From - Sat Feb 23 20:29:21 2002 Message-ID: <3C77D410.EA8639F9@earthops.net> Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 17:40:32 +0000 From: Tiny Human Ferret Organization: copyright 2002 all rights reserved -- non-UseNet transmission prohibited. X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.0.38 i386) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.politics.immigration Subject: Re: Answer this References: <1jTc8.3192$ZC3.298648@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net> <3C7544FF.B23C6142@earthops.net> <3C76A4D4.708AA038@earthops.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: 65.205.1.226 X-Trace: vienna7.his.com 1014485897 65.205.1.226 (23 Feb 2002 12:38:17 -0500) Lines: 99 X-Authenticated-User: tjh22isp Path: vienna7.his.com Xref: vienna7.his.com alt.politics.immigration:438 stvfrmco wrote: > > "David Eduardo" wrote in message > news:d%Dd8.4926$IW1.2268152032@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com... > > > > "Tiny Human Ferret" wrote in message > > news:3C76A4D4.708AA038@earthops.net... > > > David Eduardo wrote: > > > > > > > > For exemple, in Puerto Rico to do some on-scene researched, I once > lived > > for > > > > a week in a Caserio, a publich project, where there were drug peddlers > > > > waving bags outside the building every evening. > > > > > > Okay, so why don't you go to the places where there are outraged > > > suburbanites of the WWII-Korea-Vietnam age groups, really hopping mad > that > > > the houses they finally have paid for are now neighboring houses that > have > > > gone out to rent, and are being rented by the people who got run off > from > > > waving bags of dope for sale at the Projects? They're safer dealing from > > the > > > suburbs, the clientele is more affluent and less likely to shoot them, > but > > > they probably wouldn't have any remorse at shooting at the neighboring > > > homeowners and the neighboring homeowners know it. > > > > This sounds like the same people of a different ilk I met in Birmingham in > > the early 70's. They were distressed that, after the political demise of > > thier heroes Bull Connor and Geo. Wallace that "those people" were now > > moving into their neighborhoods. > > > > While Bull Connor was a despicable racist, perhaps to be historically > accurate you should point out that the people of color in Alabama helped > re-elect Mr. Wallace for several more terms -- and when he could no longer > run again they elected his wife. Blacks had a great deal of respect for Mr. > Wallace, in part because he spoke from the heart, unlike Democrats or > Republicans who could be counted on to lie at all times. And it should be > noted that while poor whites are an easy scapegoat for segregation and > racism in the South (or elsewhere), the Jim Crow laws were written and > intitutionalized by lawyers and wealthy land owners. Whether it is in South > Africa or Birmingham, it is the wealthy and monied classes that created > apartheid and when it all comes crashing down it is the poor, working whites > who are left with the blame and the labels and the hatred. Slavery, > apartheid, or any other form of institutionalized racism always came from > the top and was supported by business interests and the wealthy. It is a > popular misconception that racism or hatred is a sole interest of the poor. Plus it annoys the hell out of me to in one breath be characterised as living in a white-trash "cracker" farm and in the other breath be characterized as poor and further, as you note, to have my neighbors characterized as essentially inbred yokels with no education or political awareness agitating in the hinterland. This is Montgomery County Maryland, and this particular neighborhood has for quite a long time been characterized as the sort of neighborhood mostly populated by cops and mid-level Federal workers. Outside of the people in the Section 8 apartments up the street, and the folks renting from the retirees, it's still a mid-affluent neighborhood, where a lot of people own their own small businesses which are successful enough that they have to have a shop located elsewhere with enough parking for their company fleet. Montgomery County's schools were some of the best in the country for many decades; they were the best or second-best in the country for all of the years I attended schools here. All of the Federal workers tend to bring a certain level of education to their jobs, and tend to bring home considerable political awareness home from their jobs. Part of the problem that I am seeing, as far as I am concerned, is that the locals have long since been so desperate to never be characterized as being racist or "ethnicist" that they leaned over backwards in ignoring the racism or ethnicism of others. When they saw other people perpetuating a stereotype, they'd rather criticize themselves for being familiar enough with the stereotype to even recognize is as such, rather than criticize others for perpetuating the stereotype. This leads to a truly peculiar style of blindness to reality. Basically, when a bunch of people decide "this is the neighborhood we're going to colonize", even when it's blatant, the locals won't allow themselves to see it. Hell, if howling packs of mad Arabs ran screaming down the street with bandoliers of grenades strapped to their sweating bodies, gutting houshold pets and errant children in between dynamiting schoolbusses and screaming "death to america the great satan", the locals would probably start asking each other how _their_ cultural insensitivity had led this or that _individual_ member of the howling packs to this "acting-out of their social dissatisfaction". In short, these people wouldn't know a rattlesnake if it was hanging off of their ass; they'd tell themselves it wasn't a snake, it wasn't rattling, and how dare anyone suggest that the poor dear be pried loose, it's highly decorative, dontcha think. And you, sir, are just the sort of person who would tell them it was highly flattering, just what they needed, and no sirree, nobody better pry that sucker loose. Trust you, they'll feel better as soon as enough time goes by to get used to it. -- Be kind to your neighbors, even though they be transgenic chimerae. Whom thou'st vex'd waxeth wroth: Meow. <-----> http://earthops.net/klaatu/