L.Shaddai, it appears from your comments (below) that you would rather not be considered a racist, and I'm in favor of that, too. It seems, however, that you have taken your limited life experiences with the African Americans that you have dealt with and extrapolated that far beyond its useful or accurate value. I'm not doubting the authenticity of your experiences, only their foundational legitimacy for making the sweeping statements that you have expressed re "all blacks".
Furthermore, you have used terms in the past in reference to Barack Obama (mulatto and yellow) that come from an era that was far more steeped in racism than is the situation today. Their use is troubling to me inasmuch as it incorporates, by association, a time in our American history that we are finally making real progress in overcoming, and reinforces the assumption that you are unaware of how awful you sound (to me, at least) when you post on this issue. You also make this statement: "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." It's not criminals I work for, but the Constitution, and the rights under the Constitution that we all share. I do that work by defending individuals accused of criminal offenses; and by making sure that *our* rights are defended vigorously in their person and in their situation; that law enforcement, the prosecution, and the judiciary don't trample or subvert those rights because my clients are just "criminals" (or terrorists, or skinheads, or blacks, or ...). Your statement (above) betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what that work is all about and its intrinsic value for all of us in this country. That attitude is a common one in my experience; I'm used to it and take no offense. I do admit that I am a committed idealist and feel fortunate that my life experiences have neither jaundiced my vision of what life is and can be nor convinced me to surrender those ideals to frustration or expediency. I wish you nothing other than success, happiness and love in your life. Marek ** --- 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. >
