty good. I started working for the garage making macros in spreadsheets and WordPerfect for accounts and invoices. In the mid 80s, nobody in my neighborhood had a computer.
2. One of my teachers got his car fixed and discovered I was good with computers. He got me into a computer camp one summer.
3. My extracurricular computer work got me a scholarship to college. I've always felt guilty because it meant someone else I knew who deserved it, didn't get it. It took her four more years to raise money to go.
4. Met a guy in college whose skills complimented my own, and we were both outcasts (among computer nerds). We formed a company and did well.
5. You could say discovering my talents early and having them nurtured in an environment where that's considered a waste of time was a break.
6. Having a dad and a couple teachers who hadn't yet had hope beaten from them was a break.

I don't think that was a break at all. I think that was talent along with interest and hard work. Not everyone including myself have that kind of affinity for computers and I too had access but it was in school. The teacher recognized the work you had done. Were they a white teacher or a black one?

All the steps you took we're on your own merits and not just luck. You met someone because you were good at something. Generally that's how life works. You apply yourself to something, work hard and in the process your able to make something of yourself. I'm probably not going to convince you it wasn't luck, but it wasn't. You dad was smart enough to recognize your skills and encouraged you. That's what parents should do.
You worked to put yourself through college. That's what people who want to accomplish something if their lives do. People in college, meet people all the time who's talents compliment each other and end up helping each other. That's life, it's not luck.

 

[rjs330]

Okay. I’m out.
Have a nice, enjoyable life “not thinking about minorities” and pray that Jesus isn’t Black.

I don't understand this. Isn't that what we are supposed to do? I thought MLK was pushing for an America that didn't look at a person's skin color but at the content of their character. Isn't not thinking about minorities the point or am I missing something here?

 

[OldWiseGuy]

I don't understand this. Isn't that what we are supposed to do? I thought MLK was pushing for an America that didn't look at a person's skin color but at the content of their character. Isn't not thinking about minorities the point or am I missing something here?

MLK was actually laying down a challenge to his own community with that statement, whether he realized it or not.

 

[Shiloh Raven]

I have to shake my head when I hear some white people attempt to use MLK against a Black person.

 

[Pommer]

I don't think that was a break at all. I think that was talent along with interest and hard work. Not everyone including myself have that kind of affinity for computers and I too had access but it was in school. The teacher recognized the work you had done. Were they a white teacher or a black one?

All the steps you took we're on your own merits and not just luck. You met someone because you were good at something. Generally that's how life works. You apply yourself to something, work hard and in the process your able to make something of yourself. I'm probably not going to convince you it wasn't luck, but it wasn't. You dad was smart enough to recognize your skills and encouraged you. That's what parents should do.
You worked to put yourself through college. That's what people who want to accomplish something if their lives do. People in college, meet people all the time who's talents compliment each other and end up helping each other. That's life, it's not luck.

At the very least it’d be serendipity. But that, per se, is “luck”.

 

[Pommer]

I don't understand this. Isn't that what we are supposed to do? I thought MLK was pushing for an America that didn't look at a person's skin color but at the content of their character. Isn't not thinking about minorities the point or am I missing something here?

There needs to be a reconciliation, with, (possibly) reparations.
Or are 400 years’ worth of treating POC with disdain supposed to be given a mulligan?

 

[rjs330]

There needs to be a reconciliation, with, (possibly) reparations.
Or are 400 years’ worth of treating POC with disdain supposed to be given a mulligan?

You didn't really answer my question. Aren't we supposed to be color blind? And what does reconciliation actually mean? What does it actually look like?

 

[rjs330]

MLK was actually laying down a challenge to his own community with that statement, whether he realized it or not.

Too true

 

[Shiloh Raven]

There needs to be a reconciliation, with, (possibly) reparations.
Or are 400 years’ worth of treating POC with disdain supposed to be given a mulligan?

There could be healing and reconciliation if a U.S. President and other government leaders issued a sincere apology like the one that was given to the Sioux by a descendant of George Custer.

'Opportunity for healing': General Custer's relative visits Standing Rock

Or if the sincere apology was like the heartfelt apology that was given to the Sioux tribal elders during a forgiveness ceremony between the tribe and the veterans who came to Standing Rock. The veterans knelt before the tribal elders and the tribe while asking them for forgiveness for all the atrocities that were committed against the Lakota and other tribal nations by the U.S. government in the past.

Veterans at Standing Rock shock tribe members, beg forgiveness for war crimes against tribal nations

Wes Clark Jr. spoke on behalf of the veterans: "Many of us, me particularly, are from the units that have hurt you over the many years. We came. We fought you. We took your land. We signed treaties that we broke. We stole minerals from your sacred hills. We blasted the faces of our presidents onto your sacred mountain. When we took still more land and then we took your children and then we tried to take your language and we tried to eliminate your language that God gave you, and the Creator gave you. We didn’t respect you, we polluted your Earth, we’ve hurt you in so many ways but we’ve come to say that we are sorry. We are at your service and we beg for your forgiveness."

​

 

[Shiloh Raven]

There needs to be a reconciliation, with, (possibly) reparations.
Or are 400 years’ worth of treating POC with disdain supposed to be given a mulligan?

One more thought...

I think the U.S. government could learn a thing or two from the Australian and Canadian government about humility and publicly acknowledging the atrocities that were committed against minorities in this country. I commend the Australian government for its formal apology to the Aboriginal population in 2008. The National Apology to the Stolen Generations was long overdue and I'm glad it was given.

