One race, divisible

[Lyion]

Interesting article at the Wapo by NPRs Juan Williams about a pew poll saying Blacks can no longer be thought of as just Black.

Honestly, the sooner we get away from Black and White America, and get to just 'America', the better off things will be for everyone.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... on/columns

Nearly two out of five black people (37 percent) surveyed in a new Pew poll, done in association with NPR, said that blacks "can no longer be thought of as a single race." Only half of all black people in the country (53 percent) say it is possible to think of blacks as one race. And young black Americans -- ages 18 to 29 -- are more likely than older blacks to say that blacks are no longer a single race.

Racism, stereotypes and segregation laws long enforced the idea of a single black race by keeping down black people no matter their education and class. But just over 50 years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision set in motion the modern civil rights movement, with a unified black America pressing for political and social equality, there are significant numbers of people with dark skin, and racial discrimination battles, who say black people do not have enough common experiences and values to be thought of as one race.

This phenomenon is occurring inside black America as values held by black and white Americans are becoming more similar, according to 72 percent of whites and 54 percent of blacks. But the people who share values are middle-class blacks and whites. The black poor are the ones being left out, and they know it.

Consider: The black people most likely to say that blacks no longer share values across class lines have only a high school diploma or less education (37 percent), or they are lower-income (39 percent). Those most likely to say that all black people have many common values are college-educated blacks (78 percent) and black Americans who have incomes of more than $100,000 (66 percent).

But 70 percent of the same well-educated black people also acknowledge that they see values increasingly "diverging" between the black poor and middle class. That's different from the responses to a 1986 poll in which all classes of black Americans said differences over values were not diffusing the common black experience. Today both middle-class and poor blacks agree that racism is still a big issue for any black person. But they admit that the divide over values is splitting the community.

Today, only 20 percent of black Americans think life is generally better for black people than it was five years ago, the lowest positive response to that question in polls going back 24 years. Only 44 percent of black people expect life to get better; that's well below the 57 percent who predicted a better life for black people when the same question was asked in 1986 or the 70 percent who had a positive response in 1969 when asked about recent changes in the situation of blacks.

Another telling finding is the difference among black people in how much they feel "personal factors" instead of "racial discrimination" determine how far any black person can expect to get in life. The Pew poll found that 53 percent of black Americans agree that "blacks who can't get ahead are mostly responsible for their own condition." That fits with poll findings that two-thirds of all Americans (71 percent of whites and 59 percent of Hispanics) feel that personal behavior -- values, education, hard work -- is what holds back those black Americans still trapped in poverty.

What the poll numbers can't say is that the question of whether blacks are a single race, sharing common values, is a political issue. The responses give some clues to this, however. A black liberal Democrat is 15 percentage points more likely than a political independent to say the black middle class has common values with the black poor.

But it is getting harder to use political and racial solidarity to hide the division inside black America. The values issue is at the heart of the argument over the future of the race.

This comes down to black Americans who believe in family, education and personal responsibility vs. those who point at "the man" or the "system" for the added weight on black Americans.

[Kramer]

yeah. that's so important....

i mean, i heard this week that most white americans say that they can't all be categorized as being mayonnaise-likers..... especially white folk under 35 think that less than half of those who were over 55 10 years ago think that those under 25 now would, by a 55% margin, beleive thomselves to general condiment-likers and not limit themselves to JUST MAYONNAISE.....

[Tikker]

so poor people have a different outlook on life than people who are not poor?

crazy man, crazy

[Harrison]

Lol no shit

Countdown until the racists post, aka when Zanchief wakes up.

[Zanchief]

Countdown until the racists post, aka when Zanchief wakes up.

Those of us who are productive members of society gte up early every day, Finny.

[Harrison]

When you wake up is irrelevant.

[Jay]

When you wake up is irrelevant after noon.

fixt

[Harrison]

When you wake up is irrelevant.

When you wake up is irrelevant, period.

[Zanchief]

When you wake up is irrelevant.

When you wake up is irrelevant, period.

If you wake up at noon because you live with your folks and are unemployed, it matters.

How are those classes coming?

[Harrison]

I wake up at about 7 or 8 am everyday, thank you. Weekends I'm usually not home, so it varies.

Between the new medical bills I have to suffer through (CT scans and Xrays aren't cheap), and my brother ditching out on us for the last year of his agreement, I pushed classes to spring.

When the inevitable onslaught of this board's B.S. ensues as a result of the previous paragraph, don't you think it would just be easier for me to lie than to even mention anything at all?

I don't ever remember you telling the board what it is your glorious life entails.

[Tikker]

He's Al Sharpton irl

[Tossica]

I wake up at about 7 or 8 am everyday, thank you. Weekends I'm usually not home, so it varies.

Between the new medical bills I have to suffer through (CT scans and Xrays aren't cheap), and my brother ditching out on us for the last year of his agreement, I pushed classes to spring.

When the inevitable onslaught of this board's B.S. ensues as a result of the previous paragraph, don't you think it would just be easier for me to lie than to even mention anything at all?

I don't ever remember you telling the board what it is your glorious life entails.

Get a fuckin' job, you bum.

[Harrison]

Where in that did you read that I have no job?

[Tikker]

we all just assumed that between university and bicycling across america you wouldn't have time for a job

[Jay]

Your forgot stabbing children and falling victim to street gangs too.

[Harrison]

You forgot nearly dying from digestive tract failure.

[Gypsiyee]

so is there anything that *hasn't* happened to you?

[Tossica]

Work? Responsibility? Common Sense? Personality? Pussy?

[Harrison]

I haven't been shot yet. Who knows, if I stick around this shithole long enough...

Bad things happen to good people.

[Haylo]

Yea I don't really know what the point of this article is. Middle class blacks have a different outlook than poor ghetto blacks...umm yea. I bet that middle class whites and trailer trash whites have different outlooks to!

[Tikker]

Yea I don't really know what the point of this article is. Middle class blacks have a different outlook than poor ghetto blacks...umm yea. I bet that middle class whites and trailer trash whites have different outlooks to!

exactly

[Ouchyfish]

Work? Responsibility? Common Sense? Personality? Pussy?

[Narrock]

Work? Responsibility? Common Sense? Personality? Pussy?

ZING!!!