[greyowl]

In general, black communities do have a bigger problem with dysfunctional families than do white communities. As a group, black leaders do over-use racism as an excuse to avoid dealing with these problems head-on (and there also prominent blacks who don't make this mistake, such as Bill Cosby and pastors of the AMC).

There's a way to make these points without demeaning black people (the majority of whom work hard, take their family responsibilities seriously, and don't use racism as an excuse to lead a life of crime.) By failing to do this, some of the posters in this thread not only demean blacks, they also demain themselves.

A few months ago I got a PM from one of the (few) black members here (but not anymore). He told me he'd been spending the better part of two years trying to educate his son not to fall for the white devil / black nationalist myhthology and Nation of Islam horseshit. Finally, after years of running into comments similar to some of the ones here, he decided not to bother anymore. This is the end-result of hate speech (regardless of whether it's camouflaged as humour) ... an ever-escalating spiral of racial divisiveness. Just what America needs.

I'd like to point out another effect of this sort of talk. Dionysius, one of the newer members here, has made it clear that he hates Jews and blacks, but he won't come out and say so directly because he doesn't have the strength of character to admit it in public. Building threads like this provides cover for people him to maker smartass racist remarks. In the meantime, they discourage blacks and others. That's why we hardly have black members left, and I'm sure it's why people like Oldtimer don't post anymore (it's been a month since he lasted posted).

If the current trend continues, eventually this Board will have lots of people like Dionysius and Taser, and few if any people like Oldtimer. Is that what you want Meso to become? I'll point out that this is exactly what happened to the UG Board, and why it went under.

Think about it.