@Simone_De_Beauvoir I think @NormanL is generalizing about his specific community, and is very likely it is accurate considering how it is in the south. I never would have guessed how it is down here, until I lived here. I know so many people who did not have a prejudice or racist bone in their body, and then they move to the south and cannot believe the stereotypes that begin to fill their heads. You are right that it is a complex reason for why African Americans may not be progressing as fast as we would like. I think it has to do with segregation and then again with desegregation and how horrible white people were, even forgetting about slavery. The south treated black people like lepers. My theory is as a reaction the blacks became more determined to create their own culture, and not want to identify with the white man, but have pride in their own race. The thing is the “white” way is what works to get ahead in America. It is like when white people said, “we don’t want to be with you,” to black people; the blacks stood up and said, “we never wanted to be like you or with you in the first place.” Kind of saving face. That is my theory anyway.
Up north this crap was not going on. My parents did not go to segregated schools in NY, they never saw in real life driniking fountains that said colored on one and whites only on the other. The south has grown up differently, and now they live with the legacy. The whites in the south treated a group of people like shit, like cattle, to be bought and sold, and now they have to live among them more than any other part of the country. Both groups have fault, white people for acting immorally, and African Americans for not taking advantage of the opportunities they do have. I have to agree with @NormanL there. Even Oprah says she created her school in Africa, because American kids all have the opportunity to go to school, and they many times take it for granted and throw the opportunity away. I admit I have no idea if she meant black children, or white children, or just a general statement, but it seemed implied that people were asking her about helping her own in America so to speak.
It seemed to me @NormanL was saying he wants better for the African Americans around him. I don’t think we can brand him racist. He said he knows African Americans who are successful, educated, etc. I think he gets that it is not inherent in the race that they are, in his words, all selling dope and dropping out of school.