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Helping Blacks in the Community 8/10/2007 7:21:55 PM
Continuation of comments exactly as posted, based on the poem "race" posted Aug. 10, 2007 at www.authorsden.com/cynthya under "Poems" and the article that follows in the Blog title "ARTICLE: BLACKS.... MUNCIE INDIANA 2007" OUR VIEW Helping black males a job for the entire commun
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muncienews
The Star Press
Joined: 12 Sep 2006
Posts: 0
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:08 am Post subject: OUR VIEW Helping black males a job for the entire commun
Why help anyone who dont want to help theirselves? They dont finish high school - now who is to blame for that? 1 million in prison, now who is the blame for that? There is alot of white men who cant find a job either and I dont see no white expo in their future, and could you imagine the out cry if there ever was one. I am sick of hearing about the poor black men who have such a hard life there is alot of white men in the same boat and you dont see newspapers printing stories about them.
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nataskaos
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 1059
Location: East Central, IN
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:31 am Post subject:
so you agree with the article that there is a crisis? however, you don't want to have anything to do with said crisis. you just want it to happen and let everyone fend for themselves.
Just making sure I understand.
No matter what the circumstances it all has to start with the individual. It is just like rehabilitation from drugs, alcohol, etc., you have to want to be and do differently. Until the individual has the desire to change, live a different life, achieve more, get out of the welfare rut, nothing will change. After an individual has made the decision that they "want" to make something of themselves the whole world opens up - In a matter of speaking. As time passes, however, I think it will become harder because the financial difficulties are being experienced by individuals who do work hard, contribute to society. Unfortunately, society is doing a lot of taking & not giving back much to anyone.
It doesn't matter what ethnic background you come from. It's a matter of what kind of person you want to be. It comes down to every little decision you make every single day. Getting a job isn't easy. You have to get up early, clean yourself up, write a resume, get out there and market yourself. Then if you do get a job, the $10/hr is hardly enough to afford a decent place to call your own and food in your stomach. But at least trying to provide for yourself and your family is better than sitting on your behind and accepting all the assistance you can qualify for. That is what a lazy person decides to do. They stay home, get a welfare check, buy alcohol and drugs and then turn to crime because they're bored. Black, white, mexican or asian...everyone has choices to make. It's more fundamental than race. It has to do with an individuals desire to have integrity, pride and self-worth. Everyone needs that, not just black males.
Sorry, but we already have a white expo. Every single day.
If you believe skin color has nothing to do with opportunities, you must be living on another planet. And especially here in Muncie, blatant bias here--just look at the comments that have been posted on this topic.
Yes, it is difficult for whites at this point in Muncie. But try to imagine if your skin were black, or brown, or you were Asian, you'd be having a harder time. If you can't imagine this, then perhaps it is part of that bias that lives within you.
Building integrity, pride and self-worth are perhaps a little easier when the playing field is truly level.
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IIIII
Joined: 09 Oct 2006
Posts: 478
Location: studying homeland security at Sears
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:33 am Post subject:
Time to take a break from Bush bashing, and focus on democrat ignorance for a while. We should be trying to figure out why so many "Americans", make bad choices. Politically correct liberal arts majors who have no practical job skills have created a whole industry of cherry picking the statistics and blaming taxpayers for all wrongdoing.
Creating all the special interest groups based on race, just keeps us divided, doesen't it?
Let me add that, it may be tougher if you are black, but maybe we also helped create a perpetually dependent mentality with the welfare system, and need a system where everyone feels equal and equally responsible.
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halliepena
Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Posts: 2135
Location: Hitch-hiking up the mountain to Machu Picchu
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:56 am Post subject: Black Expo
IIIII--
Where do you get that liberal arts graduate stuff? That's baffling.
Yes, I can see where special interest groups based on race/ethnicity could be viewed as divisive, and we were divided BEFORE they were created.
As a female, perhaps I understand what it means to be a member of a minority group. Prior to the Women's Movement, we women generally didn't move ahead on our jobs, didn't move ahead in our paychecks. Companies were owned by white men. Our bosses were white men. What was art we learned from white men. What was literature we learned from white men. What was music we learned from white men. What was history we learned from white men. What was science, we learned from white men. The upshot of this is that we women basically were programmed to believe that, in a sense, we did not exist.
