We were warned

Back in 1915, President Theodore Roosevelt had this to say:

Quote :

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all … The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic … There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.

And yet here we are with African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans. As I look back at our history (60 years), they have done more damage than any Euro-American groups combined could have.

If you'd like to read the entire article, here it is:

New York Times 13 October, 1915

But... If we were all Americans, the various hypen-Americans couldn't whine about their group being discriminated against and needed special privileges to make up for it.

Shouldn't American be first. American African American Asian American Hispanic?

Pissedoffvulcan wrote:

Shouldn't American be first. American African American Asian American Hispanic?

There shouldn't be anything but American. But in the political world, they (both parties) have decimated this nation into a tangle of squabbling nationalities, just as Roosevelt warned.

First off, lets look at what nationality means: Nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a nation state.

Next, lets look at what ethnicity means: Ethnicity or ethnic group is a social group of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral, cultural, social, or national experience.

To me, as it was Roosevelt, it's a matter of where do your loyalties lie? If you claim anything but America, then clearly your loyalties do not lie with the United States.

I take issue with that.

Bandit wrote:

Pissedoffvulcan wrote:

Shouldn't American be first. American African American Asian American Hispanic?

There shouldn't be anything but American. But in the political world, they (both parties) have decimated this nation into a tangle of squabbling nationalities, just as Roosevelt warned.

First off, lets look at what nationality means: Nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a nation state.

Next, lets look at what ethnicity means: Ethnicity or ethnic group is a social group of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral, cultural, social, or national experience.

To me, as it was Roosevelt, it's a matter of where do your loyalties lie? If you claim anything but America, then clearly your loyalties do not lie with the United States.

I take issue with that.

You do know one of the reasons for African American is because some people that said blacks were saying that was racist.

Annoyed wrote:

But... If we were all Americans, the various hypen-Americans couldn't whine about their group being discriminated against and needed special privileges to make up for it.

You don't think discrimination is a real thing?

ilaugh wrote:

Annoyed wrote:

But... If we were all Americans, the various hypen-Americans couldn't whine about their group being discriminated against and needed special privileges to make up for it.

You don't think discrimination is a real thing?

Not any more. Pretty tough to make the argument that it is when we have elected, and then re-elects a Black president who just may be the worst president we've ever had.

The only discrimination in place today is reverse discrimination.

Annoyed wrote:

ilaugh wrote:

Annoyed wrote:

But... If we were all Americans, the various hypen-Americans couldn't whine about their group being discriminated against and needed special privileges to make up for it.

You don't think discrimination is a real thing?

Not any more. Pretty tough to make the argument that it is when we have elected, and then re-elects a Black president who just may be the worst president we've ever had.

The only discrimination in place today is reverse discrimination.

So somehow the fact that we've elected a black man as President is proof that discrimination no longer exist, except against white people. Interesting.

Minorities, including blacks, have attained the very top ranks of every aspect of our society, both public and private. The CEO of the company I work for is a woman. We have black supreme court justices. We have a woman justice as well. There are numerous companies who have black and other minority management.

This being the case, you can't possibly claim racial or gender discrimination exists to any significant degree any more. There probably are some individuals who still have biased attitudes, but you are always going to have a background noise level of nut cases in any society. You cannot eliminate that, no matter what you do.


However, it is true that many blacks do face a steeper challenge than whites do. This is not the result of discrimination, it is the result of their own behavior, and often that of their parents as well.

Having numerous children by different men outside of a stable family environment that can properly provide for the raising of children is virtually a guarantee that you and your offspring end up behind the 8 ball. It is equally wrong for a man to sire numerous children by numerous women outside of a stable family situation, but the mechanics of our species reproduction places the greater burden upon the woman here. Sorry ladies, have to talk the the front office for that one.

Criminal behavior is another good way to screw your life up, and that of any offspring you may have produced. Having a proven history of being a criminal is definitely going to make it harder to get a job to support yourself with. This isn't prejudice or discrimination either, it is a business making a sound decision based upon available information.

Screwing around in school, throwing away the free education that is provided is also another way to put yourself at a disadvantage. Students without effective parents (often as a result of the behavior noted above) have no one pressing them to do their homework, so they often do poorly in school, if they haven't stopped attending altogether.

The number of blacks affected by these and other similar circumstances is indeed disproportionally high, but this is not the result of discrimination, it is the result of behavior on their own part. Poor life choices make for poor lives.

