Dennis Plante Wrote:
If we as a society are really concerned about the tragedies like this that occur, than we'll do something about it. Maybe if larger numbers of individuals from more affluent neighborhoods in our fine City spoke-up more and came to observe what the real issues facing inner-city, imporverished minorities, we could stop this type of thing from happening again.
John Harris Writes:
could you expand on this idea? what difference would it make if someone from kenwood said this is a tragedy and went to jordan to take a look around? i am not sure i am following what you are getting at. I think you might be on to something but I can't get there myself.
Dennis Plante Responds:
With pleasure. White people (myself included) have no clue what it's
[snip]
I am not saying that this fictional story of mine mirrors the average life of minority members in my neighborhood. Some have had it better, some I'm sure, have had it worse.
Are we more benevolent in Minneapolis? Certainly, compared to the landowner in Mississippi, or the welfare programs in Chicago. Do we REALLY understand what this class of our civilization has experienced and continues experience? That's where the personal involvement takes place. It's pretty tough to "fix" things, when you don't really understand what's wrong. It's taken me 8 years to accept that I know nothing. It's been a long journey.
dennis plante jordan
Dennis,
I wish I had seen this before I responded asking for more details. However, I would like to see what you view as the next step. Your discussion above seems to lead up to something, but then doesn't really say what that something should be in concrete examples. Not that I expect you to have all the answers, but you've clearly thought about it a lot and have some ideas.
Most "white people," even if really interested in doing something, cannot commit the 8 years it took you to accept that you know nothing. It would also seem that once one reached that point, then there would still be the amount of time required to go from knowing nothing to knowing something before being really useful.
So, are there some specific steps you can suggest that some us can take to improve the situation? I think there needs to be a variety of things, both in breadth of type and in length of commitment, for people to contemplate. We all have different life situations and levels of knowledge and experience with these sorts of cultural issues, so it seems to me that no one size fits all solution will produce very good results.
Chris Johnson Fulton
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