[throwaway_a]

Here comes my throwaway account for opinions that I suspect sway _WAY OUT_ of HN's comfort zone but needs to be said. I think the term "black culture" is in itself a problem because it blames the victim. The term "culture" makes people think it's something that a group of people chose for themselves. "black culture" isn't the same as "asian culture" or "irish culture". This thing we're all calling "black culture" is the result of slavery and continued racism in America. These are people who had their identity(African culture) ripped from them and left in a world of suffering and oppression. The result is what you see today. If I had a magicwand that could go back in time and remove the whole slavery thing and today's casual & institutionalized racism, you wouldn't be seeing the problems black communities have today. At least it wouldn't be anymore than any other group.

[jessedhillon]

It's a sad place where someone has to create a sock puppet to say "I think slavery had complicated, long-term cultural effects which are often dismissed without a second look, and I think they bear closer inspection."

[throwaway_a]

Indeed. Obama's speech speaks right to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHBdZWbncXI

Everyone, including(maybe even especially) black americans, should watch this speech. Anyone who feels Obama is wrong after watching the video should closely examine themselves for why that is and what beliefs they carry that the speech conflicts with.

[Anechoic]

Everyone, including(maybe even especially) black americans, should watch this speech

There is nothing in that speech which is not already common-knowledge or thoroughly discussed among blacks.

[throwaway_a]

True. At the least, it's just to let them know that the first black president understands their plight. That they're not inferior or prone to violence by birth(a few really do think that). That in itself is worth something I think. On a sidenote, the fact that my comments aren't getting downvoted shows that there's hope too. Maybe I didn't give HN enough credit and could have used my main HN account to post.

[newnewnew]

Africa ain't exactly paradise, either.

[throwaway_a]

This is a troll'ish comment that has nothing to do with the current discussion. Or what are you trying to imply here?

[newnewnew]

You hypothesize that the American black population is suffering because their African culture has been taken away from them. I'm merely pointing out that African culture doesn't seem to have built many thriving populations anywhere.

American black culture wasn't nearly so dysfunctional before the rise of the welfare state and the War on Drugs. Illegitimacy was under 30% in 1960 (compared to about 80% today). That has a lot of knock-on effects for other social ills.

[throwaway_a]

I'm looking at your link, its related links and your comment history. I think I see where it's all going..... I simply say that it's a combination of identity loss and racism. The War on Drugs, particularly weed, was pretty much started purely because of greed & racism. http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal... When alcohol was attempted to be made illegal, too many white people got mad so that law had to be removed. Since weed mostly effects non-whites, it's illegal to this day. Put them in jail, ruin the background-check, we already know a resume with a black name doesn't get called back as often as a different name - all good for continued welfare. Nobody is saying there'd be zero problems without racism, but it wouldn't be so disproportionately bad. Africa itself also has a troubled history of slavery & other countries colonizing it. Also, the greed and corruption that comes from having diamonds & oil is still a problem today. It is also known that US dollars are funding those military. Also note that there are some parts of Africa that are not bad to live in, you just never see that on American TV. Of course it takes two for that to work, one to give the money and the other to accept it - but greed has millions of dollars & guns and everyone else doesn't, so... I will end here saying that if I had my magicwand-timemachine, went back in time and removed slavery and somehow the corruption related to the country's vast natural resources, things wouldn't be like this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_resources_of_Africa

And a quick side-note, there was a radio-host. A white woman I believe. They talked about gun-law reform. That's another thing that gets minorities in trouble. She made the comment that if someone started a campaign to get all black males in Oakland signed up with the NRA and obtain a gun legally, gun-laws would be changed immediately. Why don't minorities sign up with NRA to begin with? I don't know, but whatever the reason is, that's why gun-law hasn't changed. I believe that to be very true and I think laws in America are generally set in a way that lowers the likelihood that a non-minority will break them. It probably wasn't that way on purpose at first, but once some people noticed the money from prisons and correction-facilities - combined with American's fear of immigrants... the success of war on drugs in terms of who's getting ruined by it... again not saying there would be zero problems, but the disproportionate levels e see today wouldn't be happening. Don't forget the reason why a lot of black people are even in America to begin with...

[newnewnew]

Bad luck just seems to follow some people for centuries.

It occurs to me that you could write a similar story of woe for the Chinese who have gone through a rough century or three, and they are the highest earning ethnic group in the USA. It makes one think.

[throwaway_a]

> It makes one think.

No it doesn't. The Chinese were taken from their country, stripped of their culture, made slaves and to this day the main target of racism in America? And their home country is trapped in a pattern of greed & corruption for natural resources?

You and I both know what conclusion you're trying to force without actually saying it. Same thing FOX News does. You're talking exactly like the kind of media that's being described by this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQnxnYEVp4U