Reply to How can someone be born and raised in the DC area yet still be racist?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would say one would have had plenty of positive and negative interactions with people of all shades, creeds, races in this region.

Honest question, how can someone still have such views when the area is so diverse?

[/quote]

Unfortunate realization: virtually 99% of all crime in DC is committed by youngish black males. I returned here after college fully woke  and somewhat strident about it, but over the last many years, I've reached the point where I can't reconcile the progressive dogma with the realty of DC's crime statistics. And I really have no patience left for street criminals and shooters.

I don't think noticing this makes me racist, but I'm sure others disagree.[/quote]

Similar experience here. I took many hours of critical race theory and civil rights law in college, but living in DC has led me to some uncomfortable realizations. [b]There honestly are some differences between urban Black culture and the predominant culture that make it hard for the two to coexist. I’m not saying either is right or wrong, just that they’re different and they sometimes clash.[/b] [/quote]

Similar view here as well.   I[/quote]

Anyone care to elaborate on the bolded above? I suspect the answer isn't very PC.[/quote]

I can't think of a way to answer this question that won't get me banned, nor can I find any writings to link to, because discussing this is completely taboo.

So here is a Washington Post article about Obama's outreach to young Black men while he was president.  It illustrates some of the culture alluded to in posts above. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/chicago-teens-stories-on-becoming-a-man-leave-a-mark-on-the-president/2014/02/09/8808c336-82b8-11e3-9dd4-e7278db80d86_story.html  [b]All of the quotes below are from the Post, so please don't shoot the messenger.[/b]

[i]Scates was hanging on by a thread. Bouncing from his mother’s home to his father’s home to his grandmother’s home, he had faced constant suspensions for being late and dropped out of school for months. He blamed his bad behavior on getting “abandoned by my family,” not being “loved as a child should be loved.” And when that anger rose to the top, “like a balloon, it just explodes.”

That led to gang life, he said. “I was surrounded by know-nothing people. People who didn’t want to do anything with their lives. You see the violence. You see the — excuse the language — hookers. You see the crackheads. You see the crack babies.”

That day last February with Obama, Scates sat directly to the president’s left and told him how he grew sick of street life and returned to school, striving to graduate on time.

“What motivated you?” the president asked.

“I just told him that staying focused, committed, the BAM program helped me out along the way, as well,” Scates recalled. “I wanted it for myself.”[/i]

[i]“I used to play football because I was angry. Knocking someone down and hitting them felt good,” Daniels had told Obama back at Hyde Park. The president had shot back: “What happens when you get older and you can’t hit people anymore?” [/i]

[i]One of the best-known men in the world also urged them to think beyond fame in sports or music. The president did the odds for the young men — calculating how many professional basketball athletes there are and the probability they’d make it that far. “You’ve got to have a Plan B,” he told them.

Turner was primarily concerned with graduating. He has put off, for now, the idea of college and, contrary to the president’s advice, is hoping for a career in music. “He said, ‘Don’t let music be your only option,’ ” Turner said. “I don’t mean any disrespect, but I like music a lot, so you might as well make it.

“Then again, like he was saying, I should have a fallback plan,” Turner said. He’s still thinking about what it would be.

Scates, too, continues to plan a career in music. “I want to be able to run my own record label one day,” he said.

But right now, living with his grandmother, he’s struggling to balance a job as a clerk at the local liquor store while testing out a community college. “College isn’t for everybody,” he said. “I just want to see if it fits who I am.”

He still thinks about the meetings with the president, but less each day.

“Those are good moments, but what is it? It’s a memory, that’s all it is,” Scates said. “I remember when I went to see the president. But now what do I do? I’m still living the life I’m living.”[/i]

I remember this article because it was incredible to me that direct, personal intervention by THE SITTING PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES couldn't convince these kids to focus on school and pursue a more realistic career path (even as a fallback) instead of counting on becoming rap stars.
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