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I have listened to many whites describing Rev. Jerimiah Wright as a racist. It is so unfortunate that most whites do not understand what makes black people "tick". It seems that many whites have the opinion that blacks all think alike. Their view of blacks is that they are either lazy, criminals, or irresponsible. The media perputrates this by their sensationalism based news coverage. Let me try to enlighten those who do not have close black friends exactly what is going on in the average black person's mind.

Concerning Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton:

Most blacks do not believe that either of them represent their views. Whenever there is a racial incident, either one of them is either called by the media for comment, or someone involved in the situation asks them to intervene. Most of us do not need or want a leader. What we want is an equal footing in life, and a real opportunity to prove ourselves without being judged by what others of our race do. Most blacks think that Al and Jessie are beneficial at highlighting a situation that would be ignored by the media, but have some issues with their methods at times. They are considered a necessary evil, because the media, and officials will ignore situations if a "regular" American comes forth, but if either of them get involved the cameras show up. What many whites do not know is that most blacks have to go through racial issues, in stores, at work, on the street, on almost a daily basis. Most of these incidents are not reported. "We" mainly ignore them. There are no lawsuits, and calls to the government, because most of us want to keep our jobs, so we can't risk "causing trouble". Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton represent to many of us the old angry black man who was demeaned so many times it has made them angry, (and can I also say bitter) - Many of us think that they are trying to maintain a job and some power by participating in as many causes as they can - Jessie using his association with King as his leverage tool - if he was so loved in the community then he would have had much more votes in the Presidentail election.

Concerning work ethic:

Many whites believe that blacks are welfare cheats, and thiefs. The truth is alarmingly apparent if you get up a 5 am in the morning, and ride a subway train, el train, or bus. They are full of people leaving out very early to go to work, or maybe even a second job. Between 5 am and 7 am there are thousands of working people from black and white neighborhoods taking public transit to work. This is the overwelming majority of blacks in those neighborhoods. They are hard working, and dedicated to building a better life, but the income they recieve does not sustain them, even with 2 jobs they just stay even not getting ahead. There are more whites on welfare than blacks, (check the statistics), but there is a higher percentage of blacks by race in the system. Most blacks do not want a hand out, they just want an opportunity to show what they can do, without any preconceived notions of their abilitites or integrity.

Concerning political views:

Most blacks are much more conservative than many whites think. They are very strong on law and order. (Blacks are more likely to be victims of crime in their neighborhoods.)They are extremely patriotic. Due to money issues they, as a percentage, choice the military to improve their lives, (go to college), and support their country. They have no issue with giving their life for it. The reason that blacks do not vote, for the most part, for Republicans, is that we perceive this party to have a racist base. The conservative, in our history, was always against giving the constitutional rights to blacks. This is not just republicans, it was southern democrats. They left the democratic party after Lyndon Johnson signed the civil rights bill. So our recent history is experiencing racist attitudes by many republican polititians. Affiliations with the Council of Conservative Citizens, and groups like that . Bob Jones Universtity, which had policies against people of different colors dating, and many more. There was Strome Thurmond who was praised by many high ranking figures of the Republican parties. The same with Jessie Helms. On the democratic side there was Robert Byrd also. The issue blacks have with the Republicans is that they do not state publicly that they will not tolerate racists in their party. Many racists consider themselves patriotic Americans, and think it is a duty to vote, so who do you think they vote for? The Republican Party for the most part. Many whites say it is not racist that they will not vote for Obama, it is his policies. When Barrack made statements about small town whites being exploited by polititians to concentrate on other's that are not caucasian as part of the cause for job loss, or economic worries, he was called elitist. If you are black in Pennsylvania, there are areas "we" all know that are not welcome to us. Most of these are in these small towns in PA, western, and northeastern. When a black person says to another that they are gointg to an event, or even shopping in one of these areas, they get the same comments. Watch yourself, you know that is klan country. If you know a black person personally ask them honestly, and they will tell you this. Rendell said that there are whites in PA that will never vote for a black person, and he is absolutely correct about this. Lynn Swann had some of the same policy views as John McCain, when he ran as the Republican representative for Governer of PA, but he received really low white support. The Republican party, if they made a decision to exclude racists, would have an influx of blacks that have conservative monetary views, law and order opinions, and social issues with abortions, and gay marriage. They will feel that the Republicans are honest about wanting them to participate in the party, instead of just wanting their vote to get their candidates into office.

Concerning Religion:

Most blacks have a base in the church. They rely on religion to help them get through the many issues in life in America. Even the rappers who have degrading lyrics, when they are at a award event always thank god, or state that whatever they have recieved is from the grace of Jesus. Blacks do not complain about the government, for the most part, deminishing the role of religion in life. They are dedicated to their religion regardless, and do not let establishments tell them how they will worship, or discuss it. You have people like Oprah, who is a great believer in God, and a dedicated christian. She does not flaunt it, but is free to wish prayer for others, to say that something that happened is a "act of god", or "had god all over it". Many blacks are against abortion, and have some issues with homosexuality. The only difference is that they personally have issues with it, but do not believe it lesiglating polices to force those who are supportive of these rights to not have them, due to their history of having their rights ignored. The issue that blacks have is their religious dedication is not presented in the media. The conservative christian is what is shown on the airwaves when someone talks about "family values", and it is mostly a white picture. This makes the black christian feel thier beliefs are viewed as insignificant when they as a whole are equally church going as whites and sometimes more so.

Treatment by the media:

Blacks feel that the media does not respect them with the type of exposure they have in the news - there are hundreds, maybe thousands of blacks and other minority missing children, but the only children you will see a concentration on are those little girls that are blond haired and blue eyed, wealthy etc. Those working class whites, and blacks do not have hours and hours of exposure about a missing child. You go in Walmart and see the wall which displays missing children, most of which are minority, or poor (white or black) - There are always stories about the crimes that happen by blacks, but very little about good things happening in the community. If you have a story about something which has benefit to the neighborhood in poorer communities it is very hard to get it aired TV. I have witnessed this personally.

Concerning ownership by blacks about thier issues:

Most blacks have issues with the negative stereotypes that some blacks display - this is the basis for the Chris Rock skit "I love black people but I hate N*****S - this is how blacks feel - they love being black but hate those who are irresponsible and embarass us by their actions - we cringe when a big crime is commited until we find what race the person responsible was - we also cringe when something happens in a black neighborhood and the media alwasy finds the most ignorant, ghetto acting black person to put on camera, this gives those who watch this a vision that this is a representative of black people in general - whites do not have that burden - if a white person does something horrible they are considered and anomoly - if a black person does the same thing it is considered typical - whites can come to this country from many areas of the world loose their accent and assemulate - blacks can never shed their "uniform" (which is their skin color) - just like a postal worker when someone see's this uniform they think about the few examples of a postal worker having mental issues and shooting multiple people at thier job (we even have a phrase in our culture "going postal") - we hate people who cheat on welfare and social programs just like every other American, and even more so, because a lot of times they are associated with us as a people - although this is not true -

These are just a very few. If every white person asks black friends what they really think, there will be so much enlightenment by both. Blacks need to understand why whites have issues also. This was talked about by Barrack in his race speech. I hope this gives some light to what many blacks discuss when they are amongst themselves.

Please feel to respond and disagree or agree - I value your opinions

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What Whites Need to Know About What Blacks Really Think

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