In my opinion is fueled by the media. I didn't grow up in the south and never even visited southern states but I never remember a time when black Kids weren't allowed in the community pools. And this was early 60's. I've never heard of it happening recently either so why does CNN make a big deal about it in this story about the black swimmer in the Olympics? The story insinuates that whites are better swimmers than blacks because they weren't allowed in pools. I'm sure that's not her story, so why bring it up? http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/12/opini...e-manuel-jones0401AMStoryLink&linkId=27629429 CNN makes it sound like blacks still have separate drinking fountains. How can you move forward if you keep bringing up bad things from the past? That's how I feel about everything...why not treat her like everybody else? Maybe write a story about how smart and talented she is, probably got a scholarship to Stanford which is a hard school to get in to. The media is the one that keeps separating and inciting....this is how I see it anyway. CNN is getting really bad lately. All anti Trump and articles like this. Maybe the north and south were different and maybe they still are but I went to high school with lots of black students and we all swam in the same pool and nobody whined about it, nor did anybody's parents make an issue out of it.
I apparently might have grown up with racism; but I didn't know about it. Where I lived in northern Idaho, we did not have any colored people. I never even saw a black person until I was well into my teens, and then it was in Spokane (WA) where there were a lot more people. I remember asking my mom about it; because on the television some of the people were colored people, and she said that it was colder weather than they liked because most of the black people came from warmer climates, and didn't like our -30 degrees winters. So I was actually surprised when there were some living in Spokane. However, there was also the stories about Hippies, back in the days when they were still called "Beatniks", and frowned upon. We didn't have any guys with long hair in our little town either. The story was that if they came into town, they were given a short haircut, and a ride back across the bridge (over the Pend O'reille River) and told if they ever came back, they would only be taken half way acoss. I am sure that story was just a story; but whatever they told them, we didn't have any long-haired Hippie people until well into the 1960's when some of our own local people adopted the look. Now, I live in the South, with lots of black people, and we interact on a daily basis, and with no problems. I totally agree that it is the news media that LOOKS for any example of racism, or what might be able to be identified as that, even if it really isn't, and then they pound into us that there is hatred between the races.
Anything that's got hype is fueled by media. Take this Pokemon Go game that is hitting the headlines. It's just an ordinary phone game where you have to move in order to score points. But maybe the media has nothing much to report so they are capitalizing on the game with their caveat. They even go to the extent of shooting a video that is obviously scripted where people playing figure in an accident - one falls on the water and another is almost hit by a car - but as I said, all are scripted to demonstrate how that game can cause accidents. But my take on it is that media is just making a hype our of that silly game.
We didn't have any minorities around while I was growing up, and very few people who I wasn't related to, so there was the unfamiliarity thing, but I wasn't raised to believe that I was better than anyone else on the basis of skin color or nationality. I was aware that my father wasn't comfortable around Japanese because that came up once while we were traveling, but he had been an prisoner of the Japanese. Even then, it wasn't something he talked about, and I never got the impression that it was a racial problem. I think the first time I became aware of racism was when I registered for college at Northern Michigan University. I was asked if I had any objections to having a black roommate, and I couldn't understand why anyone would. Apparently, there were those who did because I did indeed have a black roommate. Then during orientation, they were doing some strange sensitivity things that had to do with differences between people. That just seemed silly to me, so I skipped out on the rest of that. From Michigan, I moved to Southern California, and I didn't notice anything that seemed racist during the twelve years I lived there. I had a friend who dared me to walk home from North Long Beach, which was primarily black, and I did, but there were no problems with it. Today, given the racial division that has been fomented by our current administration, it probably would be a more dangerous thing to do. In the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, I was the minority, both in language and skin tone, and there were people who seemed to resent the white people who were living there and, historically, I knew that there was a time in the 1930s when large groups of white people in the Rio Grande Valley had marched several Mexican-Americans to the bridge at gunpoint, forcing them to cross over into Mexico. This action was taken as a result of uncontrolled immigration, the largest problem being that they couldn't tell the ones who were here illegally from those who were born and raised in the Valley. I also know that, in the 1960s, there was a time when nearly all of the Mexican-American students at Edcouch-Elsa High School walked out in protest over the fact that there were no Mexican-American teachers on staff, while nearly a hundred percent of the student body was Mexican-American. However, for the most part, I didn't pick up on much in the way of racial hostilities while I was living there. If anything, it was more of a language problem. When I lived in North Carolina, I did come across people who were blatantly racist, including the pastor of a church that we had started to attend, who told a racist joke from the pulpit. We didn't go back. These people were a minority, though. I don't know what people might be like inside, but most people were not openly racist. Among those who were, it was anything but one-sided. The media likes to ignore or excuse the percentage of black people who hate white people. Mostly, it seems that racism is a product of unfamiliarity, and that is becoming a larger problem given what seems to be an agenda of division, pitting black people against white people, poor people against those who aren't so poor, and even the North against the South, a wound that had been pretty much healed.
