Racism - It's a real thing.

When I was in the ag college on East Campus in Lincoln in the late 80s, there was a lot of African students that were sent there to learn agricultural practices they could take back to their country to improve food production.

Now, if a lot of those chose to stay here and worked within the ag business in Nebraska, I wouldn't think twice of someone simply mentioning that "There's a lot of agronomists from Africa who graduated from Nebraska working here".

I see no problem with that statement in and of itself.  It's not racist.  It's not condescending to them.  It's not implying that I wish they weren't here.  It's not implying I wouldn't want to work with them.

It's just simply stating a fact that a lot of African agronomists graduated from Nebraska and work here.

This really is being blown out of proportion.  

 
Are we allowed to say something like this...

Man 1:  "Hey, which one of those guys is Ted, the new guy in engineering"

And, I look over and see 3 guys standing around chatting...one white...one asian and one black...All of them wearing khakis, brown shoes, a white button down and a blue tie...all three with black hair...none of them wearing classes and all with similar builds.  

Could I say "Oh, Ted...he is the asian guy"  (Right now I am cracking up thinking that I would say that and then bow towards Ted)

Or would that also label me as a super racist?  

 
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NM11046 said:
Really?  Why would race ever come up in a conversation about someone's profession?  That's not utopian or colorblind it's odd and inappropriate.  What color one is has nothing to do with what they do for a living.  

How do you define yourself when someone asks what you do?  I'd bet a lot of money you don't say you're a white x.  Or that you've ever heard anyone describe any professional that happens to be white with that additional description.  Never, ever, ever has anyone said, "He's a white dentist."   "She's a white secretary."  "He's a white salesperson."  "She's a white truck driver."

If you, or people you hang around really do define folks like that ... wow.
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My dentist is White...Dr. White...so I actually do refer to him that way.

"My dentist?  Yeah, White...guy is really good"

 
ColoradoHusk said:
Dr. White is not to be confused with Frank White, the former Royals 2nd baseman, who is actually black.
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Okay...that might be racist?  

Anyone buy the new Crayola Crayons 64 pack recently?

Not only did they get rid of the sharpener...but none of the crayons are labeled anymore.  

 
Racism can be defined by what we do and also by what we don't do - as in this case. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/whats-keeping-harriet-tubman-off-the-20-201952646.html

What's happening: Harriet Tubman, the famed abolitionist who freed slaves using the Underground Railroad, was scheduled to replace Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill in 2020. However, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said during a congressional hearing last week that the redesign had been delayed until at least 2028.

The decision to make Tubman the first African-American to appear on U.S. paper currency came out of a 10-month public comment process by Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in 2016. The 2020 date was chosen to mark the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in America.

Mnuchin explained the delay by saying the treasury was focused preventing counterfeiting, rather than changing the imagery on its bills.

Why there's debate: The decision to replace the image of a slave-owning former president with that of black woman who freed slaves received strong praise from many when it was initially announced. Trump called the choice "pure political correctness" and suggested she should be on the $2 bill instead.

Mnuchin's limited responses to inquiries from Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., about the delay during last week’s hearing have led some to question whether there are other motives behind the decision.

One of Tubman's living descendents said the delay "smacks of racism." Pressley argued that it was part of a longstanding trend of overlooking the role of women and people of color in American history. "People other than white men built this county," she said. Others have suggested it is consistent with of a revisionist history among some conservatives who downplay the horrors of slavery.

Others see less malicious reasons for the delay, such as Trump's known fondness for Jackson as a leader or Trump’s pattern of undoing decisions made by Obama.

What's next: A bill that would force the Treasury to put Tubman on the $20 bill by the end of 2020 was introduced in both houses of Congress earlier this year. If it isn't passed, it will be up to Mnuchin, or whoever comes after him, to decide if and when the change will be made.

In the meantime, some activists are taking the matter into their own hands by stamping Tubman's face over current versions of the bill.
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Senate Majority Leader McConnell isn't a fan of paying out slavery reparations:

"I don't think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living are responsible is a good idea," the Kentucky Republican told reporters in response to a question about whether reparations should be paid or a public apology should be made by Congress or the President.

