thom w wrote:
I believe you are not consciously racist. I don't care to argue the rest of it with you except that the numbers are either wrong or they are numbers of persons arrested or charged which puts a heavy bias on them.
Thom;
That's probably the very first thing that I've ever heard you say that I agree with you on! And, you are entirely correct....I am neither "consciously" (or "un-consciously ) racist! In fact Thom, I'm just NOT "racist" at all.
Here's a question for you; I you and I were to visit a prison together, and the inmate population of the prison was, say, 65% blacks, 10% hispanics, and the other 25% whites, If I, or anyone else were to say, "wow, look at all of those black criminals, thugs, perps, (or whatever you want to call them ), do you think that would indicate that I'm "racist"? If I said, "just look at all of those violent Mexicans"!.........Does that make me a "racist"?
I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time attempting to verify all of those statistics but I can assure you that if anything, they may even be a little on the low side. I can't help it if 74% all black babies born, are born to single mothers; I also can't help it if all of the young white girls who get "knocked up" and end up spending most of their life on welfare and "sucking at the public tit"; and I'll tell you something else, Thom.........in either case, whether you're talking about young black girls getting "knocked up", or whether you're talking about young white girls getting "knocked up", their "race" had absolutely NOTHING to do with the situation they all end up in! Being "black" has never made anyone "bad", any more than being "white" has ever made anyone "good"; those things are almost always a result of "association".......in other words, if you are born in the ghetto, there's a much better than average likely hood that you'll end up "associating" with all of the people who are already "thugs"; if you're unlucky enough to have a mother who spends her time on the streets, doing drugs, engaging in a degenerate "life style", the odds are almost 100% that you'll end up like everyone else who "hangs on the street";
If you listen to people like Al Sharpton and Barry Soetoro, who have BOTH taken "race-baiting" to a high level, you will end up convinced that those "Cops" are evil, and that all white people are out "to get" all black people! I can only say to any young black person who has allowed evil people like these two to do their thinking for them, their resulting behavior is all but guaranteed to ruin their lives.
If you don't believe me, the FBI keeps statistics on all of this; it's all a matter of public record......I would encourage you to look at the FBI stats and check out.......who murders more blacks than anyone else........you'll find very quickly that it sure isn't "old white men"! (I happen to be "an old white man", I have guns, I practice using them constantly, but so far, I haven't "murdered" anyone! (That could all change very quickly if I was to wake up in the night and find someone breaking into my house; if that should happen, there's a very high probability that person will be leaving on a gurney in a "bag". (and the color of their skin won't have anything at all to do with anything. )
You hear about all of this stuff on a daily basis on the "news" and in the "media"........let me tell you what most white folks seldom "see", "hear about", or "experience" personally, Thom; (this will take some space)
I got discharged from active duty in the U.S.N. in late 1955; In 1956, I was working as a detail draftsman in the engineering department of a company that made machines for the papermill industry; one day I ran into a fellow I had graduated from HS with who now had his own flat bed truck that he hauled steel with; he was about to leave Ohio with a load of steel and take it to New Jersey, and he said, "why don't you go with me"? Long story short....I went with him; by the time we got back, I was driving the truck; a week later I was driving an old truck that belonged to a little Jewish fellow names Max Wise; (Max was probably about the second Jewish person that I became good friends with. I "learned to drive" Max's old truck on my way to Armco Steel in Middletown, Ohio, (my home town ), I "learned" to load steel when I got to Armco, and I "learned" to haul steel on my way to New Brunswick, New Jersey; (all in 1956 ) In 1997, I retired from over-the-road trucking, with just over 41 years and nearly 2,000,000 miles in my log books.
From 1974 until I retired in 1997, I transported new cars and trucks from assembly plants all over the eastern U.S. to EVERY state except Alaska and Hawaii. The fellow who put me up to becoming a car hauler was a big black fellow named Richard Logan that I met at a truck fuel stop on the Pa Turnpike; during much of the 25 years that I drove car carriers, I worked out of a terminal that had about 300 drivers, and about 100 of them were black guys; I really can't say why, but overall, I always had more friends among the black guys than I did among the white guys.
Almost all of the black guys that I worked with were honest, hard working, reliable, and just great people to work with; a lot of the white guys were the same, but a couple weren't! (I had to give one white guy named Adkins an "attitude adjustment" in the driver's break room once. (almost got me fired! )
What I'm attempting to point out is, I really like "people"......and I tend to be rather "selective" about who I make friends with; anyone I make friends with has to be "good"......honest.......reliable......sensible.......hopefully, intelligent; race of ethnic origin make no difference. When my wife and I went to her oldest son's wedding on South Padre Island, me, my wife, both of her sons and her daughter were the only "white" people out of the 300 Mexicans who came to the wedding; I hit it off with a fellow named "Roberto" that the wife and I flew back down to South Texas a year later and stayed a few days with Roberto and his wife.
Most people tend to become like the people they fraternize with; good people "hanging out" with bad people tend to sink to the same level; the only thing race has anything to do with it is the fact that most people tend to live in neighborhoods where others like them live; it's this "association" with all of the "no-goodniks" that ruin so many young black people; a very few, (like Dr. Ben Carson ) are fortunate enough to have a great Mother to "show them the way" and they make something out of themselves; if Dr. Ben's Mom had been a hooker instead of a great lady, Ben would have probably become a "thug" instead of a neurosurgeon. Looking back over my life, I regret that I wasn't better father than I was, but all of my five kids ended up going to college; my oldest son has a PhD in EE and has designed weapons systems for the Navy for 25 years, my youngest son is a geologist and vulcanologist, my oldest daughter has taught the piano for the last 35 years now, and my middle daughter went to grad school after college and got a degree in linguistics in order to be able to go to South America to help translate the Bible into about a dozen languages that don't have it.