http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/other-peoples-pathologies/359841/
Over the past week or so, Jonathan Chait and I have enjoyed an ongoing debateover the rhetoric the president employs when addressing African Americans. Here is my initial installment, Chait's initial rebuttal, my subsequent reply, and Chait's latest riposte.
Initially Chait argued that President Obama's habit of speaking about culture before black audiences was laudable because it would "urge positive habits and behavior" that are presumably found especially wanting in the black community.
Chait argued that this lack of sufficient "positive habits and behaviors" stemmed from cultural echoes of past harms, which now exist "independent" of white supremacy. Chait now concedes that this assertion is unsupportable and attempts to recast his original argument:
I attributed the enduring culture of poverty to the residue of slavery, terrorism, segregation, and continuing discrimination.
The argument is that structural conditions shape culture, and culture, in turn, can take on a life of its own independent of the forces that created it.It would be bizarre to imagine that centuries of slavery, followed by systematic terrorism, segregation, discrimination, a legacy wealth gap, and so on did not leave a cultural residue that itself became an impediment to success.The phrase "culture of poverty" doesn't actually appear in Chait's original argument. Nor should it—the history he cites was experienced by all variety of African Americans, poor or not. Moreover, the majority of poor people in America have neither the experience of segregation nor slavery in their background.Chait is conflating two different things: black culture—which was shaped by, and requires, all the forces he named; and "a culture of poverty," which requires none of them.
IMO this is an FYI for those who support "they did it to themselves" and those who weren't sure what to think as stated in article the residue of what was imposed upon by those who sought to enslave and discriminate.
is a culture of poverty not by design, if equal opportunity was the culture as "all men created equal", or we were all made in God's image were not expunged from the written law of the land, we would not be having this discourse and this would truly be the greatest country in the world and not just hyperbole.
That conflation undergirds his latest column. Chait paraphrases my argument that "there is no such thing as a culture of poverty." His evidence of this is quoting me attacking the "the notion that black culture is part of the problem." This evidence only works if you believe "black culture" and "a culture of poverty" are somehow interchangeable.Making no effort to distinguish the two, Chait examines a piece I wrote in 2010 entitled "A Culture of Poverty" in which I sought to explain the difficulty of navigating culture in two different worlds—one in which "Thou shalt not be punked" was a commandment, and another where violence was best left to the authorities:
I think one can safely call that an element of a kind of street culture. It's also an element which—once one leaves the streets—is a great impediment. "I ain't no punk" may shield you from neighborhood violence.But it can not shield you from algebra, when your teacher tries to correct you. It can not shield you from losing hours, when your supervisor corrects your work. And it would not have shielded me from unemployment, after I cold-cocked a guy over a blog post.
nobody pretty much wants to admit counter society actions or even thoughts except the 21 century republican they careless about who takes whatever they decide to say, but i digress point being if your ancestors practiced deplorable inhumane acts and you still harbor the inclination if not the acts you don't want to take any responsibility which in this case is no more than acknowledging the reality and your endeavors to not correct it, than you are responsible for what happens as a result of your inaction.
if your grand dad hurt someone and ended their mobility would reasonable people feel a responsibility if no more than morally, point is they feel something other than indifference and apathy.
