Come on.

It's the politicization of history. Most white people were struggling through extreme poverty for the majority of this country's history. I know you believe in this Disney view of history where white people were evil snobs living off the labor of noble black people, who just needed a chance to succeed, but we have largely a shared history in this country. There was a very small rich class, but the vast majority of people were toiling in the fields and factories struggling to make ends meet. So we need to stop with this notion that we are so different, and our experiences can never be compared.

My grandfather worked in steel mills in northwest Indiana along with black workers. I can't imagine their lives were terribly different. Who do you think had a better standard of living: a black person here in Chicago in the 40s or people living in Europe living through war, famine and then, for many millions, Soviet rule.

We are playing into the worst of extremes by pushing out this notion of permanent white guilt and black disadvantage. We had a terrible racist system in place for years, but we have taken steps to remedy it. And there are systems in place to fight racism. Racism again blacks was a terrible part of our history, but it was hardly the only atrocity carried carried out against the working class here in the United States. To only focus on racism as we tend to do in our culture is divisive.

Recently I met with a laborer from Ukraine who fled because of the war there, and he was saving up to send money back to bring his family over working 12 hours days doing home upgrades. White privilege indeed.

I see WF's point, but I'll assume based on his other posts that I won't agree with him entirely.

There are a variety of structural "disadvantages" that don't depend on race. Someone's whiteness doesn't necessarily matter if that person is born into a broken home, and/or is raised by uneducated caregivers, is exposed to violent crime throughout their formative years, is unable to benefit from services/programs/activities that more affluent peers have access to, etc. These types of things can afflict anyone regardless of race, and if you're one of these people then you definitely don't get a "head start" in life compared to peers who are born into two-parent homes, who do have a strong support system growing up, who are raised/influenced by educated caregivers, who do have access to extracurricular activities, etc.

That being said, it's obvious that race does matter of course, and this is where someone like Bernie Sanders got into trouble when he was running. It obviously sucks for anyone to be born into poverty and/or broken homes/communities, but I think it's still fair to say that the misery is compounded when you're black and born into those conditions. I wouldn't say that an underprivileged white person has a "head start" over an underprivileged black person (a black kid from an affluent/decently well-off family would have the "head start" over an underprivileged white kid), but many African Americans have to endure other difficulties/hurdles that are strictly race-based on top of other socioeconomic challenges they may be facing alongside underprivileged white communities, and this is what makes their case unique. The problem is when we try to organize everything into neat circles (all white people have head starts over black people, etc.) when the reality is much more nuanced.

Come on.

I'd disagree with your constant citing of things here being in the past tense. Especially with the last 50 years of a Southern Strategy culminating with this President and his advisers/team restoking the worst among us at every opportunity,

Is the USA in 2018 a perfect racial situation? No. Is Trump worse for race than Obama? Yes. Are race situations in general better now than 1950? Yes. If most can agree on those points then how can the level at which we talk today be right?

It's the politicization of history. Most white people were struggling through extreme poverty for the majority of this country's history. I know you believe in this Disney view of history where white people were evil snobs living off the labor of noble black people, who just needed a chance to succeed, but we have largely a shared history in this country. There was a very small rich class, but the vast majority of people were toiling in the fields and factories struggling to make ends meet. So we need to stop with this notion that we are so different, and our experiences can never be compared.

My grandfather worked in steel mills in northwest Indiana along with black workers. I can't imagine their lives were terribly different. Who do you think had a better standard of living: a black person here in Chicago in the 40s or people living in Europe living through war, famine and then, for many millions, Soviet rule.

We are playing into the worst of extremes by pushing out this notion of permanent white guilt and black disadvantage. We had a terrible racist system in place for years, but we have taken steps to remedy it. And there are systems in place to fight racism. Racism again blacks was a terrible part of our history, but it was hardly the only atrocity carried carried out against the working class here in the United States. To only focus on racism as we tend to do in our culture is divisive.

Recently I met with a laborer from Ukraine who fled because of the war there, and he was saving up to send money back to bring his family over working 12 hours days doing home upgrades. White privilege indeed.

My grandfather worked in steel mills in northwest Indiana along with black workers. I can't imagine their lives were terribly different. Who do you think had a better standard of living: a black person here in Chicago in the 40s or people living in Europe living through war, famine and then, for many millions, Soviet rule.

That's insane. That terrible racist system was still alive and well in the 1940s. Segregation and other civil rights were still 20 years away and even those didn't immediately solve all the issues. Even now there are still pretty much economic advantages to the average white baby who is born. No one is saying that there aren't white people who have it tough too. It's just that in general white people have had a much easier path to success in this country. I mean, most of our parents lived in a time when segregation was still allowed and prevalent. I'm guessing some posters here did too. How can you pretend that white people didn't have a head start during those times?

It doesn't mean you are personally responsible for it, though your constant posts of denial about literally every potential social inequality isn't helping.

You answered literally nothing. And instead went for the pearl clutching- posting on this board is somehow oppressing people and injuring race relations? Come on.

You think that black people here in Chicago in the 40s had it worse than people living in Europe? You do realize what was happening in Europe in the 1940s?

My grandfather worked in steel mills in northwest Indiana along with black workers. I can't imagine their lives were terribly different. Who do you think had a better standard of living: a black person here in Chicago in the 40s or people living in Europe living through war, famine and then, for many millions, Soviet rule.

Since you want to get anecdotal, my grandfather worked in the pits of the stockyards because the companies wouldn't allow Blacks above certain levels and had little access to many other jobs in the industries that built this city because there were strict union (& general hiring) rules on the number of black involvement/admission into their ranks. My own parents(like many others) were forbidden from admission to most colleges in this country based solely on race. Hell, I and several of my classmates told that employment with the Democratic controlled Cook County State's Attorney's office wasn't really feasible because we, as black lifelong Chicago residents, didn't understand the inner workings, issues and demands of their office. Which became more painfully funny as the historical misdeeds of that office came more to light in the 1990's.

I can go on and on, without getting to tired, irrelevant comparisons of life under Soviet rule.

The Dems are at least equal opportunity. They have screwed all of us.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opin ... story.html

I said white people were born with a head start here.

My grandfather was raised in a home with a dirt floor in Gary to parents who had nothing after having escaped from the 1905 pogroms in Russia. Tell me, how privileged was he? I was told that my great-grandmother never could watch Fiddler on the Roof in her old age as it was too much like her childhood in the Shtetl.

Compared to someone living under segregation he was.

As Jew in the early 20th century, was barred from most trades.

You answered literally nothing. And instead went for the pearl clutching- posting on this board is somehow oppressing people and injuring race relations? Come on.

You think that black people here in Chicago in the 40s had it worse than people living in Europe? You do realize what was happening in Europe in the 1940s?