The News Thread

[viewerfromnihil]

So was mine. The idea that most whites in America today are descended from slave masters is a common misconception.

It's a notion that overlooks the fact that, historically, the bulk of white immigrants came to the United States after slavery had been abolished. Not to mention the relatively small percentage of slave-owning whites in pre-Civil War America, even within the antebellum South.

I'm one who doesn't fit under that category, unfortunately. My father's side was a Southern Maryland plantation family. Oddly, a few descendents of my family's former slaves lived with the family on the land until the early 90's. I lived in Ohio during my early childhood and didn't meet my father until late in my childhood; consequently, I never developed a close relationship to that side of my family, so I have not and probably will never have the opportunity to inquire into that peculiar relationship more deeply. Their moving from my family's land was forced because my senile great-uncle sold the hundreds of acres of land to a second-cousin for something crazy, like $20 and the promise of "love and care."

 

[rms]

Orifice you have #'s on the 20th century immigration boom? Curious to see the differences between that time period and the colonial period

 

[viewerfromnihil]

Orifice you have #'s on the 20th century immigration boom? Curious to see the differences between that time period and the colonial period

I don't have any "reputable" sources or graphs on hand concerning colonial immigration, but according the Wikipedia page on Immigration in the United States, between 1600 and 1799 the United States had an influx of fewer than one million immigrants. Here's the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States

Here's a great graph that outlines United States immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries:


Sorry for the low quality, but it illustrates my point. The graph was taken from Globalization and Diversity: Geography of a Changing World, 4th ed.

 

[rms]

Cool. I am taking a colonial history course right now so those figures sound right to me off hand.

 

[Einherjar86]

This is an interesting perspective:

When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it's all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they're not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before…

So, to say Obama is progress is saying that he's the first black person that is qualified to be president. That's not black progress. That's white progress. There's been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years. If you saw Tina Turner and Ike having a lovely breakfast over there, would you say their relationship's improved? Some people would. But a smart person would go, "Oh, he stopped punching her in the face." It's not up to her. Ike and Tina Turner’s relationship has nothing to do with Tina Turner. Nothing. It just doesn't. The question is, you know, my kids are smart, educated, beautiful, polite children. There have been smart, educated, beautiful, polite black children for hundreds of years. The advantage that my children have is that my children are encountering the nicest white people that America has ever produced. Let's hope America keeps producing nicer white people.

 

[Dak]

Chris Rock also said "there's black people, and then there's niggas............ White people don't like niggas? Black people reeeeaaallly don't like niggas."

But no one likes quoting that.

 

[divine_torture]

Lol racism.

 

[rms]

Chris Rock also said "there's black people, and then there's niggas............ White people don't like niggas? Black people reeeeaaallly don't like niggas."

But no one likes quoting that.

I think you are making the mistake of quoting a comedy performance as his actual opinions versus a sit down interview

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

Or quoting Chris Rock at all

 

[Einherjar86]

Chris Rock also said "there's black people, and then there's niggas............ White people don't like niggas? Black people reeeeaaallly don't like niggas."

But no one likes quoting that.

So one particular comment negates the effectiveness of another? Nietzsche was likely anti-semitic, but that doesn't mean we dismiss everything he said/wrote.

And furthermore...

I think you are making the mistake of quoting a comedy performance as his actual opinions versus a sit down interview

...another good point.

Or quoting Chris Rock at all

So, comedians can't be critics? Why could I quote Louis C.K. but not Chris Rock?

 

[The Ozzman]

Or George Carlin. People quote him all the time

 

[Dak]

Who said it negates anything?

 

[Einherjar86]

Oh man, get over yourself! Sure, you didn't say "negate" but there's something called inference that lets us read a little bit more into statements beyond what words are, or aren't, there.

Feel free to explain yourself, but quit playing hide and seek.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

Oh no I just hate Chris Rock

 

[Dak]

First of all: Comedy works because it represents, even loosely, the truth. Secondly, it is perfectly reasonable to expect that Chris Rock both recognizes the existence of and can't stand "niggas", and also thinks that white people have treated black people like shit and need to continue to work on getting better.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

Plus he's really over rated. So boooooooooooo

 

[rms]

You're a shitty person

 

[Einherjar86]

First of all: Comedy works because it represents, even loosely, the truth. Secondly, it is perfectly reasonable to expect that Chris Rock both recognizes the existence of and can't stand "niggas", and also thinks that white people have treated black people like shit and need to continue to work on getting better.

So why even mention that quote in the first place, if it has no bearing on the other quote I brought in? I am not interested in the fact that it's Chris Rock, merely in the fact that he happens to raise a particularly interesting (and, I think, relevant) point. I just thought it would be nice to let everyone know that Chris Rock was the speaker. Who the quote actually comes from is irrelevant to the reason for posting the quote.

 

[Dak]

On a different note:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11268208/Jihadists-in-Syria-write-home-to-France-My-iPod-is-broken.-I-want-to-come-back.html

Letters from French jihadists home to their parents have revealed the misery, boredom and fear suffered by Islamist recruits as the gloss fades from their big adventure.
....
"I've basically done nothing except hand out clothes and food," wrote one, who wants to return from Aleppo. "I also help clean weapons and transport dead bodies from the front. Winter's arrived here. It's begun to get really hard."

Another writes: "I'm fed up. They make me do the washing up."

One Frenchman whinged that he wanted to come home because he was missing the comforts of life in France.

"I'm fed up. My iPod doesn't work any more here. I have to come back."

A third wrote fearfully: "They want to send me to the front, but I don't know how to fight."

infinitelolz.jpg

 

[Onder]

^ Some people actually deserve the beheading.