- Joined
- Feb 16, 2004
- Messages
- 139
bigbutnottoo said:For much of the time in US of America up until less than 40 years ago, not only was it legal to discriminate against blacks, it was illegal NOT to. That was the real problem and why federal involvement was needed.
This is something I was blind to until not long ago. Philosophically, as a proponent of individualism and freedom of association, I always thought it would be inconsistent to support The Civil Rights Act as far as its scope into private matters. In other words, I thought any government or political entity should be prohibited from racial discrimination. However, private business and private property owners IMO would seem to have the right to deal with whomever they chose. Much the way private clubs can choose their members. I always thought that economic boycotts were the best way to force change as consumers vote with their wallets. I, for one, would never give my money to a company that discriminated in hiring or serving customers. Theoretically, businesses that want to stay open would serve everyone, unless they wanted to lose money and be publicly shamed and ridiculed. Then racists would pretty much congregate at places that shared their views. And well, we wouldnt want anything to do with them anyway.
But the big problem and misconception is that the federal government was the only one interfering in private business. Often, it was state governments that were forcibly segregating public as well as private commerce. For example, even if a restaruant owner wanted to serve blacks, in many places he could be fined and arrested for doing so. Growing up and in school, I was always under the impression that black kids would go into a diner or something and try to order lunch, but these mean white men didnt want to serve them. Now, this was probably often the case. But it was never really emphasized that state and local laws actually forbade it. Considering the laws and the culture of racism, one didnt have to be overly racist to follow law and social pressure and refuse to serve blacks. There were all kinds oif absurd laws. For example( This is going back in time a little further. After slavery, but pre-Civil Rights movement), railroad laws that legally required segregation and if the rail company allowed a person who was 1/8 black to sit with whites or a white person to sit with blacks could be jailed and fined $1000s. It was government enforced segregation that violated all human rights.
My point is this: I am speaking on why black Americans are more victimized than any other race in the US. BLUE already posted on this and did a great job. Not only were blacks held in slavery for most of their existence in America, until less than 40 years ago racism was the law. It wasnt as simple as some people would have you believe where people just choose to associate and the big bad feds came down and oppressed the South. It was the law that segregation was required. Not only that, but many places had mob rule. If you were black and you were even suspected of doing something, not even always something wrong, it was permissible for a lynch mob to be the judge, jury, and executioner. If blacks got "uppity" and tried to do things like vote, there were killed or made an example of to scare others to "stay in their place."
I dont support so-called "reverse racism" or racial preferences, and I think for the most part as long as someone is willing to work hard he can succeed today regardless of race. However, I do believe without a doubt, black Americans were treated worse than any other ethnic or racial group. That treatment should be put in the past, and individuals should not be forced to bear collective guilt for something they had nothing to do with, but it should be acknowledged and not made light of.
thanks man, and i agree with you "reverse racism" (if you can even call it that b/c racism is racism no matter what) is just as bad and is explainable but not excusable.