"White Privilege Conference" In Colorado?

[Shazza]

I was just kidding REALLY! I was just trying to lighten the mood.

Seriously though, I think Narla made a good point.
It is very important to me to speak up for when you see injustice.
The only way to change things is to speak up about it.
Whatever happened to your family, I really am sorry. I can also
share stories. We all can, but that shouldn't stop us from speeaking up
when we see injustice happening to others.
In fact, it is more of a reason to speak up IMO.

You did lighten the mood and I totally agree with all you said. Thankyou.

 

[dingo]

I should have known!

If you're returning them, mine were the solid gold ones, BTW.

I didnt mention anything about returning them

 

[Shazza]

I do, too. I mean my favorite movie of all time is Muriel's Wedding, for pity's sake! I assumed everyone here knew that before I started joking around.



Trouble. As always, whether I mean to or not.

Muriel's Wedding is one of my favourites as well, am a big Abba fan, and the part in the movie where they were performing the abba songs absolutely cracked me up.

 

[Sundayrain]

Nova no apology required, I didnt take it seriously things were getting a little overheated and you were just trying to subdue things, I had a good chuckle.

I really think it was the coffee that calmed everyone down........
I could not offer tea after brining up TAXES and the dumping of TEA now could I...........:sick:
So happy to see everyone happy again.....lalalalalalalal

 

[narlacat]

Here's some good news

It's been a long walk: blacks unite for march

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/marching-in-unity/2007/04/16/1176696757591.html

<<About 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders fought in World War I and as many as 5000 took part in World War II, according to Australian War Memorial records.
But while they fought alongside other Australians in the trenches, on the battlefields of Europe and in the jungles of Asia, those who made it back often received little or no recognition of their efforts and continued to face racism at home>>

 

[narlacat]

And some sad news

Curtain falls on devoted black star

http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radi...ustine-saunders/2007/04/16/1176696755741.html

 

[Shazza]

I really think it was the coffee that calmed everyone down........
I could not offer tea after brining up TAXES and the dumping of TEA now could I...........:sick:
So happy to see everyone happy again.....lalalalalalalal

It was the coffee that calmed me down, plus the antidepressant, the xanax, the painkillers......only joking:dance: Oh well what next on the agenda.:laugh:

 

[Nova]

Nova no apology required, I didnt take it seriously things were getting a little overheated and you were just trying to subdue things, I had a good chuckle.

Whew! Thanks.

 

[MREG2]

I got lost once trying to take a shortcut to visit my boyfriend in the hospital. I pulled up to a stopsign and a BUNCH of black guys circled my trans am and started beating on my car windows. I rolled up my driver's window onto someone's arm and when I punched the gas I ended up in a ditch! I was so scared because the guy's arm was still in my car, so his face was right near mine screaming at me and everyone was angry. He had something in his hand, a bag - so I realized I was in danger because not only were they all over my car, but probably on drugs, too - thus unpredictable. I threw my car in reverse and thanked $diety for rear wheel drive! I backed over one guy's leg or something and then went forward through the stopsign and rolled the window down so the guy didn't break my window with his arm. I was terrified.

A few blocks later, I'm pulled over - white teenaged girl in a crack neighborhood. I'm still crying, hysterical, and the cop assumes it was a drug deal gone bad and asked to search my car. *rolls eyes*

He never did believe me what happened, just told me to stay out of the neighborhood, then two weeks later, I get a notice in the mail sent to the registered owner of the tag on my car (me) asking if I knew a teenaged driver had the car in a known crack neighborhood.

OMG Glitch... what a freakin scary story. Glad everything ended up ok for you.

 

[MREG2]

Yes, if you are Oglala Sioux and understood Pine Ridge Reservation is really a third world country within the United States. believe me. i've seen it up close and personal.

