Anonymous wrote:This post supports my theory that CLASS and not RACE is the real divider in society.

Black kids growing up in million dollar homes and attending private schools have nothing in common with their counterparts living in abject poverty in SE DC.

Anonymous wrote:Not ALL successful black people are first generation successes. People stop assuming all of us fought to get out of the ghetto and had to walk through needled littered streets to our fatherless section 8 apartment every day of our youth. I hate when people want to know "my story." How did I manage to make it against such odds!! I actually grew up upper middle class, as did a lot of other brown people. Rant over.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not ALL successful black people are first generation successes. People stop assuming all of us fought to get out of the ghetto and had to walk through needled littered streets to our fatherless section 8 apartment every day of our youth. I hate when people want to know "my story." How did I manage to make it against such odds!! I actually grew up upper middle class, as did a lot of other brown people. Rant over.

seriously? those white ppl must not be from the DC area. I'm white, but I could see things were a lot different (perceptions for AA ppl) when I went to college out of town. Leaving this area is like going back in time in some ways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear ya!! Try telling that to a college admissions board.

It was very frustrating when the black kids (with same privileges and upbringing) were able to get into colleges with only a 3.0 grade pt average and average SATs while those of us with 4.0+ did not.

Not. ALL the white guys on the volleyball team at a mjor Ivy I know had BAD scores.

Getting preferential treatment because your family are on the alumni? No problem.
Getting preferential treatment to add some diversity to the student body by letting in more well-rounded (but not necessarily smarter) minorities? SHAME!

Anonymous wrote:Holy, fuck. Can we simply stop these damn threads. Everyone wants to play the victim. I am a victim because I am a poor black. I am a victim because I am a rich black assumed to have been a poor black. I am a victim because I was a poor white assumed to have privileged I never had. I am victim because I am a rich white and have to pay for everyone else. I am a victim because I am an asian and everyone expects me to have superior intelligence....Where the hell does it stop. As a young child I understood that racism is wrong. However, all this victimization is just about to push me somewhere I don't want to go.

Anonymous wrote:I would just ask White people to consider one point. I will say in advance that I am not trying to stir the pot - just being honest. I am upper middle class AA. My parents were college educated middle class. My grandparents were college educated middle class on one side and prominent farmers on the other. Both my parents and grandparents lived that majority of their lives in the segregated South.

Many AA's (and certainly our parents and grandparents) have experienced racism firsthand regardeless of SES. Whites used our color and the various labels as tools of discrminination to deny equal treatment and equal opportunity. AA's, as a method of survival, internalized these labels.

Sure, some people lean on racism as a crutch. But many of us, rich or poor, HAVE experienced racism at some level and from some places we could not expect. Whites now think we overreact and sometimes we do, but sometimes it IS about race.

My point is that you cannot use color and labels against a people for generations and then expect that people to disregard all of that because the world has changed somewhat.

I do agree with a PP that SES is going to be the next big -ism issue.

Anonymous wrote:"People like me? I am a fucking white person who grew up in abject poverty in an abusive home and I managed to claw my way out of the gutter. I don't claim victimhood. I am a survivor and yet every fucking day I have to hear about my goddamn privilege from people who don't have a damn clue about what it means to go to bed hungry or wear shoes with holes or have no winter coat. So yeah, I am getting pretty fed up with middle and upper class blacks claiming victim hood. Get a fucking grip. Most people have struggles in life. I was never a racists until I started frequenting this board had had to hear about my privilege over and over and over again. People need to get a clue."

Your language indicts that you haven't completed your ascent out of the gutter. Work on it. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:This post supports my theory that CLASS and not RACE is the real divider in society.

Black kids growing up in million dollar homes and attending private schools have nothing in common with their counterparts living in abject poverty in SE DC.

To the OP: I can't imagine people assume you overcame adversity and ask you such personal questions. Is it possible that you are misinterpreting simple inquiries and polite small talk?

Anonymous wrote:I hear ya!! Try telling that to a college admissions board.

It was very frustrating when the black kids (with same privileges and upbringing) were able to get into colleges with only a 3.0 grade pt average and average SATs while those of us with 4.0+ did not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"People like me? I am a fucking white person who grew up in abject poverty in an abusive home and I managed to claw my way out of the gutter. I don't claim victimhood. I am a survivor and yet every fucking day I have to hear about my goddamn privilege from people who don't have a damn clue about what it means to go to bed hungry or wear shoes with holes or have no winter coat. So yeah, I am getting pretty fed up with middle and upper class blacks claiming victim hood. Get a fucking grip. Most people have struggles in life. I was never a racists until I started frequenting this board had had to hear about my privilege over and over and over again. People need to get a clue."

Your language indicts that you haven't completed your ascent out of the gutter. Work on it. Good luck.

NP here.

I have found that it is stupid people--and particularly stupid and immoral people--who mistake "refraining from cursing" with some misguided sense of "classiness". You appear to be one of those fucking people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Your language indicts that you haven't completed your ascent out of the gutter. Work on it. Good luck.


You should be so far and have amassed as much wealth and education...


Based on your posts, your level of education is severely lacking...

Well, on that point you would be wrong--3 advanced degrees to prove it. In any event, if a dropping a few f-bombs in a cyber-rant is indicative of lack of education or class than a significant portion of the DCUM world lacks both. The beauty of cyberspace we can say what we are really thinking.