This is exactly why I've been talking about how the 'race problem' meme that's being levied against Bernie is little more than the establishment's effort to divide and conquer us so they can continue the economic enslavement of everybody. Because if we take back our government and pull everyone out of poverty, much of the economic incentive for racism and xenophobia disappears.

That hasn't worked so far, anyways.

By throwing money at it because thats the only thing she understands

I mean, the woman is sauntering around the country feeding at the trough of Wall Street, like a little piggy--but at the next debate she'll be telling us how she's going to reign in the big banks!

She will say whatever it takes. Her words mean nothing. She's a liar.

And this whole, "I'm going to end racism" bullshit, is only a dig on Bernie. Do people get that? She thinks she's spotted a weakness in Bernie's messaging! Because his solutions deal with economics, she's trying oh-so hard to position economic solutions as a sign of racism and a complete inability to understand African American issues. Isn't she a doll?

She does give a rat's ass about anything, except getting elected.

It is a new strategy for winning, doesn't seem like it is from the heart.

Do you think the OP's statement is accurate?

But it would be helpful to clear the air once and for all on this.

to tackle discrimination and racism.

THAT IS LUDICROUS AND INSULTING!

Are there any policies specifically?

see https://berniesanders.com/issues/racial-justice/

do you think that when the Civil Rights Act was passed and Woolworth's lunch counter accepted black customers for the first time that was idle coincidence. It's a pretty simple concept, you want to run a business you don't get to discriminate but that concept wasn't the law until 1964 which is why businesses in the South didn't run that way until then.

Hate is hate. Some people will never feel otherwise no matter who is elected, what events happen or what laws are passed. IMO, which doesn't count for much, the best hope for ending discrimination is younger generations. Each generation seems to be more color blind than the previous. I wish the fix was as easy as legislation, but it's not.

I really don't care if the person renting me a hotel room hates my guts but I care a whole fuck of a lot if the only hotel on the highway will rent me the room. No you can't change a person's heart by changing the law. but you sure can change lives. Many of my friends got marriage licences from people who, I am quite sure, think they are going to hell but bottom line they can visit their spouse in the hospital, they can get their spouses pension and social security, they can be on their spouses insurance, and all of the other 1000 plus rights the rest of the populace too for granted for the past 100 or so years. Similarly, blacks no longer have to wonder if the local drug store will let them in the front door.

Somehow the reason for the hatred has to be targeted. I want you to have the damn room, but I don't want the hotel manager to hate you. Legislation was and is necessary to get you in the door, but it's not the root of the problem. The racism is still there.

Laws shouldn't be and can't be in the business of mind control but what laws can do and should do is mandate equal treatment. I have had students I have found distasteful over the years, but if that student gets 95% right on the test his or her grade should be 95%. My district can't mandate that I like a child, it can, and should, mandate that I treat the child the same regardless of if I like him or don't like him.

You're discussing racial discrimination and I'm discussing racism. One doesn't equal the other.

And from what I have read lately, the younger generation is no better than those who proceeded it.

Last edited Wed Feb 17, 2016, 10:11 AM - Edit history (1)

making discrimination illegal merely did just that...to think that it, by law alone, changed the hearts of racists is naive at best....

people should make up their mind what they think they are arguing about...don't look for a 'plan to end racism' unless you are just promoting a meme...

look for a plan to help people...like MLK,Jr. said...what good is it to get you a seat at the lunch counter if you don't have enough money to buy a hamburger...

except to the degree that in a democracy one has to have sufficient popular support for the laws in question. The fact is had Johnson taken your advice we would still have segregated lunch counters.

We're all trying to fight discrimination(except the RW, including here). Laws can do that, and should. Economic justice legislation does exactly that.

Last edited Fri Feb 26, 2016, 02:46 AM - Edit history (1)

Just obey the anti-dicrimination laws and get out of my way.

And about the OP stating (patronizingly I might add), "I can pull you out of poverty . . ."

No, just take the roadblocks to opportunity out of the way and people will pull themselves out of poverty.

those people wouldn't have thought to call me a nigger if I sat down for lunch there in 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967...?

just like I am still able to get my marriage licence even if the clerk thinks I am a pervert.

Just because they had to seat you doesn't mean they have to treat you well.

when your government is about building community rather than empire.

...individuals must find it in themselves to stop discriminating.

Do I have that right?

same for 3-point shots in basketball...

Strawman question....

against. They do not end discrimination. The Fair Housing Act has to be enforced because in spite of that law people discriminate against others. It has to be actively enforced. There is no such law to offer recourse to LGBT in housing or in employment. None. When such a law passes, the discrimination will not vanish, it will become less blatant and require great vigilance in enforcement.

You can pass a law that says I'm your equal but many straights will still offer up the Stank Eye to all LGBT and there is nothing that can be done about that outside the hearts and minds of the people who express that contempt.

Seems wildly obvious from my point of view.

but we work to dismantle the damage done by welfare reform and mass incarcerations, for example. and that requires regime change.

then we learn from one another, and that is how we combat racism and sexism

.... as I have seen from my less educated family & acquaintances ... those laws against discrimination actually make people hate more. They give them someone(s) - and the wrong someone(s), of course - to focus their dissatisfaction on. The old "10 cookies on the plate and the CEO takes 9 of them" thing, in action, just with revolving minorities in the "other" role.


