Martin Luther King Day

[afro-elf]

We learned about the Trail of Tears. My first conscious recollection of it was in 6th grade.

I think reparations is a bad idea. There were Black slave owners too. England had white slaves. Are the Jews gonna sue the Egyptians

Hell! Most cultures had slaves.

I personally dont think race has anything to do with whether or not people are driven to make their lives better

Race is not the inherent cause but HUMANS are creatures that operate with in group bias, so ethnic socio-ecomonic does have A factor to play. BUT it can also be an excuse.

[Insidious Rex]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
Excuse me - but talking about Indians is what's off topic on this thread. This thread started off talking about Martin Luther King Day.

aw but we were having so much fun doing that. but absolutely yer dead right on that one. i thought about that after i hit submit but figured oh well ill just let them jump all over me about that comment.

[Insidious Rex]

Originally posted by afro-elf
The THREAD is about MLK day) who just happens to be black) and Black history

abslutely. like i said to jersey yer dead right on that. i guess i just didnt want to deal with war on two fronts (black and indian) and i was so focused on the indian thing at the time. my apologies.

No reason to be prickly

oh if you think thats prickly you havent seen anything yet.

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Insidious Rex
aw but we were having so much fun doing that. but absolutely yer dead right on that one. i thought about that after i hit submit but figured oh well ill just let them jump all over me about that comment.

How could I resist?

[afro-elf]

And peace shall reign on Earth.

Ok we are all buddy buddy again.

[Insidious Rex]

ok with that Ill move onto you topic you brought up afro elf:

Originally posted by afro-elf
I think reparations is a bad idea.

hey guess what. i agree completely. reperations are a joke. maybe if there were still some ex slaves around you could justify giving them something but as a real issue reperations are untenable and silly and we shouldnt spend more then 90 seconds thinking about it fankly.

Race is not the inherent cause but HUMANS are creatures that operate with in group bias, so ethnic socio-ecomonic does have A factor to play. BUT it can also be an excuse.

i dont really believe in race. not on a true biological level at least. i think its stricly a social construct and nothing more. we are one flowing river of humanity. not isolated lakes of different kinds of creatures. black americans are much more genetically related to white americans then they are to say black aborigenes.

[afro-elf]

Originally posted by Insidious Rex
ok with that Ill move onto you topic you brought up afro elf:


hey guess what. i agree completely. reperations are a joke. maybe if there were still some ex slaves around you could justify giving them something but as a real issue reperations are untenable and silly and we shouldnt spend more then 90 seconds thinking about it fankly.




i dont really believe in race. not on a true biological level at least. i think its stricly a social construct and nothing more. we are one flowing river of humanity. not isolated lakes of different kinds of creatures. black americans are much more genetically related to white americans then they are to say black aborigenes.

I concur completely.

[Huan]

Okay, I am going to get so slammed for this probably, but I'm biting the bullet and adding my honest view on reparations: I am not against reparations for black slavery. I won't be up in arms if it's finally ruled out, but if the reparations actually happen, I won't be against them. Because let's face facts (I'm going to get SO slammed for saying this): the entire modern nation of Israel is reparation of sorts for an atrocity commited against a people, and that sets a precedent.

[afro-elf]

You whilst not be slammed by me.

[The Lady of Ithilien]

So much opinion, so much controversy, yet so little knowledge. Just what is there to have an opinion on, let alone argue over, if one can't even answer a basic quiz like that?

As for Tulsa, a lot of people there do know about the riot and have acknowledged it and investigated it in recent years. Check out the online information at the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission. But north, south, east, west or mid: you are missing an inspiring piece of your history** (** means see below), if you have never heard of the Greenwood section, or "Black Wall Street," that once throve there and rose from the ashes to thrive again before it finally ended when the malls and urban renewal came in.

The answers to the other questions are easily found in either Dr. John Sibley Butler's book on black American entrepreneurship or in the Information Please 1993 almanac (in which I learned that many of the first black Americans elected to state office after the war had college degrees, and one was even an Etonian).

People, are your opinions and desire to argue so much more interesting, that you're not curious enough to look up the answers and see what it was really like?

I'm awfully proud to be living in the same country where Oliver once lived and in which lived another man, by the name of Dr. King, who had a different vision than Oliver's but resonant with it nonetheless. Opinion-heads just don't know what they're missing.



**
Here is some correspondence from Curtis, in Detroit, who contacted a friend, Oliver, in Tulsa after hearing about the riot (it's online at the site of a book I haven't read but am interested in):

Dear Oliver:

I am, by our local newspaper, fully advised of the whole terrible tragedy there. Now that they have destroyed your homes, wrecked your schools churches and business places, and killed your people, I am sure that the Negroes will rapidly give up the town and move North. Enclosed, please find draft for $40.00 to purchase your ticket to Detroit.

Will be expecting you.

Curtis


Dear Curtis:

How kind of you to volunteer your sympathetic assistance. It is just like you to be helpful to others in times of stress like this.

True it is, we are facing a terrible situation. It is equally true that they have destroyed our homes; wrecked our schools; they have reduced our churches to ashes and they have murdered our people, Curtis; but they have not touched our spirit. And while I speak only for myself, let it be said that I came here and built my fortune with that SPIRIT, I shall reconstruct it here with that SPIRIT, and I expect to live on and die here with it.

Oliver