This is my last installment of "arguments" my friends made to prove their point although these same arguments were the ones that were used to keep our ancestors and even our parents in an oppressed state.
Hope you enjoyed these five arguments I attempt to make with a little more time.
Argument #4:
Black people are lazy, unprofessional, and generally unsuccessful compared to immigrants & whites. Now you KNOW this one pisses me off the most. First, I have to say, what characteristics from either of the competing ethnicities' experiences in the U.S. makes them legit enough to be compared to Blacks in the first place? I don't know of any other ethnicity that was held in slavery for the first 300+ years they were in the U.S., but maybe I didn't learn that in my history classes??? Then to go further. Do NOT take the actions of the Black people from lower SES areas as the actions of the race as a whole. THAT is something White racists do to justify their beliefs. There are certain things that the majority of Black people do because they are Black in America and there are certain things that the majority of Black people do because most of them live in poverty and did not have the same educational or social opportunities as other ethnicities in the U.S. An example you say? Things Black people do because they are Black: they have Family Reunions; they practice egalitarian (equal responsibility) marriages; they probably even have a family member who knows how to cook chitterlings (laaauuugh). Things Black people do because they are probably poor or are influenced by people in the "hood": Speak real "hood" (whether it is the use of ebonics or a loud volume, it is the things); Dress real "hood"; Have an upper-arm tattoo & you're a female (sorry, but it is, lol); wear fronts (and yes, Diddy has done it, but where did he grow up again?? Oh, ok, point proven); and have a significant number of teen or young adult mothers who are not married to the father of their child (and probably never will be). I will say that people from rural areas (aka the country) qualify in this category as well.
Hope you enjoyed these five arguments I attempt to make with a little more time.
Black people are lazy, unprofessional, and generally unsuccessful compared to immigrants & whites. Now you KNOW this one pisses me off the most. First, I have to say, what characteristics from either of the competing ethnicities' experiences in the U.S. makes them legit enough to be compared to Blacks in the first place? I don't know of any other ethnicity that was held in slavery for the first 300+ years they were in the U.S., but maybe I didn't learn that in my history classes??? Then to go further. Do NOT take the actions of the Black people from lower SES areas as the actions of the race as a whole. THAT is something White racists do to justify their beliefs. There are certain things that the majority of Black people do because they are Black in America and there are certain things that the majority of Black people do because most of them live in poverty and did not have the same educational or social opportunities as other ethnicities in the U.S. An example you say? Things Black people do because they are Black: they have Family Reunions; they practice egalitarian (equal responsibility) marriages; they probably even have a family member who knows how to cook chitterlings (laaauuugh). Things Black people do because they are probably poor or are influenced by people in the "hood": Speak real "hood" (whether it is the use of ebonics or a loud volume, it is the things); Dress real "hood"; Have an upper-arm tattoo & you're a female (sorry, but it is, lol); wear fronts (and yes, Diddy has done it, but where did he grow up again?? Oh, ok, point proven); and have a significant number of teen or young adult mothers who are not married to the father of their child (and probably never will be). I will say that people from rural areas (aka the country) qualify in this category as well.
Another important thing to consider when this argument is brought up is that the “lazy, unprofessional, and unsuccessful” Black people in which this refers to are usually the outliers. What I call “loud and wrong”. And it doesn’t help that people are looking for us to act this way so when we prove their point they convince themselves that this is fact. The loud and wrong people stand out. You could be in a group of ALL Black people and there is ALWAYS one who is just extra. Makes you look &/or feel bad or embarrassed about yourself, but they are ONE (or two) in the group and the rest of the people in the group are probably chill. Yet, people focus on those extra people. So what if there is an unprofessional cashier at Walmart? The rest of the cashiers aren’t doing anything special, except for their jobs.
And my one directed towards the women: This one is quite simple... "She did something to make him hit (or rape) her"--- Victim blaming in a society that has significant problems with violence against women (normally at the hands of a man) is NEVER a good look. Although common couple violence DOES exist, even when that is CLEARLY not the case, people still try to find a way to point the finger at the victim. I'm not sure if people realize it or not, but victim-blaming occurs in WAY too many (i will not say most because I doubt I can prove it) cases of intimate partner violence. People do it with rape victims as well, which REALLY makes me angrier. In fact I saw a blog that discussed that people like Natalee Holloway basically put themselves in the position to be raped and/or murdered. That disgusted me. Instead of focusing on the need of the minds of the people who rape and abuse to change, people tell us that we shouldn't have gone out and partied with your friends. I'm a SERIOUS activist when it comes to intimate partner violence & sexual assault so I can go in on this topic, but not for this blog.
The fact is that we often find ways to blame the victim for their circumstance instead of blaming the real culprit. The system, that doesn't educate about how to not be a rapist or an abuser, but definitely tells women how to "avoid rape"; that refused Black people jobs and adequate housing for over half a century; that made Black people feel less than human and therefore making many Black people HATE the system and all of those who enforced it; that refuses to provide an equal education to those in Lower socio-economic status areas. The system and those who refuse to change it or at least try, are the people who are the true failures.
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