--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, I am the eternal <l.shad...@...> wrote: > > On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 8:20 AM, Duveyoung <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote: > > > "spawning?" -- racist remark or insensitive gaff? > > > > Edg > > > > Frankly, I don't know which. My reaction to a 15 year old girl having a > baby which won't have a father to care for it or support it because she > feels unloved and wants for a time to have her moments of love and > respect. I don't know if it's racist or an area of crushed empathy and > concern when I look at whites around me and see the parenting classes both > parents take, the debate over having the umbilical cord frozen or not, the > frenzy to do everything right with the future child then speak with pregnant > 15 year old black girls who have no idea who they are, where they are going, > where the father is now and what they'll do with the child once they give > birth to it. And yes, I speak to such girls on a regular basis. I also > speak with their "old man" despite the endless stream of racial epithets > he's slinging at me. > > Definitely grave concern (tears are flowing down the front of my face as I > type this) that I am looking at the cycle of defeat, of a subset of society > where a fifth or more of its young adult males are convicted felons with all > the discrimination /that/ brings, of a subset of society where the values > and attitudes are almost perfect in perpetuating yet more "I told you so" > from both the whites and blacks failure. > > Definitely grave concern and a feeling of defeat that an attorney who works > for criminals should speak as a starry eyed optimist of the way the world > should be and sees my statements as racist. God damn. Why doesn't he come > join me down at the homeless shelter in his spare time and sing from The > Sound of Music to our clients there? > > Give us a couple generations before I see enough parity between the races so > I can tell whether I'm racist or not. Right now I'm just sad and angry. > And people are hurting. Many of them. Big time. >
I volunteer occasionally at a shelter for runaway teens, doing med checks and the like. The shelter is located in a part of the country which is primarily white. The teens at the shelter are almost all white. They have their issues. For example, having babies when they should not, so that someone can love them. Many of the teens are quite unlikeable as they lie and steal to get along. Girls shoplift and sell sex and boys steal and sell drugs. Drugs and mental illness are a problem. I think your experience with the particular shelter may be leading you to generalize what may be due to other problems such as abuse, poor education, poor upbringing, poor health, lack of money and opportunity, etc. into a race issue.
