Prometheus 6

Conservatives, Black and white, have an annoying way of trying to make everyone choose between two sets of alternatives that THEY alone designate (e.g. "Either you are with us or with the terrorists!"). I agree with Cosby's comments (if not their scope) and applaud him for making them but, at the same time, I continue to try to expose the ROOT CAUSE of our collective condition in this country. And I always come up with this, "It's the racism, stupid!". For me, it's not that Conservatives make certain points about Black people which may be true that bothers me, it is their lack of context, their ahistorical analysis, their motives, and the agenda behind what they're saying that is more than suspect. "Personal responsibility" did not make America wealthy and powerful. Rather, it was greed, exploitation and oppression of "others" (read, non-whites) bolstered by a good ol' fashoned heaping of racism, which white people invented, that has lifted the American Empire. P, Conservatives will always be my enemy.

"Rather, it was greed, exploitation and oppression of "others" (read, non-whites) bolstered by a good ol' fashoned heaping of racism, which white people invented, that has lifted the American Empire."

Gee, I would think things like the assembly line might have at least a little to do with wealth production. And how is it that all these "others" blindly sat on massive amounts of unrealized, potential wealth until white people provided nothing but the catalyst of oppression ? Think of the odds of that happening !? Perhaps you are simplifying things just a bit here.

" P, Conservatives will always be my enemy."

Not everyone who disagrees with you is an enemy, not everyone who cheers you is a friend. Sometimes the things we hear/read that we instinctively agree with are the least useful in terms of intellectual growth.

Of course, I am simplifiying things a bit here. However, I have limited time and limited space on this website (or my own, for that matter) to fully catalogue the history of white oppression against non-whites, the complicity of some people of color in that oppression (either by being passive or actively contributing) or the intersection between economics and race in post-Enlightenment European thought. I simply offered a thesis, which any of us may or may not choose to debate.

Agreed, not everyone who disagrees with me is an enemy. Those who are within my intellectual circle often disagree with me about many things. Nevertheless, when they do so, we all recognize that we still remain different sides of the same coin. Indeed, I display what could be considered Conservative streaks on several issues, but I do not embrace the Conservative (or Black Conservative) platform. Those who do so will always be contrary to my political philosophy (I tend to be what I call a "Black Progressive Independent") and, in my opinion, also work against the progress of Black (and poor) people in this nation (and World).