re: A jury decided they were not guilty. A judge sentenced them to life in prison anyway

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I guess the counter would be how much economic capital did most of the population have 30 years preceding your point of reference?

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Much of my family's wealth came from a gift from Governor Galvez some 240 years ago.

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How about Asian Americans 2 decades prior?

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Immigration is a completely different subject.

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Social assimilation is important.

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It is, that's why it's so devastating to blacks that they have not been allowed to assimilate.

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Education and literacy is important.

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When educated and literate blacks are still not allowed to assimilate, how can they make the case to younger generations that education and literacy are important?

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Those espousing racism as an overwhelming explanation for intergenerational poverty in the US are doing no one any favors.

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Those ignoring it are committing social crimes.

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Of course you do. Are you a black man? If so, are you claiming your experience is unique among black men? If not, by definition you have a side other than your own.

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. Isn’t this just having an opinion? When you say “your side”, I take that to mean a political party. That’s what I was rejecting. I clearly do have opinions.

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First of all, that's almost certainly not true. At least not when we're discussing politics on a national level. Chances are, you vote exclusively one party. I could be wrong, but I'd bet that I'm not. And I don't know if you've noticed, but the parties no longer cooperate. About anything. I don't think that's good, but that's the current reality.

Second of all, you don't have to play a game in order to admit what I'm talking about. What I'm saying is kind of the opposite of playing games.

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I think I’m unclear on what you’re talking about. What did you mean when you said “your side”?

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But they will never overcome that bias as "blacks." "Us and Them" is not going to get it done...it has made very little progress in 60 years and as long as they insist on perpetuating it very little progress will continue to be made. When they can work on the system from the inside of it, that's when progress will be made. When the historical problems are addressed and then black people in America start identifying more with being an "American" than being "black," that's when things will change.

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. Society has to start treating black Americans as Americans and not Blacks. Someone has to make the first move. Black people have been othered and treated inferior to white people since they first got here as slaves.

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Good for you. In contrast, my family's inheritance was exactly zero. In fact, that situation is the norm. That is the point. We are living in a society in which 80% of millionaires inherited nothing. Meaning the opportunities for upward mobility here, regardless of race or inheritance, are like nothing else on the planet.

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I wonder how many descendants of slaves are millionaires outside of sports/entertainment.

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You must have missed the 1970s.

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No, I was around then. So what?

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It turns out that black people need jobs

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You don't say.

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In order for blacks to 'get jobs', generally white people have to give them jobs.

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First of all, that's not necessarily true. Black people can own businesses just like white people.

But let's pretend it is true. Who are white people going to give jobs? Someone named Kenyaitatta with 8 inch nails who shows up to a job interview wearing a BLM T-shirt and who tells you she left her last job because everybody there was "so rasis'" and it made her "feel some kind of way" or someone named Mary dressed in traditionally appropriate interview attire who tells you (using correct grammar and English) that she left her last job because she wasn't able to make as much positive impact on the company's success as she wanted because she was shamed for "acting white?"

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And how much political and economic capital did blacks start out with 60 years ago?

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You apparently didn't read what I wrote. I fully acknowledge the history of our country and why black people are where they are, but what you're doing right now is exactly what I am referring to (and what Malcolm X referred to) when I said you white liberals and black people are perpetuating the cycle.

Neither you nor I nor anyone else can change what happened 60 years ago. All anybody can do is move forward today. Constantly being the victim does not move anyone forward today. Refusing to assimilate into mainstream culture because you've been taught to resent history that you weren't even alive for doesn't move anyone forward today.

I agree that there are things the government should do to address the effects of history, and I named those things in the post you quoted. But unless the black community is willing to assimilate into mainstream culture none of that will amount to a hill of beans.

"the judge probably thought they likely murdered the cop and used that when sentencing them for selling crack."

Guess what?

They murdered the cop.

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I wonder how many descendants of slaves are millionaires outside of sports/entertainment.

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Outside of sports and entertainment?
So billionaires like Oprah and Bob Johnson would be excluded? Odd categorization.

There are ~1,790,000 Black US millionaires out of a population of ~40 million. That's about 4.5%.

Black millionaires comprise about 8% of US millionaires vs Blacks making up ~12% of the population.

LINK

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Black millionaires comprise about 8% of US millionaires vs Blacks making up ~12% of the population.

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About 4% less than the amount there would be if white liberals never existed.

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About 4% less than the amount there would be if white liberals never existed.

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The problem with white liberals is that they do not realize that members of other socioeconomic groups do not think the way they think.

They think that lack of opportunity is the only explanation for failure to thrive, and it's usually not even the biggest reason.

The biggest reason is culture.

White liberals think that all you have to do is give some group more opportunity and they will take it. It doesn't work that way. It's not that simple.

People in lower socioeconomic groups on average do not even develop the ability to think into the future like people in the middle class do. That's not my opinion, that's something that's been researched.

A poor person doesn't jump at an educational opportunity that in 10 years (or even 10 months) will pay off because they are calibrated to think only in terms of what will get them through the next day or two. That educational opportunity will not help them in the immediate term, so it is rejected as having no utility to the mission, which is immediate survival.

Liberals think everyone thinks like the middle class. That they value achievement, advancement, can delay gratification, can plan for the future, etc., and all they need is the opportunity and they will jump at it.

People who grow up poor—or at least most people who grow up poor—have to be taught to think like that. The majority of the black community has to be taught to think differently, or no opportunity given to them is going to move the needle.

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There are ~1,790,000 Black US millionaires out of a population of ~40 million. That's about 4.5%

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Where does this 40 million number come from?

Edit: Never mind. I get it now.

Wait no I don’t. Are you saying there are 40 million millionaires in the US?

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3 generations is a period in which assimilation could and did occur.

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I wonder how many generations were enslaved and how many generations were victims of failed Reconstruction and the Jim Crow eras.

It doesn’t make sense to say “well, we prevented them from assimilating for 12 generations, but we’ve allowed them to assimilate for 3 so there’s no excuse for them to not assimilating”.