Being Castilian Spanish, Mexican and White never afforded me any special privliges, not even once in my life. When I had graduated from high school I had tried getting student loans and couldn't qualify because my parents made too much money according to the set guidelines, which I thought was absurd as we always seemed to be just getting by.

Where I live is extremely racially diverse, this is what I see everyday. Not once do I see a white man standing on the corner or along the street waiting to be picked up for a job, mostly day labor work, nor do I see the black man standing out there. You know who is standing out there, the Hispanic man willing to work his ass off for a few dollars. Shame on everyone one of those jobless persons who don't have the balls to stand out there on their own.

Who complains about all the little convenience stores, gas stations, laundries and etc that are owned by the Middle Easteners, or the Asians, the white guy who isn't willing to work for less than 75-100K a year.

Reality is that some a willing to work hard and do what it takes to get somewhere while a large majority feel that something is owed them and should be given to them.

I'm an average american working an average job and there is no one who deserves 40 acres and a mule, be proud for what you can accomplish on your own and don't expect that if something doesn't work out that anyone person or race is to blame, bottom line is each one of us as humans whether conciously or subconsciously has contributed to the bitterness or today's world.

if, instead of assuming things were better, youd taken a minute to check the cdc's most recent data

I actually did check the data, and i think we are looking at it from two different points of view. The study concluded that "substantial improvements were made" and that while 7 of the 14 indicators showed that improvements in the black non-hispanics still were below the white non-hispanic groups, the "gap was steadily closing". Other groups showed an even larger disparity (Asian). I'm not going to disect the numbers, but I admit, I do tend to look at many things with rose colored glasses on and it is good for me to get out and see the differences. ...That doesn't mean I want to move to socialized medical care! (we can save that for a new day...I may write something on that....)

popoposum:.

Who complains about all the little convenience stores, gas stations, laundries and etc that are owned by the Middle Easteners, or the Asians, the white guy who isn't willing to work for less than 75-100K a year. Reality is that some a willing to work hard and do what it takes to get somewhere while a large majority feel that something is owed them and should be given to them.

I like the fact you are proud of the things you are willing to work for. That's the kind of attitude the more individuals should have and I think that was basically what I wanted to hit on in this article....You shouldn't get something for nothing....or based on the color of your skin. Asians (here I go...making a stereotypical generalization....), as I was, many of the Asians that I have met (there I covered my bases) have an excellent work ethic. they work hard for what they want. They either go to school , start a buisness or get a job and then work till they achieve thier goal. they don't depend on past injustices to give them an easy way to the top.....

You're right. Blacks/Asians/Native Americans shouldn't be treated special. They shouldn't blame how they are because of our race or theirs. And it is true. A black person can point a finger at a white and no harm done, but vise versa and it's this huge conspiracy. We're the big meanies, "whites", and I find it incredibly stupid. There's so much racism at our school. There are almost no groups of mixed races (i.e. black and whites together) and I daresay I have any black friends. I don't. Our school is basically divided. We hang with our own kind. Blacks with blacks, whites with whites, asians with asians, and so on. And it is ridiculous!

We had this huge banning of the rebel flag last year. Because people were constantly wearing them and I guess it was offensive somehow...

My english teacher - who wasn't a very good teacher at all - taught us nothing but racial things. We did these bell journal entries (five minutes of writing and then discussed) and guess what it had to do with? Black people (she was so...). We read Romeo and Juliet (which was not required), again about racialist families. We read Malcolm X and any other racial story in our English books but no others. Holocaust. Racism. We learned absolutely nothing, and by the time school was ending people were sick of it. We just figured, hell we're not learning anything, why bother? What I'm getting at is that we were a class of whites with a black teacher who taught us nothing we were supposed to learn. She was also sexist. Some girl could curse like a sailor and she'd let it slip. Some boy says one word and it's, "Get outta here and see the dean." I'm a girl but I still find this sexist. All I'm proving is that it isn't just white people who are racist, sexist, or whatever.

This car of blacks yelled out their window once, "I hate white people!" for absolutely no reason.. Black people blame their faults on white people saying it's our fault. Not all of you, but there are quite a handful who have. I have absolutely nothing against blacks, so don't think I'm racist, but I don't think some people are racist at all. I don't think blacks should say we're racist because doesn't their hate towards us make them hypocrits?

Walmart, where my mother works, the managers won't fire any of the lazy blacks because it's considered - oh what's that word? - "racist." A white slacks off and they can be fired like that. They're just afraid of getting slammed with a lawsuit. It's unjust and unfair.

Black skin shouldn't get you anything that white doesn't.

USA Today had an interesting graph the other day. It revealed that nearly 50% of Asian-Americans over 25 had a college degree, compared to 30% of whites, under 18% of blacks, and under 15% of hispanics. I honestly think it has a lot more to do with how the particular cultures value education than anything else.

Example: In the neighborhoods in which I grew up, the dropout rates ranged from 30-50%. Despite this, EVERY one of myself and my six siblings that survived past the age of 19 graduated high school. One of the key reasons was, despite the things my parents didn't do right, one thing they DID do right was instill us with the importance of an education (admittedly, only one of us finished college, and it wasn't me...however, 5 of us have some college education (one died at 19, so we didn't get to see how he would have turned out). Contrast that with our two best friends; none of the four in their family graduated high school.

...). We read Romeo and Juliet (which was not required), again about racialist families.

hmmmm   youre kidding right?

We learned absolutely nothing, and by the time school was ending people were sick of it. We just figured, hell we're not learning anything, why bother? What I'm getting at is that we were a class of whites with a black teacher who taught us nothing we were supposed to learn.

apparently not.