freeman3 wrote:We just had a presidential election where a candidate's first campaign speech started by saying Mexican immigrants bring drugs, bring crime, they're rapists. He won that election. That is racism.
What he said was stupid. However, you are not accurately quoting him. If Trump said ALL Mexicans are drug smugglers, criminals, and rapists, you'd be right. He didn't and you're not.
He said "Mexico is not sending us their best." Well, the government isn't "sending" anyone. However, the people coming are not coming here because their lives in Mexico are luxurious. They come here illegally because they're desperate. And, some of them are criminals--that's reality, not racism.
He still won the election. Yet, some whites want to pretend that we live in a color-blind society. I guarantee you if a candidate said something like that about immigrants from Europe he or she would not win.
I guarantee if you go to a County Jail in SoCal you will find 25% or more of the population is not from the US, but from south of the border: Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, etc. I don't think you'll find all that many crooks from Europe. Please let me know if you find I'm in error.
Congratulations Brad you made it even after starting in poor circumstances. You should give lectures to black communities and tell them just apply themselves like you did and they will be successes...Maybe, that's a little harsh but I am always amazed that people who are successful just assume that everyone else can do what they did. No one's path in life is the same, people have different intelligence levels and abilities, schools are different, they have parents who parent more or less well, people around can have higher or lower expectations of them, teachers can believe or not believe in them, can have poorer or better teachers, more or less crime in the community, some face discrimination on account of their race, some people are more likely to get arrested for juvenile peccadillos than others because of their race, some people have lower expectations placed on their race, some people eat a poorer diet, some household emphasize reading or education more. The list can go and on. There a huge number of things that are not within a person's control growing up. Why do you think Jewish and Asian households do so well? A cultural emphasis on education and achieving success. People don't control being born Jewish or Asian.
I'll wager the divorce rate and the out of wedlock rate is lower in the Jewish and Asian communities. Those are major drivers.
Every kid I arrested for peccadilloes was white. I'm quite proud of that.
One should be proud of one's accomplishments but saying that your success can be replicated by everyone ignores the different life plans that people have and almost certainly ignores the advantages you did have that other people don't have.
Not everyone can be brad. However, suggesting success/failure is a matter of genetics is . . . well, racist.