Bob Herbert on self-imposed obstacles for Blacks

Interesting column. I'm white, but hung around with enough black kids growing up that I saw this phenomenom happening. It's depressing that so many black kids only see success as something that happens to whites.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/10/opinion/10HERB.html

Caroline Jhingory had been warned but she was still surprised — and hurt — when some of her lifelong friends turned on her the way they did.

Ms. Jhingory is a 22-year-old black woman from Washington, D.C., who went off to college a few years ago. "One of the connections I had with my friends back home was that we had always been sort of aspiring hip-hop artists and things like that," she said. "But we were young, you know, and I eventually woke up from la-la land and realized that I would have to get an education and a job, something a little more concrete than fantasies about the hip-hop underground."

She noticed that when she came home on visits from school, some of her friends treated her differently. "I don't know if it was out of jealousy or resentment or whatever," she said, "but they would actually say to me, `You're acting white now.' They'd say that. They'd say, `You act white.' Or, `You act proper.'"

And perhaps it's time. This happens to whites also. Remember the saying, "You can never go back home?" They move on, find supportive circles in other cities and break with their childhood ties. (R. Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama being the exception ;-) )

The problem is, there isn't as many supportive bases for blacks, yet. It takes people who identify themselves as individuals to break away. But I can tell you from people who have successfully broken away, that there is something lacking in their lives.

Hispanics may be better off, because, back in the old country, their families spread across economic levels and the alienation is not so great.

Just my 2 cents.

My friend, who has an MBA, is shunned by the old neighborhood, and has been ridiculed for his education.

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Yes, I come here posting editorials of that right wing zealot Bob Herbert because I'm a racist trying to convert you. Give me a break. And some people wanted to know why I was looking for a different message board yesterday.

As we've learned here on DU, the only voices that the media will listen to, are organized, united voices. If the tight-knit black groups bother him, he can probably make inroads in breaking them by improving socio-economic standards for them. Hey, the Republicans have tried everything else. It's worth a shot. (TnC)

I wonder, I see some problems in the black community that I don't think can be blamed on whitey. Does that make me a right-wing zealot too?

I wonder if Herbert is getting hate mail over this?