Yesterday’s blog provoked a rather visceral reaction in some.
Why all the hate, my friends? Why are white folks so incensed by race issues?
It's a little odd, given the fact that I don’t know one white person that has suffered or is suffering because of minorities. I don’t know a single white person whose life is worse because of something an African American did or didn’t do.
In fact, the white people I know who are struggling with bills and whatnot, struggle because of their own decisions, not because somebody stole an opportunity or money or property from them.
Plus, I would argue our lives are easier because of the scads of minorities ready and willing to work the shit-jobs most teenagers wouldn’t deign to do.
So why all the anger, people? What is this really about?
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“But Hedy! What about these women on welfare who keep having babies to get more money?”
Did we sleep through the 90’s folks?
Bill Clinton’s welfare reform law passed in 1996 changed all of that. According to a report by the Urban Institute, a non-partisan economic and social policy organization, the number of families receiving cash benefits has decreased from 4.6 million in 1996 to 2.1 million families in 2002.
So if you’re angry about paying taxes to support minorities on welfare, you’re actually paying less than you did 10 years ago.
And if you wanna be pissed off about taxes, what about that bridge to nowhere they’re building in Alaska with your tax dollars? It’s a bunch of white old men behind that particular fiasco.
Listen, just like "Tired of It" from yesterday, I have a seriously low tolerance for assholes and idiots.
But when you blame an entire race of people for the problems you don't have, who's the asshole?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am listening to: 50 Cent - Hate It or Love It
I am reading: Next by Michael Crichton
And I am: Blah again
6 months ago
2 comments:
I'm desended from boat people. Not your typical boat people, but people who came over here in boats. Scotch/Irish on my mother's side and Southern German on my father's side.
The paternal side of the family tree didn't encounter much in the way of discrimination because they were a tick or two above the lowest economic class when they emigrated. The maternal side got a lot of, fill in your own words for their treatment, because they were seen as threatening to displace the then lowest rung on the economic ladder.
Other than some really stupid people, most discrimination isn't racial or religious. Discrimination is economic, or put a bit differently, cultural based on economic difference. Irish and Chinese in the Nineteenth Century. Mexicans in the last few decades. Note that there wasn't much of a backlash against Cubans fleeing Cuba in the Sixties and Seventies. Why? The people coming ashore, few in boats, were the intelligensia and business community of Cuba.
There is a growing tension between Hispanics and Blacks, I think, because many in the Black Community see Hispanics as usurping their opportunities.
If you look at Upper Class White America, you don't see much in the way of anger directed against Blacks or Hipanics. They only get worried when the current mood threatens to take away their cheap labor force.
Way too much seriousness for a beautiful Spring Day.
"Other than some really stupid people..."
BINGO!
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