[My 27 years of experience] led to me conclude that the disadvantages that many Blacks face are a result of their or their parent's choices (or the lack thereof) rather than institutional constraints imposed on them, which are relatively few. As I said, most of institutional racism that I can see in this society is geared toward protecting economic assets of other groups rather than preventing Blacks from achieving better living conditions on their own.
So unless you or others on this list can procure *valid* evidence (not just a few example, whose existence I already acknowledged) to the contrary I simply remain unconvinced about the claims of pervasive and structural racism (as opposed to individual bigotry) in the US. I think the US is remarkably free of such formal constraints in comparison to other countries, even EU (cf. Germany that bars many people born there from attaining citizenship.)
.......
Though he is a dissembling, doghearted bum-bailey, poorly lost in the miasma of his dark thoughts the Eastlander does manage (somehow!) to ask a noteworthy question.
My tough-as-nails grandfather (Perhaps you remember him? WW2 tank crewman, ardent placer of high velocity lead in Wermacht and Waffen SS flesh. "Pop Pop, is it wrong to kill?" "Yes. Unless you're killing Nazis! In that case, squeeze the trigger till dead and burn the corpse!") would've partially - and just partially, mind you - agreed with Wojtek's description of 'the problem'.
That is, he would, I'm sure, have agreed that people should be as tight with their shit as they possibly can be. What does that mean? Get the best education you can, avoid legal entanglements, boost hood rats from your life, wrap your rascal prior to sweet, sweet lovin, etc.
So that's the quasi-agreement part: make good decisions.
Here comes the disagreement part.
Wojtek says that these top drawer decisions can more easily be made in the comparatively open environment of today's awesome world of microwave popcorn, hand sanitizers, ultrasound targeted g spots (gotcha!), Anna Wintour and non-existent structural racism.
Grandpa's ghost, no doubt, still clutching an M1918 in hell, calls bollocks.
You need to make these sharp decisions, grandpa says, *because* of structural racism. You can't afford to be a slacker because when YOU slack, when you make those bad decisions that addled Eastlander talks about you fall faster and farther than the White boys - who can slide and slide and slide and somehow, at the end of the ride, still often wind up in a split level with a nicely waxed truck in the driveway and a cute wife wearing Victoria's Secret.
Is there any evidence that African Americans make MORE bad decisions than other ethnic groups? Were all the middle and upper class Anglo fuck ups I knew in undergrad and grad entirely lucky when things turned around for them? Or can it be that there's a social safety net (of sorts) which made it a bit easier to avoid a final crash?
Oh, the questions one can raise when you look around! Still, I expect this to have as much of an impact as a water balloon on the Pacific's surface.
.d.