Most of the land comprising the reservation lies within Shannon County and Jackson County, two of the poorest counties in the U.S.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge_Indian_Reservation

Life in the Pine Ridge Reservation is very poor, probably easily comparable to the least developed countries of the Third World. Unemployment on the Reservation hovers around 85% and 97% live below the Federal poverty level.[citation needed] Average annual family income is $3,800 as of 1999[1]. Adolescent suicide is 4 times the National average. Many of the families have no electricity, telephone, running water, or sewer. Many families use wood stoves to heat their homes. The population on Pine Ridge has among the shortest life expectancies of any group in the Western Hemisphere: approximately 47 years for males and in the low 50s for females. The infant mortality rate is five times the United States national average. (we're talking babies. babies.)


pardon me, but i am shocked and was devastated when i visited Pine Ridge in the land of opportunity, last year. :tears: i found it hard to believe i was in the united states of america because for the previous 30 years i thought i honestly had visited the USA. i didn't know.

Oh goodness.. I had no idea either. Thank you for sharing that with us....

 

[reb]

wow.... frightening but not surprising or uncommon. i used to drive through neighborhoods like that in baltimore all the time-- actually about 75% of the city is like that. but i was driving fast enough that they didn't get a chance to touch my car (although tires would be slashed, car windows smashed for no reason, and they would throw rocks and passing cars for fun. HA-- charm city my !!).
and doesn't that firgure that the cop assumed you were going there to by drugs. the sad part is that it's no wonder, because it's such a common thing. stupid white kids.
maybe a group of us should all show up at the 'privilege' conference and share our stories like that. we could call it the 'million fed-up white persons march'. or better yet, start our OWN conference and call it the 'white people (and others) who are beyond sick of it all and are demanding blacks to grow up, evolve, and take responsibitlity for their behavior once and for all conference.

anyway.. i'm glad you are alive. you came pretty close to being swarmed by those thugs and gang-raped and murdered, torn to bits and left in the ditch. but, it probably wouldn't have made the news, since you wouldn't have been a poor, innocent, black person killed by an evil racist white person... and therefore a 'hate crime'. so, it might be a blip in the papers and then forgotten about, like so many other similar stories.

 

[kcksum]

I've gone to 80% black schools and the polar opposite. I've been the token white girl or the minority. The problem with talking about race is that it's so easy to generalize. NOTHING IS EVER ALL OR NONE! Not every person shares the same attitudes towards race. My mother's family, for instance, has old black and white pics of relatives sitting on the porch with their shotguns, kkk bands on and hound dogs. I have some far removed family that still thinks that way. Iam more of the tree hugger; lover thy neighbor kind of girl. My husband feels the same. I was raised to treat people how how you want to be treated and live by example. I try not to generalize situations because you only see the extremes because they stand out and the normal parts get grayed into the background. I can't change the world just "my world". One SWEET (my last name) at a time.

that's the best post I've read so far.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Sorry guys, I had to edit the thread. The misspelling of the word privilege was driving me nuts.:angel: :angel: :angel:

 

[kcksum]

Sorry guys, I had to edit the thread. The misspelling of the word privilege was driving me nuts.:angel: :angel: :angel:

heehee

 

[reb]

floh.. you don't have to go to a reservation to see staggering third-world poverty. just visit baltimore (since i'm on the subject)... or any other big run-down, post-industrial city area affected by similar poverty and urban decay. but you have to go beyond the usual tourist traps. believe me you will see some things you have never before in the so-called 'land of opportunity'... that will blow your mind. as for b-moe, much of it is truly like a bombed-out war zone. in fact some of it literally IS bombed out.. because it was left that way after the blacks rioted in the 60's. there are parts that are much like beirut (during the war) or now, baghdad. just a complete wasteland... people living in broken down ancient buildings with no doors.. rats, roaches and vermin everywhere (inside the houses AND out), babies growing up with lead poisoning from the ancient peeling lead paint (which has been a health epidemic there for many years now)... actually,, several generations of people like this now who are quite literally retarded... just living like animals in the street, kids with their automatic weapons in the street, not even trying to hide it. pregnant teenagers, crack addicts & prostitute walking the street everywhere.. graffitti everywhere, everything's broke and everything that can be taken, pulled off, or broken off is stolen... so all the infastructure is stipped bare, everyone's on welfare... pregnant teeangers popping out babies.. piles of garbage and broken furniture in the alleyways... gunshots day and night... it's like a scene from a bosch painting of what hell looks like. and no, i am not exagerrating.. everything i've just described to you i have witnessed (for 10 years) up close and personal. and many of these neighborhoods were all black, many of them were black/white.

