You think you're better than us?

Point 1:
In an earlier post, I gave the URL to a website that has a photo of Obama not having his hand over his heart for the National Anthem - but they label it the Pledge of Allegiance.

I made a Comment, saying that it was the National Anthem, and giving a link to *my* blog post that had the video that proves it.

The blogger did post my comment, but has not corrected his entry.

Point 2:
On another note...while all of conservative talk radio is blasting Jeremiah Wright for the things he's said about the US, I've read/heard a few black commentators say that what Wright says is actually quite mild compared to what goes on in other black churches. And other commentators - including some white ones - are taking Wright's side in the matter - "Much of what he said is true," they say.

Well...what about the status of blacks in this country today - as opposed to 50 years ago?

Up until 50 years ago, yes, they were held down in the US by whites. (Some whites. Just as some whites fought that oppression from the very beginning. Just as slavery and conquest by force of arms has been in existence since the dawn of time, in all countries inhabited by all races, so there have been people in each conquering country who have said, "This is wrong. We shouldn't be treating them like this.")

But now, in 2008, ...who is holding blacks down in the US? Whites, who don't get jobs that they're qualified for because Affirmative Action says the job must be given to a black, even if he's less qualified?

Or the blacks themselves, who refuse to join "the man" by getting a decent education, learning how to talk grammatically, and moving into the middle class.

Not all blacks - obviously - there is a black middle class. There is a Latino middle class. There is a middle class of immigrants who, now that the barriers have been removed via the Civil Rights movement, have been able to take advantage of the American way of life - get an education, work hard, prosper.

But the poor blacks. Why do they stay poor?

Because...any poor black kid who wants to study hard and learn anything - is beaten up by his peers who say, "What - you think you're better than us?" This is the same for poor Latinos, anyone who wants to better themselves, who actually wants to learn - gets beaten up. "What - you think you're better than us?" [Ever see those movies of some "father figure" who goes into classrooms in inner cities and says, "I'm going to turn your lives around?" Like the Edward James Olmos movie Stand and Deliver. The gang member wants to learn how to do math, but he can't come straight out and say it, because he knows his gang will beat him up if they see him trying to get an education). In other words, it's people's own peers who are holding them down.]

As for poor white kids - yes, there are poor white kids - same thing.

Education is no longer valued in this country. That was how people got out of poverty in the past. They got an education, they worked hard, they made money. There was no welfare so they didn't have a choice. (The Great Depression and Roosevelt changed all that - but that's another story.)

If you've got a "god-given" talent for playing sports, if you spend every waking hour playing your sport, you're lauded by everybody. But if you work on your education, spend every waking hour on learning...well, you're just trying to be better than your brothers and sisters, you're betraying your own culture, and you need to be beaten down.

Michele Obama, a woman who makes a great deal of money, is married to a politican who also makes a great deal of money, not the least because of two best selling books - The Audacity of Hope and Dreams from my Father.

Both of them have college educations, but according to Michele, they also had huge student loans and were just weighed down by them, and still would be, she says, if Barack's books hadn't become best sellers.

So she's talking to a bunch of women in a lower class area of town, and she's telling these women - don't go to college. You'll just go into debt because of your student loans, and you'll have to spend all your life paying it off. No, much better to get a job right away, that you don't need to be highly educated for, and start helping people.

I paraphrase, but that's the gist.

And that's stupid. Why is a greater percentage of white folks in the "middle class"? Because they go to college - with those darn student loans - get a good education, and get a good job, pay back their loans in time, and go on to live the good life.

And blacks? Poor blacks, I mean, not the middle class. They see their black pastor telling them, apparently, that there's no way they can advance in life because whitey is holding them down, so they musn't get an education, they've just got to find as high a paying job as they can - to make sure they can tithe a decent amount to the church, and live and blame whitey for all the ills of their life. And take the welfare money whitey gives them...

Here's a link to an article about Michele Obama's speech:

Michelle Obama: "Don't Go Into Corporate America"


And an excerpt:

The salaries don't keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you're in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids," she says.

Here's a thought. If you can't afford to have any kids...don't have any kids. Get an education, get a good job, get a house, get some savings - then plan a family.

But heck - nobody , of any race, does that in America. Or very few people, anyway. Most people think, "Oh, a woman has to have as many kids as possible. That's what she's put on this earth for and it would be selfish not to have kids." Makes me want to vomit!

If you can't afford to have kids - without getting the welfare checks which means other people are having to pay for your kids - don't have any! Obviously if you lose your job and need help for a while - go on welfare. That's what it should be there for. You stay on welfare while you look for another job, you do not increase the burden on society by getting pregnant while you're on welfare, and you get off welfare as soon as possible.

That's the way it should be...