I thought it was very honorable of the Australian government and its Prime Minister. This official apology was publicly acknowledged and it didn't found like a tree falling in the forest. Here's the link to the official apology: Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples | australia.gov.au. The government of Canada and its Prime Minister also apologized to the First Nations People. It is the Statement of Apology to the Former Students of Indian Residential Schools. I posted videos of the apologies.

The United States, on the other hand, has issued feeble apologies to Native Americans but these so called apologies were hardly even acknowledged. President Obama gave the Apology to Native Peoples of the United States back in 2009, but it quickly fell by the wayside too. But this so called apology had a disclaimer attached it and that was nothing in the Resolution authorizes or supports any legal claims against the United States. And like the United States history of ignoring the hundreds of treaties it signed with the Indian Nations, these so called apologies were quickly forgotten as well.

Did You Know the US Apologized to Native Americans?

A sorry saga: Obama signs Native American apology resolution; fails to draw attention to it

Justin Trudeau Apologizes to Canada's Native Peoples, Something the U.S. Hasn't Done Publicly

 

[OldWiseGuy]

One more thought...

I think the U.S. government could learn a thing or two from the Australian and Canadian government about humility and publicly acknowledging the atrocities that were committed against minorities in this country. I commend the Australian government for its formal apology to the Aboriginal population in 2008. The National Apology to the Stolen Generations was long overdue and I'm glad it was given.

I thought it was very honorable of the Australian government and its Prime Minister. This official apology was publicly acknowledged and it didn't found like a tree falling in the forest. Here's the link to the official apology: Apology to Australia's Indigenous peoples | australia.gov.au. The government of Canada and its Prime Minister also apologized to the First Nations People. It is the Statement of Apology to the Former Students of Indian Residential Schools. I posted videos of the apologies.

The United States, on the other hand, has issued feeble apologies to Native Americans but these so called apologies were hardly even acknowledged. President Obama gave the Apology to Native Peoples of the United States back in 2009, but it quickly fell by the wayside too. But this so called apology had a disclaimer attached it and that was nothing in the Resolution authorizes or supports any legal claims against the United States. And like the United States history of ignoring the hundreds of treaties it signed with the Indian Nations, these so called apologies were quickly forgotten as well.

Did You Know the US Apologized to Native Americans?

A sorry saga: Obama signs Native American apology resolution; fails to draw attention to it

Justin Trudeau Apologizes to Canada's Native Peoples, Something the U.S. Hasn't Done Publicly

Didn't you post a map of the many tribal territories that virtually covered the continent before America was invaded by the Europeans? Should all these lands be returned to the descendants of these tribes, along with reparations? Do we get back on the boats and return to Europe, to Asia, and to Africa?

 

[Pommer]

You didn't really answer my question. Aren't we supposed to be color blind? And what does reconciliation actually mean? What does it actually look like?

Reconciliation...(and this can be done privately, on your own to a large degree), simply means listening to and hearing the complaints made by POC without the knee-jerk need to “explain” how these complaints are erroneous.
Actually try to empathize with the complainants, instead of lining up to criticize the critics!

 

[Shiloh Raven]

Didn't you post a map of the many tribal territories that virtually covered the continent before America was invaded by the Europeans? Should all these lands be returned to the descendants of these tribes, along with reparations? Do we get back on the boats and return to Europe, to Asia, and to Africa?

Do you mean this map?

(Source)

And in response to the rest of your disgruntled post...

The U.S. government should honor the HUNDREDS OF TREATIES it signed with the tribal nations. The government should honor the Sixth Article of its Constitution, which states: "and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land..."

‘Honor the Treaties’: UN Human Rights Chief’s Message

All this talk about reparations reminds me of Lawrence O'Donnell's news commentary on Standing Rock a couple of years ago. He ripped into the United States and its treatment of Native Americans. He was brutally honest and he wasn't shy to talk about the shameful history of the United States.

To directly quote him: “The original sin of this country is that we invaders shot and murdered our way across the land killing every Native American we could, and making treaties with the rest. This country was founded on genocide before the word genocide was invented, before there was a war crimes tribunal in The Hague.” Source: This Nation Was Founded on Genocide: MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell​

 

[Shiloh Raven]

Reconciliation...(and this can be done privately, on your own to a large degree), simply means listening to and hearing the complaints made by POC without the knee-jerk need to “explain” how these complaints are erroneous.
Actually try to empathize with the complainants, instead of lining up to criticize the critics!

QFT.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Do you mean this map?

View attachment 254192 (Source)

And in response to the rest of your disgruntled post...

The U.S. government should honor the HUNDREDS OF TREATIES it signed with the tribal nations. The government should honor the Sixth Article of its Constitution, which states: "and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land..."

‘Honor the Treaties’: UN Human Rights Chief’s Message

All this talk about reparations reminds me of Lawrence O'Donnell's news commentary on Standing Rock a couple of years ago. He ripped into the United States and its treatment of Native Americans. He was brutally honest and he wasn't shy to talk about the shameful history of the United States.

To directly quote him: “The original sin of this country is that we invaders shot and murdered our way across the land killing every Native American we could, and making treaties with the rest. This country was founded on genocide before the word genocide was invented, before there was a war crimes tribunal in The Hague.” Source: This Nation Was Founded on Genocide: MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell​

That's the map...thanks.
To the question: What would satisfy you?

 

[Shiloh Raven]

That's the map...thanks.
To the question: What would satisfy you?

I've already said what would satisfy me at least twice already in this thread alone.