 

[Cheetah]

floh.. you don't have to go to a reservation to see staggering third-world poverty. just visit baltimore (since i'm on the subject)... or any other big run-down, post-industrial city area affected by similar poverty and urban decay. but you have to go beyond the usual tourist traps. believe me you will see some things you have never before in the so-called 'land of opportunity'... that will blow your mind. as for b-moe, much of it is truly like a bombed-out war zone. in fact some of it literally IS bombed out.. because it was left that way after the blacks rioted in the 60's. there are parts that are much like beirut (during the war) or now, baghdad. just a complete wasteland... people living in broken down ancient buildings with no doors.. rats, roaches and vermin everywhere (inside the houses AND out), babies growing up with lead poisoning from the ancient peeling lead paint (which has been a health epidemic there for many years now)... actually,, several generations of people like this now who are quite literally retarded... just living like animals in the street, kids with their automatic weapons in the street, not even trying to hide it. pregnant teenagers, crack addicts & prostitute walking the street everywhere.. graffitti everywhere, everything's broke and everything that can be taken, pulled off, or broken off is stolen... so all the infastructure is stipped bare, everyone's on welfare... pregnant teeangers popping out babies.. piles of garbage and broken furniture in the alleyways... gunshots day and night... it's like a scene from a bosch painting of what hell looks like. and no, i am not exagerrating.. everything i've just described to you i have witnessed (for 10 years) up close and personal. and many of these neighborhoods were all black, many of them were black/white.

I'm sure the areas were primarily black or minority residents....as you've just described America's ghettoes. I do have to disagree with assuming the people who live there are "retarted" or "animals". This is caused by generations of poverty that goes back to_______. Dare I say it. The problems exist and there is no easy solution, but it seems to me society just keeps ignoring the problem, as we continue to build more prisons for these "animals". What do you do for a child growing up in these conditions, who has watched their grandparents and parents live the same way? And so the cycle continues. These kids don't have a chance if society doesn't step in to rescue them. I'm sorry and I don't care what anyone tells me...very few white people live in these conditions. We can't continue to blame them for the problems in their own communities.

I have also driven through many bad neighborhoods. Honestly....I roll my windows down and say what's up to them. I'm not a threat to them. I'm not better than them. I'm not scared....I'm more afraid of bored teenage wannabe gangtas from Suburbia.

 

[Masterj]

I'm sure the areas were primarily black or minority residents....as you've just described America's ghettoes. I do have to disagree with assuming the people who live there are "retarted" or "animals". This is caused by generations of poverty that goes back to_______. Dare I say it. The problems exist and there is no easy solution, but it seems to me society just keeps ignoring the problem, as we continue to build more prisons for these "animals". What do you do for a child growing up in these conditions, who has watched their grandparents and parents live the same way? And so the cycle continues. These kids don't have a chance if society doesn't step in to rescue them. I'm sorry and I don't care what anyone tells me...very few white people live in these conditions. We can't continue to blame them for the problems in their own communities.

I have also driven through many bad neighborhoods. Honestly....I roll my windows down and say what's up to them. I'm not a threat to them. I'm not better than them. I'm not scared....I'm more afraid of bored teenage wannabe gangtas from Suburbia.

:clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[reb]

cheetah-- well yes, most were black.. but also many of these neighborhoods, as i said, were mixed- black and white. in baltimore there is an entire subculture of 'urban white trash' (as they are affectionately known).

but cheetah the fact is many people in that city (and many ghettoes) ARE retarded.. that's not an exagerration or an insult. from not only the lead paint poisoning, but other types of brain damage-- of course malnutrition, possibly old lead pipes as well, alcoholism, drug use by themselves or by their parents... and of course extreme intellectual & cultural depravation to the worst degree- from he dismal inner city schools to their home life.. i saw many of these people on a daily basis (of all ages).. and yes, to varying degrees there was definitely some serious mental retardation there.

if you want to see neighborhoods full of white people living in these conditions, just take a tour through southwest baltimore and you will see plenty. and when driving through the black (or, mixed) ghettoes i'm describing, if you're not afraid.. then you should be. most people who never lived around them aren't afraid. but then, you realize.. you can be as cool as you want to them, but ultimately they do NOT want to your friend.. they see you as a target and want to kill you. if you have a flat tire driving through there they will probably find your skeleton a few weeks later, picked clean. just drive through there with a nice clean car (if you have one), and stop and get out and say 'hi there!' to the first group of black youths you see. i'll give you about 2 minutes before you're mugged and beaten up and left for dead. i'm giving you the reality version, not the fantasy version.
and no one i knew thought they were a threat to them, or better than them. but that didn't stop everyone i know (myself included) from getting mugged or attacked (or raped or beaten) by them. you should actually live among them for a long time.. and i guarantee the novelty will wear off REAL quick.

 

[Cheetah]

cheetah-- well yes, most were black.. but also many of these neighborhoods, as i said, were mixed- black and white. in baltimore there is an entire subculture of 'urban white trash' (as they are affectionately known).

but cheetah the fact is many people in that city (and many ghettoes) ARE retarded.. that's not an exagerration or an insult. from not only the lead paint poisoning, but other types of brain damage-- of course malnutrition, possibly old lead pipes as well, alcoholism, drug use by themselves or by their parents... and of course extreme intellectual & cultural depravation to the worst degree- from he dismal inner city schools to their home life.. i saw many of these people on a daily basis (of all ages).. and yes, to varying degrees there was definitely some serious mental retardation there.

if you want to see neighborhoods full of white people living in these conditions, just take a tour through southwest baltimore and you will see plenty. and when driving through the black (or, mixed) ghettoes i'm describing, if you're not afraid.. then you should be. most people who never lived around them aren't afraid. but then, you realize.. you can be as cool as you want to them, but ultimately they do NOT want to your friend.. they see you as a target and want to kill you. if you have a flat tire driving through there they will probably find your skeleton a few weeks later, picked clean. just drive through there with a nice clean car (if you have one), and stop and get out and say 'hi there!' to the first group of black youths you see. i'll give you about 2 minutes before you're mugged and beaten up and left for dead. i'm giving you the reality version, not the fantasy version.
and no one i knew thought they were a threat to them, or better than them. but that didn't stop everyone i know (myself included) from getting mugged or attacked (or raped or beaten) by them. you should actually live among them for a long time.. and i guarantee the novelty will wear off REAL quick.

Ummm....how do you know I haven't lived among them?? The ghetto is rough...that's a fact. Why do you think there are so many guns there???? Your post would have me believe that every person living in the ghetto is retarted or that the "black youths" are all out to beat, rob, or kill. That's the exact stereotype that oppresses these people. And I just love how the white people that do live in these neighborhoods are referred to as "trash". It's almost like the black people are expected to live there, but if you are white and livng there you are trash. :hand: This is not directed at you...just society's labeling in general.

I mentor kids in these same neighborhoods and I have never been robbed, beaten, or raped. Once my mother (a drug addict) disappeared and I had a whole posse trying to help me find her at 2am. I don't know....maybe they treat me different because I don't look down on them like they are retarted animals.

The only time that I have ever been scared in a ghetto was when I was in Africa, and that was because I had about 50 people surround me and I didn't have a clue what they were saying. Turned out they were simply welcoming me

I would love to hear your definition of retarted...

 

[Maral]

:clap: :clap: :clap:

I second your applause to Cheetah's post!