American black person here, wat up
Opening note: Stupid and ignorant people exist in all societies, as do bright intellectuals. starfishs exist in all societies, but so do those looking to do nothing but good for mankind.
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The rift in American race relations stems from 190+ years of brutal and active suppression of rights for American blacks.
People often say "why don't black people just get over it.", and the simple answer is as a whole we're trying.
The long answer is more complex. The problem with those 190 years in American history is that slave owners, none all of them being immune to the ethical dilemma of slavery in their every day lives, needed a way to cope and or justify slavery itself. This is the big factor where race relations soured in America, and where the modern issue of race in America all stems from. All sorts of methods were created to try and justify slavery, and stereotypes of blacks became accepted in all parts of America, not just the South but in the North as well.
Despite concerted efforts by people, white and black, and the government, that 190 years still lingers in American society like the fallout from a nuke. Long term societal problems need long term societal solutions. We've made great strides of the last 60 years, but despite that much of the fallout will continue to linger.
The problem in America is that the majority of Blacks and Whites just don't live on the same playing field, even with concerted efforts to combat the social-economic problems, a cloud of ignorance and distrust still exists between Blacks and Whites.
Blacks and Whites in their distrust of one another forget the same common trait that all Blacks and all Whites living in America have.
We're all Americans.
Blacks as a whole simply aspire to be real Americans, and to be treated equally as ideal Americans.
We just want to be Americans living American lives, yet sometimes things happen.
Things like rampant black on black crime, A Police system left unreformed and corrupted, A Prison system which is practically a modern form of slavery creating a catch 22 system that keeps people trying to get out of poverty in absolute permanent poverty, defacto-segregation of the suburbs and inner city, A deteriorating education system for inner city kids, the list goes on and on.
Nobody wants to live in the reality that many poverty stricken Black Americans do, yet far too many do in America and they become exceedingly frustrated. When people are frustrated, they can do some stupid stuff, but also they can do some brilliant things.
Blacks and Whites must work together in the future to solve any of these issues, white people are adamant or become disjointed because race relations between Blacks and Whites continue to hit rough patches, they feel as if the "Black problem" was resolved as America moved into the next millennium, but it still keeps cropping back up and the black people "can never get enough". The reason blacks keep pushing the issue is because the issue is not solved. The issue can be solved, but it cannot be solved with blanket generalizations and an "Us versus them" mindset. To fix it we will have to not look at each other as "Black Americans" or as "White Americans", but look at each other as just "Americans", Americans who got the bad end of a 240 year deal, Americans who need don't want to live life in fear and poverty anymore, and American's who really just need some help.
