C'mon Obama, we weren't born yesterday

[hyrum]

Originally Posted by SoonerCoug

I disagree.

I don't think it's fair to compare people who were enslaved and beaten down by jim crow laws to immigrants. Even today, whites are more likely to mistreat or fear blacks than to mistreat Chinese or German or even Mexican immigrants.

How many people alive today were enslaved? I am not saying that discrimination does not exist, but at the same time there are plenty of programs giving distinct advantages to minorities. This is particularly true in educational programs at the high school and college level. I've seen it myself.

[SoonerCoug]

Originally Posted by hyrum

How many people alive today were enslaved?

How many people today still experience the effects of slavery and Jim Crow?

Sure, it doesn't take generations for everyone to recover, but it does take generations for most people to recover.

What percentage of the population of Oklahoma is African-American? 8.2%

What percentage of an OU medical school class (on average) is African-American, even with affirmative action? 0.6%

In your opinion, what is the explanation for the disparity?

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by SoonerCoug

How many people today still experience the effects of slavery and Jim Crow?

Sure, it doesn't take generations for everyone to recover, but it does take generations for most people to recover.

What percentage of the population of Oklahoma is African-American? 8.2%

What percentage of an OU medical school class (on average) is African-American, even with affirmative action? 0.6%

In your opinion, what is the explanation for the disparity?

sooner you could use much better examples than that. As a scientist, surely you wouldn't use that cause and effect in class.

[JohnnyLingo]

Surely he would. It promotes his political agenda.

[SoonerCoug]

Originally Posted by Archaea

sooner you could use much better examples than that. As a scientist, surely you wouldn't use that cause and effect in class.

I didn't say I had the explanation. I was asking for opinions as to why there is such a disparity.

Slavery/Jim Crow laws may or may not be the best explanation, but it must be part of it.

[Cali Coug]

Originally Posted by myboynoah

This was a conversation about Obama and his poor judgement and outright preveracations. I can see why you and Sooner want to change the subject.

I'm not changing the subject. I am pointing out that your exclusive bickering about Obama is absurd.

[myboynoah]

Originally Posted by Cali Coug

I'm not changing the subject. I am pointing out that your exclusive bickering about Obama is absurd.

I find your accepting Obama's absurd "Dr. Write said what?!?!?!?" response absurd.

I saw your "absurd" and raised you another.

[Tex]

Ross Douthat reponds to Cali Coug:

What horse****. If John McCain were an evangelical Christian and a longstanding member of Jerry Falwell’s congregation, and if he had written a memoir describing, say, how he was “born again” under Falwell’s influence, he would not be the Republican nominee today. With a great deal of luck, he might – might – have done as well in the primaries as Mike Huckabee did, and of course you may recall that Huck had all kinds of difficulties winning non-evangelical votes, faring particularly poorly among Catholics; you may recall, as well, that the press delighted in lobbing him questions about evolution and wives submitting to their husbands and all the rest of it, without any fear of being tagged as anti-religion. And of course Falwell’s brand of evangelical Christianity is considerably more controversial than Huckabee’s. And considerably more apocalyptic, one might add: Imagine, for instance, how McCain’s support of the surge, and his hawkishness more generally, would have been treated if he attended a church whose pastor's foreign policy views are defined by a belief in the imminence of Armageddon.

As to Ezra's larger point, of course it’s “fine” to be a white Christian extremist in America; it's also fine to be a black Christian extremist like Jeremiah Wright. This is a free country, after all. Nobody in the national media was parsing the Reverend Wright's sermons before the 2008 campaign, and nobody would be parsing them today if he was just one minister among many supporting Barack Obama for President. I have no doubt that many, many Democratic politicians have put in an appearance at churches whose pastors share Wright's outlandish political views without anyone kicking up a fuss, just as Republican politicians have long accepted the support of figures like Falwell without taking too much heat about it. The distinction here, for the umpteenth time, is that Wright isn't just Obama's supporter; he's his pastor, his friend, and his spiritual mentor, which makes him exactly the kind of person whose views ought to be of interest to a public that's considering electing Barack Obama President of the United States. And as to the substance of those views, well, if Ezra really thinks that Wright's sermons have sparked controversy because he broke a taboo against getting angry over the fact that "blacks have suffered a long history of oppression in this country" and "still face deep institutional discrimination," I would suggest that he take another look at them, paying particular attention to Wright's remarks about 9/11, as well as what appears to be his suggestion that the U.S. government created not only the crack epidemic, but the AIDS epidemic as well.

(It's also worth noting that two of the specific examples of white Christian extremism Ezra nods to - Falwell's 9/11 comments, and General William Boykin's "my God is bigger than your God" remarks - both provoked controversies that ended in public apologies, albeit of the mealy-mouthed, "I'm sorry if you were offended" variety. Whereas I'm not holding my breath waiting for Reverend Jeremiah Wright to "clarify" his remarks.)

Cali ought to stop channeling Ezra Klein.

http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/a...and_wright.php

[Cali Coug]

Originally Posted by Tex

Ross Douthat reponds to Cali Coug:



Cali ought to stop channeling Ezra Klein.

http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/a...and_wright.php

What an ironic post, given the fact that Falwell was selected as an example of a person it would be awful to be associated with, and given the fact that Falwell was, in fact, associated with McCain as a prominent supporter.

http://cougarguard.com/forum/showpos...2&postcount=36

[Tex]

Originally Posted by Cali Coug

What an ironic post, given the fact that Falwell was selected as an example of a person it would be awful to be associated with, and given the fact that Falwell was, in fact, associated with McCain as a prominent supporter.

http://cougarguard.com/forum/showpos...2&postcount=36

If you read my post, Douthat explains why it is a poor comparison.