Affirmative ActionFollow

I'd like to take a crack at interpretation here.

When the quoter says "Some of what you have is unearned", he or she is limiting or qualifying the rest of the thought. So, while there may be other reasons for a white boys wealth beside being white, there is a small portion of that wealth that can be said to be directly gained through the color of ones skin.

So, I don't think the phrase is incorrect. Or another way of saying this is that I think the phrase is a-ok in the context in which it is written.



Edited, Dec 6th 2011 10:04pm by Elinda

ITT: Majvio asking questions he already knows the answer to.

I can't imagine how most people would react to a 14 inch blizzard like I see yearly in North Dakota.

We had one last spring. The city was basically shut down for a week.

I know you are but what am i.

'S dreadful.

Psh, slippery is when you're driving on a 1/2 inch sheet of black ice and you're car is spinning down the interstate at 75 miles an hour. It's also that divine moment where you attain total expulsion of waste from two different orifices.

11 degrees here and wet. This is awesome.

I agree with Affirmative Action. It doesn't just apply to blacks, but everyone.

My husband (who is white) actually got his first job because the State Department of Social Services office needed a white male to meet their quota, and in an economy where college graduates aren't finding jobs AA helped us out there. When he resigned he was still the only white male worker in the office, and one of only four white employees in the entire building.

My husband's ancestors were white slave owners, and 200 years later they are living in poverty. My husband grew up in a single-wide trailer where his father worked two jobs to support the family and save for their children's education. He and his brother were the first of his family to attain a college degree. The disappointment was great when he graduated top of his university class, first of his family to have a degree, and still could not find a job in this poor economy.

As for myself I am a quarter Native American, and the rest of my ancestors were not in the US during the time of slavery. They were too busy being oppressed elsewhere in the world. My great grandfather came to the US with nothing but the clothes on his back. He dug ditches and other odd jobs to feed his family, and with a third grade education was able to die a multimillionaire from a lot of hard work. His daughter (my grandmother) married a Native American man with a sixth grade education and had my father. My father was taught to never use his heritage as a means to advance in life, but instead to work hard and the rewards will come. My father attained a two year degree in engineering and later went on to make a decent living.

Growing up education was everything. Both of my parents were very involved in my schooling. I was able to attain a small scholarship for college, but it wasn't enough to pay it all. My parents, while making a decent living, didn't have the money to pay for it so I ended up getting student loans. I've since gone on to attain my MBA, and will end up with well over 40k in student loans before I am done.

My opinion on wealth is that it's a ton of motivation, a lot of luck, and a little bit of education.

In my husband's career at the department of social services administering food stamps and welfare (now called family independence) I learned a lot about the mentality of those in poverty.

First, I learned that (at least where I live in SC) there are pretty much equally as many white people that are living in poverty as there are black.

Second, I learned that typically those on these programs are victims of generational poverty. These people devalue education and hard work. I can't even begin to count the number of cases (both white and black) where people have turned down programs the state provides to help them earn more money in the work force because it would mean making more money than is allowed to be on state assistance programs.

When I found myself unemployed, and sitting in the unemployment office I was shocked at the number of people whispering about how to work around the system so they stayed on public assistance programs indefinitely. All I wanted was to talk to a counselor about the job listings you could only apply for through the unemployment office. Didn't everyone else just want jobs to be self sufficient?

I really thought that everyone on these state assistance programs were people that were getting help temporarily, and just needed a boost to help them get back on their feet. There are some cases like that, but they really are the minority.

So my question in all of this is: "Is throwing money at people really going to help?"

My second question, which I couldn't even begin to answer is "How do you break the cycle of generational poverty when it seems to stem from a certain mentality?" I at first thought education was the key, but if part of the mentality is that education is useless how do you get them to want to be educated?


I really like the comic posted earlier in this thread, and I'd gladly give a hand to the black guy to help him up (even though my own family had nothing to do with slavery, and my NA ancestors were also greatly oppressed). But then what? Does he thank me and we continue on equal footing towards a common goal of a better life, or does he continue to stand there and expect more?

I agree totally. I think I forgot to differentiate between my thoughts on AA and reparations lol. The money and handouts I referred to was in regards to reparations. I think AA is fine as it is because it is designed to help everyone, whites included

Yeah, I'm pretty lazy sometimes.

That's a huge assumption.