I'm sure there are racists still and there always will be but in general I think if it wasn't for the media always making race the focus or reason for a news item, we'd be better off. Also, the Al Sharptons who like to agitate. I even think and I may be wrong but the police shootings of young black men aren't so much about race as much as trigger happy cops. Most of these shootings happen in high crime areas which probably have more blacks than whites. In some cases the cop was black that was involved so how is that racism? The odds of a trigger happy cop shooting a black person are just greater in an area that is predominately black. Anyway, that's off topic on this post but I'm really trying to understand this and I can just see the liberals reading this and calling me a racist which I don't think I am. If a Jewish swimmer won a medal would CNN write a piece about how Jewish people aren't great in sports because of some racist reason. The media has slowly gone too far in the stories they keep writing I feel. I actually used to like CNN even though it had a liberal slant but lately their stories are crap. *this post should have been before Ken's and Corie's replies ....just noticed that I didn't hit post reply An hour ago, lol....I'm not with it today.
I'm not implying racism doesn't exist because it does and not just against blacks but I think the things that are being done are more divisive than bringing us together.
IMO, the media is basically doing their job, and if any of you worked for the media as a Jounalist, you'd find that out. It's not an easy job to do and comes with a certain amount of criticism. There are folks in our society that don't like the military and there are those that care less about the military. Just the say it is and there are reasons for this "dislike" as well as reasons for those that honor/praise our military. As for myself, I wasn't raised around the Black race at all. The city, some 30 miles from our farm, had an average Black population, but I only went into the suburb of that city to go to church on Sunday mornings. Out of my entire Navy graduating class, there were only 3 Black dudes and they were really cool dudes. From what I could tell, not many Blacks joined the Navy, when I was in. So, I had very little interaction with them while I was in the Navy. A couple of years after I got out of the Navy, I got a job working in EMS and there were no Blacks that worked for the company (ambulance). However, the next company I worked for, part of the area I worked in included Watts, Compton and South Central L.A.. My partner in the Unit was a guy named Judd, who was Black, very nice and a "life saver" for me (at least that's what I thought of him). He lived in Compton and knew the police force. For me, I couldn't have had a better partner! After leaving that job/career, I had very little-to-no interaction with Blacks. The companies I worked for had Whites and Vietnamese, but no Blacks. The areas I lived in didn't have any Blacks either. I now live in an area that is at least 38% Black, but most live both north and west of us. The families that do live in our apt. complex and area, we get along with great. Unfortunately, some of the areas in the north and western part of our city has quite a bit of Black-on-Black crime. Shoot, my wife was raised just outside Detroit, Mich. and loves Motown music. We have Motown music along with Earth, Wind and Fire group and Kool and the Gang music. Even Disco had a number of super Black groups in it (Sister Sledge, Taste of Honey, KC & The Sunshine Band among others). We also have the movie, Jumping the Broom, which is an excellent movie with Blacks in it.
