I just left my Facebook page. One of my African-American FB friends put up a picture of LeBron James with a list of how much money he makes hourly, weekly, monthly, yearly. Of course, what he makes monthly is more than most people make yearly. This African-American friend said, "Now that he makes so much money, he can give more to charity" Anyway---one of our White FB friends couldn't resist the urge to put a racial spin on LeBron's good fortune. He said, (and I'm paraphrasing) "For putting a ball thru a hoop, that's nice. Isn't it wonderful LeBron was born in a country that allows him to earn that kind of money? Just think: his ancestors were slaves, and now he has the opportunity to be super wealthy. What a great country we live in". I didn't leave any comment on that page, because I don't want to have a falling out with this White FB friend. I've known him since high school and I like him. My question: Why do some people always have to remind African-Americans how lucky they are to be in the USA? Why can't they just say, "That's wonderful. I'm happy for you"? I''ll appreciate any answers/opinions.
I believe it's because it's easier to look at successful minorities (of any race) in order to keep believing that systemic and institutionalized racism don't exist.
Many eople are trying to find an objective metric by which to measure such things because they feel the country is being unfairly and subjectively judged in an overly harsh manner.
Of course it does. It's just easier for some people to pretend it doesn't because someone like James (or Jordan, etc.) can earn millions of dollars and we've had a bi-racial President. I don't live in denial so I don't have that problem.
Perhaps it's because so many folks in democratic circles continuously remind minorities about how bad their lot in life is. Why not comment about that? When someone like a presidential candidate expresses the sentiment, if you don't vote for me, you aren't black", are you offended? More, where else would mr james have the opportunity to translate his athletic skill into this kind of income? If not here, where? Perhaps what you're missing is the real issue that might just be why you'd want to virtue signal like this. Honestly I think it's awesome that someone can translate their athletic skill into money. To me, it doesn't matter what their race, or heritage, or background. What always annoys me is that somehow not pointing out this obvious path and the lack of restrictions on it is something democrats can never acknowledge, and, instead, as you have, insist that regardless of the actual examples where racism wasn't a hinderance that you still insist that it somehow did. Lots of folks simply call this denial.
What annoys me is when people DO have to point out a person's race/ethnicity. When Joe Biden said, "If you don't vote for me, you ain't Black" I laughed. I took it as a joke. I believe he meant it as a joke.
Hmm. Every one of my AA friends took it as a pejorative insult to their own ability to choose for themselves. But, here you are. Laughing off abuse is a symptom of abuse, and denial.
WOW....you mean the guy hasn't been banned from Fake Book and started receiving the standard death threats yet!?!
I agree it doesnt matter what color you are if you can make money. Course for when a black man makes that kind of money you can almost guarantee he makes WAY more for the usually white ownership.
Not stifled in the least. Just aware of its existence and disgusted by its proponents of every color/ethnicity.
what would you know about racism Mr. Privilege? your ppl were/are the biggest perpetrators of racism in history, look at the spanish inquisition/trans atlantic slave so called trade.
I think your FB friends comment sounds like a bit of jealousy. There are many white people not doing well and the only ones we can blame are ourselves. At least that's the way most people look at it. If it's a comment trying to prove racism doesn't exist, it's just denial. It's literally peeling back layers of denial with us. The recent protests and issues brought to the forefront are the facts. Yes it's also a fact that all people can and do succeed. Some people cant see success and racism existing at the same time.
Perhpas someone can clarify something for me. While it was unnecessary to make the comment Moriah's White friend did, I find it a bit ridiculous that people (from all groups) seem to make a point of announcing someone's skin color like it should be a defining characteristic. All athletes, regardless of skin color, seem to make some serious money. Good for them. Who cares what color their skin is? Obama - first Black President. Who cares what color his skin is. Harris - first Black Female VP. Who cares what color her skin is. Hopefully, these people did not attain their positions based on their skin color, but hopefully because they had the knowledge and intelligence to do so. What does it say that people proclaim based on skin? That only surface matters. All in all, it's rather disheartening that so many people get themselves wound up over a fluke of nature.
I pray we will one day live in a country where race doesn't matter at all. There is still hope for us.
The paradox is, the more diversity there is, the more it seems to matter. I mean, first of all, if you start from absolutely zero diversity, then a little bit of diversity desensitizes people, and makes them not care about it as much, but then much more than that (maybe about around above the 15% mark), it starts leading to problems and tensions. If you look at places with lots of diversity, the people start separating out into different areas. There's also been some interesting studies that have shown the sense of community in these places are very low. People feel more detached from the society and feel very little sense of civic obligation. There will be a place where race doesn't matter and it is called Heaven.
I don't think he was trying to remind African-Americans. I think he was trying to remind people who still complain about slavery. Ironically, most of those people today are White people. His comment sounds like a response against other common comments which you did not see in that discussion. But yes, his comment taken by itself, seemingly not in response to anything else, could sound very hurtful and demeaning. One more unrelated thing I want to point out is that the career life of many of these professional BB players is only about 14 years. The money will not last that long.
Also, remember how people communicate in heated online political arguments is not how they talk in real life. When people are arguing with strangers whom they will never see, there's a sense of losing all respect in that discussion. I'm sure your friend would never talk that way if he was in a room talking with actual people. His intended point sounds like it is not against Black people, it is against the view that society is keeping Black people down. (Although his specific argument there sounds more like a logically disingenuous one-example appeal to emotion)
The blacks and their race pimps will never allow that to happen, they have too much invested in racism to let it go and live normal lives.
???objective??? Calling someone "lucky" because their ancestors may have been slaves seems among the most subjective evaluation once can make on the subject. Let's see if we can check the to 50 richest people in this country and see if there's something luckier than having slaves as ancestors. Like maybe... NOT having slaves for ancestors!