The so called advocacy class, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the like would do far better for the people they claim to advocate for by ceasing their protests of discrimination and starting to advocate behavior change by the very people they are trying to help. The vast majority of the problems faced by these people are the result of their own behavior, not discrimination, and only behavioral changes on their part will ever have any effect. Of course, if these advocates ever do actually solve the problem, they might have to find some other way to support themselves, so they're not really interested in solving the problem.

Annoyed wrote:

Minorities, including blacks, have attained the very top ranks of every aspect of our society, both public and private. The CEO of the company I work for is a woman. We have black supreme court justices. We have a woman justice as well. There are numerous companies who have black and other minority management.

This being the case, you can't possibly claim racial or gender discrimination exists to any significant degree any more. There probably are some individuals who still have biased attitudes, but you are always going to have a background noise level of nut cases in any society. You cannot eliminate that, no matter what you do.


However, it is true that many blacks do face a steeper challenge than whites do. This is not the result of discrimination, it is the result of their own behavior, and often that of their parents as well.

Having numerous children by different men outside of a stable family environment that can properly provide for the raising of children is virtually a guarantee that you and your offspring end up behind the 8 ball. It is equally wrong for a man to sire numerous children by numerous women outside of a stable family situation, but the mechanics of our species reproduction places the greater burden upon the woman here. Sorry ladies, have to talk the the front office for that one.

Criminal behavior is another good way to screw your life up, and that of any offspring you may have produced. Having a proven history of being a criminal is definitely going to make it harder to get a job to support yourself with. This isn't prejudice or discrimination either, it is a business making a sound decision based upon available information.

Screwing around in school, throwing away the free education that is provided is also another way to put yourself at a disadvantage. Students without effective parents (often as a result of the behavior noted above) have no one pressing them to do their homework, so they often do poorly in school, if they haven't stopped attending altogether.

The number of blacks affected by these and other similar circumstances is indeed disproportionally high, but this is not the result of discrimination, it is the result of behavior on their own part. Poor life choices make for poor lives.

The so called advocacy class, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the like would do far better for the people they claim to advocate for by ceasing their protests of discrimination and starting to advocate behavior change by the very people they are trying to help. The vast majority of the problems faced by these people are the result of their own behavior, not discrimination, and only behavioral changes on their part will ever have any effect. Of course, if these advocates ever do actually solve the problem, they might have to find some other way to support themselves, so they're not really interested in solving the problem.

I have to agree with this. I retired from the Navy in 96 and even then discrimination was just about dead. Now I don't believe in reverse discrimination because all racial discrimination is discrimination to me. However even in the Navy the blacks who had strong family background faired far better than those that did not. The ones that busted their rears and worked hard ran up the ladder just as fast as the whites did. Even before then we it was not uncommon to see a black chief, senior chief or master chief.

We did have a racist black senior chief that I had the pleasure of working for. He would give all the black guys the day off and make the white guys work. We were told to shut and suck it up. Because they did not want it to get out.

But your 100 percent correct blacks can make if they try get an education and work hard. But the colture of Jesse and Al have destroyed the black community. They use them to further their own agenda than throw them away like trash. It is exactly what Al Sharpton did to Tawana Brawley.

Well then there is no such thing as reverse discrimination either.

ilaugh wrote:

Well then there is no such thing as reverse discrimination either.

No matter how you slice it dice discrimination is discrimination and any race can practice it. Now are there racist sure. But not the kind that MSNBC reports every day.

Annoyed wrote:

The only discrimination in place today is reverse discrimination.

Well you're right so far as it's policy, official or not, of the government and most businesses and schools to discriminate against whites, especially straight white men. But the term "reverse discrimination" is nonsensical, it's still just discrimination. All that has changed is the target of the discrimination.

Annoyed wrote:

But... If we were all Americans, the various hypen-Americans couldn't whine about their group being discriminated against and needed special privileges to make up for it.

No, you wouldn't. But you wouldn't have a nation full of people that only care about themselves, and what the country can do for them, now would you?

Bandit wrote:

Annoyed wrote:

But... If we were all Americans, the various hypen-Americans couldn't whine about their group being discriminated against and needed special privileges to make up for it.

No, you wouldn't. But you wouldn't have a nation full of people that only care about themselves, and what the country can do for them, now would you?

To whom are you referring?

Annoyed wrote:

To whom are you referring?

Oh lets not play naive. If the shoe fits, wear it. Even JFK makes mention of it in 1961.