"We've tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We elected an African American president," he said.
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So, I understand what McConnell is getting at, and I don't necessarily disagree. But, I don't think there's much harm in putting together a commission to at least take a look at what could be done in the case that there are some feasible solutions. McConnell's stance that it would be 'difficult to know whom to pay' seems a bit deflective. There are some key national and state organizations committed to serving black communities,

Being in and from Nebraska, I often hear 'people should be responsible for themselves and not look for government handouts.' I agree in many, many circumstances. I don't in others. I'm not sure yet if I agree or disagree with slavery reparations, but I can say with relative certainty that black communities are still feeling the effects of slavery in 2019. It may not be easy to see, and it is sometimes difficult to quantify, but it's there.

 
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Enhance said:
Senate Majority Leader McConnell isn't a fan of paying out slavery reparations:

So, I understand what McConnell is getting at, and I don't necessarily disagree. But, I don't think there's much harm in putting together a commission to at least take a look at what could be done in the case that there are some feasible solutions. McConnell's stance that it would be 'difficult to know whom to pay' seems a bit deflective. There are some key national and state organizations committed to serving black communities,

Being in and from Nebraska, I often hear 'people should be responsible for themselves and not look for government handouts.' I agree in many, many circumstances. I don't in others. I'm not sure yet if I agree or disagree with slavery reparations, but I can say with relative certainty that black communities are still feeling the effects of slavery in 2019. It may not be easy to see, and it is sometimes difficult to quantify, but it's there.
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What McConnell said is BS to me. That last quote especially. The US didn't do s#!t for freed slaves. They turned them into sharecroppers which was essentially the same thing. Slaves were supposed to recieve 40 acres and a mule as reparation, but we all know how that turned out. People of color got shafted and their issues kicked down the curb until people decided they weren't having it anymore in the 60s. Its just been one form of slavery to the next most acceptable form of controlling that population from sharecropping on to mass incarceration. The issue isn't 150 years ago its been present yet evolving this entire time.

 
Enhance said:
Senate Majority Leader McConnell isn't a fan of paying out slavery reparations:

So, I understand what McConnell is getting at, and I don't necessarily disagree. But, I don't think there's much harm in putting together a commission to at least take a look at what could be done in the case that there are some feasible solutions. McConnell's stance that it would be 'difficult to know whom to pay' seems a bit deflective. There are some key national and state organizations committed to serving black communities, 

Being in and from Nebraska, I often hear 'people should be responsible for themselves and not look for government handouts.' I agree in many, many circumstances. I don't in others. I'm not sure yet if I agree or disagree with slavery reparations, but I can say with relative certainty that black communities are still feeling the effects of slavery in 2019. It may not be easy to see, and it is sometimes difficult to quantify, but it's there. 
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Did McConnell just "I have a black friend" the idea of reparations?

In the context of being a farm state, the bolded is seems to lack a bit of self-awareness.

 
And it’s more recent than slavery - there are examples of homes being taken from minorities to build things like stadiums, the GI Bill and the housing issues up until the 70’s that discriminated against POC for mortgages and etc.   Mitch may have issue going back to slavery times but there are many examples, even in his lifetime.

And honestly, are we supposed to believe that his family in KY wasn't involved in slavery?  I’m pretty confident it wasn’t more than two generations that Mitch is acting like he is so distanced from.

 
I'm curious who would pay these so called "reparations." Whites only? Latinos? Asians? A tax on everyone? It's one thing to put money into programs that directly help blacks. It's another to pay out money directly to individuals simply because they are black. I think that would be illegal. Who would pay for it? Every tax payer in the country? The lawsuits would be never ending. 

 
Honestly I think that just by admitting wrongs or creating a group to explore the issue and put things in place to insure it doesn’t happen again would make many of the people asking about it happy.  

The times we’re living in now, seeing so many things we all took for granted as forward progress slip away - there needs to be some recognition of wrongs, and a “plan” to stop any more before they happen.

 
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