It is funny how this raises idea started when I was young there were no blacks living anywhere in the area so we never seen them. Later I worked at Ford and on the assembly line there was a few but no one noticed or said anything I became a good friend of a lot. One day one ask me why do people stare at me I reply if there was a pile of marshmallows and one piece of coal what would draw you attention the coal and if it was coal with one marshmallow it would be the opposite. I live in a country now that has 50% black 40% brown and about 1% white and when I walk through some areas my wife says they are all staring at you I laugh because I know why. Now here comes the elites agenda and tries to cause problem and then media who is owned by the elites start this idea of it is them and us. This war between the them and us if your black all problems are caused by the whites and if you’re white all problems are caused by blacks and it goes on and on. They know if you are fighting each other you’re not paying attention to us.
I definitely agree with that @Martin Alonzo. Divide and conquer seems to be the mentality, and a large portion of both groups has already been conquered, as well as the same from other racial/ethnic groups. I grew up around people of all backgrounds, and there were no separate facilities/fountains, etc. Being that I now qualify for 'seniorhood' in some parts, I find it sort of crazy that I never experienced or witnessed that, and yet those issues are talked about as if they're still happening to this day. I'm also tired of hearing about slavery, as if it's still happening. The only slavery I'm aware of going on these days here in the U.S. is human trafficking (sex & other labor), and those of us who are slaves to debt, including taxes, which aren't enforced equally. Those looking to foment hate are doing a great job. Every time there's a riot, it seems there's talk of harming whites. Obviously there are some of every race, creed, etc., who are going to hate or at least fear outsiders, but I'm tired of hate mongers pulling the strings behind the scenes for profit. Here's a story about a 'controversial' ad for a non-white roommate. If the poster had been white, the 'controversial' would have said 'racist', no doubt. I'm afraid of all the riots and looting that will happen as a result of this shooting. Oh wait, the shooter was a black officer, and the subject was white. As is always the case, the versions of events differ a great deal, yet there will probably not be any rioting/looting. Unlike in Milwaukee, Ferguson, etc., the local auto parts stores, convenience shops and beauty supply stores will be safe.
Well said, @Diane Lane. Exactly how I feel and see things also. In general, except for hate groups, racism is being created and that's too bad. I'm pretty sure that the decent black families who are just trying to live life in some of these neighborhoods where the thugs like to riot and loot for no reason except opportunity to steal and cause havoc have had enough. Was it Milwaukee that was just in the news because an officer shot a black man that had a stolen weapon? I think a gas station was even on fire. I hope those responsible for the damage are held accountable. These are their own neighborhoods that they are Burning down and looting....crazy!!
They use the raises card for anything if you complain about the policies of the president you are raises and yet you did not mention skin color you said policies. A good example is the people who are raises calling everyone else raises like black lives matter the name itself is a raises term but they run around and if you disagree you are raises. This has got so far out of hand that people cannot understand it anymore.
I have never even thought of Obama as black. What's funny is that it's white people who when you say something about Obama not being a good president, call you a racist. They act like they know what it's like to be black.
There was certainly racism where I grew up. There were separate schools, separate water fountains and such. There was the unwritten rule that negros were to sit in the back of the bus, but long before Rosa Parks, if any blacks sat elsewhere nobody complained. There were inequalities but we had no riots or marches. Things had improved tremendously over the years but have really been set back to the fifties in recent years.
Reading online, there are certain States/cities that some call "racist" because of the very low population of Blacks...........Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota were ones listed. I see no reason to call these States/cities "racist" when Blacks don't want to move/live there for whatever reasons. I seen a posting that a Black businessman made on a Denver, CO relocation forum where he state that him and another Black businessman were the only Blacks in 650 employees at the company he works for. Now, where we are currently living, the Black demographics is almost 40%. With a population of almost 900,000 people here, the Black population is almost 1/2 of the total population. Whites make up about 50% along with a smaller population of Indians. Denver, CO's demographics is 11% Black and 31.7% Hispanic. Where we use to own a house, Parker, CO, was pretty much all White. I've read on that Denver relocation forum where people have posted that Parker is too "White" for them. Well, the way I look at it, not everyone wants to live in a "diverse" area.