Progressives tell me that I don’t know what it is like to be a young black man in America. Well, that much is true. I’m 57, white and grew up on a farm, so I will never know what that is like – but I do have some observations about the condition and since I grew up dirt poor in northeast Mississippi in the 60’s and 70’s, I probably know a little more about being poor than many of the many progressive politicians and pundits who are currently offering up reasons why I should give up my white privilege. I also have traveled extensively around the world, most likely more than most, if not all, of the leaders of the various radical #blacklivesmatter groups and I have seen what it is like to truly be a member of a group that is destined to be oppressed simply by accident of birth.
I’ve been to places in China and India where human life has a value approaching zero. I have visited factories in China where two deaths was seen as a great safety record (because they killed five people the prior year). I have seen the caste system at work in India where being born into a certain caste determines not only your future but that of your children – and their children and with no possibility of breaking free…ever.
I have seen the authoritarian states in the Arab world where being in the wrong place or doing the wrong thing, not necessarily even a criminal act, could land you in prison and I have seen political prisons in Myanmar where holding the wrong views can result in you being put in a hole and never coming out. I have seen communist states where police and government authorities operate with true impunity – and when that is combined with a lack of value of human life, it essentially legalizes murder by governments.
I’ve seen true poverty in the slums of New Delhi and Bangkok where people exist on one bowl of rice a day. I have seen how people struggle to live just one more day with no hope or promise of more than the next 24 hours.
America is still a place where the only limit is the one you place on yourself. If you can make your grades, you can get a college degree and lift yourself out of poverty even if you have to borrow money to go. If you pick a degree that is valuable, you can market yourself to employers and pay the loan off. Most of the horror stories are about people who have no clue that spending $150,000 in borrowed money to get a degree in women’s studies or social work at a prestigious university only to land a $30K a year job with limited ability to increase that salary is not a good deal. America is still a place where race is secondary to character, drive and ability. America is still a place where what you get is directly related to what you are willing to put in.
#blacklivesmetter doesn’t realize it but compared 80% of the world (almost anything outside America), what they complain about would be considered true #firstworldproblems. They are conflating and exaggerating issues that are not based in statistical fact to gain political and social advantage because they refuse to achieve on their own. Failing (or simply refusing) to realize how good America truly is and demanding special treatment because your skin is a particular color is their issue, it is not my responsibility to give in to their ridiculous sentiments, especially after I have seen what I have seen. The worst conditions here in America are better by far than some of the best in other countries.
I freely admit that I don’t know what it is like to be a young black man in America, nor will I ever know – but I also know that young black men in America have no idea what it would be like to be them outside America. I also know that because I started poor and white and became successful in spite of those conditions, I have nothing to apologize for.
The Rio Norte Line 
I grew up, the first 18 years of my life, living on U S Army bases with 5 brothers and 2 sisters. We had black families living next door to us more than once in the on-base housing from 1951 to 1963. It wasn’t until we moved to Panama City in December of 1963 that I ever was face to face with blacks that felt cheated by life. About the time we moved to PC was when the Bay County school system began racially mixing their schools. It was a really strange change of life for me and my siblings.
I meant “the first 13 years of my life” not “the first 18 years of my life”
Little of that Common Core math seeping in…it’s insidious !!
100 times better than being black in Africa. Blacks should put up statues to the slave traders that sold their ancestors and gave them a route out.
Muhammed Ali ( the athlete formerly known as Cassius Clay ). Agreed with you !
Secondly, they have had a 150+ years since slavery ended to figure it out and if they are not intelligent enough to understand they have been played then their is likely no hope for them. I’m always willing to give someone a couple of chances but when it becomes evident there is no changing the American black culture it needs to be separated out like the chaff from the wheat.
Utah, I have traveled the world over to include India, China, the Midlle East and Africa as well. I’m just tired of the ignorant. Being born in America is the ultimate blessIng. If you don’t know this is again, you mental abilities are sorely lacking.
I see the hand writing on the wall. If one lone NBPP/BLM terrorist can stop a whole city just think of several thousand at a time.
During my formative years I was taught that democracy meant majority rule. Now we have miniscule minorities demanding the majority conform to their desires. If, as chelo has noted, after 150 years they do not wish to become Americans then it is seriously past time for them to find somewhere else that they can live. At minimum BLM & the Black Panthers should be declared terrorist organizations and eradicated. The FBI infiltrated the white supremacist groups who used violence and they can do the same with the black versions. Oops, sorry, I forgot the FBI no longer enforces the law, they only point out the “mistakes” law breakers make. Guess that is for another post.
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Here’s one of those oppressed Blacks doing his best to ” ‘splain ” how white privilege has held him down.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/off-duty-st-louis-county-officer-fatally-shoots-intruder-at/article_00c6c2bd-d559-5b78-a8f1-e78187dfa2a6.html
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Hi “Utah,”
About in the middle, you said,”America is still a place where the only limit is the one you place on yourself.” Funny thing you should mention that….. I have heard that ever since I really started “understanding” …….’have ta’ say I was a little kid, and I could look around!!!! ‘Ya get “Dealt a Hand” …”5 card Draw” …amazing what ya’ can do with only a “6 high!” One thing I learned right off…”The outcome of the “Call” is up to “YOU!!!”
Got Gunz…..OUTLAW!!!!!!,
III%,
skybill-out
I think that the value of life in today’s terms is based upon your wealth and income. We witness this valuation by the disregard and cold calculations employed by governments and corporations.
Black Lives Don’t Matter in America, they don’t have the wealth and therefore the access to the levers of justice that other people have. The same can be said of people in and countries of the third world. Life is cheap in America, and throughout if you are poor!
This hardly seems Christian!