I see that same set of circumstances when it comes to people of color, where people of color basically also had been programmed to believe they did not exist. These black expos are a "coming out" of sorts. I would think they would have a positive impact on society as a whole.
BTW, I was the workshop coordinator for the first Women's Job Fair in a major city in the Southwest back in 1987. So, now, I guess everybody might want to start a Men's Job Fair, eh?
Last edited by halliepena on Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
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nataskaos
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 1059
Location: East Central, IN
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:46 pm Post subject:
I will issue YOU the same challange that I have issued others that don't have the spine to follow through on it:
START WHITE EXPO.
DO IT.
YOU do it.
you and I don't have one clue what it's like to be the second generation of folks (ok, maybe 3rd, tops) in our race that are allowed to be "equal" according to the government. Can you imagine? we're not talking about 200 years ago, we're talking 40 years ago! the government didn't even pretend that blacks were equal until then.
enough of that, please let me know how white expo goes, since you feel so passionately about it.
The only minority group is the white male, how many suv's and nice looking cars with those spinning hub caps do you see white men driving around? -1 they cant aford it or 2 they think spinning hub caps are stupid. Its always how the whites treat the blacks so bad, thats alot of rubbish. If they want a good job let them get out and compete for it just like whites have to do, if they didnt finish high school then let them go get a g.e.d. and go to ivy tech or somewhere to learn a trade, but its hard for anyone white or black to find a job when they pull up to a posssible employer blarring their 'music' and going into a interview with their extra baggy pants hanging down below their tails.
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marci
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Posts: 942
Location: Northiside of Muncie
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:31 pm Post subject:
I don't want to help anyone who won't help themself either. We need to help people NOT become incarcerated? Are you kidding me? How is that a community effort? It's up to each person individually to be the person they should be. I would like to help those who can't help themselves. Those who choose a life of crime, they're on their own. I'm helping them by paying taxes. Regardless of race, it's not my responsibility.
My opinion, but the excuse is getting old. I remember when at a certain law school a black student only had to sign their name to the LSAT & pass & be accepted to law school. That was not enough, however, there were special scholarships. One particular student even had the nerve to ask for more money after he spent the designated amount. I remember, too, when my daughter did not gain admission to a certain college because of her grades/SAT score, however, the black students were admitted with grades/SAT scores below hers. She was not held back, she went to a better college, earned her degree, & is very successful. If YOU want to succeed in life, YOU work hard. YOU don't let anyone hold YOU back. If YOU do not succeed the first time YOU work harder. Success in life is not something that is an automatic. Even when you are successful you will face difficulty. Learn from that difficulty, let it make you stronger. And, in the end, get off your lazy end & make it happen.
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nataskaos
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 1059
Location: East Central, IN
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:44 pm Post subject:
If you're referring to stringbean's comments, i.e., Muncie catching up in the next 400 years. I was not born in Muncie, only been here for about 12 years. Lived for the majority of years in Florida & the Atlanta area. Again, YOU are ultimately responsible for the life YOU have. Sometimes circumstances may place obstacles in your path, but YOU continue to work hard and presevere. You ask any successful minority for their story & listen to what they have to say. Nothing is taken for granted, nothing is free. YOU want it, work for it.
Maybe the blacks are getting upset because of the jobs being lost to the mexicans, but they should realize that whites are losing jobs to, doesnt employers get some kind of tax break for hiring mexicans?? and I know for a fact that my son applied for a job at Meijers and it was given to a black who had baggy pants and shirt and dred locks, my son is very clean cut so I guess thats why he didnt get the job.
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nataskaos
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 1059
Location: East Central, IN
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:47 pm Post subject:
How do you know the black kid got the same exact job for which your child interviewed? Were they interviewed simultaneously? And then was your child told to leave, that they decided upon the other fellow?