How do we correct that faulty mind-programming?

Haters, as they say, are going to hate. White people do indeed get inflamed by racism when other races get a little progress, and do things like vote against social programs out of race hatred. http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2016/2/racism-undermines-support-for-government-spending.html

The only thing we can really do is undercut their social power by outvoting them, imo. Don't let them take power.

yourself.

And some whites have made excellent progress. Some of them just had never had any real contact with Black people. There were large groups of white people, just not the aggressive sort that generally gets over-rewarded in white society, who had to keep their noses to the grindstone and didn't have a good chance to go anywhere or do anything around Black people.

Then, all the legislation limiting the power of racist domineering white people led to the voices and images of all different sorts of Black people on radio and TV, explaining things, expressing things, and generally living their lives. I remember my old mother saying that the few Black people she had seen in the old days always looked so sad and scared and worn, so now it made her so happy to see a bunch of them sashaying around her, happy and well-fed and energized. There were many white people who suddenly had the chance to get to know some Black people.

Once they did, they found that they liked a lot of Black people and even greatly admired a bunch of them. It was fun to get to know a whole new bunch of people, like us in many ways but also with some interesting new ideas and music and figures of speech. And for some white people it was a revelation about themselves, as they thought to themselves, I always felt inside that there was something fishy and self-serving about the domineering white people's opinions of Black people ...oh, my goodness, I was RIGHT about something and those dominating white people were WRONG. Even though those people are rich and I'm not, I was RIGHT about something! What else might there be that I could be right about? And so they learned what part of their guts to trust and gained the courage to listen to different points of view and speak up and contribute for somebody down on his/her luck.

But now, with the iron grip of the ultra-right billionaires tightening on the radio and TV stations, these white people are being fed a line of propaganda designed to bring them back in line. They are being told constantly that the economic problems are being caused by lazy greedy Black people taking huge amounts of money from the rest of us. And the hotheaded white people who are so ready to toady to powerful bullies are getting very strident and threatening. Again. Just like they were in the eighteenth century. And for some very similar reasons. It reminds me of that play, Rhinoceros, by Ionesco.

I just moved to Maryland from Northern Illinois. In Northern Illinois, most radio was right-wing, but there were a few stations where I could listen to progressive radio. I am so much closer to people like Bill Press and Tom Hartman geographically, but suddenly I cannot find them on my radio. Not anywhere. And TV also seems to be more uniform here.

City Iowa. I was 9 years old and had never even known that there were black people. My grandmother pointed a black person out to me without giving any details. Because I had met Native Americans visiting family in northern MN I knew that there were other people so it did not seem all that different to me.

I grew up without bias and when the 60s came it was not hard to side with those being oppressed. And most of the people in my very rural white part of Iowa were the same. We had not stake in the argument. What we heard about racism was new to us -except the part of the family that had been in the Korean War.

Today that part of Iowa has Steven King as a representative. When the OP talks about it not being worse I question that. How did we go from my childhood to Steven King?

... the majority not just "make" people do things

you can pass all the laws and protections in the world, which is good and should be done, but some people are STILL going to be racist. Thus, neither Bernie nor Hillary nor anyone else can end racism. That has to come from the heart of each individual.

...the context is the institutions of racism or whatever the enablers of those institutions.

Like our judicial system

Funny how that works.

...nor do all of the challenges and abuses we face involve getting someone to like us.

There really isn't any provision of law which mandates 'trust' - or even understanding, or respect for each other - as a condition of our rights to equal treatment under the law. Those are certainly fine aspirations, but our rights are inherent in the Constitution which (improbably, at the time of its inception) asserts that we are all created equal. That's where our rights are drawn from, not from any expectation that we love or respect each other before they are administered fairly. I think most people understand that.

For centuries, the realities of patronage, wealth, and political power have been impediments to social changes which would level the playing field for minorities and blacks in America. Yet, these are only a part of the privileges afforded white individuals, as blacks often find that even these advantages fail to insulate them from denial of opportunities and protection from discrimination at all levels of interaction with society; discrimination in housing; in job placement and advancement; compensation; as well as disparities in arrest, justice, sentencing.

In these instances, income is not an insulation against abuse. There are ways to legislate adherence to these basic rights.

Police accountability, reforms in the justice system, affirmative action, etc.

Laws can either facilitate racism (as when police are allowed to arrest or harass people for pointing a phone camera their way when they are dealing with minority citizens) or they can prohibit racism (as when the Federal government sends troops to escort little Black children into school, or when a state is forced to extend voting rights to all citizens over age 18). And the right-wing billionaires should never have been allowed to buy up most of the radio stations in the US. Those are OUR airwaves; they belong to ALL of us! And, as I said, when different points of view were easier to access a few decades ago, I definitely heard some gradual improvement in the attitudes expressed by many of the white people around me. I think some of this backlash has been orchestrated, in order to divide and conquer.

There are things we can do to speed up the process. Voting rights and fair housing were two of the biggies that really got the ball rolling. There are some specific problems right now that don't have much to do with personal feelings. Voter ID laws and better police relations are two that come to mind.