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halliepena
Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Posts: 2135
Location: Hitch-hiking up the mountain to Machu Picchu
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 5:16 pm Post subject: Expo
Yes I know for a fact it was the same job, the point being a black person can go into a place looking like a bum and get a job before a white person.. And no I aint no racist, funny how you can say things and make fun of white people, but let a white person say the wrong thing and they are labled racist! Oh I do watch Bernie Mac- he is on right now -- channel 10
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IIIII
Joined: 09 Oct 2006
Posts: 478
Location: studying homeland security at Sears
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:35 pm Post subject:
Halliep, no offense if you have a liberal arts degree. Some of my best friends do :+)
My reasoning is that our best thinking got us where we are now, which is into a crisis. The gov. keeps on giving schools money to promote the same stuff, which seems not to work at all. I'm fed up with some liberal notions, just like I am with conservatives, andf their trickle down, new world order. I don't see any need to keep supporting people who don't play by the rules. That goes for criminals, druggies, or people who come here illegally.
But I could be wrong. I must go eat pie now.
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halliepena
Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Posts: 2135
Location: Hitch-hiking up the mountain to Machu Picchu
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:43 pm Post subject: Black Expo
IIIII--
No, no liberal arts degree. Have a BS (now, that is going to draw some laughs). It was not your expression, it was my senior citizen reception--(my being baffled).
And I agree. Keep thinking about that old saying that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is really a definition of mental illness.
You have pie?
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davyboy
Joined: 02 Dec 2006
Posts: 501
Location: Muncie, IN
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:06 pm Post subject:
Blacks do not want equality, they want more. I have never owned a slave and no black in Muncie has ever been one. I don't have to accept natso's opinion as my own to be a good person. I don't have to think that blacks have it rough. Hallie, I think if you give a job to the most quailified person regardless of sex or race, you are a great person. If you give that job to someone just because they are female or black, then you are a moron and have done that person a grave injustice. And I will not, of my own doing, support a sorryass that will not help himself. The first thing blacks should do is pull up their pants, then learn to speak English. Ask a question, not ax one.
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Majik Man
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 141
Location: Muncie
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:27 pm Post subject: Expo
We can start a white expo. And then we can have Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton here with all the media. Then all the media can hype what great black leaders we have here. Like that idiot that got BROADWAY renamed. Then got into an arguement with Estrada after his girlfriend kicked his sorry a$$. There's good and bad in any race. But by this article, the numbers don't lie. And it's not whitey's fault.
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nataskaos
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 1059
Location: East Central, IN
Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:13 am Post subject:
the implication that only blacks need to "pull up their pants, then learn to speak English" is a racist attitude, and I will approach it as such.
how about "ya'll"? where in the english language is that word.
and don't say "I don't use it", because you said "black people" need to do those things. so I say to you, white people need to come off the attitude that there is no wrong within our race and stop acting like we, as a race, are superior to anyone. which your post certaintly implies.
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halliepena
Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Posts: 2135
Location: Hitch-hiking up the mountain to Machu Picchu
Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:40 am Post subject: Black Expo
I am appalled by many of the comments posted here.
Back in the '60s I worked with children in a black neighborhood in Muncie. One of the things I learned, as a white person, is that I didn't have anything to fear from the black community. What I did fear was the hate spewed by the white community, aimed at blacks and at whites who dared "to cross that racial line." Those were turbulent times, and there was a lot of ugliness everywhere, but I remained hopeful for change. Now, 40-plus years later, it still hasn't come about. It appears that Muncie is just as racist now as ever (if not more). The sad part is that a lot of those racist attitudes are generated by really very good people--hard-working, earnest--who are so seeped in their racism that they cannot view it.
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jimmym
Joined: 06 Jan 2007
Posts: 170
Location: muncie
Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:43 pm Post subject:
all of these statistics found throughout this column sound to me like a problem caused by this group of people, not a failure of "the system." why are there more of them in prison...probably because they commit more crime. why do they drop out of school...either because they cant cut it or because they arent smart enough. sorry, but its the truth. the person who wrote this is a bleeding heart liberal and more of a racist than i or any other truth speaking person in this forum.
